Description of the attraction
For a long time in the village called Yazhelbitsy there was a church built of wood. By the beginning of the 19th century, it was extremely dilapidated. In 1803, Emperor Alexander I rode along the St. Petersburg tract and, seeing a dilapidated church, ordered to build here a new church of stone in the name of the holy noble Prince Alexander Nevsky at his own expense. The construction of a new stone church was completed in 1805.
Twenty years later, the parishioners made the first repairs, the plank roof of the temple was replaced with an iron one. Later, in 1836, the western part of the temple was expanded, and a warm church was built there. In connection with this action, the bell tower was dismantled and rebuilt, which made a single whole with the temple and marked its main entrance. The bell tower with a spire reached almost 38 meters in height, its length was 26 meters, and its width was 13 meters. The church had two side-chapels: the north side-chapel - in the name of St. the great martyr Dmitry of Thessaloniki, the southern side-altar - in the name of St. Nicholas of Mirliki. In the 80s of the 19th century, the church was renovated by the efforts of the parishioners, and a new iconostasis was ordered for the north side-altar.
In addition to the village of Yazhelbitsy, the parish of the church included such villages as Knyazhevo, Pestovo, Mironushka, Zagor'e, Sosnitsy, Izhitsy, Varnitsa, Kuvizino, Kuznetsovka, Pochep, Gorushki, Veliky Dvor, Kiselevka and others.
The funds needed to maintain the beauty of the temple came from residents of nearby villages and villages and from donors from other places. Residents of the village of Yazhelbitsy - the Zaitsev brothers Fyodor and Mikhail - donated a shroud, a banner, a carpet and a portable lantern to the temple. A peasant woman living in the village of Kuznetsovka donated fifteen arshins of brocade to the temple. In 1894 St. righteous John of Kronstadt donated deacons and priestly vestments, analogies, veils to the throne to the church of Alexander Nevsky. There were also gifts from Father Nikolai Kondratov, a priest of St. Petersburg Nikolsky Cathedral. The staff of the St. Petersburg Kalinkinskaya hospital also donated gifts, and there were also donations from many others.
In December 1918, all the property of the church was transferred to the parish for safekeeping, from among which about forty commissioners were selected. From the chronicles of the church it is known that in the 1920s and 1930s, parishioners diligently performed their Christian duty, and the need for a church did not diminish.
The next major repairs in the church were carried out in 1929, the church was re-painted by a native of the village. Ivanovskoe, in the Tver province - by Shirshin Vasily Kuzmich. The renovation was carried out at a time of unfriendly attitude towards the church on the part of the Soviet state. In addition, in 1928 in the Yalzhbitskaya district, a lean year turned out to be, and famine began.
The last renovation of the church took place in 1934, the roof was repaired, the winter church and the bell tower were whitewashed. In 1937, the church was abolished and destroyed, the bells were dropped and broken. Some of the eyewitnesses to this devastation even wrote a poem that is still kept in the people's memory.
After its closure, in 1937, the premises were designated as the rural House of Culture. Rallies were often held here, citizens gathered. Since the beginning of the war, Yazhelbitsy was a front-line village, and a firing point was arranged in the church, or rather in its basement. Until now, its loopholes are looking towards the road.
At the initiative of the population of the village of Yazhelbitsy, in 1998, work began in the church on the dismantling of the ruins, the development of project documentation and the collection of funds for the revival of the church in honor of St.blessed prince Alexander Nevsky. The church is active.
