Description of the attraction
The first church in the old cemetery was built during the Catherine's town planning of Valdai in the 18th century. It was at that time that the cemetery was created, which was previously located on the main square of the city. The new cemetery began to be located outside the city limits, at the end of Pyatnitskaya Street (now Lunacharsky Street). The city authorities monitored the order and improvement of the cemetery, which was surrounded by trees and a fence.
But the first priority was the construction of a cemetery church. To this end, the Valdai bought from the Iversky Monastery an ancient temple in the name of the holy righteous Godfather Joachim and Anna, made of wood, and transported at the end of the 17th century from Valday to the Dark Island. In 1780 the church was returned to Valdai and installed in the city cemetery. She was assigned to the Trinity Cathedral and served its parishioners. For the parishioners of the Vvedensky Church, a brick Peter and Paul Church was erected in the city cemetery through the efforts of the local merchant Vasily Andreyevich Kolobov in 1857-1858. In the plan, it was a cruciform building, covered with a domed roof, with a bell tower.
In the 30s of the XX century, after the closure of the Vvedensky Church, the clergy of the Church of Peter and Paul worked with the parishioners of this church, until the beginning of the Second World War. During the Great Patriotic War, the church did not work due to its closure. At first, the building was used as a dye shop, and in 1943 a military telegraph office was located there. Unfortunately, the iconostasis and all church utensils were lost. Old-timers told that everything was transferred to the wooden church of Joachim and Anna. In 1943, a fire destroyed this church along with all church values and relics. In the same year, the work of the Peter and Paul Church was resumed. The hard work of rebuilding the church went to Father Nikolai Listov. In 1946, at the age of 71, he died and was buried near the temple. The iconostasis for the revived church of Peter and Paul was transported from the destroyed church in the village of Lamerier, which belonged to the Krestetsky district of the Novgorod region. Icons, books and utensils were gradually returned to the temple by the diligence of local residents.
According to the stories of L. P. Maltseva, Father John Preobrazhensky transported books on sledges from the Iverskaya monastery, which was already closed at that time. They were saved and given to the priest by the inhabitants of the island. These were the well-preserved Triodi and Menaia. Lydia Pavlovna Maltseva, who served in the choir for half a century, carefully preserved and tremulously guarded them.
The icons were brought to the church by completely unfamiliar people, and the majority preferred to remain unknown. Many people from the city and the region hid icons and church values in their homes, saving them from destruction. But for these actions, not only they themselves, but also their families could suffer, so everything returned in secret, in the evening. So, for example, according to the stories of old-timers, Ekaterina Ivanovna Borodacheva, who worked in the church for many years as a stoker, cleaner and the main keeper of everything that was in it, brought in the evening the central icon of the temple - the Image of the Iberian Mother of God. Gradually, a lot of unique icons and other church relics have accumulated here.
Many caring and kind people were seen by the only church that survived the hard times. Probably, most of their names will remain unknown to posterity. Currently, the Peter and Paul Church is active.
