Not far from Berezniki, on a small island surrounded by the "Kama Sea," stands a ruined church, an architectural monument of federal significance, the Church of the Holy Trinity. This church, a witness to the history of the region's development and salt production, is one of the oldest in the area and dates back to the 17th century.

An inscription on a gray stone block, previously embedded in the wall of the church's porch and now displayed at the Berezniki Historical and Art Museum, states: "In the year 1688, this holy church was built and consecrated in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity, during the days of the most pious great sovereigns, Tsars and Grand Dukes Ioann Alexeyevich and Peter Alexeyevich, under Patriarch Joakim of Moscow and all Russia, in the Usolsky district between the rivers Lyönva and the source of Chashkina, at the salt boiling enterprise of the guests Vasily, Grigory, and Nikita Fyodorov Shustov, by promise. And this salt enterprise was initiated by a man of Polish descent, Mikhail Karpov, also known as Fyodorov, and this salt enterprise began in 1674 from the birth of Christ."

Documents regarding the construction of the church mention that "the stone single-domed, one-story three-altar church with a stone bell tower" was rebuilt from the living quarters of the original owners of the Lyönva salt works, the Moscow guests Shustov, who were expelled after legal disputes in 1678 with the Stroganovs over the Lyönva salt works, from "illegally seized lands."

In 1786, "with the funds of Savatiy Nikepelov, an altar was arranged in the first chapel of the church." When the second was arranged is unknown. In 1846, in connection with the construction of a new iconostasis, altar, and sacrificial table, repairs were made to the building. At that time, floors made of cast iron plates manufactured at the Pozhevsky plant were laid. After the repairs, the church was consecrated for the second time. It was consecrated for the third time in 1877 after restoration from a fire.

The fire that occurred in the village of Lyönva on August 20, 1877, was one of the most destructive. According to eyewitness accounts, the heat was so intense that, driven by the wind, burning embers flew as far as Dedyukhina, where houses caught fire in four places. In Lyönva itself, 50 homesteads burned down, along with the industrial buildings of the Stroganov counts, the Golitsyn princes, and Lazarev, including 22 boiling houses and 15 salt barns. The bell tower and the Trinity Church suffered significant damage: the chapels of the Elevation and the Three Hierarchs were destroyed by fire, and many icons were damaged.

After the fire, the church was restored. The bell tower, previously a tent structure, was significantly raised and topped with a dome with a break and a spire. In 1902 and 1904, the church was surrounded by a stone fence, to which an iron grille was added in 1907. This is how it was remembered by many old-timers and captured in photographs from the first half of the 20th century.

The Holy Trinity Church, serving as a center for the religious and ideological education of the local population, fulfilled an educational function. In the early 1850s, the first educational institution in the village of Lyönva, a church-parish school, was opened. Few records of this educational institution have survived. In 1854, 25 peasant boys were taught reading, writing, and the Law of God. However, the school, created at the initiative of church officials and lacking a material base, did not last long and was closed. It reopened on March 17, 1868, by order of the director of public schools, I. F. Gratsiansky.

At the ceremony marking its opening, I. F. Gratsiansky said: "Rejoicing immensely that our merciful Lord God grants us the opportunity to open an educational institution in the village of Lyönva, thus providing the opportunity to prepare the younger generation for a happy and useful life."

This time, the school was financed by the management of four owners of the salt works located in the village. The head of the school, as was customary in church-parish schools, became the rector of the local church, Father S. Bogoslovsky. With the establishment of the zemstvo, the Lyönva men's church-parish school was transformed into a zemstvo parish one-class school.

In 1903, a parish guardianship was created at the Lyönva Holy Trinity Church. The main goal of the organization, consisting of parishioners and headed by the rector of the church, was charitable assistance to the poor and needy. The guardianship's funds came from donations from parishioners, membership fees, collection drives, money from the sale of icons, images, crosses, religious literature, and the organization of concerts of spiritual music.

Noting the excellent work of the guardianship, the newspaper "Perm Diocesan News" reported in 1908: "The Lyönva church-parish guardianship has erected a beautiful wooden pillar with a cross and a fence against the altar of the church in the square. Icons are affixed to it on four sides, and below is a box for donations. A similar pillar was installed on the bank of the Kama. The working people, passing by to and from work, pray and drop their contributions for the holy cause. And at the local railway station 'Solevarni,' a kiosk with an image of St. Seraphim was placed, with a box for donations for the holy cause."

Part of its funds was donated to the Red Cross Society to assist the wounded on the fronts of the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars, while another part was used to maintain a charitable institution opened on March 17, 1905, named Alexeyevskaya, in memory of the heir to the throne. The institution housed between 12 and 25 helpless cripples and elderly beggars. A local resident, M. A. Batrakov, provided a house for them, and the first guardian was Anna Fyodorovna Polyakova, who donated 4,000 rubles in securities for the benefit of the institution. With the help of residents and parishioners, potatoes, cabbage, and other vegetables were grown in the garden of the institution. A stall was set up at the local mill where donations of bread and flour were collected.

The church-parish guardianship and church school were led by the servants of the Lyönva church. They left a good memory of themselves, including Father Kalachnikov, Slovtsov, Ostrovumov, and others. Incidentally, the priest of the Lyönva Holy Trinity Church, and later the protoiereus of the Novo-Usolsk Spaso-Preobrazhensky Church, Grigory Ostrovumov, was the father of the well-known Perm local historian, public figure, and journalist Ivan Grigoryevich Ostrovumov.

The priest and law teacher of the Lyönva zemstvo school, Alexander Nikolaevich Makhetov, did a lot for the villagers and parishioners of the local church. He organized a guardianship committee at the church, invited an opera singer to lead the church choir, who later became a singing teacher at the Usolsky two-class school, Alexander Mikhailovich Remezov, making the Lyönva church choir one of the best in the area.

For his selfless work, Father Alexander was awarded a silver named badge from the Red Cross Society, thanks for collecting donations for wounded soldiers, and many other awards.

His life was cut short in 1918. Alexander Makhetov met a cruel death at the hands of representatives of the Soviet authorities and was included in the number of holy martyrs of the Perm diocese.

In the 1930s, the Lyönva Holy Trinity Church, like other religious institutions, could not avoid closure. Despite repeated confiscations of valuables, it preserved its property and reopened during the Great Patriotic War. In 1953, the rector of the church, Pavel Kiselev, accepted for safekeeping the inventory and church attributes of the Dedyukhinsk Cemetery Church, which was closed due to the flooding of the village.

Among the particularly valuable items were: an iconostasis with gilded decorations and four local icons, royal gates, and gilded ornaments. Being in the flood zone, the Holy Trinity Church operated for almost another 10 years.

But time did not spare the church. In 1962, a commission from the executive committee noted the emergency condition of the brickwork of the walls and, to avoid collapse, recommended the closure of the church and the merging of the religious community of the village of Lyönva with Orlinsky. By a decision of the Berezniki executive committee on November 28, 1962, gatherings of people and clergy in the Lyönva church were prohibited.

Some icons and church utensils were transferred to the collections of the Perm Gallery and the Berezniki Local History Museum. In the collections of the Perm Gallery, for example, there is still a signed and dated 1611 icon "Descent of the Holy Spirit" by the Moscow master, one of the authors of the frescoes of the Annunciation Cathedral in Solvychegodsk, Stefan Arefyev; in Berezniki, the image of the "Mother of God of Tsesar" in a silver under a gold cover made by the Moscow master Yegor Antipyev.

Unfortunately, when the church was closed, museum workers were unable to transport and save the fascinating church archive, which, according to the memories of the oldest local historian of the city, V. A. Tsypushtanov, was destroyed and plundered by vandals.

In 1990, an attempt was made to "revive" the oldest church in the region. At that time, the Berezniki Local History Museum established the society "Heritage" named after E.I. and N.K. Rerikh. Together with the Perm branch of the society for the protection of historical and cultural monuments and the board of the "Heritage" society, projects were developed for the restoration of the church and its transformation into a Rerikh cultural and educational center. But the rosy plans did not come to fruition. The "difficult 90s," changes in city leadership and priorities in city financing pushed the decision on the restoration and reconstruction of the church aside, and the collapses of part of the church bell tower and damage to the premises in 1992 made them simply impossible. The federal monument, the Church of the Holy Trinity, became for many Berezniki residents merely a recognizable sign that once there was an ancient settlement of salt workers, the village of Lyönva.