Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

A red-brick church with five domes and a free-standing bell tower above the bank of the Teza, part of the Dunilovo church ensemble. The church was built in 1821 on the site of a stone chapel of 1654, which had been put up in memory of the village's deliverance from a pestilence; until the very closure of the church the parish's holy relic was the venerated cross set up in gratitude for that deliverance. In the 1860s and 1870s the church was rebuilt with money from the Balin merchants: in 1867 a bell tower rose on the western side, and in 1871 the yard was enclosed with a stone fence with iron grilles. The building stands by the old market square around which the village took shape, so it is visible as soon as you arrive. The restoration is unfinished: the brickwork is exposed in places, the walls are without plaster and the openings are fitted with plain frames. Next to it stands an older summer church of the same parish - the Church of the Intercession, built with Lopukhin money - and beside it the winter Church of All Saints, added in the 1740s. Together they form one of the three church complexes of Dunilovo, standing almost within sight of one another.

On the map