Belfry of Alexander Nevski

Belfry of Alexander Nevsky (1876-77) was built with the money of merchant F. P. Girbasov on the place of former Cathedral of the Saviour. It is a small centric building with bevelled corners. Raised on basement, the belfry is crowned with a roof on light barrel. Lifts of wide sides emphasize the proportions of the building. Brick facades are in “Russian-Byzantine style”. They are crowned by corbel arches, paddle archivolts, arcature panels.

Information: Alexander Nevsky is the saint most Orthodox Prince, son of Yaroslav II. He was born on May 30, 1220; in 1236 he got the independent principality Novgorodskoie. On May 15, 1241 he conquered Swedes on the banks of Neva, this victory gave him the name Nevsky. In April 1242 Alexander Nevsky crushed the Livonians on Chudskoe Lake. Alexander Nevsky died on November 14, 1263 “having worked a lot for Russian land”.

"Historic dictionary about saint orthodoxies in Russian church and about some ascetics of piety, locally honoured”, published in St. Petersburg in 1862 tells us that "once at night, in principality of Dmitry Donskiy, candles inflamed in the church where the body of Alexander lied, and two old men came out of the altar, drew near his coffin and said: “Alexander! Get up and save your great grandson Dimitry who is overpowered by foreign tribes!" Alexander rose up from the coffin and disappeared with them. A sexton saw this miracle and told about it to church leaders; they dig out the undecayed relics of Nevsky and put them into a shrine. Sick people touched them with faith and got he ling, and devout archimandrite Evphrosin saw as the candle at Alexander’s coffin inflamed of fire of heaven ".