Description of the attraction
The Church of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine and the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is located in Pavlovsk, the village of Dynamo. Previously, this area was called the Grafskaya Slavyanka, since this estate began its existence under Count M. K. Skavronsky, who was a relative of Catherine I in the female line. Until 1847 the manor belonged to his family, and later it was bought into the royal property from the granddaughter of Count Skavronsky, Yu. P. Samoilova. Initially, there was no church here, and the Russians evicted here by Count Skavronsky belonged to the Tsarskoye Selo parish.
The foundation stone of the new church took place in 1743 with the blessing of the Bishop of St. Petersburg and Shlisselburg Nikodim I. The construction of the temple was carried out from 1743 to 1747 at the expense of Count Martyn Karlovich Skavronsky. The temple is made of stone, in two floors, at first it was built in the style of Louis XIV, later, in 1822 - 1829, on the initiative of Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova, it was redesigned according to the project of S. Adamini. In 1867-1871, the architect A. I. Rezanov restored it in the same style.
The lower church on the first floor is dedicated to the Great Martyr Catherine, and the upper one, on the second floor, is dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin. The iconostases were made according to the drawings by A. P. Bryullov and at the expense of Countess Samoilova. The iconostasis of the lower temple was carved from ash, in the upper temple - from pine. In 1855, thanks to the efforts of a merchant from Petersburg, F. S. Strakhov, the iconostases were covered with gold, silver vestments were made on the icons. Two icons were especially remarkable in the church: the Sitting in Glory and the Tikhvin Mother of God. Both icons are in silver vestments and placed in icon cases, covered with red gold. The icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God is located behind the right choir, and the icon of the Savior is behind the left. The first was granted by the merchant Strakhov, and the second - by the Petersburg merchant Frolov. Both icons were located in the upper church.
Before the revolution, merchants from St. Petersburg and many landowners actively helped the Church in Grafskaya (Tsarskaya) Slavyanka. The parish had three schools. Before the revolution, the temple was maintained at the expense of the landowners, and later the palace government began to provide funds for the maintenance.
Located on a hill with the plain of the Slavyanka River valley stretching in front of it, the Church of Catherine and the Nativity of the Mother of God seems to be hovering over the surroundings. In the old days, an elegant high bell tower was visible from afar, which, unfortunately, was lost during the war. In 1941, the bell tower was demolished by a special group of the NKVD so that the enemies could not use it as a reference point, a high-altitude point for adjusting fire.
In 1935, after the death of the abbot, services in the temple were stopped, and in 1938 the temple was closed, and a cinema hall and a club were set up in it.
From the autumn of 1941, services were held in the village of Antropshino in a private building. Services in the Catherine Church were resumed in 1943 in the lower church. After the liberation of this territory, the temple did not function for some time. Services in the lower church resumed in 1946, and the upper church began to function in 1954, its ceiling and walls were painted anew by A. V. Treskin.
In 2007, the gilded spire with a cross crowning the bell tower was completely restored. Work is underway on the construction of the main dome.
The Catherine Church today is a place of prayer for the parishioners of Pavlovsk and Kommunar, as well as nearby villages. A large old cemetery, located next to the church, still keeps the names of people of different ranks and classes.
Description added:
Tverzhislav, ethnographer, aborigine of the territory 2014-13-07
Since 2012, the ruins of the main house "Dachas of Countess YP Samoilova" (as in the documents of the KGIOP, a monument of cultural heritage of federal significance - PKNFZ) in Grafskaya Slavyanka have been underway. Completion date as a hotel at the end of 2016. A cleaning project is being developed
Show full text Since 2012, restoration and restoration of the ruins of the main house "Dacha of Countess YP Samoilova" (as in the documents of the KGIOP, a monument of cultural heritage of federal significance - PKNFZ) in Grafskaya Slavyanka has been underway. Completion date as a hotel at the end of 2016. A project for cleaning the manor radon pond (area 1 ha) is being developed with the project being completed in September 2014, implementation in 2015-2016. Work is underway to prepare the improvement of the manor park (20 hectares): cleaning from fallen and dried trees, sanitary felling, planning of paths, landscape, toponymic work on assigning the territory the historical name "Grafskaya Slavyanka" or "Tsarskaya Slavyanka". The problem is the unauthorized seizure of 6 hectares by the Pokrovsky cemetery of the territory of the estate and the illegal plowing of 10 hectares of the water protection zone of the Slavyanka River, the same territory, as well as the liberation of 20 hectares of the PKNFZ from the production facilities of private firms (formerly the VOC factory of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs "Dynamo"), now the property of a citizen Finland.
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