St. John the Baptist Church

Yaroslavl, Russia

St. John the Baptist Church is considered to be the acme of the Yaroslavl school of architecture. It was built in 1671-1687 on the bank of Kotorosl river. Its walls and dome drums are covered with richly glazed tiles; the temple's fifteen onion domes are assembled in three groups. The 7-storey, 45-metre high bell-tower was built later than the church itself in mid-1690s. The entire interior is covered with frescoes depicting Christian saints, St. John the Baptist hagiography and biblical topics. They were painted by Dmitry Plekhanov and Fyodor Ignatyev in 1694-1695.

References:

Comments

Your name


Address

2-я Закоторосл, Yaroslavl, Russia
See all sites in Yaroslavl

Details

Founded: 1671-1687
Category: Religious sites in Russia

More Information

en.wikipedia.org

Rating

4.8/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery (2,2 km)
Ascension Church (1,9 km)
Fyodorovskaya Church (0,5 km)


Rostov Kremlin (54,3 km)
Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery (56 km)

User Reviews

Валерий Грибенко (2 years ago)
Благодаря экскурсоводу вошли в помещения храма. Я не знаю ,что со мной произошло, но у меня навернулись слезы и перехватить горло. Печальна судьба его на данный момент, растраивает отношение властей к охране данного памятника нашей с вами истории.
Владимир Кудрявцев (2 years ago)
Красивая церковь. Уникальная архитектура. Изразцы. Надо стоять рядом с ней, что бы по настоящемы ощутить ее величие. Конечно церковь нуждается в реставрации. По крайней мере снаружи. Внутри побывать не удалось. Нижние изразцы страдают от идиотов и вандалов которым хватает тупости портить эти уникальные артефакты. Необходимо установить видеонаблюдение и организовать охрану, что бы церковь не подвергалась разрушению.
F K (3 years ago)
Это Национальное Достояние России! Красота этого творения русских людей завораживает как снаружи, так изнутри. Чтобы верующие забыли сюда дорогу советская власть вокруг Храма построила лакокрасочный завод. Надеюсь, нынешние поколения смогут сберечь и восстановить былое величие этого места. Странно, что администрация города и руководители епархии ничего не сделали для облагораживания подъезда к этому чудесному Храму.
Vladimir Vladimir (3 years ago)
Единица не храму который просто уникален а местной власти которая не может привести в порядок подьездную дорогу иы подходы к нему. Сотни туристов в тч иностранцы ежедневно высаживаются в грязь и вынуждены прыгать через лужи и выбоины чтобы дойти до храма. И ведь дорога то всего 50-70 метров!! Позор городской администрации. Да и самим ярославцам не способным привести это место в порядок! И ведь надо то пару машин асфальта и с десяток рабочих или добровольцев. Стыдно!!
Anjar Priandoyo (6 years ago)
St. John the Baptist Church or Церковь Иоанна Предтечи is a must visit place in Yaroslavl Russia. The church is featured on the 1000-ruble banknote. Very beautiful, next to Volga River
Powered by Google

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Most beautiful castles in Lithuania
Photo from Flickr, copyright yashima

Historic Site of the week

Quimper Cathedral

From 1239, Raynaud, the Bishop of Quimper, decided on the building of a new chancel destined to replace that of the Romanesque era. He therefore started, in the far west, the construction of a great Gothic cathedral which would inspire cathedral reconstructions in the Ile de France and would in turn become a place of experimentation from where would later appear ideas adopted by the whole of lower Brittany. The date of 1239 marks the Bishop’s decision and does not imply an immediate start to construction. Observation of the pillar profiles, their bases, the canopies, the fitting of the ribbed vaults of the ambulatory or the alignment of the bays leads us to believe, however, that the construction was spread out over time.

The four circular pillars mark the start of the building site, but the four following adopt a lozenge-shaped layout which could indicate a change of project manager. The clumsiness of the vaulted archways of the north ambulatory, the start of the ribbed vaults at the height of the south ambulatory or the choice of the vaults descending in spoke-form from the semi-circle which allows the connection of the axis chapel to the choir – despite the manifest problems of alignment – conveys the hesitancy and diverse influences in the first phase of works which spread out until the start of the 14th century.

At the same time as this facade was built (to which were added the north and south gates) the building of the nave started in the east and would finish by 1460. The nave is made up of six bays with one at the level of the facade towers and flanked by double aisles – one wide and one narrow (split into side chapels) – in an extension of the choir arrangements.

The choir presents four right-hand bays with ambulatory and side chapels. It is extended towards the east of 3-sided chevet which opens onto a semi-circle composed of five chapels and an apsidal chapel of two bays and a flat chevet consecrated to Our Lady.

The three-level elevation with arches, triforium and galleries seems more uniform and expresses anglo-Norman influence in the thickness of the walls (Norman passageway at the gallery level) or the decorative style (heavy mouldings, decorative frieze under the triforium). This building site would have to have been overseen in one shot. Undoubtedly interrupted by the war of Succession (1341-1364) it draws to a close with the building of the lierne vaults (1410) and the fitting of stained-glass windows. Bishop Bertrand de Rosmadec and Duke Jean V, whose coat of arms would decorate these vaults, finished the chancel before starting on the building of the facade and the nave.

Isolated from its environment in the 19th century, the cathedral was – on the contrary – originally very linked to its surroundings. Its site and the orientation of the facade determined traffic flow in the town. Its positioning close to the south walls resulted in particuliarities such as the transfer of the side gates on to the north and south facades of the towers: the southern portal of Saint Catherine served the bishop’s gate and the hospital located on the left bank (the current Préfecture) and the north gate was the baptismal porch – a true parish porch with its benches and alcoves for the Apostles’ statues turned towards the town, completed by an ossuary (1514).

The west porch finds its natural place between the two towers. The entire aesthetic of these three gates springs from the Flamboyant era: trefoil, curly kale, finials, large gables which cut into the mouldings and balustrades. Pinnacles and recesses embellish the buttresses whilst an entire bestiary appears: monsters, dogs, mysterious figures, gargoyles, and with them a whole imaginary world promoting a religious and political programme. Even though most of the saints statues have disappeared an armorial survives which makes the doors of the cathedral one of the most beautiful heraldic pages imaginable: ducal ermine, the Montfort lion, Duchess Jeanne of France’s coat of arms side by side with the arms of the Cornouaille barons with their helmets and crests. One can imagine the impact of this sculpted decor with the colour and gilding which originally completed it.

At the start of the 16th century the construction of the spires was being prepared when building was interrupted, undoubtedly for financial reasons. Small conical roofs were therefore placed on top of the towers. The following centuries were essentially devoted to putting furnishings in place (funeral monuments, altars, statues, organs, pulpit). Note the fire which destroyed the spire of the transept cross in 1620 as well as the ransacking of the cathedral in 1793 when nearly all the furnishings disappeared in a « bonfire of the saints ».

The 19th century would therefore inherit an almost finished but mutilated building and would devote itself to its renovation according to the tastes and theories of the day.

Map Top Sights Tags Historical Periods City Guides About Us Sign Up Upload new site
© 2021 SpottingHistory.com. All rights reserved.