Svirskaya Church, Stone church in Smolensk, Russia.
Svirskaya Church is a stone building in Smolensk featuring the architectural style of pre-Mongol Russia from the 12th century. Its compact, pillar-like form represents the traditional construction methods of that period.
Construction began under Prince Davyd Rostislavich between 1180 and 1197, making it one of very few churches from pre-Mongol times still standing. The building survived numerous conflicts and political changes that shaped Smolensk's past.
The church is also called Svirskaya, after the nearby Svir stream, and until it closed in the first half of the 20th century it held the white-stone tomb of Prince Davyd Rostislavich. Each year on 24 July a cross procession went from here to Smyadyn, the site of Prince Gleb's murder. A parish school for poor and homeless boys operated in the church house built by churchwarden Vasily Khlebnikov.
The church stands on the Dnieper bank, about 1.5 km west of Smolensk's centre. It is an active Orthodox church: services resumed in 1991, and interior restoration is still under way, so parts of the inside may be closed off. Visitors should dress and behave accordingly and keep to areas open to the public.
The 1197 Ipatiev Chronicle calls it the most richly decorated church in Rus, with icons adorned in gold, silver, pearls and precious stones. Only traces of the painted exterior ornaments and fragments of frescoes and tempera painting survive, found by a 1960 archaeological expedition.
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