It is located in the center of the old village, mentioned in the 1446 treaty between the princes Vasily and Fyodor Yuryevich with D.D. Shemyaka. The complex of buildings is located on the high bank of the Irmes River, at the intersection of the main village street and the road leading to Gavrilov Posad. The small one-story church of Joachim and Anna was erected in 1796. At the same time, a separate tented bell tower was built to the south of it. In 1815, the temple was added a second floor with the Trinity Church, and the quadrangle of the bell tower was decorated with porticoes. At the same time, the territory of the church was surrounded by a stone fence with iron bars, and to the south of the bell tower they built a one-story brick clergy house (not preserved). In 1864, a wooden zemstvo school was built to the east of the church, completing the formation of the complex. The church and bell tower were built of brick and whitewashed over the plaster, the school building was cut from logs in a veneer and partially covered with boards. By now, the domes of the church and bell tower, the stairs (inter-storey inside the narthex and connecting the church with the bell tower) have been lost, the ceilings of the refectory have been destroyed. A rural religious complex of unique architecture, the large volumes and characteristic silhouette of the buildings of which serve as an expressive accent in the wide open landscape.
The upper church was painted with glue paints in the first half of the 19th century, restored with oil paints in the late 19th century. The painting has been almost completely lost in the altar, on the walls and in the refectory. The surviving painting of the vault is a remarkable example of monumental painting, combining baroque and classical features.
Once it made a deep impression on Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich, an outstanding historian, writer, philosopher, artist, who traveled around the country and came to see it in 1902. Here is what he wrote in his essay “On the way from the Varangians to the Greeks”: “In the same Shokshovo, I was struck by the purity of the church’s forms: a perfect 17th century. Meanwhile, I learn that only recently they celebrated its centenary. I am surprised and find a clue. It turns out that the church was built by the peasants all together and they deliberately wanted to build it in an old-fashioned style.”
Translated by Google •
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