Description of the attraction
Judging by the defining structures, architectural forms, as well as archival data, the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin was built at the beginning of the 18th century. The newly built stone church replaced the old church, cut from wood, at the Maiden's Rozhdestvensky Monastery, the first mention of which was written in the Pskov scribal books dating from 1585-1587. In 1764, the monastery inventory was carried out, and it was at this time that the monastery was abolished, and the church itself was turned into an ordinary parish church; there is also a description of it. The new church, built of stone, was covered with a plank, had a head covered with scales, with a cross made of wood, and a stone bell tower, on which there were four medium-sized bells. Since the beginning of the 19th century, clerical records mention the side-chapel of the Intercession of the Virgin.
The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin is located in the southeast side of the fortress, it is located on a previously existing settlement, in the very lowland, on a slightly raised platform. The main cube volume with a decorative drum and a head, skillfully decorated with stars, is adjoined on the east side by a semi-cylindrical apse, slightly shifted to the south, and on the west there is a vestibule, a porch with a pair of pillars standing on pedestals and supporting an arch; on the south side there is a side-by-side church with a refectory room. The belfry is two-span and has pillars rounded in the central part. It stands in the northern part of the vestibule and closely adjoins its end to the corner of the quadrangle located in the northwestern part, which continues the wall.
The decorative design of the facades is done very modestly: in all corners of the quadrangle, the side facades are decorated in the form of blades, which in the upper part are connected to each other, forming a frame. The side walls are decorated with stone embedded crosses, which are painted black on the western and eastern façades. Church windows have a semicircular shape with frames in the form of frames. An iron hipped roof with a large overhang covers the quadrangle. The completion of the decorative drum is made with a bulbous head, brightly decorated with stars and topped with a small drum with a head that supports the apple and the cross. In the adjoining church above the altar there is a decorative drum with a head and false windows. Profiled wooden cornices are located under the roofs.
The church quadrangle is pillarless and is covered with a closed vault, which is illuminated by large semicircular windows, and the altar is covered with a conch, which has striking over the window located in the center of the apse part. An altar with a window opening is located in a niche in the northwestern part of the quadrangle. The eastern wall of the quadrangle is equipped with three arched openings, one of which is large in the very center. The church iconostasis is adjacent to the same wall, and in the northern part there is a semicircular window, above which there is a stripping vault, indicating that an even more ancient window existed earlier in this place. On the second tier in the southern wall there is a window opening with very deep slopes, and above it there is a small stripping vault. An arched arch is located next to the doorway that leads to the south aisle. The western wall has one window with a stripping above it and deep internal slopes; under it is a vast arched opening.
The church vestibule has an overlap in the form of a corrugated vault with stripping over the doorways that lead to the south aisle, the porch and the quadrangle. In the wall on the north side there is a window opening with a metal lattice and a flat lintel. The side-altar on the south side is covered with a corrugated vault, which rests on the southern walls of the quadrangle and the side-altar. Its western part is separated by a bulbous arch. The porch adjoining the vestibule is covered with a semicircular vault. There are two pillars on the pedestals that support the arch. There is a roof between the gate and the porch, which forms a canopy. The church itself is plastered and whitewashed. Now the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin is operating, and it houses a Sunday school.
