The Church of St Blaise
The stone Church of St Blaise erected in 1407 on the site of a previous wooden
church of the same name built in 1184. The street on which this older building
stood was originally called Volosova and later renamed Vlasievskaya (Blaise).
The Christian cult of St Blaise, the patron saint of animals, is known to have
inherited many features of the pagan cult of Volos, or Veles, who was worshipped
by the ancient Slavs as the protector of cattle. It is possible that an idol of
Volos once stood on this spot and was later replaced by a wooden church
dedicated to St Blaise. The present stone church is a typical specimen of
early 15th-century Novgorodian architecture. It is a small, single-domed
structure, square in plan, with the walls terminating in trefoil gables that
correspond to the shape of the inner vaulting. The old vaulting and dome have
not survived, but when the chureh was restored after the last war they were
rebuilt in their original form. Careful study of the north and west walls
revealed traces of recessed portals with a pointed arch and these were also
restored. The narrow, pointed windows were reconstructed with the help of
surviving fragments.