Serpukhov. Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker ("Nikolas the White")
The ancient city of Serpukhov, the first mention of which is in the spiritual letter of Ivan Kalita in 1339, is famous for its history. Located 99 kilometers south of the capital and having emerged as a fortress on the borders of the Oka, Serpukhov for a long time remained a reliable outpost of the Moscow principality.
The Serpukhovians deeply revere their countrymen - the Monk Athanasius the Elder, the first hegumen of the Vysotsky Monastery and Varlaam, the builder of the Vladychny Monastery. The names of glorious warrior brothers are also connected with the history of the city: Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy and Prince Vladimir Andreevich of Serpukhov. Prince Vladimir brought Serpukhov a special honor: he and his retinue took part in the Battle of Kulikovo, and, commanding an ambush regiment, ensured the successful outcome of the battle. For this feat of arms, the prince was awarded the nickname Brave. The bodies of the fallen countrymen were buried by Prince Vladimir in the basement of the Zachatievsky Cathedral of the Serpukhov Vysotsky Monastery.
In 2004 His Eminence Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsa and Kolomna consecrated a memorial cross to the Serpukhovites who died on Kulikovo Field. At the base of the cross, installed on the Cathedral Hill, a capsule with earth brought from the Kulikovo field was laid.
The Church of St. Nicholas Bely in Serpukhov, among other parish churches, indisputably the first place, both in terms of artistic merit and in terms of its town-planning significance - it serves as the main high-rise dominant for a whole area of old, historically developed buildings. St. Nicholas Church on Kaluga Street has a long and complex history.
It was originally made of wood. As such, it appears in the documents of the 16th - early 17th centuries. Already by the beginning of the 1550s, that section of the road that went from Moscow to Kaluga along the left bank of the Nara River, which passed by this church, was officially called Nikolskaya Street. Here, near the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, there were a number of households, the owners of which were classified as Serpukhov Posad. Many residents of Nikolskaya Street are mentioned in the Hundred of 1552, compiled by F.S. Funikov. Among the parishioners of the same temple belonged to the inhabitants of the nearby Klyuchnichy (Podklyuchnichy) settlement with 16 yards, located a little lower, on the very bank of the river. Nara.
In the second quarter of the XVII century. instead of the wooden Nikolskaya church, a stone one was erected. In any case, already as an existing and active one, it is mentioned in the “Building Book of the City of Serpukhov” of 1649.
It was the first stone church not only in the settlement, but throughout the city. The second similar church was built in the village in honor of the Myrrh-bearing Women, then in 1696 the Trinity Cathedral became the third stone church. Built from hewn blocks of local limestone, the St. Nicholas Church received the name from the Serpukhovs, which has stuck with it since then - Nikola Bely.
At that time, the yards of not only the same townspeople, but also some persons of a higher social status belonged to the Nikolsky parish - gunners, a square clerk, the Living Room of a hundreds of a merchant, a landowner of the Serpukhov district.
Probably, architects from Yaroslavl took part in the construction of the first stone church of St. Nicholas, the predecessor of the current one. This assumption is based on the proximity of the compositional construction of the building, which can be seen from the preserved old drawing, with the characteristic features of the Yaroslavl religious buildings of the 17th century.
The temple was then a quadrangle crowned with one large dome with an altar extension-apse, which had symmetrically located tented completions above the altar and deacon. Smooth pilasters created a tripartite articulation of the facades of the main volume of the building along their entire height. The powerful drum of the dome was cut through by slit-like windows, above which were placed ornamental belts. Drums under faceted tents were also decorated. At the base of the tents there were a number of decorative kokoshniks.
In this form, the monument existed until the 30s. 19th century In 1833, the Serpukhov spiritual board decided to rebuild the church "for dilapidation, which at the same time they transgressed." Since that time, design drawings with facades and sections have been preserved signed: “Architect Tamansky” and “Architect Shestakov”. Since there are no initials of both architects in the signatures on the drawing sheets, the question arises of identifying these persons with certain “stone craftsmen” that are known to historians of Russian architecture.
In the collected M.V. Dyakonov materials to the dictionary of architects of the XVIII-XIX centuries. who worked in Moscow and the Moscow region, there are data on three Tamanskys and six Shestakovs. Upon closer acquaintance with their biographies, it was possible to find out that only two of them could put their signatures under the drawings in 1831: Fedor Mikhailovich Shestakov (1787-1836), an academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts, who designed many religious buildings for Moscow, Kolomna, Dmitrov and other cities; and Ivan Trofimovich Tamansky (1775-1850) - a student of M.F. Kazakov, worked mainly in Moscow, but was often sent on business to various places in the Moscow province. The author of the project was F.M. Shestakov, Tamansky also acted as an official coordinating the project.
Fedor Mikhailovich Shestakov was an outstanding master of the era of late classicism. He designed such a famous church as the Church of the Great Ascension at the Nikitsky Gates in Moscow, the Church of the Archangel Michael in Kolomna. But the closest analogue of the current St. Nicholas Church in Serpukhov is the Great Ascension in Moscow, designed in the same year.
During the perestroika, according to the new project, the refectory of the lower church with a chapel and a bell tower were first completely dismantled, and in their place a warm church with two altars was erected, consecrated in 1835. 
The construction of the bell tower was completed in 1843, and in 1850 the dilapidated cold 2-storey church was finally dismantled and in its place, in connection with the warm church, a new one was built according to a new plan, which was consecrated in 1854.
The newly built Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely is an excellent example of the Moscow Empire style. It is built of brick and plastered, has white stone details in the external decor. A powerful quadrangle with one apse and two side porticos bears a large domed rotunda. The four-pillar refectory and the multi-tiered bell tower adjoining the main volume from the west underwent some changes during their construction compared to the project - the design of their completion partially changed.
Together with the main altar in St. Nicholas Church, two additional refectories were arranged in the side naves - St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow and St. Cyril of Beloezersky
After the revolution of 1917, the liturgical life in the church of St. Nicholas Bely was not interrupted immediately. The fact that St. Tikhon visited the temple in early June 1924 is noteworthy. It was he, the Patriarch of All Russia, who gave the temple the status of a Cathedral, after which the importance of Nikola Bely in the city increased. In 1928, during a church schism, the chair of Bishop Manuil (Lemeshevsky) of Serpukhov, who fought against it, was located in St. Nicholas Cathedral. It is also known that after the closure of the Bishop's Convent, the image of the Mother of God "The Inexhaustible Chalice" revered in the city was located in the church of St. Nicholas Bely. However, he suffered the fate of many churches in Serpukhov. In 1929 the cathedral was closed. According to the stories of the old-timers, the icons from it were demolished on the river. Naru and burned on her ice.
Hostility towards the church, blasphemously cultivated in people by the new government, made itself felt here too: the bell tower, majestically rising above the city from the middle of the 19th century, was partially destroyed, the image of St. Nicholas on the outer wall of the church was constantly abused. But as the inhabitants of the houses adjacent to the temple, who observed this desecration, tell, every next morning the image of the holy miracle worker was renewed, showing God's power and as if predicting a new life for the desecrated cathedral.
In a sense, the cathedral turned out to be happier than other temples. For some time it was the city's pasta factory, which may have saved it from final destruction. During the war, the white-stone decor was lost, and laundry rooms were arranged in the cathedral itself. Recently, before the opening, the building of the temple was used by the headquarters of civil defense for a chemical warehouse, which was placed in the cathedral at the insistence of the chairman of the Executive Committee of the city, S. N. Kudryakov, with the main goal of avoiding the demolition of the temple, and there were such proposals.
On the eve of the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus', the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely, as the brightest architectural monument, was discussed again. Among the plans for the use of the temple, the possibility of turning it into a concert hall was considered. But by the grace of God in 1995 it was returned to believers as a courtyard of the Vysotsky Monastery, since 1998 it has been a parish church. In 1995, during the stay of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' in Serpukhov, the city administration presented the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church with symbolic keys to the church.
In 1999, bells were purchased at the expense of benefactors, the city administration and citizens. The bell weighing 1380 kg has four hallmark icons: the Savior, the Mother of God, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the image of the heavenly patron of His Eminence Juvenaly Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna, St. Juvenal Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Administrator of the Moscow Diocese. A 300-pood evangelist sounds on the restored bell tower.
Since 2002, the SU-155 Group of Companies has been restoring the cathedral. In 2003, Mikhail Balakin, a native of the city of Serpukhov, a philanthropist, presented the temple with a bell weighing 5 tons, cast specially for the Serpukhov Cathedral by Yaroslavl craftsmen.
It is noteworthy that a special crane for lifting the spire of the bell tower and bells was provided on the day of the appointment of His Eminence Juvenaly on July 15, 2003. Much has been done to improve the territory of the temple. Flowerbeds were broken, a fountain was arranged, the area around the temple was paved with paving stones, the fence was made of cast iron. At night, the cathedral seems to be doused with light streaming on the walls and windows, and, like a lit candle, shines throughout the city.
“In every place is the ashes of the father and our brothers.” These words from the akathist about the dead were fully confirmed in the Nikolsky parish. During the liberation of the territory of the temple from the buildings of the Soviet era (garages, sheds, etc.), numerous remains were discovered. The ancient graves that existed near the walls of the cathedral were destroyed. In 2003, on Dimitri's parental Saturday, the remains were buried. A memorial cross was erected: "Peace, Lord, the souls of the departed Thy servants, their names Thou Thyself weigh."
In the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely, in addition to the main altar, four more side altars were restored and equipped: in the name of St. Alexy of Moscow, St. Cyril of Beloezersky, the icon of the Mother of God "Help to Childbirth", and in memory of the new martyrs - residents of Serpukhov.
The interior painting of the cathedral deserves special attention. The entire earthly history is depicted on the vault of the dome, starting from the eternal council of the Holy Trinity on the creation of the world, the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets, teachers of the Church, to Russian saints and martyrs. Sunlight illuminates the temple, passing between the images of the holy apostles, reminiscent of the true Sun - Jesus Christ. Among the icons of the Savior and His Most Pure Mother, there is a host of Russian saints: saints and noble princes, warriors and monks and, of course, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the hagiographic depiction of his miracles. Temple painting is the Bible in colors. The eternal book that leads to salvation is open to believers in the Serpukhov Cathedral. 
The majestic royal doors of the main altar are crowned with an arched canopy, on which the icons of Passion Week are located: the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem, the betrayal of Judas, the unrighteous judgment of the worldly ruler, the Crucifixion, burial and, finally, the bright Resurrection.
But not only painting and architecture were revived in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely: a full-fledged parish life was also restored here. At the cathedral today there is a public library, there are two Sunday schools: for children and for adults. The clergy of the cathedral take care of the Serpukhov Military Institute, a pre-trial detention center and an orphanage and boarding school, pedagogical and humanitarian colleges.
In the cathedral there is a miraculous image of the Mother of God “Help to Childbirth”, before which prayers are performed with an akathist compiled by the rector of the cathedral, Archpriest Vladimir Andreev, as well as locally venerated images of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Great Martyr Panteleimon, Martyr Boniface, New Martyrs and Confessors of Serpukhov.
The image of the Mother of God “Search for the Lost” is especially loved and revered in the city. In 2002, the tradition was restored from July 23 to August 23 to make religious processions to all the monasteries and churches of the city with this image of the Mother of God.
On July 12, 2005, Metropolitan Yuvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna visited Serpukhov, where the solemn consecration of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely took place. The path to the cathedral, on which Vladyka Yuvenaly stepped, was a continuous flower carpet. At 9 o'clock in the morning the cathedral bell announced to the audience about the beginning of the Great consecration of the cathedral. Ancient Serpukhov, referred to in the annals as "Holy City", will not remember such an event. Five thrones were consecrated at once! The main one is Nikolsky, and four side ones: in the name of the Icon of the Mother of God "Help to Childbirth", St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, St. Cyril of Beloezersky and the New Martyrs and Confessors of Serpukhov. Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk, Bishop Joseph of Birobidzhan and Kuldur, Bishop Tikhon of Vidnovsky, abbots of monasteries and deans of the Moscow Diocese co-served with Vladyka Metropolitan.
Vladyka Yuvenaly conveyed to the audience the greetings of the Primate of the Russian Church, His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II, and thanked the rector of the cathedral, Archpriest Vladimir Andreev, and the parishioners of the cathedral for their efforts. Vladyka blessed the Mayor of the city, Pavel Zhdanov, with the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and expressed his gratitude for caring for the needs of the faithful Serpukhovites and restoring the cathedral.
By this time, all the clergy of the Serpukhov deanery and the faithful, who prayed in their parishes on the day of the apostles Peter and Paul, had gathered. A religious procession took place along Sovetskaya Street with banners and icons brought from the temples and monasteries of Serpukhov. It ended with the official ceremony of naming the main square of the city after the Serpukhov Prince Vladimir Andreevich the Brave, the hero of the Battle of Kulikovo, an associate of St. Prince Dimitry Donskoy. Vladyka Metropolitan and the Head of the city, with a large gathering of Serpukhovites and guests of the city, removed the veil from the memorial sign crowned with a cross "In honor of the celebration of the 625th anniversary of the victory of Russian troops in the Battle of Kulikovo." In the speech of the Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna Juvenaly, addressed to those gathered on the square, there were words that are joyful for everyone who loves Serpukhov: "The city is unrecognizable, it has been renovated and rejuvenated in recent years."
A few days later, on July 28, on the day of memory of Prince Vladimir the Brave of Serpukhov, grandiose celebrations dedicated to the 625th anniversary of the victory on the Kulikovo field continued in Serpukhov. On this day, a Patriarchal service was held in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II was co-served by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, Archbishops Abel of Lublin and Kholmsk, Gregory of Mozhaisky, Arseniy of Istra, Bishops of Birobidzhansky and Kuldursky Joseph, Ilian (Vostryakov), Vidnovsky Tikhon, and representatives of the clergy. At the end of the solemn service, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy addressed the audience with the First Hierarchal word and presented church awards (orders of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Right-Believing Prince Daniel of Moscow of the III degree) to the rector of the Serpukhov Cathedral of St.
Then a solemn religious procession took place along the central streets of the city to Cathedral Hill, to the Vysotsky Monastery. In the monastery, the Patriarch served a memorial service in memory of the dead soldiers and consecrated the banner of the military-patriotic club named after Vladimir the Brave. In the afternoon, Alexy II visited the Vvedensky Vladychny Convent, where he bowed to the relics of the founder of the monastery, the Monk Varlaam, and addressed the nuns of the monastery with words of greeting.
In the evening, His Holiness met with the public of the city at the Trud Stadium. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II and Metropolitan Yuvenaly, who arrived at the meeting, were met by the Governor of the Moscow Region Boris Gromov. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' addressed the audience with a special word, noting that it was a great pleasure for him to visit Serpukhov again. “Your ancient city holds a special place in the celebration of the victory at Kulikovo Field, this outstanding event in Russian history,” said His Holiness. The patriarch noted that Prince Vladimir the Brave of Serpukhov is known not only as a warrior, but also as a man of prayer who built churches and monasteries. “There are many Orthodox shrines in Serpukhov, and this is evidence for us that for centuries people lived by the Orthodox faith, drew strength from it when they went to defend the Fatherland,” Alexy II emphasized, “and today the people are returning to the faith of their fathers, and with faith, hope and love return.”
Church of St. Nicholas (St. Nicholas Cathedral, Church of St. Nicholas the White) is an Orthodox cathedral church of the Serpukhov deanery of the Moscow diocese. It is located in the historical center of the city at the intersection of Kaluzhskaya and Sovetskaya streets (Kaluzhskaya, 26/12).
White - from local limestone - St. Nicholas Church stood on the outskirts of the entirely wooden city in the 17th century. But this is not the beginning of the history of the Cathedral - even earlier there was a wooden temple in honor of the same saint.
In the 30s of the 19th century, on the initiative of Mikhail Popov, the clerk of the Zemskaya hut, the reconstruction of the temple in the Moscow Empire style began.
Architects Fyodor Shestakov and Ivan Tamansky - masters of the school of the great Matvey Kazakov - created one of the most organic monumental buildings. In the conditions of the then Serpukhov, the temple was simply huge. Its bell tower has become the dominant feature of the city.
In 1924, Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of All Russia, visited the cathedral and granted it the status of a Cathedral. And then the oblivion began. The bell tower was partially destroyed.
The temple housed a pasta factory. Then there are laundromats. And in recent years, at the insistence of the chairman of the city executive committee, Sergei Kudryakov, a chemical warehouse. All this saved the temple from demolition.
In 1995, the Cathedral of Nikola Bely was returned to believers, although it could have been given over to a concert hall. At the same time, the city handed over the keys to the cathedral to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II and restoration began.
There were even new bells. A 300-pound evangelist, then a five-ton one, cast especially for Nikola Bely.
It was cast in the Yaroslavl region from an alloy of bronze, silver and copper. According to church rules, such giants must be given their own name, which has not yet been invented.
One of the limits of the cathedral was consecrated in memory of the six new martyrs - residents of Serpukhov.
Miraculous icons also appeared.
In 1993, to Archpriest Vladimir Andreev, the rector of the cathedral, an elderly woman handed over the icon of the Mother of God “Helping Childbirth”. Father Vladimir himself compiled an akathist for this icon, which is now read every week in Nikola Bely.
Many miracles are associated with it. Here is an excerpt from the rector's story: “Once a woman came in tears; her daughters were due to undergo surgery at this time. The doctors told her that in order to save the life of the mother in childbirth, intrauterine excision (murder) of the fetus would be necessary, and the gestational age was quite long. She and I read an akathist in front of the holy icon and, to my joy, in the evening she again came shining with happiness - we managed to save the mother and baby.
And in the cathedral there is a list of the Mother of God icon “Seeking the Dead”, which in 1871 and 1892 saved Serpukhov from cholera. Every year from July 23 to August 23, with this list, also glorified by miracles, processions are made through the churches and monasteries of the city.
On October 30, 2012, a memorial was opened in the courtyard of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely in memory of all the Serpukhovites who were tortured to death in the dungeons of the NKVD, shot without trial or investigation, including on the territory of the temple itself
The monument was made according to the sketch of the sculptor Dmitry Ponomarkov.
St. Nicholas Cathedral of Serpukhov ranks first among the architectural monuments of late classicism in the city of Serpukhov, both in terms of artistic merit and its urban significance (it serves as the main high-rise dominant for a whole area of old, historically developed buildings).
The history of the construction of the Nikolsky Cathedral in the city of Serpukhov
St. Nicholas Church on Kaluzhskaya Street has a long and complex construction history. It was originally made of wood. As such, it appears in the documents of the 16th - early 17th centuries. (in particular, in the inventories of the city of Serpukhov in 1552 and 1620). “Only the temple in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in 1649 is already stone, which is why they began to call it St. Nicholas the White ... It was the first stone church in the city and in the suburb, the second similar church was built in the village in honor of the wives of the Myrrhbearers, then the Trinity became the third stone church cathedral in 1696,” we read in the History of Serpukhov by P. Simson.
It has been suggested that architects from Yaroslavl took part in the construction of the first stone church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the predecessor of the current one. It is based on the proximity of the compositional construction of the building, which can be seen from the preserved old drawing, with the characteristic features of the Yaroslavl religious buildings of the 17th century.
In 1713, a decree was issued on the construction of a stone church in honor of St. Nicholas. The initiator of the construction was the clerk of the Zemsky hut of the city of Serpukhov, Mikhail Popov. As early as March 1721, Mikhail Popov wrote: "... and now, according to my promise, instead of that dilapidated church, I built a stone one and made the top of that church according to the rank." In the same year the temple was consecrated.
architectural feature
The temple was then a quadrangle crowned with one head with an altar extension, which had symmetrically located tented completions above the altar and deacon. The building was built from hewn blocks of local limestone. This is where the commonly accepted local name of the temple comes from - Nikola Beliy. In this form, the monument existed until the 30s. 19th century
In 1831, a project was drawn up for the reconstruction of the church building. Preserved design drawings with facades and sections signed: Architect Tamansky and architect Shestakov. Since there are no initials of both architects in the signatures on the drawing sheets, the question arises of identifying these persons with certain “stone craftsmen” that are known to historians of Russian architecture.
In the collected M.V. Dyakonov's materials for the dictionary of architects of the 18th-19th centuries, who worked in Moscow and the Moscow region, contain data on three Tamanskys and six Shestakovs. However, upon closer acquaintance with the biographies of all of them, it is possible to find out that in 1831 only two of them could put their signatures under the design drawings preserved in the archive.
Fedor Mikhailovich Shestakov (born in 1787 and died in 1836; academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts, who designed many religious buildings for Moscow, Kolomna, Dmitrov, etc.). And Ivan Trofimovich Tamansky (born in 1775, died in 1850; a student of M.F. Kazakov; he worked mainly in Moscow, but was often sent on business to various places in the Moscow province).
In 1835, construction began on the current church of St. Nicholas with side chapels of St. Alexis Metropolitan of Moscow and St. Cyril of Beloezersky.
Erected in 1835-1857. Church of St. Nicholas Bely is an excellent example of the Moscow Empire style. It is built of brick and plastered, has white stone details in the external decor. A powerful quadrangle with one apse and two side porticos bears a large domed rotunda. The four-pillar refectory and the multi-tiered bell tower adjoining the main volume from the west underwent some changes in the course of their construction compared to the project.
Church after the 1917 revolution
After the revolution of 1917, the liturgical life in the church of St. Nicholas Bely was not interrupted immediately. The fact that Saint Tikhon visited the temple on June 2, 1924 is noteworthy. It was he, the Patriarch of All Russia, who gave the temple the status of a Cathedral, after which the importance of Nikola Bely in the city increased. In 1928, during a church schism, the chair of Bishop Manuil (Lemeshevsky) of Serpukhov, who fought against it, was located in St. Nicholas Cathedral. It is also known that after the closure of the Bishop's Convent, the image of the Mother of God "The Inexhaustible Chalice" revered in the city was located in the church of St. Nicholas Bely. However, it suffered the fate of many churches in Serpukhov, in 1929 it was closed. According to the stories of the old-timers, the icons of the cathedral were demolished on the river. Nara and burned on its ice.
Hostility towards the church, blasphemously cultivated in people by the new government, made itself felt here too: the bell tower, majestically rising above the city from the middle of the 19th century, was partially destroyed, the image of St. Nicholas on the outer wall of the church was constantly abused. But as the inhabitants of the houses adjacent to the temple, who observed this desecration, tell, every next morning the image of the holy miracle-worker was renewed, showing God's power and as if predicting a new life for the desecrated cathedral.
In a sense, the cathedral turned out to be happier than other temples. For some time it was the city's pasta factory, which may have saved it from final destruction. During the war, laundry facilities were set up here. Recently, before the opening of the premises of the temple, the headquarters of civil defense used chemical. a warehouse that was placed in the cathedral at the insistence of the chairman of the Executive Committee of the city, S. N. Kudryakov, with the main goal of avoiding the demolition of the temple, but there were such proposals!
Temple Revival
On the eve of the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus', the Cathedral of St. Nicholas the White, as the brightest architectural monument, was discussed again. Among the plans for the use of the temple, the possibility of turning it into a concert hall was considered. But by the grace of God in 1995 it was returned to believers as a courtyard of the Vysotsky Monastery, since 1998 it has been a parish church. In 1995, during the stay of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' in Serpukhov, the city administration presented the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church with the keys to the church. In 1999, bells were purchased at the expense of benefactors, the city administration and citizens. The bell weighing 1380 kg has four hallmark icons: the Savior, the Mother of God, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the image of the heavenly patron of the Head of the Moscow Diocese, His Eminence Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna - St. Juvenal Patriarch of Jerusalem. A 300-pood evangelist sounds on the restored bell tower.
Since 2002, Stromallyans, a member of the SU-155 Group of Companies, has been restoring the Cathedral. In 2003, a native of the city of Serpukhov, philanthropist Mikhail Balakin donated to the temple a bell weighing 5 tons, cast especially for the Serpukhov Cathedral by Yaroslavl craftsmen.
In recent years, in addition to the main altar, four side altars have been restored and equipped in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely: in the name of St. Alexis of Moscow, St. Cyril of Beloezersky, the New Martyrs and Confessors of Serpukhov, and the Icon of the Mother of God “Help to Childbirth”. Much has been done to improve the territory of the temple. At night, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely is as if doused with light streaming on the walls and windows, and like a lit candle shines throughout the city.
The interior of the temple
The interior painting of the cathedral deserves special attention. The entire earthly history is depicted on the vault of the dome, starting from the eternal council of the Holy Trinity on the creation of the world, the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets, teachers of the Church, to Russian saints and martyrs. Sunlight illuminates the temple, passing between the images of the holy apostles, reminiscent of the true Sun - Jesus Christ. Among the icons of the Savior and His Most Pure Mother, there are a host of Russian saints: saints and noble princes, warriors and monks and, of course, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the hagiographic depiction of his miracles. Temple painting is a bible in colors. The eternal book that leads to salvation is open to believers in the Serpukhov Cathedral.
The majestic royal doors of the main altar are crowned with an arched canopy, on which the icons of Passion Week are located: Palm Sunday, the betrayal of Judas, the unrighteous judgment of the worldly ruler, crucifixion, burial, and, finally, the bright Resurrection.
In memory of the six new martyrs - residents of Serpukhov, one of the chapels was consecrated in the cathedral. But not only painting and architecture were revived in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely: a full-fledged parish life was also restored here. At the cathedral today there is a public library, there are two Sunday schools: for children and for adults. The clergy of the cathedral take care of the Serpukhov Military Institute, the pre-trial detention center and the orphanage and boarding school, pedagogical and humanitarian colleges ...
In the cathedral there is a miraculous image of the Mother of God “Help to Childbirth”, before which prayers are performed with an akathist compiled by the rector of the cathedral, Archpriest Vladimir Andreev, as well as locally venerated images of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Great Martyr Panteleimon, Martyr Boniface, New Martyrs and Confessors of Serpukhov.
The image of the Mother of God “Search for the Lost” is especially loved and revered in the city. In 2002, the tradition was restored from July 23 to August 23 to make religious processions to all the monasteries and churches of the city with this image of the Mother of God.
On July 12, 2005, Metropolitan Yuvenaly visited Serpukhov, where the solemn consecration of St. Nicholas the Bely Cathedral took place.
The revival of the cathedral by the forces of the whole city is a significant sign of our common spiritual revival. The bell tower again rises above the city, and the bells awaken our sleeping souls, moving them to mercy, repentance and the renewal of our lives.
The construction of the bell tower was completed in the year, and in the year the dilapidated cold two-story church was finally dismantled and in its place, in connection with the warm church, a new one was built according to the new plan, which was consecrated in the year.
In the year, during the church schism, the chair of Bishop Manuil (Lemeshevsky) of Serpukhov, who fought with him, was located in St. Nicholas Cathedral.
The church was closed during the year. According to the stories of old-timers, the icons of the cathedral were burned on the ice of the Nara River. The bell tower was partially destroyed, the image of St. Nicholas on the outer wall of the temple was constantly abused, but every time the next morning it was updated.
For some time there was a city pasta factory in the temple. During the war, laundry facilities were set up here. Before the temple was opened, the premises were used by the civil defense headquarters as a warehouse, which was located in the cathedral with the main goal of avoiding the demolition of the temple.
In the year the temple was returned to believers as a courtyard of the Vysotsky Monastery, from the year it became a parish.
Bells were purchased at the expense of benefactors, city administration and townspeople in the year. The bell weighing 1380 kg has four hallmark icons: the Savior, the Mother of God, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the image of St. Juvenaly the Patriarch of Jerusalem. A 300-pound evangelist sounds on the restored bell tower. In 1999 Mikhail Balakin, a native of the city of Serpukhov, presented the temple with a five-ton bell, cast specially for the Serpukhov Cathedral by Yaroslavl craftsmen.
From a year ago, the SU-155 Group of Companies began to restore the cathedral.
There is a library, there are children's and adult Sunday schools. The clergy of the cathedral take care of the Serpukhov Military Institute, a pre-trial detention center, an orphanage and a boarding school.
Architecture
The Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely is an excellent example of the Moscow Empire style. It is built of brick and plastered, has white stone details in the external decor. A powerful quadrangle with one apse and two side porticos bears a large domed rotunda. The four-pillar refectory and the multi-tiered bell tower adjoining the main volume from the west underwent some changes in the course of their construction compared to the project - the design of their completion partially changed.
Together with the main altar in the St. Nicholas Church, two additional refectories were built in the side naves - St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, and St. Cyril Beloezersky
The ancient city of Serpukhov, the first mention of which is in the spiritual letter of Ivan Kalita in 1339, is famous for its history. Located 99 kilometers south of the capital and having emerged as a fortress on the borders of the Oka, Serpukhov for a long time remained a reliable outpost of the Moscow principality.
The Serpukhovians deeply revere their countrymen - the Monk Athanasius the Elder, the first hegumen of the Vysotsky Monastery and Varlaam, the builder of the Vladychny Monastery. The names of glorious warrior brothers are also connected with the history of the city: Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy and Prince Vladimir Andreevich of Serpukhov. Prince Vladimir brought Serpukhov a special honor: he and his retinue took part in the Battle of Kulikovo, and, commanding an ambush regiment, ensured the successful outcome of the battle. For this feat of arms, the prince was awarded the nickname Brave. The bodies of the fallen countrymen were buried by Prince Vladimir in the basement of the Zachatievsky Cathedral of the Serpukhov Vysotsky Monastery. In 2004, His Eminence Metropolitan Yuvenaly of Krutitsa and Kolomna consecrated a memorial cross to the Serpukhovites who died on Kulikovo Field. At the base of the cross, installed on the Cathedral Hill, a capsule with earth brought from the Kulikovo field was laid.
The Church of St. Nicholas Bely in Serpukhov, among other parish churches, undoubtedly takes the first place, both in terms of artistic merit and in terms of its urban planning significance - it serves as the main high-rise dominant for a whole area of old, historically developed buildings. St. Nicholas Church on Kaluga Street has a long and complex history.
It was originally made of wood. As such, it appears in the documents of the 16th - early 17th centuries. Already by the beginning of the 1550s, that section of the road that went from Moscow to Kaluga along the left bank of the Nara River, which passed by this church, was officially called Nikolskaya Street. Here, near the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, there were a number of households, the owners of which were classified as Serpukhov Posad. Many residents of Nikolskaya Street are mentioned in the Hundred of 1552, compiled by F.S. Funikov. Among the parishioners of the same temple belonged to the inhabitants of the nearby Klyuchnichy (Podklyuchnichy) settlement with 16 yards, located a little lower, on the very bank of the river. Nara.
In the second quarter of the XVII century. instead of the wooden Nikolskaya church, a stone one was erected. In any case, already as an existing and active one, it is mentioned in the “Building Book of the City of Serpukhov” of 1649.
It was the first stone church not only in the settlement, but throughout the city. The second similar church was built in the village in honor of the Myrrh-bearing Women, then in 1696 the Trinity Cathedral became the third stone church. Built from hewn blocks of local limestone, the St. Nicholas Church received a name from the Serpukhoviches, which has been attached to it since then - Nikola Bely.
At that time, the yards of not only the same townspeople, but also some persons of a higher social status belonged to the Nikolsky parish - gunners, a square clerk, the Living Room of a hundreds of a merchant, a landowner of the Serpukhov district.
Probably, architects from Yaroslavl took part in the construction of the first stone church of St. Nicholas, the predecessor of the current one. This assumption is based on the proximity of the compositional construction of the building, which can be seen from the preserved old drawing, with the characteristic features of the Yaroslavl religious buildings of the 17th century.
The temple was then a quadrangle crowned with one large dome with an altar extension-apse, which had symmetrically located tented completions above the altar and deacon. Smooth pilasters created a tripartite articulation of the facades of the main volume of the building along their entire height. The powerful drum of the dome was cut through by slit-like windows, above which were placed ornamental belts. Drums under faceted tents were also decorated. At the base of the tents there were a number of decorative kokoshniks.
In this form, the monument existed until the 30s. 19th century In 1833, the Serpukhov spiritual board decided to rebuild the church "for dilapidation, which at the same time they transgressed." Since that time, design drawings with facades and sections have been preserved signed: “Architect Tamansky” and “Architect Shestakov”. Since there are no initials of both architects in the signatures on the drawing sheets, the question arises of identifying these persons with certain “stone craftsmen” that are known to historians of Russian architecture.
In the collected M.V. Dyakonov materials to the dictionary of architects of the XVIII-XIX centuries. who worked in Moscow and the Moscow region, there are data on three Tamanskys and six Shestakovs. Upon closer acquaintance with their biographies, it was possible to find out that only two of them could put their signatures under the drawings in 1831: Fedor Mikhailovich Shestakov (1787-1836) - an academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts, who designed many religious buildings for Moscow, Kolomna, Dmitrov and other cities; and Ivan Trofimovich Tamansky (1775-1850) - a student of M.F. Kazakov, worked mainly in Moscow, but was often sent on business to various places in the Moscow province. The author of the project was F.M. Shestakov, Tamansky also acted as an official coordinating the project.
Fedor Mikhailovich Shestakov was an outstanding master of the era of late classicism. He designed such a famous church as the Church of the Great Ascension at the Nikitsky Gates in Moscow, the Church of the Archangel Michael in Kolomna. But the closest analogue of the current St. Nicholas Church in Serpukhov is the Great Ascension in Moscow, designed in the same year.
During the perestroika, according to the new project, the refectory of the lower church with a chapel and a bell tower were first completely dismantled, and in their place a warm church with two altars was erected, consecrated in 1835. 
The construction of the bell tower was completed in 1843, and in 1850 the dilapidated cold 2-storey church was finally dismantled and in its place, in connection with the warm church, a new one was built according to a new plan, which was consecrated in 1854.
The newly built Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely is an excellent example of the Moscow Empire style. It is built of brick and plastered, has white stone details in the external decor. A powerful quadrangle with one apse and two side porticos bears a large domed rotunda. The four-pillar refectory and the multi-tiered bell tower adjoining the main volume from the west underwent some changes in the course of their construction compared to the project - the design of their completion partially changed.
Together with the main altar in St. Nicholas Church, two additional refectories were arranged in the side naves - St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow and St. Cyril of Beloezersky
After the revolution of 1917, the liturgical life in the church of St. Nicholas Bely was not interrupted immediately. The fact that St. Tikhon visited the temple in early June 1924 is noteworthy. It was he, the Patriarch of All Russia, who gave the temple the status of a Cathedral, after which the importance of Nikola Bely in the city increased. In 1928, during a church schism, the chair of Bishop Manuil (Lemeshevsky) of Serpukhov, who fought against it, was located in St. Nicholas Cathedral. It is also known that after the closure of the Bishop's Convent, the image of the Mother of God "The Inexhaustible Chalice" revered in the city was located in the church of St. Nicholas Bely. However, he suffered the fate of many churches in Serpukhov. In 1929 the cathedral was closed. According to the stories of the old-timers, the icons from it were demolished on the river. Naru and burned on her ice.
Hostility towards the church, blasphemously cultivated in people by the new government, made itself felt here too: the bell tower, majestically rising above the city from the middle of the 19th century, was partially destroyed, the image of St. Nicholas on the outer wall of the church was constantly abused. But as the inhabitants of the houses adjacent to the temple, who observed this desecration, tell, every next morning the image of the holy miracle worker was renewed, showing God's power and as if predicting a new life for the desecrated cathedral.
In a sense, the cathedral turned out to be happier than other temples. For some time it was the city's pasta factory, which may have saved it from final destruction. During the war, the white-stone decor was lost, and laundry rooms were arranged in the cathedral itself. Recently, before the opening, the building of the temple was used by the headquarters of civil defense for a chemical warehouse, which was placed in the cathedral at the insistence of the chairman of the Executive Committee of the city, S. N. Kudryakov, with the main goal of avoiding the demolition of the temple, and there were such proposals.
On the eve of the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus', the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely, as the brightest architectural monument, was discussed again. Among the plans for the use of the temple, the possibility of turning it into a concert hall was considered. But by the grace of God in 1995 it was returned to believers as a courtyard of the Vysotsky Monastery, since 1998 it has been a parish church. In 1995, during the stay of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' in Serpukhov, the city administration presented the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church with symbolic keys to the church.
In 1999, bells were purchased at the expense of benefactors, the city administration and citizens. The bell weighing 1380 kg has four hallmark icons: the Savior, the Mother of God, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the image of the heavenly patron of the Head of the Moscow Diocese, His Eminence Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna - St. Juvenal Patriarch of Jerusalem. On the restored bell tower sounds 300 - pood evangelist.
Since 2002, the SU-155 Group of Companies has been restoring the cathedral. In 2003, Mikhail Balakin, a native of the city of Serpukhov, a philanthropist, presented the temple with a bell weighing 5 tons, cast especially for the Serpukhov Cathedral by Yaroslavl craftsmen.
It is noteworthy that a special crane for lifting the spire of the bell tower and bells was provided on the day of the appointment of His Eminence Juvenaly on July 15, 2003. Much has been done to improve the territory of the temple. Flowerbeds were broken, a fountain was arranged, the area around the temple was paved with paving stones, the fence was made of cast iron. At night, the cathedral seems to be doused with light streaming on the walls and windows, and, like a lit candle, shines throughout the city.
"In every place - the ashes of the father and our brothers." These words from the akathist about the dead were fully confirmed in the Nikolsky parish. During the liberation of the territory of the temple from the buildings of the Soviet era (garages, sheds, etc.), numerous remains were discovered. The ancient graves that existed near the walls of the cathedral were destroyed. In 2003, on Dimitri's parental Saturday, the remains were buried. A memorial cross was erected: "Peace, Lord, the souls of the departed Thy servants, their names Thou Thyself weigh."
In the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely, in addition to the main altar, four more side altars were restored and equipped: in the name of St. Alexis of Moscow, St. Cyril of Beloezersky, the icon of the Mother of God "Help to Childbirth", and in memory of the new martyrs - residents of Serpukhov.
The interior painting of the cathedral deserves special attention. The entire earthly history is depicted on the vault of the dome, starting from the eternal council of the Holy Trinity on the creation of the world, the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets, teachers of the Church, to Russian saints and martyrs. Sunlight illuminates the temple, passing between the images of the holy apostles, reminiscent of the true Sun - Jesus Christ. Among the icons of the Savior and His Most Pure Mother, there is a host of Russian saints: saints and noble princes, warriors and monks and, of course, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the hagiographic depiction of his miracles. Temple painting is the Bible in colors. The eternal book that leads to salvation is open to believers in the Serpukhov Cathedral.
The majestic royal doors of the main altar are crowned with an arched canopy, on which the icons of Passion Week are located: the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem, the betrayal of Judas, the unrighteous judgment of the worldly ruler, the Crucifixion, burial and, finally, the bright Resurrection.
But not only painting and architecture were revived in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely: a full-fledged parish life was also restored here. At the cathedral today there is a public library, there are two Sunday schools: for children and for adults. The clergy of the cathedral take care of the Serpukhov Military Institute, a pre-trial detention center and an orphanage and boarding school, pedagogical and humanitarian colleges.
In the cathedral there is a miraculous image of the Mother of God “Help to Childbirth”, before which prayers are performed with an akathist compiled by the rector of the cathedral, Archpriest Vladimir Andreev, as well as locally venerated images of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Great Martyr Panteleimon, Martyr Boniface, New Martyrs and Confessors of Serpukhov.
The image of the Mother of God “Search for the Lost” is especially loved and revered in the city. In 2002, the tradition was restored from July 23 to August 23 to make religious processions to all the monasteries and churches of the city with this image of the Mother of God.
On July 12, 2005, Metropolitan Yuvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna visited Serpukhov, where the solemn consecration of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely took place. The path to the cathedral, on which Vladyka Yuvenaly stepped, was a continuous flower carpet. At 9 o'clock in the morning the cathedral bell announced to the audience about the beginning of the Great consecration of the cathedral. Ancient Serpukhov, referred to in the annals as "Holy City", will not remember such an event. Five thrones were consecrated at once! The main one is Nikolsky, and four side ones: in the name of the Icon of the Mother of God “Help to Childbirth”, St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, St. Cyril of Beloezersky and the New Martyrs and Confessors of Serpukhov. Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk, Bishop Joseph of Birobidzhan and Kuldur, Bishop Tikhon of Vidnovsky, abbots of monasteries and deans of the Moscow Diocese co-served with Vladyka Metropolitan.
Vladyka Yuvenaly conveyed to the audience the greetings of the Primate of the Russian Church, His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II, and thanked the rector of the cathedral, Archpriest Vladimir Andreev, and the parishioners of the cathedral for their efforts. Vladyka blessed the Mayor of the city, Pavel Zhdanov, with the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and expressed his gratitude for caring for the needs of the faithful Serpukhovites and restoring the cathedral.
By this time, all the clergy of the Serpukhov deanery and the faithful, who prayed in their parishes on the day of the apostles Peter and Paul, had gathered. A religious procession took place along Sovetskaya Street with banners and icons brought from the temples and monasteries of Serpukhov. It ended with the official ceremony of naming the main square of the city after the Serpukhov Prince Vladimir Andreevich the Brave, the hero of the Battle of Kulikovo, an associate of St. Prince Dimitry Donskoy. Vladyka Metropolitan and the Head of the city, with a large gathering of Serpukhovites and guests of the city, removed the veil from the memorial sign crowned with a cross "In honor of the celebration of the 625th anniversary of the victory of Russian troops in the Battle of Kulikovo." In the speech of the Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna Juvenaly, addressed to those gathered on the square, there were words that are joyful for everyone who loves Serpukhov: "The city is unrecognizable, it has been renovated and rejuvenated in recent years."
A few days later, on July 28, on the day of memory of Prince Vladimir the Brave of Serpukhov, grandiose celebrations dedicated to the 625th anniversary of the victory on the Kulikovo field continued in Serpukhov. On this day, a Patriarchal service was held in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas Bely. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II was co-served by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, Archbishops Abel of Lublin and Kholmsk, Gregory of Mozhaisky, Arseniy of Istra, Bishops of Birobidzhansky and Kuldursky Joseph, Ilian (Vostryakov), Vidnovsky Tikhon, and representatives of the clergy. At the end of the solemn service, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy addressed the audience with the First Hierarchal word and presented church awards (orders of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Right-Believing Prince Daniel of Moscow of the III degree) to the rector of the Serpukhov Cathedral of St.
Then a solemn religious procession took place along the central streets of the city to Cathedral Hill, to the Vysotsky Monastery. In the monastery, the Patriarch served a memorial service in memory of the dead soldiers and consecrated the banner of the military-patriotic club named after Vladimir the Brave. In the afternoon, Alexy II visited the Vvedensky Vladychny Convent, where he bowed to the relics of the founder of the monastery, the Monk Varlaam, and addressed the nuns of the monastery with words of greeting.
In the evening, His Holiness met with the public of the city at the Trud Stadium. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II and Metropolitan Yuvenaly, who arrived at the meeting, were met by the Governor of the Moscow Region Boris Gromov. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' addressed the audience with a special word, noting that it was a great pleasure for him to visit Serpukhov again. “Your ancient city occupies a special place in the celebration of the victory at Kulikovo Field, this outstanding event in Russian history,” said His Holiness. The patriarch noted that Prince Vladimir the Brave of Serpukhov is known not only as a warrior, but also as a man of prayer who built churches and monasteries. “There are many Orthodox shrines in Serpukhov, and this is evidence for us that for centuries people lived by the Orthodox faith, drew strength from it when they went to defend the Fatherland,” Alexy II emphasized, “and today the people are returning to the faith of their fathers, and with faith, hope and love return.”
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Photos by Svetlana Komkova (Ufa)