Description of the attraction
The Church of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew was built in the 18th century. Throughout 1874, local parishioners, as well as the collector, raised funds to build a stone-built bell tower next to the Church of Matthew. The bell tower had five bells. The most massive and largest bell contained an inscription stating that the bell was cast at the Gatchina plant by A. S. Lavrov in 1897; the exact weight of the bell is 64 pounds and 19 pounds. The first large bell was cast with donations from numerous parishioners of one of the churchyards called Negtya during the reign of the great Russian emperor Nicholas II, as well as under the church head Fyodor Danilov and priest Dmitry Raevsky. The second largest and heaviest bell had no date or weight, it only said that it had been cast under the Great Sovereign and Prince Peter Alekseevich by master G. Pskovitin. The third largest bell weighed about 1 pood and 28 pounds, on which was the inscription: "Ardin Nashchokin - son of Maxim Ivanov." On the two remaining bells, no inscriptions and designations of the time of order execution, as well as its weight, were found.
In 1908, with the active and diligent work of the parishioners, a new chapel was built, which was consecrated in the name of God the Archangel Michael in the autumn of the same year. The Church of the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew had three thrones, the main of which was the throne, consecrated in the name of the Holy Apostle Matthew, and the side-chapels - in honor of the Wonderworker and St. Nicholas and the Archangel Michael. A cemetery runs along the entire perimeter of the church.
The parish had three chapels, two of which were stone. One of the stone chapels was located in a village called Gorka and was consecrated in the name of Nicholas the Prelate, and the second chapel stood in the village of Murovitsy (Murovichi) and was erected in 1840 in honor of the same saints.
Since 1895, parish trusteeship began to operate. Throughout 1897, devoted parishioners raised funds for the purchase of the bell, the weight of which was 64 pounds and 19 pounds. During 1898, repair and restoration work was carried out on the external facades of the Church of St. Matthew. There were no different kinds of charitable, charitable institutions or a parish school at the church. In 1882, a zemstvo school was established in a village called Khotitsy, in which 38 students were trained in 1900. Already in 1894, a zemstvo school was opened in the village of Piskovichi, in 1900 there were 54 students. In the village of Gruzinskoe, a zemstvo school began to operate, starting in 1903, located not far from the church building. In 1910, the school was moved from the village of Gruzinskoe to the village of Kotelevichi. Throughout 1910, 70 students were trained there.
By 1900, there were 1,833 parishioners in the Church of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew. Until the end of February 1917, the deacon-psalmist Vasily Andreev conducted services in the church.
In 1888, in the village of Murovitsy, a certain Zemsky Panteleimon Stepanovich was born, who in the future became a priest. During the Soviet era, namely on March 14, 1938, Panteleimon Stepanovich of the NKVD for the Leningrad Region was sentenced to death, but rehabilitated during that year. During the Great Patriotic War, priest Alexander Fedorov conducted services at the church. Today, the Church of the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew is located in the Pskov region in the village of Piskovichi (the first mention in chronicles in 1585), which is located on the very outskirts of the city of Pskov. Today the church is active.
