Dubovy Park Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists

Built in 1886. In 1867, with the help of believers, a temporary church of St. Nicholas was built from adobe brick, which served the parishioners for almost twenty years. In 1886, thanks to the funds raised and donations from the merchant N.I. Ivanov, a stone cathedral was erected in the same place in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The three-dimensional layout of the church is simple. A square-shaped base on a high foundation with smooth load-bearing wall planes, plastered with a wide horizontal rustication. Straight cornice rods along the top of the walls, for better perception, are reinforced with wavy brick overlaps. The small vestibule is enlarged by a wooden covered porch topped with a massive order cross. The hipped roof of the church ends with a quadruple drum with rectangles of skylights (three in each direction). The octagon of the dome ends with a bow with a cross. Separate from the church there was a wooden belfry with seven bells and a gatehouse. The temple was partially destroyed and since 1935 it housed the Kyrgyz Art Gallery and later the exhibition hall of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Exhibition hall of the Union of Artists. The building was built in 1886 as a cathedral in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (St. Nicholas Church). The church was closed, rebuilt and transferred to the Kyrgyz State Art Gallery, which was opened here in 1935. Since 1944, after the formation of the Museum of Fine Arts and its location on Pervomaiskaya Street in the former building of the Agricultural Bank, and then since 1974 in the new museum building, the Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists has been operating in this room and thematic exhibitions have been organized.

The former St Nicholas Church building continues to serve cultural purposes in modern Bishkek as the Dubovy Park Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists of the Kyrgyz Republic. Bishkek City Hall lists the hall among the city’s active museums and exhibition venues, while the Museum Bishkek guide traces the transformation of the church into an art gallery and later an exhibition hall. The building stands in the present Chyngyz Aitmatov Park, traditionally known as Oak Park. Its current use preserves the long cultural history of the site, although the architecture has been substantially altered since the Pishpek church period.