Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Zakharyino Village

The Trinity Church is a monument of late-17th-century Russian architecture, built in stone in 1699. The modest-sized building consists of a cubic main church, a semicircular altar on a rectangular base to the east, a somewhat larger refectory to the west, a low Chapel of the Sign to the north, and a narrow gallery along the south and west sides. All spaces were originally covered with brick vaults. The entrance was from the west, from the village, through a small porch, with cellars beneath the church. The builders skilfully placed the church on the riverbank slope, avoiding the need for a large excavation and giving the building a striking position above the descent to the Volkhov River. An inventory of 1854 records a reconstruction in 1849, when the Chapel of the Sign took its present form; some researchers believe an earlier chapel had already existed there. At the same time the iconostases were completely remade and the refectory removed. The monument suffered badly during the Great Patriotic War: the bell tower and porch disappeared, along with part of the western gallery and the west wall of the refectory.