Description of the attraction
The exact date when the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built in Novaya Sloboda (on Dolgorukovskaya Street) is still unknown. Presumably, the temple has existed since the beginning of the 17th century, since its first mention in documents dates back to 1625. After about half a century, the wooden structure was replaced by a stone one. These works were started by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and were completed already in the Perov era - in 1703. And fifty years later, in the middle of the 18th century, a bell tower was built next to the temple, later rebuilt.
The church is called Nikolskaya after one of the side-chapels, consecrated in honor of Nikolai the Pleasant. The second was built in honor of the Conception of John the Baptist, and according to the main throne, the temple was named in honor of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, the temple did not burn, but was desecrated - it was used by soldiers of the French army as a food warehouse. After the end of the war, the parishioners not only renovated the building, but soon came to the idea that it needed to be expanded. However, work on the expansion of the temple was carried out only at the very beginning of the twentieth century - a refectory, side-altars and a new bell tower were built.
In the first decades of Soviet power, several unpleasant events happened in the history of the temple: first, all its valuables were confiscated and taken away, then for two years the church became a renovation church, and in 1936 it was closed. The building of the temple first housed a construction trust, then a museum with an anti-religious bias was opened in it. A year after the end of the Great Patriotic War, animators, employees of the Soyuzmultfilm studio, and the authors of the most famous cartoons, Yuri Norshtein, Fyodor Khitruk and Vyacheslav Kotenochkin, moved into the former church. The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation has found another building for the studio, and Soyuzmultfilm may soon move.
The area in which the temple was built was called Novaya Sloboda. She appeared near the road to Dmitrov, next to the already existing Bolshaya and Malaya Dmitrovsky settlements. New Dmitrovskaya Sloboda has been known since the 16th century, and the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker stood on one of its main streets.
