Flooded Belfry, Bell tower in Kalyazin, Russia
The Flooded Belfry is a 74.5-metre neoclassical bell tower of whitewashed brick, standing on an artificial islet in the Uglich Reservoir. Its five tiers rise from a columned base with a triangular pediment through arcaded stages and a clock face to a small onion dome and spire. It was built in 1796–1800 as the campanile of the Monastery of St. Nicholas.
The bell tower was built in 1800 as part of Saint Nicholas Church and survived the flooding of Kalyazin in 1939 when the dam was constructed. It was left standing on an artificial island, becoming an isolated memorial to the drowned settlement.
The tower's name comes from the flooded old town: the belfry of the demolished St Nicholas Cathedral stands where the streets once ran. Each summer the Upper Volga Cross Procession, which starts at the source of the Volga in Ostashino, ends here with a prayer service; regular molebens are held by the tower in summer, and a Divine Liturgy was celebrated inside it on 22 May 2007.
Boat tours depart from the shore directly across from the tower, with local operators offering different route options. The best time to visit is during warmer months when water conditions are calmer and access to the island is easiest.
The 1895 replacement of the largest bell, weighing 1,038 poods (about 17 tonnes), was paid for by the monastery to mark Nicholas II's accession to the throne. When restorers took down the cross in 2021, they found inscriptions naming the people who had consecrated and mounted it on 29 August 1893.
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