Description of the attraction
The Church of the Epiphany is located in the village of Podoklinye, Porkhovsky district. Throughout the 19th century, the village of Podoklinye belonged to the landowners Borozdina and Tutolmin and was related to the Beshkovitskaya fortress. The church located in these places was built in 1861 on the site of a previously existing wooden dilapidated church, which was built in 1778 with the active work of the landowner Kreshkin. The Epiphany Church stands right next to the Porkhov-Zagoska road on a flat area surrounded by trees.
The church is a one-apse, pillarless and five-domed temple, at the heart of the planning structure of which there is a pronounced cross with rectangular ends. The main volume of the temple stretches from south to north. The central part is a quadruple cross raised above the volumes of the ends. An altar adjoins the eastern side, and a three-tiered bell tower on the western side. The light drum is octahedral with small window openings, which are located on all cardinal points, as well as a small bulbous head. At the corners of the quadrangle are all four octahedral decorative drums together with onion-shaped domes. The final volumes of the cross are each covered by a couple of slopes with the help of box vaults equipped with stripping. There are two window openings in the altar part: one on the north side, the other on the south side. In the main volume of the temple of the northern and southern walls there are two arched paired openings, and above it there is a round window opening. There is one window in the vestibule of the north and south walls. Window openings of the apse part, window openings of the vestibule itself, niches, the existing painting on the eastern wall - all of them are equipped with profiled platbands. The supporting arches are also decorated with the help of profiled frames.
The lower first tier of the church bell tower has three rooms: the central one, which is covered with a baptismal vault, and two side rooms. The overlap of the southern tent was made with a box vault. In the room located on the north side, there is a staircase that leads directly to the choir, as well as another ringing tier.
The decorative design of the facades is made in the same way on the southern, eastern and northern sides: there are two blades on the sides, which are connected to each other by means of arcature belts, repeating the pliers covering. The paired window openings have a large round window above them, located in a recess above the arch of the niche itself, which has a sandrick resembling a keeled shape. The window openings of the apse and the vestibule are equipped with arched lintels, as well as sandrids of a similar shape. Arcature belts run under the cornices of all four facades. Narrow arched openings of the drum have arched sandrids. At the very base of the drum there is an octahedral stepped pedestal, decorated with a stucco belt, which consists of edging. The facade design of the first tier of the bell tower is the same as for other facades. The arched doorway of the portal is decorated with a keeled arch and pilasters. The facades of the second tier of the bell tower have pilasters equipped with deepened panels, and on the northern and southern facades there are round window openings decorated with profiled platbands. The completion of the volume of the upper tier is made in the form of an entablature with a carved cornice. The third tier is octahedral and equipped with four bell apertures, which are located on all four cardinal points; here are also arched openings with small weights, and on the sides of the openings themselves there are pilasters.
The building of the Church of the Epiphany of the Lord has a significantly protruding basement and is made of slabs and bricks. The interior of the church, dating back to the 19th century, has been preserved in a fairly good condition. The iconostasis is presented as a two-tiered one and is originally decorated with masterly carving.
A distinctive feature of the temple was the icon of Our Lady of Otrada, which was brought to the church from Athos in 1861. Not far from the temple, old graves are still preserved, including the famous landowner D. G. Tutolmina.
