Description of the attraction
The famous Church of the Great Martyr Barbara is located in Petrovsky Posad, not far from the Petrovsky Gate. At the moment, it is the only logging wooden church in the city of Pskov, which is more than three hundred years old.
The famous "History of the Pskov Principality", written by Metropolitan Eugene, indicates that the Church of Varvara was built in 1618 with the participation of the elder Agafya and her sisters. The consecration of the church took place in 1626 under the abbot Julita. The same kind of information can be found in the 1827 clerical file of the Pskov governor. Not only in the clerical records, but also in any other sources, absolutely no indication was found that the church, erected in 1618, was completely destroyed by a strong fire, after it was dismantled for its dilapidated state, or in any other way destroyed. Thus, we can conclude that the Church of the Great Martyr Barbara survived literally in some miraculous way. It is worth paying attention to the fact that the wooden church of the 17th century is a rarity of incredible scale - for this reason it must be recognized that the Varvara Church deserves a careful attitude and sensitive attention.
Before the church was a monastery, but when exactly the monastery was founded is still unknown; there is only information that in 1561 the nunnery burned down during a powerful and devastating fire. In 1786, the church was made attributed to the Intercession Church, located on the Torgue.
The Church of St. Barbara the Great Martyr is built according to the type of the most ancient and originally rural churches. The construction method was carried out in the simplest way, because the church was cut down like a cage. For the construction, the material was chosen in the form of timber logs, which later practically did not occur in Russia. It was from this material that the cube of the main temple was cut down, to which a cubic-type narthex was cut from the west, and a cubic altar from the east.
On the vestibule of the Church of Varvara was exposed a small cube-shaped bell tower, inside and outside of which everything was sewn up with boards. Under all the logs, a plinth was built of this kind of wide slabs, which have not been found for many years in the construction of buildings. The Church of the Great Martyr Barbara is so ancient that in 1882 its walls literally bulged out to the outside, for which reason it was necessary to put racks made of wood across them, which were tied through with strong iron bolts. The length of the church with a bell tower is 6 sazhens and two arshins (just over 12 meters), the width is 3 sazhens (6 meters), and the height to the cornice itself is 3 sazhens (6 meters).
After the revolution took place, the Church of St. Barbara was closed. In 1973, a large fragmentary restoration was carried out in the church. The Varvara Church is a unique monument of cultural wooden architecture dating back to the early 17th century that has survived to this day. In the fall of November 21, 2002, the rector of the Church of Alexander Nevsky, Archpriest Father Oleg, received the keys to the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara (appointed as rector of the Barbara Church).
Numerous bulkheads and repairs only violated the ancient compositional component of the church, the belfry, the porch, the original church top were lost, but the unique characteristic features of the wooden log-house church, which have been miraculously preserved from the modern city of Pskov, are obvious. At the moment, garbage is being disassembled and removed in the church, as well as excavations and slabs are being lifted, under which there are old graves. The oldest slab found in the area of the Varvara Church is a slab dating back to 1848.
The Varvara Church is under the careful protection of the state as a unique historical monument of republican significance.
