Tolchkovo

a former sloboda (tax-exempt settlement) in Yaroslavl, known as the site of the Church of St. John the Precursor (1671–87), a monument of Russian architecture of the 17th-century Yaroslavl school. The four-pillared, five-domed church has wide parvises on three sides and two symmetrical five-domed side chapels on the east side. The chapels are as tall as the cornice of the main structure and thus, together with the main church’s east side, form a monumental, wall-like composition with a laconic silhouette. The exterior of the church is elaborately decorated with ornamental brickwork, tiles, and painting. The church’s interior frescoes were painted in 1695 by Yaroslavl masters working under D. G. Plekhanov and F. Ignat’ev.