Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Khamovniki

Church of St. Nicholas, the Wonderworker in Khamovniki (Church of St. Nicholas in Khamovniki, Nikolo-Khamovnicheskaya Church), is a temple of the Central Deanery of the Moscow City Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. Located in the center of Moscow, next to the Park Kultury metro station and Frunzenskaya Embankment.

The church was built in 1679-1682 in the royal weavers (khamovniks) settlement. Monument of Moscow architecture of the 17th century.

The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is a typical five-domed township temple of the second half of the 17th century with a characteristically oriented plan (“ship,” when the refectory and the bell tower are placed on the main axis of the church) and the traditional completion of a deaf, closed vault with tiers of kokoshniks.

The main volume, with its height, large symmetrically placed windows and a strict alternation of large kokoshniks, resembling zakomaras in the bottom row, is similar to the “cathedral” type of temple.

The temple’s graceful, richly decorated bell tower is one of the best examples of Russian ornamental architecture. Its height increased due to the introduction of an additional octagonal floor under the ringing tier; thus, the bell tower became one of Moscow’s tallest hipped bell towers.

Nearest metro: Park Kultury (ring).

See also architecture of Moscowchurches and cathedrals of Moscow

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