The Church of the Holy Women
Two more buildings located near the St Nicholas cathedral ä the
Church of the Holy Women (1508 ä 1511) and the Church of St
Procopius (1529) ä were erected on the sites of the wooden
churches that were destroyed by the fire of 1508. They furnish a
clue to the changes that took place in Novgorodian architecture
after the city's unification with Moscow. It is worth mentioning
that the construction of both was financed by the Moscow merchant
Ivan Syrkov (the Church of the Holy Women) and his son Dmitry
(St Procopius). The Syrkovs were among the fairly great number of
families that settled in Novgorod by order of Ivan III to replace
the deported boyars and merchants suspected of anti-Moscow
sentiments.
Compared with St Procopius, the Church of the Holy Women is
more massive in appearance, more complex in composition, and more
archaic in style. It is a four-pier structure with galleries. Its
northern gallery, decorated with small pentagonal niches and
tiled insets, was constructed in the 1540s while the western
narthex was added in the 17th century. The interior of the church
is divided into three floors, of which the two lower were used as
storerooms. Three wooden porches and the double-bay belfry of the
western wall lent the building particular picturesqueness. Of
interest is the combination of stone and wooden parts, different
in colour and form.