Grodno. Kolozha (Boris and Gleb) Church.

Boris and Gleb Church is an architectural pearl of the ancient city of Grodno, a unique monument of Russian temple architecture, preserved from the 12th century. Today it is one of the oldest operating Orthodox churches in Belarus.

The church stands in the historical center of the city, on the very edge of the steep right bank of the Neman River, not far from the Old Castle, which several centuries ago served as the residence of Grand Duke Vytautas (1350-1430). Two historical monuments are separated by the valley of a small river. Gorodnichanka. The name “Kolozha” refers to the place where numerous springs flow (there are other versions of why the church received the name “Kolozhskaya”).

History of the temple.

Boris and Gleb Church was built in the 1140-1170s by appanage princes Boris and Gleb, the sons of Prince Vsevolod Davidovich. According to another version, the church appeared a little later; it was built by the sons of the princes in 1180.

In 1184, during a strong fire, the Lower Castle Church completely burned down, and the Boris and Gleb Church became the main one in the city. In the 14th century, Grodno was attacked many times by crusader troops, and as a result the old temple fell into complete disrepair. He also suffered during the Russian-Lithuanian wars, especially after the siege of the Old City, which was carried out by the squad of Moscow Prince Ivan III.

In 1480, a monastery dedicated to Saints Boris and Gleb appeared around the Boris and Gleb Church. It is known that the Orthodox monastery flourished, but gradually its affairs fell apart. By the beginning of the 18th century, the Boris and Gleb Monastery was in such a deplorable state that the monks, in order to earn food for themselves, were forced to pawn church utensils. The territory of the monastery has not been preserved, since over several centuries it was washed away by the Neman.

In the 16th century, natural disasters struck the Boris and Gleb Church. Several times it suffered from landslides, and its foundation was eroded by groundwater. One of the walls of the building tilted heavily, and the residents of Grodno understood what further subsidence of the ground could lead to. In 1720, they planted trees on the river bank so that they would strengthen the steep slope with their roots. However, in April 1853, the old foundation could not stand it, and the walls on the southern and western sides collapsed into the Neman. At the same time, part of the ceiling collapsed into the river.

They did not restore the ancient temple. For almost 40 years it stood ownerless, there were no windows or doors, and cattle even began to graze around the building. Meanwhile, new landslides continued their destructive work. The Boris and Gleb Church received especially severe damage in 1864 and 1889. During the last landslide, the altar apse was severely damaged.

It would seem that Grodno has lost its historical monument once and for all, but fate decreed otherwise. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the steep bank of the river was strengthened, and the missing stone walls were replaced with lighter ones - wooden ones. The temple was covered with a new roof, with a small dome with a gilded cross installed on it. This is how the Boris and Gleb Church acquired its modern appearance.

Since 1967, the ancient temple, like all buildings on Castle Hill, was combined into a protected zone of the city historical and archaeological reserve. It is among the sites proposed by the government of Belarus as candidates for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Features of architecture and interiors.

The Kolozha Church is a unique building that has no complete analogues in world architecture. Structurally, the Kolozhskaya Church is a six-pillar cross-domed church with three semicircular apses, the altar is traditionally directed to the east. The length of the building is 21.75 m, the width is 13.25 m, the height of the surviving part of the walls is about 9 m. The church has unique double walls. The outer walls are 1.2 m thick, in the lower part they are made of flat bricks (plinths), into which large boulders were placed, processed from the outside to a flat edge. For decorative purposes, figured ceramic tiles in the form of crosses, on which colored enamel was applied, were built into the walls. There is a narrow corridor between the inner and outer walls of the temple. Nowadays, the Boris and Gleb Church stands unplastered, so it is not difficult to examine in detail all the features of the masonry and decorative finishing of the facades. Pre-Mongol frescoes discovered during the restoration in 1870 have been preserved inside. The carved altar, liturgical utensils and icons were made in the 20th century.