Exhibition 'Urban Complex: Nikolskaya Church'

About exhibition

The Nikolskaya Church, relocated in 1971 from the village of Nikolsk in the Mukhorshibirsky District of Buryatia. The core of the church consists of two T-shaped log structures (the cube with a refectory) placed side by side, each covered by a gabled roof with metal roofing. The walls comprise 23 log courses, hewn with 'in-lap' joints and smoothed on the inside. On the east side adjoins a five-walled apse, and on the west a gabled canopy-veranda. It stands on a rubble-stone foundation. A massive double-leaf entrance door leads into the narthex and then into the refectory. From the narthex a staircase leads to the bell tower. A distinctive feature of the Nikolskaya Church's layout is the gradual increase in width, similar to the Troitsko-Selenginsky Monastery and other churches. On the gabled roofs of the cube and the refectory there are two quadrangular tiers of different sizes, hewn 'in-lap', and above them octagonal tiers. From the cube into the refectories there are six identical windows on both the north and south sides; the apse has three similar windows. The main attraction of the church is the iconostasis, covering 46 sq. m, with icons arranged in six tiers. Next to the church a chapel has been restored; it originally stood in the cemetery of Old Selenginsk near the Spassky Cathedral and was built roughly at the end of the 18th century. The exhibition of the urban complex is complemented by a two-story and a single-story barn, a stable, and a wagon shed.