Photo: architectural monuments, temples and places of worship, cathedrals and churches, other places, Church of Elijah the Prophet, Yaroslavl

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The Church of Elijah the Prophet - One of the City Landmarks

Architectural Monuments • Temples and places of worship • Cathedrals and churches • Other places

You can find the Church of Elijah the Prophet on postcards and other souvenirs of Yaroslavl. It rises on the main square of the city and is considered a masterpiece of Yaroslavl architecture and painting. It has been said that this is not the first church in Yaroslavl in honor of Elijah the Prophet. As the "Legend of the foundation of the city of Yaroslavl" says, Prince Yaroslav the Wise defeated the bear, after which he ordered to build a city on the day of Saint Ilya (Elijah). On this occasion, he also ordered to build a church. It is not known how long the temple, the age-mate of the city, stood. The modern Church of Elijah the Prophet stands a few meters from the place where there was its predecessor.

The Church of Elijah the Prophet was built in the middle of the 17th century at the expense of the brothers Skripins, the privileged merchants, who supplied furs and precious stones to the royal court. By the end of the construction the church received an invaluable gift from Patriarch Joseph - a piece of the Holy Robe, which had previously been kept in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Moscow Kremlin. The temple with a tent-shaped bell tower and green domes stands on a high basement. The interior decoration, like the construction, was carried out as instructed by brothers Skripins. The iconostasis was assembled from three icons of the 16th century and images were made by Yaroslavl and Kostroma icon painters. The decoration of the temple was going on also on the brothers’ death: a new gilded iconostasis in the Moscow Baroque style appeared in the late 17th century. In 1920, the church was transferred to the Yaroslavl Museum, and in the 1930s it was turned into a new Antireligious museum, one of the exhibits of which was Foucault's pendulum suspended right under the dome. Restoration of the temple began in the 1950s, and services resumed in it in 1989.

The Church of Elijah the Prophet - One of the City Landmarks

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