Description of the attraction
The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Rozhdestveno is the third temple built on this site on the banks of the Oredezh.
The first mentions of settlements in these places date back to 1499. At that time, the Nikolsko-Greznevsky pogost and the “Velika Nikola” church were located here. This temple was destroyed in 1583-1590 - the period of the first Swedish occupation. But, according to legend, this church went underground in one night, when the Swedes approached the shores of Oredezh in the Time of Troubles. This legend has a certain basis, since there are actually karst voids in Rozhdestveno, and the temple could easily have gone underground.
After the victory in the Northern War, Peter I presented these lands to the heir to the royal throne, Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich. By order of Tsarevich Alexei in 1713, in the bend of Oredezh, the construction of a wooden church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos began in the place where the old cemetery is now located. On September 24, 1713, the temple was consecrated.
The bell of the 1588 casting was installed on the belfry of the temple. Services were held in this church until 1785, when a new church in the name of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos was built in the center of the village. Since then, the temple has served as a chapel.
After the death of Tsarevich Alexei, the village passed to the nieces of Peter I, and then, in 1733, these lands were transferred to the Palace Prikaz. In the period from 1780 to 1797. by the decree of Catherine II, the village of Rozhdestveno was a district town. It was at that time that stone buildings appeared here, such as the gostiny dvor, the district school, public offices, as well as a new church. But by Emperor Paul I the town of Rozhdestveno was abolished, and the village of Rozhdestveno with all the lands was granted to the hereditary possession of N. E. Efremov, court counselor. Under him, the manor complex of the village was formed.
A new Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos was erected in the middle of the village on the site of the present temple, and its consecration took place in 1785. But the elegant green church with a red roof did not last long. In September 1837, a large fire broke out in the center of the village, which destroyed the temple as well.
The construction of a new, third in a row, stone church began only in 1867 during the reign of Alexander III, who "was sensitive to everything Russian." The appearance of the temple was dominated by features of the Byzantine style. The construction of the temple was supervised by the synodal architect Ivan Iudovich Bulanov. On September 9, 1883, the newly built church was consecrated. Finishing work was carried out until 1886.
In the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary there are three thrones: the main one - the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - at the corners with columns, made of white marble; the southern side-altar - in honor of the holy prince Alexander Nevsky; the north side-altar is in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The church has a three-tiered iconostasis. Next to the temple there is a marble tomb of the family of the benefactor of the temple I. V. Rukavishnikov.
From the moment of its construction, the temple operated until 1936. Then the temple was closed. During the German occupation in 1941, at the request of local residents, the Germans in the village of Rozhdestveno allowed the church to be opened. Divine services began in the Church of the Nativity. Since that time, the parish life here did not stop, despite the fact that in the "Khrushchev" times, in the 1960s, there was a quite tangible threat of the church being closed.
In 1988, on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus, the Nativity Church underwent a major overhaul. And to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the village of Rozhdestveno, new crosses were installed on the church.
