Gomel. The Ancient Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior.

The first houses of Old Believers appeared in Gomel back in the XVII century, when a mass migration of Old Believers began across the border separating the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (which then included Gomel) and the Russian state, looking for opportunities to freely worship. Part of the name "Spasova" was due to the fact that some Old Believers (Chernets) in the center of the village lived in a monastery called Spassov, because of the Old Believer church erected here in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Most of the Old Believers lived outside the walls of the hermitage in a village or settlement. The word "sloboda" originally meant a suburban settlement, the inhabitants of which enjoyed freedom – they were not personally dependent on anyone.

Nowadays, the color of the Old Believers' settlement is almost invisible. But it is there, it is enough just to take a closer look at the individual houses still preserved from those times, located in the private sector, as well as some larger buildings. In recent years, the area of the private sector in the city center has become smaller and smaller. Within the territory of the former Spassovaya Sloboda, in connection with the reconstruction of the automobile bridge over the Sozh and the expansion of Frunze Street, a significant "pruning" of the area took place, almost to the very Ilyinsky Church, which so far rises as if in the center of a certain oasis of private houses.

The second temple of the Old Believers is the Transfiguration Church (Gomel Ancient Orthodox parish of the Transfiguration Church), rebuilt at one time as an economic and administrative building, now reconstructed and located on Proletarskaya Street, behind the regional employment center, in the courtyard. Previously, this street was called Field Marshal's Street until the revolutionary events of the early 20th century, and was considered one of the central streets in the city.

The temple was built in 1905 in the style of the Moscow-Yaroslavl Baroque of the XVII century with a characteristic tent bell tower, kokoshniks, window frames and details of figured bricks. The temple was built on the site of the chapel after the decree of Emperor Nicholas II "On strengthening the principles of religious tolerance" (1905) with the money of the famous Old Believer merchant in the city (beglopopovtsa) I.T. Rubanov. The church was located in the center of Feldmarshalskaya Street (now Proletarskaya). The temple operated until 1937 and was closed according to the decree "On Religious associations" dated 04/8/1929. After the closure, the building of the former church was converted into a workshop of the Forestry Institute according to the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the BSSR (August 1934), which legalized the reorganization of religious buildings for granaries, barns and warehouses. Only at the very beginning of our century the building was returned to the Russian Ancient Orthodox Church.