> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://theparnassian.com/en/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Art must bring happiness and joy, or it is worth nothing
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/iskusstvo-dolzhno-davat-schaste-i-radost-inache-ono-nichego-ne-stoit/
- Published: 2026-02-23T07:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:26:54.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Architecture, Faith, Art, Heritage, People

The Church of the Holy Trinity on the bank of the Oka, in the village of Bekhovo, was created in 1904–1906 by Vasily Polenov himself, who drew on the forms of Romanesque and Byzantine building and of the architecture of the Russian North.

But the church suffered badly in the Great Patriotic War and had been officially closed for worship since 1938.

> On this day in 1985 \[27 September\] the Bekhovo Church was opened once more. I remember how Fyodor Dmitrievich Polenov deliberately timed the celebration to coincide with a church feast. The night before, we took down the ship's bell and hung it in the bell tower. And when Fyodor Dmitrievich cut the ribbon, the blacksmith struck the bell.

The church was built on the site of an old wooden one burnt down by a lightning strike, chiefly at the request of the local peasants, and was consecrated in 1907.

> Our Bekhovo church is a dream of mine of long standing... I wanted to do something tangible, something useful for our peasant neighbours.

> Relations with the peasants have never been as good as they are now... close, sincere and, in the true sense of the word, comradely

The interior of the church was decorated by Polenov's friends and pupils: Ilya Repin, Alexander Golovin, Maria Yakunchikova and Elena Polenova. Here, in the Bekhovo cemetery, Vasily Polenov is buried, in accordance with his will:

> The death of a man who has lived out his life is a natural law... I ask to be buried in Bekhovo, in the common cemetery, in a plain pine coffin