St. John the Baptist Church (russian: Церковь Иоанна Предтечи) in

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl ( rus, Ярослáвль, p=jɪrɐˈsɫavlʲ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence ...

is considered to be the

acme Acme is Ancient Greek (ακμή; English transliteration: ''akmē'') for "the peak", "zenith" or "prime". It may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Acme'' (album), an album by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion * Acme and Septimius, a fictional ...

of the Yaroslavl school of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

. It was built during 1671–1687 on the bank of

Kotorosl The Kotorosl (russian: Ко́торосль) is a right tributary of the Volga in the Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia. The river flows from Lake Nero near Rostov past Karabikha and enters the Volga in Yaroslavl. It is long, and has a drainage basin of ...

river in the Tolchkovo ''

sloboda A sloboda ( rus, слобода́, p=sləbɐˈda) was a kind of settlement in the history of the Old Russian regions Povolzhye, Central Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for "freedom" and may be loosely ...

'' (district) which at that time was the largest and wealthiest part of the town. Its walls and dome drums are covered with richly glazed tiles; the

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

's fifteen

onion dome An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. These bulbous structures taper smoothly to a point. It is a ty ...

s are assembled in three groups. The 7-storey, 45-metre high

bell-tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

was built later than the church itself in the mid-1690s. The entire interior is covered with

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

es depicting Christian

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

s, St. John the Baptist

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...

and

biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

topics. They were painted by Dmitry Plekhanov and Fyodor Ignatyev in 1694–1695. In 1911, patrimonial defensor

Nicholas Roerich Nicholas Roerich (; October 9, 1874 – December 13, 1947), also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (russian: link=no, Никола́й Константи́нович Ре́рих), was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophi ...

wrote ''Silent Pogrom'' about the unskillful restoration of the church after the

Russian-Japanese war The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

of 1904–1905.

References

* Древнерусская архитектура (''Old Russian architecture''). Кристалл (''Kristall''), Saint-Petersburg, 2002.
Золотое Кольцо, Ярославль-Град. Храмовый ансамбль церкви Иоанна Предтечи XVII - XVIII вв

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John the Baptist Church, Yaroslavl Religious buildings and structures completed in 1687 Russian Orthodox churches in Yaroslavl 1687 establishments in Russia Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Yaroslavl Oblast