Description of the attraction
The Church of the Archangel Michael is located in one of the most ancient places of the Pskov land, namely in the village of Vyshegorod, which is fraught with a huge number of legends. The church is a unique architectural monument of its time.
The temple was built with the money of Major General Bibikov in the second half of the 19th century. According to legend, Bibikov's daughter was very seriously ill. The loving father promised himself that if his daughter recovered, he would definitely build a new temple, and a miracle happened. Bibikov chose the location of the temple according to his prophetic dream.
The construction of the temple of Michael the Archangel lasted for ten years, during which a strict ban was imposed on the consumption of eggs, because the solution for the construction was mixed with the help of egg white. It is known that in the basement of the temple there is a burial of the ashes of General Bibikov. Local residents said that the body was placed in the coffin along with a golden sword. Throughout the hard years, someone dared to open the coffin, but found nothing. The general's ashes were dumped in the area of the mountain, but the slab is still in its original place.
The Church of the Archangel Michael withstood the years of the Great Patriotic War. It is known that the Germans were going to blow up the temple, but they could not: at the entrance to the temple, the face of Michael the Archangel with a golden censer appeared, which became salvation for the majestic church.
The temple building is set on a high platform, on a mountain, at a distance of a kilometer from the village and actively dominates the picturesque lake landscape. The main difference between the temple and all the others is that the correct classical orientation along the west-east axis is somewhat violated, and the structure is oriented along the north-south axis, which explains the original solution of the decor. The temple was built of bricks, which made it possible to highlight the characteristic decorative details. The plinth was lined with concrete plaster, and the church porch was built of gray granite. The general plan of the church is closest to the shape of a cross and consists of a fairly massive octagon on a quadrangle. The entrance to the temple from the west is decorated with wide granite ramp stairs, as well as a square porch, which ends with a drum equipped with a dome. The ramps are made of granite, which slightly rounds off their large shape.
The octagon of the temple is luminous, and it is crowned with a hipped roof with a small dome and a cross. In place of the refectory room in the church there is a north side-altar, consecrated in honor of John the Baptist, which is a domed church, which is decorated on the outside with triangular light projections, which have ends in the form of tongs with a pair of zakomarny ends.
The facades are divided into two groups according to the nature of the decoration - this is a low and high relief, which is made by means of brickwork. The decorative design of the lower tier of the quadrangle is decorated with horizontal rustication in several rows. Window openings are wide and have arched ends. As for the walls of the second tier, they are decorated with a wide variety of belts, curbs, cornice rods, shallow niches, as well as images of crosses. The light drum has piers, which are processed with flat pilasters, and the window openings are arched and decorated with decor. The tent dome is decorated with a kokoshnik and a cross with an apple.
The church has a three-tiered bell tower with large passage gates located on the first tier, which are decorated with pilasters-pillars and elongated weights. The most elegant is the second tier, cut in the corners with rounded pilasters and having Gothic arched shapes. The third tier is an octagon of bells and has four spans, while the piers are decorated with niches and end with tongs. The bell tower was completed with a helmet dome.
Not only the iconostasis, but all church utensils date back to the late 19th century and rest on the basement floor.
The Church of Michael the Archangel is unique in that it has been completely preserved for 130 years and today you can see the original structure. The temple building has never been rebuilt, only renovated in 1915.
