Church of Elijah the Prophet in Yaroslavl

Interesting facts

Patriarch Joseph rewarded the Skripin brothers with a fragment of the Robe of Christ from the Moscow Kremlin, and a tented chapel was built to house it.

In the great Yaroslavl fire of 1658 the church was scorched on the outside, yet unlike most of the city's churches its interior came through undamaged.

Of the roughly 970 painted scenes, 417 in the main church were made under the direct guidance of the master designer Gury Nikitin.

The murals are unusually rich in scenes of everyday 17th-century life woven into the biblical stories.

The 1680 painting campaign was paid for by Iulita Makarovna, the widow of Vonifaty Skripin, who carried on the family's patronage.

The plain outer walls were once painted with large flowers, and the domes were roofed in green glazed tiles that flashed in the sun.

The gilded iron cross on the central dome and the openwork valance running along the cornice are counted among the finest work of 17th-century Yaroslavl smiths.

The church originally stood inside the Skripin family compound, beside their houses and storerooms, and nine members of the family were buried next to it.

In the 1930s museum staff managed to save the building from demolition, and the anti-religious exhibition later placed statues of Giordano Bruno and Galileo by its pillars.

Why it is worth it

From the outside, the Church of Elijah the Prophet in Yaroslavl is a cluster of green domes, a tall tented bell tower and galleries in red brick and white trim. Inside, almost every surface is covered in colour: one of the most complete fresco ensembles of 17th-century Russia, with hundreds of scenes painted with an energy and detail that make the walls read like an illustrated book.

The church was built in 1647–1650 by two brothers, Ioanniky and Vonifaty Skripin, wealthy Yaroslavl merchants, on the site of two earlier wooden churches. It is a four-pillar church surrounded by a multi-part composition: side chapels with their own domes and roofs, a bell tower and covered galleries tying everything together. Four side chapels are dedicated to St Varlaam of Khutyn, the Protection of the Mother of God, the Deposition of the Robe, and the martyrs Gury, Samon and Aviv.

The interior was painted in 1680 by a team of about fifteen artists led by Gury Nikitin and Sila Savin of Kostroma, who completed the work in roughly three months. Further painting continued in stages until 1717, and the full scheme counts around 970 narrative scenes. When Yaroslavl was replanned in 1778, the church became the focus of the new radial street pattern, standing at the centre of what is now Sovetskaya Square. In Soviet times it passed to the city museum in 1920 and, in 1938–1941, served as an anti-religious museum with a Foucault pendulum; services resumed in 1989, while the building remains under museum care.

Yaroslavl, on the Volga, traditionally traces its founding to Yaroslav the Wise in the early 11th century; its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Getting there

The church is on Sovetskaya Square in central Yaroslavl, about 1 km from the city centre. The nearest airport is Yaroslavl Golden Ring International (IAR), about 17 km away.

Church of Elijah the Prophet in Yaroslavl

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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