Zosima and Sabbatius Church, Eastern Orthodox church on Tveritskaya Embankment, Yaroslavl, Russia
Zosima and Sabbatius Church is a single-domed brick church on Tveritskaya Embankment, built in 1689–1693 with a refectory and a bell tower over the entrance. The bell tower has a wide octagon on a quadrangle, arcades above, and a smaller octagon crowned by a small tent roof. A mosaic of St. Theodore Ushakov decorates the first tier of the west facade.
Founded in 1652 as the winter church of the Tveritsky parish, north of the summer Trinity Church, it was rebuilt in brick between 1689 and 1693 at the expense of the merchant Ivan Ivanovich Kemsky. He also financed the Ascension-Annunciation Church on the opposite bank of the Volga, so that the two churches served as beacons for the ferry crossing. Closed by the communists in the 1930s, it lost its dome and bell tower and housed workshops and a laundry before being returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1999.
The church is the only one in Yaroslavl Oblast dedicated to Zosima and Sabbatius of Solovki, the founders of Solovetsky Monastery. Since 2012 it has held the status of regional maritime church of the Yaroslavl Eparchy, blessed by Metropolitan Panteleimon. A mosaic of the righteous warrior Feodor Ushakov on the bell tower's west facade marks this naval link.
The church stands on Tveritskaya Embankment on the left bank of the Volga, north of the summer Trinity Church, and is reached on foot along the embankment. It was handed back to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1999 in a derelict state; restoration began in the late 2000s and the bell-tower cupolas and crosses were installed at the end of 2011. A small brick chapel, consecrated on 24 May 2002, stands on the site of the former church watchman's hut.
It is the only church in Yaroslavl Oblast dedicated to Zosima and Sabbatius of Solovki. Merchant Ivan Kemsky paid for it and for the Ascension-Annunciation Church on the opposite bank so the two would serve as beacons marking the Volga ferry crossing. A mosaic of the naval commander Fyodor Ushakov fills the first tier of the bell tower's west facade.
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