Peter and Paul Church description and photos - Russia - North-West: Valdai (Topic)

Peter and Paul Church description and photos - Russia - North-West: Valdai. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

The first church in the old cemetery was built during the 18th century Catherine's town planning in Valdai. It was at that time that the cemetery was created, which was previously located in the main square of the city. The new cemetery began to be located outside the city limits, at the end of Pyatnitskaya Street (now Lunacharsky Street). The city authorities monitored the order and improvement of the cemetery, which was surrounded by trees and a fence.

But the first priority was the construction of the cemetery temple. To this end, the Valdai bought from the Iversky Monastery an old temple in the name of the holy righteous Godfather Joachim and Anna, made of wood, and transported at the end of the 17th century from Valday to the Dark Island. In 1780, the church was returned to Valdai and installed in the city cemetery. She was assigned to the Trinity Cathedral and served its parishioners. For the parishioners of the Vvedensky Church, a brick Peter and Paul Church was erected in the city cemetery through the efforts of the local merchant Vasily Andreyevich Kolobov in 1857-1858. In the plan, it was a cruciform building, covered with a domed roof, with a bell tower.

In the 30s of the XX century, after the closure of the Vvedensky Church, the clergy of the Church of Peter worked with the parishioners of this church, until the beginning of World War II and Paul. During the Great Patriotic War, the church did not work due to its closure. At first the building was used as a dye shop, and in 1943 a military telegraph office was located there. Unfortunately, the iconostasis and all church utensils were lost. Old-timers told that everything was transferred to the wooden church of Joachim and Anna. In 1943, a fire destroyed this church, along with all church values and relics. In the same year, the work of the Peter and Paul Church resumed. The hard work of rebuilding the church went to Father Nikolai Listov. In 1946, at the age of 71, he died and was buried near the temple. The iconostasis for the revived church of St. Peter and Paul was transported from the destroyed church in the village of Lamerye, which belonged to the Krestetsky district of the Novgorod region. Icons, books and utensils were gradually returned to the temple by the diligence of local residents.

According to L.P. Maltseva, father John Preobrazhensky transported books on a sled from the Iverskaya monastery, which was already closed at that time. They were saved and given to the priest by the inhabitants of the island. These were the well-preserved Triodi and Menaia. Lydia Pavlovna Maltseva carefully guarded and tremblingly took care of them, who served in the choir for half a century.

The icons were brought to the church by complete strangers, and most of them preferred to remain unknown. Many people from the city and the region hid icons and church values in their homes, saving them from destruction. But for these actions, not only they themselves, but also their families could suffer, so everything returned in secret, in the evening. So, for example, according to the stories of old-timers, Ekaterina Ivanovna Borodacheva, who worked in the church for many years as a stoker, cleaner and the main keeper of everything that was in it, brought in the evening the central icon of the temple - the Image of the Iberian Mother of God. Gradually, a lot of unique icons and other church relics have accumulated here.

Many caring and kind people were seen by the only church that survived the hard times. Probably, most of their names will remain unknown to posterity. Currently, the Peter and Paul Church is active.

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Topic: Peter and Paul Church description and photos - Russia - North-West: Valdai.