What you can see in my native Kostroma

The pearl of the Museum of Wooden Architecture in Kostroma is the Church of the Cathedral of the Theotokos (in itself an interesting dedication) from the village of Holm in the Galichsky District (located outside the main museum territory, in the Bogoslovsky Sloboda). The inscription on the temple says that it was erected in 1552, on the 13th of October. It was in October 1552 that Kazan fell. Did the residents of the Kostroma village devote this event to the erection of the temple, since many of the people in Kostroma Province suffered from Kazan? There is another mystery. The inscription says that the temple was erected in memory of the martyrs of Karp and Papile. But the legend that existed in the village assures that Karp and Papile are carpenters who put up the temple, and buried under the altar of the church. What is true here, and who are these Karp and Papile, who were awarded such high honor? In the biography of Bishop Karp and deacon Papile, suffered in the 3rd century by the RH during the persecutions of Emperor Decius, we will not find an answer. These people refused to celebrate pagan rites, for which they were executed. Such stories early church knows thousands. We can safely assume that the heroes of the march to Kazan were buried under the altar. Their names were forgotten, the people's memory, relying on the day when they laid the church (the memory of the martyrs), attributed these names to them, "making" carpenters at the same time. The version that the temple was built by the veterans of the march to Kazan, disappears - they would not have had time to return from Kazan by October 13, as Kazan fell on the 2nd.

Chopped from pine logs, the church is a unique, one of the oldest surviving examples of Old Russian wooden architecture. The temple was built, apparently, around 1552, as it is supposed, by the masters Karp and Papila. Initially, perhaps, it had a hipped roof, and the existing crowning octagon and five-headed were made in the eighteenth century when the main octagon was lowered. Some experts, however, believe that the church originally had the current composition. In the early twentieth century. under the frame was laid the foundation and made a socle about two meters high (probably, instead of decayed lower crowns). The church was trimmed with facades, the roof covered with iron. In the years 1944-1945. The upper tier of the temple collapsed and the ceiling of the lower eight. In 1960, the church was transported from the Galich region, where she stood on a graveyard about a mile from the village. Hill.

Restoration work was carried out in 1960-1962. on the project architect. A.V. Opolovnikova and with the participation of architects. I.Sh. Sheveleva. The temple belongs to a rare type of five-headed five-headed churches with a sub-cell. Its vertical composition consists of two octagons - a large chopped "in the oblo" of the lower one on a stone basement and a squat chopped "in the paw" of the upper one, on which lies a miniature kreschaty barrel and five upholstered heads with aspen shingles on thin cylindrical drums. From the east to the temple adjoins a chopped "paw" penta apse, from the west - a small square in terms of a refectory, chopped "in obo." On three sides, the church covers a hanging gallery-gulbishche, leaning on log cabinets. From the west on the longitudinal axis of the church there is a porch with a long, covered, one-way staircase, recreated by analogy restoration. The volume-planning composition of the monument is characterized by a number of individual features: the diagonal faces of the lower eight are shorter than the main ones, and all are not parallel to each other, the apse has an irregular shape, the corners of the gallery are made blunt. However, these modified geometric forms are perceived visually as correct. In the lower octagon and in the apse are arranged several squared windows. The arch of the apertures is located over the blind axes of the gallery. From the walk-out to the church lead three shield doors in the decks. Inside the temple and the refectory are not separated, as usual, by a log wall, but form a single space, although the contrast ratio of their heights is preserved here. The flat overlap of the octagon is made in the form of a wooden stepped arch. The altar is separated from the main room by a four-tiered iconostasis with icons of the XVII-XVIII centuries. (icons are mostly lost). The floor in the church is a boardwalk.

By the way, I'm happy to know the architects. I.Sh. Shevelev. He's old man 96 year old. He's very interestimg man and he made a lot for wooden architecture in Kostroma.