Frescos

In 1673 the decoration of the church with frescos was started by
eleven Yaroslavl icon-painters, who painted the domes, vaults and
walls of the main area of the church.

In the central dome Christ is represented with an open Gospel, the
text on the pages of the book reminded the congregation about the
future end of the world and Last Judgement.

The Yaroslavl icon-painters illustrated the life and the
posthumous miracles of the patron of the Russian
merchants St. Nicholas, on the southern and northern walls
of the church.

Nikola Mokry's frescos:

In the 17th century very few of the ordinary people
could read or write, so Russian churches were richly
decorated with frescos depicting the various stories
from the Bible, images of the church's patron saint
and those of pious Russian princes. At Nikola Mokry
we are fortunate to have many very fine examples
of 17th century frescos.

Unfortunately the repair work undertaken between 1979 and 1991 was
not of a quality good enough to preserve and protect either the frescos
or the fabric of the building, the latter is obvious by the images above,
meaning that restoration work must now be started all over again.

We feel that you would agree that these frescos must be preserved for
future generations, and would like to take positive steps in doing so.

If you would like to go to the page marked "Virtual Parishioner" you will
see that we have formulated a way for you to also become a
parishioner of Nikola Mokry, in the hope that you would like to help us in
both this task, and our day to day ministering to our parish's needy.