Description of the attraction
Despite the fact that the Novosokolnichesky region is quite young, it is very rich in terms of historical traditions. In the first years of the settlement's existence, the residents did not even think about building a church. As soon as the Orthodox holidays began, numerous residents went to the nearby churchyards, in which there was no shortage of churches. Five versts from the village were the St. Nicholas Church in Zagarye, the Assumption Church in Oknya, the Znamensky Church in Minkino, the Trinity, St. George Church in Pupovichi, and the Trinity Church in Plai. But nevertheless, a significant increase in population began to be observed in Novosokolniki, and the question of building a temple nevertheless rose on the agenda.
The required project was prepared in 1908; In 1912, a beautiful Orthodox church was erected on the management facilities of the Vindavo-Moscow-Rybinsk railway with the active participation of railway workers, as well as local residents, located on the now existing Partizanskaya street. For the construction of the temple, bricks were used, and the temple dome was built of reinforced concrete. In the architectural component of the temple, the familiar features of the modernist style were clearly visible at that time: ornament and vignettes. The temple had in terms of the traditional form of the Byzantine equilateral cross.
The new church accommodated 700 people. Immediately above the church entrance, there was a special board made of metal, on which an inscription was indicated in the form of the date 1912 - the time of construction. A wooden bell tower was built not far from the church, on which there were nine bells. The new temple fits perfectly into the inherent architectural appearance of the village and has become its landmark.
At the St. Nicholas Church, there was a parish school, in which about 350 students studied at the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to the main subjects, the clergy taught Sacred History and the Law of God at the Zemsky School, which was opened in the same year as the church. The building intended for the zemstvo school was much larger in size, and more spacious inside compared to the temple. It was the building of the Zemsky School that survived during the Great Patriotic War, which was demolished only in 2002, as the building was badly dilapidated.
The rector of St. Nicholas Church was a hereditary priest named Troitsky Evgeny Petrovich, who became a graduate of the theological Seminary in the city of Pskov. The Troitsky family dynasty was very famous in Soviet times. For loyalty and high morality, Father Yevgeny received a loincloth skufia and a kamilavka. The church psalm-reader was Aleksandr Vasilievich Vinogradov, a graduate of one of the teachers' seminaries; received an award for diligence in the form of a silver medal. St. Nicholas Church in Novosokolniki was part of the district of one rector of the Intercession Church of the famous city of Velikiye Luki Matvey Vinogradov, who is the father of Academician I. M. Vinogradov.
After the revolution swept across Russia, the temple was closed. For a very long time, the church building could not be brought into proper form and adapted - it was what is called "two-functional", so it could not be used as a warehouse or a club.
The real reason for the death of St. Nicholas Church was the terrible Great Patriotic War, which did not spare anything in its path. To date, there is only one documentary chronicle, dating back to January 1944, which captures the moment of the complete assault of Novosokolniki by Russian troops. Among tank attacks, episodes of a bloody battle, you can see a panorama of the city with the ruins of a once magnificent temple, while the dome of the church was knocked to one side. Judging by the destruction, the retreating Germans blew up the temple - the walls of the church collapsed on both sides, and the surviving dome simply fell into the interior of the building. After the destruction, the remaining bricks were used for outbuildings, only the domes were not useful - they were taken out on a railway platform and dropped right behind Vitebsk Park, of which not a trace remained.
St. Nicholas Church was rebuilt in 1995, and a year later, it was consecrated.
