Description of the attraction
The Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God was built in the village of Runovo, Pskov region, in 1774 at the expense of the famous landowners Ushakov Grigory Mikhailovich and Achkasov Nikifor Fedorovich. An interesting legend has come down to our time regarding the construction of the temple. At one time, a monastery was located on one of the shores of Lake Nassi, which was badly ravaged during the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 18th century. According to the testimony of the local historian Peter Lukich Smirnov, the Nestetsky monastery appeared a very long time before the reign of Peter the Great and was founded as an "outpost" of the Orthodox religion on the border with Lithuania. This monastery was inhabited by three monks, whose cells were located on the Lithuanian side, about half a verst from the border. Until now, this area is called "Popovshchina". After the monastery was closed in 1764, there was only one old man living out his day. During these times, a miracle happened: one of the monastic icons somehow crossed to the other side - then it was decided to build a church on that place.
Initially, the temple was built of wood and had three thrones: the Wonderworker Nicholas, the Intercession and the unmercenaries Damian and Kozma. The thrones were cold. In the 20s of the 19th century, the church parable consisted of four people: a deacon, a priest and two clergy. Soon, in 1829, the deacon was removed. In 1877, not far from the Intercession Church, a zemstvo school was opened, the building of which has survived to the present day.
In 1884, the construction of a new stone church was completed in the place where the old one had previously been located. Funds for the erection of the temple were collected from private benefactors in relation to church funds. The church had three thrones, the main of which was the throne of the Intercession, the right one in the name of Damian and Kozma, and the left one in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The consecration of the thrones took place on June 12, 1895.
The architectural side of the Intercession Church is represented by a mixture of different styles, presented from pseudo-Russian to early Art Nouveau, which is characterized by the incompleteness and inconsistency of the entire composition of the building. It is believed that the builder of the Intercession Church appropriated part of the funds intended for the construction of the temple, which is why the temple is inherently "unfinished". With the proceeds, he built a spacious house for himself in his native village.
Among the local parishioners, the icon of the Miracle Worker and St. Nicholas was especially revered, which was richly covered with a donated silver robe. This icon was once transferred to the Intercession Church from a wooden church built in 1774. Another, no less revered shrine, was the icon of the Kiev-Pechersk Mother of God, which was painted in 1774 by an icon painter named John Terentyev. The icon was moved from the abolished church to a new church in 1899. The decoration of the icon was made with a foil vest, generously donated by the widow-peasant Anastasia Isidorova.
The bell tower of the Church of the Intercession was built of bricks and had a connection with the church. Five bells hung from the bell tower, the most massive of which was the bell, weighing 31 poods and 28 pounds; it bore an inscription that it was cast on October 17, 1888 and made at the expense of a priest named Mikhail Yeletsky. The weight of the second bell was 16 pounds and 3 pounds, the third - 5 pounds 39 pounds, and the rest weighed 15 pounds. The construction of the bells was carried out at the expense of some benefactors: Zazersky Mikhail, Ioann Fadeev and numerous parishioners. There was a cemetery next to the Intercession Church.
At the end of 1885, a parish guardianship was opened at the church, and since 1887 it has been collecting funds for the repair of the wooden church. There was no almshouse and no hospital at the temple. In 1872, a zemstvo school was opened, in which 46 girls and 98 boys studied during 1910.
The temple is currently not operational.
