The Church of the Twelve Apostles
The stone Church of the Twelve Apostles on the Abyss was built in 1454 on the
site of a wooden church of the same name erected by Archbishop Euphymius in
1432 in place of an earlier wooden church of 1358. The Church of the Apostles is
mentioned for the first time as early as 1230 in connection with the building of
a common grave nearby for victims of the plague. A small church with exquisitely
fine proportions is one of the finest specimens of 15th-century architecture.
The architect adopted the traditional forms of Novgorodian church architecture
in the 14th and early 15th century and reduced the decorative elements to an
absolute minimum. The original trefoil gables were later replaced by a double
pitched roof.