Храм Сретения Господня, Orthodox temple in Zaostrovie, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia
The Presentation of the Lord Church in Zaostrovye is a stone building of three connected volumes: a vestibule topped by a bell tower, a refectory, and the main church. Instead of a traditional apse, the church has a slender columned portico in late Neoclassical style, and it is crowned by five domes. The stone tent-roofed bell tower was finished in 1854.
The stone Church of the Presentation was laid in 1808 beside the wooden Church of the Intercession (completed 1688) and consecrated in 1827, though construction finished only in 1878. Its six altars were transferred from earlier churches, and the tented bell tower was completed in 1854. In the early 1930s the 1875 bell weighing 210 poods was thrown down and taken for melting.
The church's name comes from the Presentation of the Lord, celebrated on 15 February. Its six altars were moved here from earlier churches: the main Presentation altar downstairs, with Saint Nicholas beside it, and three upstairs dedicated to Saints Florus and Laurus, the Apostles Peter and Paul, and Saints Onuphrius and Peter of Athos. A Saint Panteleimon chapel was added in the refectory in 1896.
The church stands in Rikasovo, about 10 km from Arkhangelsk, in the Zaostrovye rural settlement of Primorsky District. Materials for the 19th-century construction were brought by barge along the Zaostrovka River, then navigable. The parish is active, so visits should be timed around services; the wooden 1688 Church of the Intercession nearby is not in use and awaits restoration.
The church never closed under Soviet rule, yet its clergy were not spared: priest Alexander Lytkin was shot by the Cheka in 1933, and deacon Arseny Zhararov was sent to build the White Sea–Baltic Canal, returning in 1939 and later serving as rector from 1947 to 1949. In the 1940s, attending services could cost parishioners several days of food ration cards.
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