Volotovo Church

Veliky Novgorod, Russia

The Volotovo Church was built in 1352 by Moisey, the archbishop of Novgorod. The church survived the Time of Troubles, when many Novgorod churches were destroyed or damaged by the Swedes. During the World War II, the church was basically at the front line between the Soviet and the German armies for three years and was destroyed. In 1955, Leonid Krasnorechyev performed conservation of the monument. The church was standing as a ruin but was not decaying further. The frescoes were destroyed as well, but the debris were still on the site, and the restorators started work on recovering fresco fragments from the debris. In 2003, the building was reconstructed, The author of the reconstruction project was Ninel Kuzmina.

The chronicles mention that in 1363 a part of the church was painted, but presumably the frescoes in rest of the interior were created later, around 1380. The whole interior of the church was covered by frescoes, which was common for that time, but almost all fully painted churches were eventually destroyed or lost the original frescoes, and so far the only intact church with the fully painted interior is preserved in the Ferapontov Monastery. The Volotovo frescoes were extensively studied, and black and white photographs of every detail, as well as coloured copies, survived and considerably simplified the restoration. In 1977, the frescoes became the subject of a book of Mikhail Alpatov.

The name of the painter is not known. For a long time, the frescoes were ascribed to Theophanes the Greek, however, it was decided later that the 1380 frescoes did not belong to Theophanes and were essentially more dynamic that all the works of Theophanes. At the time of creation, this was a novel style in Russian art.

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Founded: 1352
Category: Religious sites in Russia

Rating

4.9/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Anna Popova (2 years ago)
Reborn from a mound overgrown with grass by the hands of ascetics of the 20th century. Admires and astonishes. Many thanks to the museum curators of all Novgorod monuments for their careful attitude to their treasures, for the reverent love that imbues their stories, for their responsiveness, goodwill, and willingness to share all their knowledge and details. Low bow!
Маргарита Миронова (3 years ago)
A unique monument restored from ruins. You can come during opening hours and admire the frescoes, though restored. Now they look like mosaics. On the walls of the cathedral you can find graffiti of the 14th-15th century A magical light falls from the windows in the evening. Tickets can be paid by card. Church of the Assumption on the Volotovo field ⠀ It was erected in 1352 by Archbishop Moses on the elevated bank of the Maly Volkhovets not far from Veliky Novgorod. In 1363, the temple was decorated with wall paintings commissioned by another Archbishop of Novgorod, Alexei. ⠀ During the Swedish occupation of 1611-1617, the church was destroyed, but neither the walls nor the frescoes were damaged. In 1825, part of the building was burned during a thunderstorm. ⠀ During the Great Patriotic War, the Assumption Church was on the front line for 29 months and was completely destroyed by German artillery. The area of ​​the lost fresco painting was about 350 m². ⠀ After the end of hostilities, 1.7 million fragments of fresco painting remained on the site of the ruins of the church, which were then conserved. ⠀ On December 14, 1992, the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God on the Volotovo field was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. ⠀ In August 1993, Novgorod restorers began restoration work with fragments of fresco painting. ⠀ In 2001, according to a joint German-Russian project, the restoration of the temple began. The German side paid for the work in the amount of 52 million rubles, they were also financed from the federal budget. ⠀ The grand opening of the restored church took place on August 28, 2003. ⠀ In 2003, about 1.7 million fresco fragments were sent for restoration to the Novgorod scientific workshop "Freska".
Владимир Подгурский (3 years ago)
I have written many times that the Temples do not need my assessment. But when you see a photo of the Temple destroyed during the war and how people were able to recreate the fresco from 1,700,000 pieces, it gives me chills! Low bow to you!
Андрей Крысин (4 years ago)
The church is ancient (XIV century) and pretty
Наталья Гудкова (5 years ago)
It works like a museum. In winter, according to the shortened schedule, until 14.00. Adult ticket 100 rubles, children free. Undoubtedly a beautiful unique old church. But still, if you have little time to visit all the churches of Novgorod, you can safely skip it, you will not lose much. Firstly, it is located far from the center and there are no other facilities nearby. Secondly, the church is small, it takes about 15 minutes to inspect. Thirdly, there are no particularly beautiful species, because the modern cemetery, overgrown with trees, is very densely retreating.
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