Description of the attraction
At the entrance to the village called Zhabory, on the plain, which is surrounded on all sides by forest, is the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin. There is a cemetery surrounded by a stone fence around the church. The Uza River flows near the village. Next to the church is the family tomb of the founder of this church. The church was erected in 1792 by Fyodor Mikhailovich Lavrov, the leader of the Porkhov district nobility. In October 1794, the church was consecrated.
The style of construction is early classicism. In the lower part, the building is rectangular, elongated along the east-west line, in the upper part it is cruciform, completed with a decorative drum with eight sides.
The internal volume is divided into separate rooms. In the walls on the north and south sides there are windows in two lights, they are placed in vertical niches with lintels in the form of arches. In the wall on the west side there is an arched doorway that leads to the vestibule, a niche and an arched doorway - on the sides, from the south and north of the vestibule, there are two tents. The tents and the vestibule are covered with corrugated vaults with stripping frames located above the doorways. In the wall of the main volume on the east side there is a high arched opening that leads to the pre-altar room. The main part of the pre-altar room is covered with a groin vault resting on supporting arches, of which there are four. In the south wall there are a pair of window openings, in the north - a window and a doorway.
The central parts of the northern and southern facades are decorated with horizontal rustications, the second light tier is profiled with a traction, an entablature with a pediment crowns these parts. Windows of the first tier are processed with platbands, the openings of the second tier located in the center are semicircular, the side openings are rectangular. All windows have profiled platbands.
On the central apse there is a decorative drum topped with a head and a cross. An embellishment with an octagonal dome, drum and shaped head ends with a decorative octagon with false windows. The facades of the vestibule are decorated with horizontal rustic materials, the windows are decorated with profiled platbands.
The facade of the first tier on the western side of the bell tower has paired pilasters, entablature and pediment on the sides, the next tier, which has four arched openings intended for ringing, is covered with iron. The octahedral domed roof of the bell tower is completed with an octahedral drum with a metal cross.
The interior of the church has been preserved from the 19th century, but in the iconostasis, which was renewed in 1836, several icons from the 15th century have been preserved. These are icons of the festive cycle, very darkened by time: "Baptism", "Annunciation", "Dormition of the Mother of God", "Meeting", "Introduction to the Temple". The professionally executed gilded carving of the iconostasis, carried out in high relief, as well as the carved twin heads of angels above the southern and northern doors, also attracts attention. In the altar there is a small carved statuette of Nil Stolbensky, which is only ten centimeters high, and was painted in the 18th century. icon of the Assumption of the Mother of God.
Cast in 1747, by order of Ivan Chirkin, a merchant from St. Petersburg, a large bell is located in the bell tower. This bell is adorned with a molded pattern of a curling acanthus stem.
In 1836 the church was overhauled. The renovation mainly affected the interior decoration. During the difficult war years, the church was active and served as protection for the local population. Father Mikhail served in it. All houses in the village were burned down by the Germans, but the church remained intact.
