Assumption Church (Suzdal)

The Assumption Church, or the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God at the Prince's Court, is an Orthodox church in the eastern part of the Suzdal Kremlin, on Kremlyovskaya Street in Suzdal, Vladimir Region. A 17th-century stone church rebuilt after the fire of 1719 in the Naryshkin Baroque style, rare for Suzdal, it now belongs to the Vladimir diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and is attached to the Alexander Monastery.

History

The exact date of construction is unknown. The stone church is believed to have been built around 1650 on the site of a burnt wooden one that stood at the Prince's Court, which gave the church its second name.

In 1719 Suzdal suffered a major fire, after which the Assumption Church was rebuilt. This is how it acquired its Naryshkin Baroque look, unusual for a town dominated by more austere churches.

In 1926 the church nearly disappeared. The management of the political prison then housed in the Saviour Monastery of St Euthymius proposed pulling down one of two churches, the Assumption or St Athanasius, to reuse the bricks for construction. Vasily Romanovsky, director of the Suzdal museum, insisted on keeping the Assumption Church as the more valuable piece of architecture.

In 1958 the church was restored by the architect Alexei Varganov. On 31 December 2009 the building was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and attached to the Alexander Monastery. The bell tower was then restored and the interior renewed, and in 2013 the church was consecrated; the first service was led by Metropolitan Evlogy (Smirnov) of Vladimir and Suzdal.

Architecture

The church stands out among Suzdal's churches for the Baroque decoration it received in the 18th-century rebuilding. Next to it rises a tented bell tower with a side chapel dedicated to Sergius and Nikon of Radonezh, built up over the 17th and 18th centuries. The church is surrounded by a low fence with a small gate. Nikolai Voronin, a scholar of early Russian architecture, called it "one of the modest but elegant monuments of Suzdal".

Location

The church stands inside the Suzdal Kremlin, in its eastern part, by Kremlyovskaya Street. It fits easily into a walk around the Kremlin and its other churches, followed by a visit to the Saviour Monastery of St Euthymius, which is tied to the story of how the church was saved.