Description of the attraction
In 1540, a wooden church, named after the Forty Martyrs, was moved from the famous Pskov-Pechersk Monastery to the city of Pechora. We have heard that by the end of the 18th century the church had become very dilapidated, which is why in 1778 a decision was unanimously adopted to start building a new, only stone church in the name of the Forty Martyrs. After a long time, in 1817, a new church was erected, but it did not have a bell tower. The church bell tower was erected only in 1860.
The Feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebastia dates back to the 4th century. At this time, according to the church chronicle, the troops of Saint Constantine were preparing for war, and his co-ruler Licinius decided to clear the army of Christians belonging to him. Then in 320, not far from the Armenian town of Sevastia, a large squad was executed, consisting of forty Cappadocians who professed Christianity. They took off their clothes in the severe frost and took them to the icy lake and, in order to finally break them, a bathhouse was melted near the shore. One warrior could not stand the pressure and rushed to the bathhouse, but right in front of her he fell down dead. At night, the ice melted and the water became warm; bright circles appeared over the heads of all the soldiers, and the guard guarding them believed in God and joined them. In the morning, all the martyrs survived. Then the guards took them out of the water and brutally broke their legs. After the execution, the bodies of forty martyrs were burnt. In honor of the great courage and fortitude of the victims, it was decided to build a temple.
The Forty Martyrs Church is located in the southwestern part of the Pechora Fortress on a small square that was formed near the main entrance to this fortress, namely between the fortress and the Temple of Barbara.
In the architectural sense, the church is an octagon on a quadrangle, as well as a pronounced longitudinal-axial structure. The main volume of the temple bears an octagon along with a decorative drum and cupola; it is also adjoined by an apse half-cylinder, and from the western part - a rectangular refectory room and a pillar-like three-tiered bell tower. All transverse cross ends are slightly shortened and rounded.
The decoration of the church is very modest: the facades of the main volume, the refectory, the apse and the bell tower are decorated with planar processing using the pilasters of the order system. On the very top of the walls there is a profiled cornice. All window openings of the vestibule and the quadrangle are equipped with bow platbands and lintels in the form of plane frames, which clearly repeat the shape of the windows. The octagonal windows also have arched lintels, and lobed sandriks are located above them. The decorative drum ends with a hemispherical head, which is beautifully crowned with an apple and a cross. The dome of the bell tower is octahedral and ends with a thin spire with a metal cross and an apple. The church quadruple has four pillars, and the pillars are square and offset in pairs to the southern and northern parts.
The interior overlap was made quite difficult: the pillars support the supporting arches, which, like the western and eastern arches, bear the octagonal walls, as well as the ceiling vaults and the sail vaults of the lateral sides of the main volume. The overlap of an octagon with six window openings was made with the help of an octagonal closed vault. Above the door to the west wall are the choir stalls, perched on a creeping vault, and a pair of wooden staircases lead to them. The apse located in the central part is blocked by the so-called conch; above the altar there is a box vault and small apse-box vaults. The refectory room is covered with a half-tray vault, which has formwork directly above the window openings. There are flat ceilings between the tiers of the bell tower. Next to the northern tier, there is a staircase that leads directly to the ringing tier.
The entire building of the Forty Martyrs Church was made of bricks, after which the building was plastered and whitewashed. Unfortunately, the interior decoration of the old church has not survived; it is mainly represented by the decorative design of the 19th century.
