Description of the attraction
The Gate Church of St. Philip is located in the western side of the monastery wall of the general ensemble of the Valdai Iversky Monastery. Today the church has a federal protection category.
The incredible early appearance in the monastery of the church in the name of St. Philip may be due to some of his participation, which he took in the arrangement of the Iversky monastery. There is information that at the time of the transfer of the relics of the holy Moscow metropolitan from the monastery building to the city of Moscow, which was brutally murdered by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Saint Philip appeared to Patriarch Nikon in a dream, in which he blessed him for the construction of the famous monastery in Valdai. From that time on, Nikon could not help but rank Metropolitan Philip among the patrons of the Iberian monastery. Most likely, in the course of time, the Patriarch was not once visited by thoughts about the slight similarity of his own fate with the fate of the holy metropolitan. Times changed, but the Orthodox tsar was never able to hire an assassin for the Primate, albeit a deposed one. But in spite of everything, Nikon had a difficult fate.
The construction of the church dates back to the period of 1873-1874, because not long before that time, the foundation of the Valdai Iversky Monastery took place. In those days, the church of St. Philip was located in the northeastern side of the monastery, which is confirmed by documents that have survived to this day. The church was built from a bar, so it was warm. Next to the church there was a fraternal refectory built of wood. The design of the church was carried out according to the project of an experienced engineer-architect named Savelyev on the site of a previously existing but later dismantled temple of the 18th century.
The Church of St. Philip is a single-domed gatehouse equipped with a single passable arch. The building of the temple is made of two floors and lined with bricks. It should be noted that the building of the church has a rigid structural scheme, because the distance between the walls located across the walls is at least 24 meters. On the south side, the church is adjoined by a small building intended for Living rooms, and on the north side there are Stables cells.
The existing temple foundations are strip foundations, consisting of cobblestones, boulders on a sand-lime mortar, while the basement is faced with granite slabs. The church walls are transverse and longitudinal, as well as load-bearing ones, made of solid clay bricks on a sand-lime mortar.
The very first presented building, which belongs to the main volume of the second tier, has ceilings consisting of three cylindrical vaults, while the northern and southern ceilings are made of two floors - along wooden beams. The main volume of the second tier has an overlap in the form of a large domed vault and a light drum; in the north and south wings of the entire building there are so-called attic ceilings, represented by flat beams made of wood.
The roof located above the main volume is made eight-pitched and has a dome-shaped transition to the light drum, and the roof above the wings is made gable and has hips. The church dome is made octahedral.
In the main volume of the second tier there is a working church, while the wing located on the north side is used exclusively as a staircase; on the ground floor, in the south wing, there is a church shop.
Throughout 2006, an extensive system of measures was carried out in the church of St. Philip for the final completion of all repair and restoration work, which began in 1989. In addition, work was carried out here related to the adaptation of the building to the existing church. The icon of the Iberian Mother of God was placed above the gates of the church, and the gates were painted with scenes taken from the Legend of the Miraculous Icon of the Iberian Mother of God. It is worth noting that the shape of the chapter was slightly altered, which became the prototype for the chapter in a photograph taken in the early 19th century.
