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St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Andreevskoye

Фото 1
The village of Andreevskoye, located on the Peksha River, was part of the Matureninskaya volost. Its name is first mentioned in documents from the mid-18th century, and prior to that, it was known as the village of Buzino. In 1703, the nobleman Andrei Fyodorovich Naryshkin built a wooden church dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle here, which gave the village its current name. Later, the new owner of Andreevskoye was Count Roman Illarionovich Vorontsov, who decided to establish a manor here under the guidance of architect Nikolai von Berk. At the same time, the construction of a stone house church in honor of St. Andrew the Apostle began at the Vorontsov family burial site, designed by architect A. Trofimov. The church was built from 1777 and consecrated in 1779. The main altar was dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle, while the second was dedicated to Saints Boris and Gleb.

The architecture of the church combines elements of Baroque and early Classicism. It is a three-part, five-domed temple of the refectory type, elongated along the east-west axis. The central part is designed as a two-story square with a high spherical dome, surrounded by pediments with five octagonal drums and onion-shaped domes. To the east is a semicircular apse with a classical conch, and to the west, a small refectory, above which once stood a three-tiered bell tower. The church is adorned with rusticated pilasters, half-columns, cornices, pediments, and decorative window frames. Around the temple was a church fence with two stone gates leading to the manor house and towards the road to Vladimir.

After Roman Illarionovich, the estate was owned by his son Alexander Romanovich. His sister, Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, often visited him and attended services in this church. Services were held several times a year at the request of the count by priests from the Resurrection Church in the village of Maturenino. Alexander Romanovich passed away on December 2, 1805, and was buried in the manor church. In 1865, Prince Semyon Mikhailovich Vorontsov installed a marble tombstone, crafted by sculptor Rufioni, and an iron fence over the grave. During the Soviet era, the tombstone was destroyed, but in 2012 it was restored based on photographs and descriptions funded by the Vorontsov Descendants Foundation. Since 1861, the Vorontsovs transferred the church for parish use, taking on the expenses for its maintenance.

After the October Revolution, persecution began against the clergy of St. Andrew the Apostle Church. In the 1930s, the church was closed, and its property was expropriated. The bell tower was destroyed, the domes with crosses were removed, and the church building was first converted into a club, where dances were held and films were shown for guests at the rest house, and later it housed a garage and workshop for repairing vehicles for the anti-tuberculosis children's sanatorium 'Boldino,' which occupied the former manor building since the mid-1970s.

In 1990, an Orthodox community was formed in the village, and the church was soon returned to the faithful and restored. The bell tower has not yet been rebuilt.

Geo point

Церковь Андрея Первозванного в Андреевском

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