Russian-orthodox church in Gifhorn

The Hl.-Nikolaus-Kirche stands on the grounds of the Gifhorn Mill Museum in Lower Saxony. It is a Russian Orthodox church built in the traditional wooden style of central Russia. The building is dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Myra and belongs to the Berlin diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. The church is a faithful copy of the Church of the Transfiguration from the village of Kosljatjewo in the Vladimir Oblast. That original 18th-century building was moved to the Museum of Wooden Architecture in Suzdal in 1965. The idea to recreate it came from Horst Wrobel, founder of the Gifhorn Mill Museum, who arranged the reconstruction between 1994 and 1996. The church was consecrated in 1995 by Patriarch Alexius II of Moscow. In front of the entrance hangs the first post-war bell of Minden Cathedral, cast in 1948 and purchased by Wrobel for the site. Inside, the church rises in stepped tiers topped by golden onion domes and crosses. Its walls hold niches for icons, and the interior displays a small exhibition of liturgical objects. Visitors see icons, oil lamps, candlesticks, vestments, embroideries, baptismal vessels and Bibles arranged along the walls. The atmosphere combines the scent of aged wood with the quiet glow of sacred artefacts.