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We receive many calls and letters from priests and architects. This year we got over 70 requests. We were asked to pay attention to, to help to save or to restore one or the other village church - architectural monument. The best way to gain an insight into our work is to follow us on our trips.
Razdestveno Village (Tver region, Kalinin district).
The Church of Christ's Nativity (1790)
| Rozdestveno is a large village halfway between Tver and Kimry; it boasts of a church built in the XVIII century. However, it had its refectory rebuilt in the XIX century. The main church building, in spite of its ruined roof, is well preserved. The huge refectory is barely standing - it can scarcely be restored. The buildings of the XIX century are not as sound as those of the XVIII.
There is a plaque in front of the moribund church listing 28 surnames of villagers who died in the Great Patriotic war, 1941-1945.
Perhaps surprisingly in what was an atheistic state, monuments to dead peasants and Russian infantry are located near most village churches all over the country.
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| July, 2004 |
The Krasniy Bor village (Kalinin district, Tver region).
The Church of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God (the XIX century).
The Krasniy Bor village and the church are located on the shore of the river Tverets to the north of Tver city. There is a country graveyard around the church.
The inhabitant of the neighboring village of Kulistkoye, Tatyana Anatoliyevna does everything within her powers to rescue the church. She and her husband alone, with her family's financial resources, cleared the church of the remains of agricultural engineering that used to be stored there. The church is clean now, but the dome needs to be reconstructed, the walls need repairing, the window frames and doors need to be put into place. A considerable amount of money is required to do all these things, and the family can not afford it. Their letter to the governor of the Tver region was transmitted directly to us. We made all necessary estimations, we made a budget. The next step is to find contributors.
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Village Sadykovo (Kalinin district, Tver region)
The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (the XIX century).
The church of Sadykovo village stands on high ground among the broad lands.
The Church is well preserved. Even the brick wall around the church is kept in good condition. Time and the lack of necessary repairs have resulted in problems. The refectory roof is ruined and it is necessary to reconstruct the dome of the church building. Also requiring work are the cornices, the roof and repairs are needed for the window frames that need to be re-glazed. The brick wall around the church is also in need of urgent restoration. Due to the lack of attention over the last 15 years the graveyard is running out of space and is approaching the walls and the church porch. The parish still uses the church for celebrations and prayer services on holidays, while the church continues to ruin.
On the approach to the church, in front of the wall in the meadow is a modest traditional obelisk entitled: "They died or were reported missing in the years of the Great Patriotic War". There are tombstones with the names of 135 villagers including women and children.
These were the people who waited in the rear of the battlefront, starving, surviving, working and waiting for relatives to return from the front.
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| 2005 |
Our trips 2005
Village of Starikovo (Taldom district, Moscow region).
The church of Kazanskaya Icon of the Mother of God (the XIX century).
On the 16th of April on the second day of Easter, at around 4:00 p.m. the rotunda of the main church building collapsed. After the collapse, the pile of debris within the building extended upward to the level of the damaged cube. The people who had begun working to beautify the church in 1999 were shocked.
After the collapse, they began to clear the debris from the sanctuary. They boarded up the windows and doors of the church using wood salvaged from the saw-mill.
In 2002 the sanctuary part was restored. Then it was transformed into a chapel.
For the clearing of the debris, volunteer events were organized and various people offered help. The biggest contribution was made by Anna Gorbunova and her two sons. Polina and Andry, a young couple from Moscow, visited three times. When they saw the ruined church, they entered it and offered assistance.
The wooden part of the chapel was attached to the sanctuary inside the church. Window frames were taken from the nearby church and installed. Services are still being conducted in the chapel; local residents and summer visitors worship here.
When we arrived in Starikovo we met Anna Gorbunova. She opened the church building for us. On the doors of the church were the words: "The church is guarded by the people's conscience". Once inside the church we found debris from the rotunda buried under fresh snow. The church was open to the blue sky. The entrance to the chapel was on the right.
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The church was closed in 1937. The priest, father Fyodor Dorofeev, was shot on December, 10th, 1937 and buried in the mass grave in Butovo training grounds near Moscow.
Father Fyodor was frank and truthful. He was the parish teacher, the doctor, the agronomist and the farmer. He could do anything: plough, mow and sow flax. According to his son's recollection, when father Fyodor was arrested, they were living in the lodge not far from the church building.
Today when one visits the site of the former lodge they will find a lilac bush growing. This is the spot where Father Fyodor prayed before his last arrest.
In august 2000 he was canonized together with the other martyr-saints.
The ruins of the district school of Pre-Revolutionary Russia can be found opposite the church. During the war the military hospital was situated there. Near the church is the common grave of those who died from wounds
The appeals of the parish for donations have been unsuccessful. However, the people who are working to save the church are still hopeful for funding.
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Romanovo village, Kalinin district, Tver region.
The Church of Holy Trinity (the XVIII century),
In March, the Church of Russia was introduced to a person named Yury Leonidovich, who wished to restore the church in the village Romanovo near Tver.
Yury Leonidovich turned out to be a younger person then we expected and also a carpenter.
His great-grandfather Chekalov Vladimir Leonidovich (now the martyr saint Vladimir) served at the church of Romanovo village.
In 1937, according to Yura's grandmother (Vladimir's daughter), Vladimir was arrested and was told to abjure his faith in God and his obligation to the Church. Father Vladimir answered, "By the name of our God I will face the martyrs!"
He was shot two days later. In 2000 he was canonized as a martyr saint.
Yura now wishes to restore the church, in the memory of his great-grandfather.
The carpenter, sadly, is low on funds. His only means of help are relatives that live in neighboring villages and God.
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The village appeared to be very cozy, remaining picturesque because of the absence of tasteless modern buildings.
The Church: very beautiful and old. It was built with the funds of the village proprietors (landowners Semenovs) in 1768. In the second half of the XIX century the refectory was extended to the south.
The Church of Holy Trinity in the village of Romanovo - is an architectural monument of federal importance. The Registration Certificate of the State Inspectorate of the Protection of Monuments of History & Culture says that "It's quite a well preserved example of baroque architecture, of unique artistic forms due to local, rather provincial construction." |
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The Church of Holy Trinity | Yury - great-grandson of
father Vladimir Chekalov |
—————— Letters for us - 2007 |
| The Church (Temple) of The Virgin Mary, situated in the village Nijnee Kuloe, Verhovajskiy district of Vologodskiy region (former Velskiy district).
In the archives of the Vologodkaya Orthodox constituency, the 1902 Register says the following of the Church of The Virgin Mary near the river Kuloe in the Velskiy district:
This Church, (both hot and cold), was constructed in 1801 - 1826 by the efforts of the parishioners in place of two wooden ones.
The building of the church is made of stone, has two floors and is adjoined to the bell tower, with the heated bottom floor and the cold top one. There are no dilapidations or damages.
The church has four altars: one in the cold part, named after The Virgin Mary, sanctified on the 18th of September 1837 and once again on the 30th of September 1867 following the fire of 1863. In the lower church the three altars are: at the front - named after St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, bishop of Mira in Lycia, sanctified on the 30th of September 1818, on the right - named after God's prophet Ilia, sanctified on the 30th of September 1817. And on the left - named after Athanasius the Great (of Aleksandria), sanctified on the 30th of September 1816.
Regrettably, most of the former beauty of the temple has been lost, since it, similarly to most other churches of the Verhovajskiy district, failed to avoid the destructions of the 30s in the XXth century. It was used as a store for linen and since the 50s - as a tractor station.
At present there remains only one photographic copy of the original look of the church. As a result thorough inspection, development of a restoration project and reconstruction is required.
In 1998 the local administration established a charity fund for the temple's restoration. The money raised has allowed to make partial repairs inside the church. However, further restorative work requires significant resources, so the administration of the village Nijnee Kuloe asks all those who may be concerned to donate as much as they could.
By doing so you could contribute to the revival of Orthodox Christian traditions.
Sokolskiy department ¹ 4078 (auxiliary office ¹ 4078 (076) in village Verhovajye, Petuhova str. 6, ÁÈÊ 041909644 ÈÍÍ 7707083893 number 30101810900000000644 Vologodskoe section ¹ 8638, Vologda.
Account Number ¹ 40703810912050100076 (in Russian rubles).
Recipient: Parish Church of The Virgin Mary, Nijnee Kuloe village,
ÈÍÍ 3505002206 ÊÏÏ 350501001.
Donations are also accepted by the administration of Nijnee Kuloe village by special notification.
We would be very grateful for any help you may offer us.
God bless you!
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| The past | the present |
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