The first mention of the village of Chernizh in the Suzdal region is found in the "Boundary Statement to the Suzdal Yamsky Hunters", dated 1588. At that time, only particularly distinguished people could become owners of such lands.
The first owner of the village of Chernizh was considered to be a certain Tugarin Fedorov. Later, in the 18th century, the village became the property of the Krechetnikovs, a family that belonged to a famous noble and count's family. But under the Krechetnikovs, there was no estate as such. There was only the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. It was built in 1755 in the provincial baroque style by the parishioners.
The church is an octagonal two-story temple, elongated along the "west-east" axis and covered with an eight-channel vault. A pentagonal apse adjoins the main volume from the east, and a rectangular refectory and bell tower from the west. They appeared in 1834 thanks to the efforts and donations of the local landowner Ekaterina Ivanovna Krechetnikova. After permission was received from the Vladimir Spiritual Consistory, a warm refectory with chapels in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh and the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan was added to the main volume. A stone bell tower was also built. Next to the church, a small rectangular chapel-crypt was built in the 1830s by the Suzdal nobleman Ivan Alekseevich Ragozin.
In 1929, the local authorities closed the church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and threw the bells down from the belfry. In 1930, its interior was plundered, and in the chapel-crypt and in the church cemetery, atheist vandals broke into the crypts and graves in which the Krechetnikovs and Ragozins, as well as the priests of the church, were buried.
During the Soviet era, the church was first used as a club and a canteen, then as a spare parts warehouse, and then as a grain storage facility. In 1974, the church was recognized as an architectural monument and the grain storage facility was soon thrown out of there, and after the collective farm grain storage facility was evicted from it, the church fell into complete disrepair, despite the fact that it was protected by the state.
Translated by Google •
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