The Saviour Church on Nereditsa is one of Russia's oldest Orthodox churches. It is on the World Heritage list as a part of Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings. The church was founded in 1198 by Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and decorated with frescoes in 1199. The church was located outside the city of Novgorod but close to the residence of the prince, and the church was regarded by the prince as the place for his future tomb. In 1903-1904 it was measured and extensively restored by Pyotr Pokryshkin.
The small stone church is built as a cube and has one dome. It is based on four pillars and has three apses at the eastern side. The type of a small church was developed in Novgorod in the end of the 12th century, and there are several churches of this type, in Novgorod and in Staraya Ladoga.
The frescoes were created by eight to ten artists. They covered all the interior of the church, including the pillars, the walls, the ceiling, and the dome. There is no apparent system in creating the frescoes. Possible, the painters did nbot know each other and had different styles. In particular, normally a fresco of Christ the Saviour should be painted in the dome. However, for the Saviour Church on Nereditsa, the dome was occupied by the Ascencion. Christ was painted in the dome in Byzantine Empire already in the 9th century, and painting other frescoes in the dome was at the time the sign that the church belongs to a highly peripheral region. The most impressive fresco in the churh was considered to be theLast Judgment, painted over the whole western wall. Only fragments of this fresco survived. In 1246, a fresco portrayed Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich was painted in the southern wall.
During World War II the church was located on the front line between 1941 and 1943 and was destroyed. It was subsequently restored, however, most of the frescoes were lost and are currently known because the pre-war photos exist.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).