The Church of Saint Nicholas-Ratny the Wonderworker

OBJECT DESCRIPTION

The Church of Saint Nicholas-Ratny the Wonderworker was built in the second half of the 16th century in the south-western part of the Kazan Kremlin. The building was constructed of Volga limestone and named after Nicholas the Wonderworker. Among people, the church was named after Saint Nicholas-Ratny because the majority of the parish was made up of riflemen (Streltsy) from the Kazan garrison.

The building had thick walls made of large limestone blocks that were stacked in two rows and mortared together. The masonry was then reinforced with piles. The church was a small, square, two-storey construction with a long refectory on the west side and a semicircular altar protrusion from the east side. Its architectural forms were quite similar to the ancient Novgorod single-domed temple.

The Church of Saint Nicholas-Ratny was severely damaged, with the dome partially destroyed, by a large fire in Kazan in 1815. However, in the same year, the church was reconstructed according to the project of the provincial architect A. Schmidt. The vaults were disassembled, and the second floor was reconstructed in brick and topped with a basket-handle arc. An abbot’s house adjoined the church’s refectory from the north.

In 1820, the chapel in the name of St. John Climacus was built at the church. Thus, because of the new chapel, the structure grew in height and size.

The dome (chetverik), which completed the quadrangle, was lost during the Soviet period.

Restoration work was carried out in the 1990s in accordance with architect G. Gayazov’s project. The 16th-century white stone basement, which included an arched single-column chamber under the refectory and a basket-handle arc beneath the church, was preserved. The banquette of the curtain wall between the Preobrazhenskaya and Yugo-Zapadnaya Towers supports the western wall of the church.

The Church of Saint Nicholas-Ratny is now a significant architectural landmark and one of Kazan’s oldest buildings. The church is not functional.