Wednesday, 22 January 2020

Poltava. Holy St Nicholas Church. A Revival of History

In the historic centre of Poltava, on Pershomaiskyi Lane, which links Pershotravnevyi Avenue with Nebesnoi Sotni (Heavenly Hundred) Street, an unusual church draws the eye. This building, erected not in the canonical architectural style of Orthodox churches, houses the Holy St Nicholas Church, especially dear to and revered by the people of Poltava.

Holy St Nicholas Church. Pershotravnevyi Lane, 3.

The site for building was chosen on a high bluff, now called Instytutska Hill.

Poltava. Holy St Nicholas Church and the ruins of the bell tower

The history of the shrine reaches back to the days of the Poltava fortress, when a church stood in one of its bastions. The date the first wooden house of prayer was built is unknown; the chronicle preserved the date a fire destroyed it — 1758. On the site of the one burnt down, a new stone church was raised in 1774 and consecrated, like its predecessor, in honour of St Nicholas.

Holy St Nicholas Church. Photo of 1905

In plan, the single-domed structure formed a cross with rounded ends. By the mid-19th century the parish had grown considerably, and a need arose to enlarge the place of worship. On the initiative of the churchwarden N. V. Vakulenko, in 1855 a two-storey stone annex was built onto the western side of the church, and services are now held in it. Twenty metres from the Holy St Nicholas Church stood the wooden St George's Church of the same parish, dating from 1792. The old church was taken down, and in 1859, on the upper floor of the annex, a heated church was consecrated in the name of the holy great martyr and Victory-bearer George. The holy images and vessels were moved to its successor.

Holy St Nicholas Church. Photo of 1908

On the north-western side rose a bell tower finished in the Rococo style.

Holy St Nicholas Church. The bell tower. Photo of 1908

The bell tower. Watercolour by Vasyl Krychevsky

The church's venerated relics were an ancient image of St Nicholas the Wonderworker and old Gospel books. A girls' parish school was opened at the church, where the priest and the deacon taught the Law of God, penmanship, arithmetic, geography, technical drawing, singing and other subjects.

In 1938 the Bolshevik authorities destroyed the altar and the bell tower.

Holy St Nicholas Church. The ruins of the bell tower

During the Second World War — or, by another account, in the years of the Bolshevik war on God — the shrine was destroyed. Only the annex and a fragment of the 1784 bell tower remained.

Holy St Nicholas Church. The 1855 annex

Holy St Nicholas Church. The ruins of the 1784 bell tower

For a time the building was occupied by an art works; after it closed, the premises stood empty and slipped into oblivion. In 1994 a newly formed community set about restoring the church.

After the repairs, the church's decoration was done in the Ukrainian style: the rushnyky (embroidered towels) were stitched by parishioners, and everyday objects painted by folk masters.

Holy St Nicholas Church

God accepts the touching artistry and adornments of the church.

There is a project to restore the ruined shrine, but the community as yet has no funds for this God-pleasing undertaking.

Holy St Nicholas Church. A model of the church's reconstruction

The Holy St Nicholas Church hosts creative gatherings, classes in church singing, presentations of spiritual literature and books, exhibitions of rushnyky, and the collection of aid for Ukrainian soldiers.