Church of St. Peter the Metropolitan (Pereslavl-Zalessky)
Krasnaya Square, Pereslavl-Zalessky.
Church of St. Peter the Metropolitan (tented-roof, 1584). The Church of St. Peter the Metropolitan is situated in the historic centre of the town of Pereslavl, 250 meters south-east of the ancient Cathedral of the Saviour's Transfiguration.
This church is the town's most beautiful architectural structure. It has a cross plan and features a podklet (the Russian ground floor or semi-basement floor); the Church's distinctive feature is the absence of protruding apses. Its slim lobed tented roof is surrounded on three sides by a two-storey open gallery.
According to a legend, a wooden church of the same name was built here in the late 14th century or the early 15th century, on the site of the 1310 trial of St. Peter the Metropolitan who was accused by Tver princes of selling priest positions. During the Pereslavl Assembly, thanks to grand princes of Moscow, the metropolitan was acquitted. It is believed that the wooden church was built after the Metropolitan's holy relics were discovered (1360), using the funds of Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy, in acknowledgement of the spiritual help provided by St. Peter the Holy Hierarch to then-fledgling Moscow.
The Church of St. Peter the Metropolitan was rebuilt in stone (of brick, using oak bracing) in 1584 using the funds of Ivan the Terrible. Such an expensive project during an economic crisis had apparently something to do with redeeming the tsar's sin, following the tragic death of Prince Ivan, the tsar's son. The patriarch's tax books mention the Church of St. Peter the Metropolitan for the first time in 1654 when it was paying 2 altyns in tax and 1 grivna in road toll.
Up to 1781, it was funded by the state. It is notable that the Church's cellar was used to store ammunition for the Pereslavl garrison and as a prison for state criminals.
In the late 18th century, a heated church was set up in the building's podklet.
In the 19th century, a bell tower was added to the Church, instead of the old belfry. At that time, the Church's parish was over 300 people strong. In the late 19th century, the Church was restored by Academician Vladimir Suslov, a famous expert on Ancient Russian architecture. In 1940, the Church of St. Peter the Metropolitan was still managed by the society of believers. Some years later, it was shut down to be used as a warehouse.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Yaroslavl Scientific Restoration Workshop reconstructed the ancient form of the roof and the original forms of the window openings, partially reinforced the masonry of the walls and discovered ancient arches under the thick layer of plaster. The Church of St. Peter the Metropolitan has survived to this day, now being a monument of state importance.
This superb church is one of the last monuments of the "classical" period of Ancient Russian architecture. At present, the Church is managed by the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Church of St. Michael the Archangel was founded in the first days of the Principality of Yroslavl. The Church was first mentioned in a book of the lives of Dukes Vasily and Konstantin of Yaroslavl, compiled by the monk Pachomius around 1530: "In the year 6723 (1215), in his lesser town of Yaroslavl, in his court, Grand Prince Konstantin Vsevolo...