Going down from Gostiny Dvor to the Kamenka River and crossing a small bridge, you can go to the ensemble of "paired" churches - Epiphany and Forerunner. In ancient times, near these temples, in the meadow of the Kamenka floodplain, there was a Kozhevennaya settlement inhabited by artisans.
Short story
In the 17th century, the "parish people" of the settlement erected two wooden churches, and later replaced them with stone ones. The current "winter" church, consecrated in the name of the feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist, was built in 1739... The feast of Christmas is remarkable already because the birth of the Forerunner of the Lord was the fruit of the tireless prayers of his parents. Priest Zachariah and his wife, righteous Elizabeth (cousin of the Virgin Mary), having lived to old age, did not have children.
Once, during a divine service in the Jerusalem temple, Zacharias saw the archangel Gabriel, who predicted the birth of his son. Six months before the birth of Christ, Elizabeth gave birth to John, who was destined to become the forerunner, that is, the predecessor of Jesus. In his sermons, John called for repentance, predicting the imminent coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. John baptized the Jews in the waters of the Jordan River, washing away sins from their bodies and cleansing their souls. Already at the beginning of the 4th century, the feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist was introduced into the church calendar and since then has been celebrated on June 24 (July 7 in a new style).
Architecture of the Nativity Church
The Nativity Church is a typical temple for Suzdal architecture of the 18th century, which embodied in its stone forms the elements of wooden "dumplings" buildings... So, the blades imitate the connections of wooden log cabins. The church is based on a rectangle elongated from west to east, covered with a metal roof on two slopes. The overlap is completed by a thin carved drum with a bulbous head. From the east, an apse adjoins the main volume of the temple, and from the west - a small porch with a bell tower attached to it with a concave tent-"pipe".
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