The ruins of an Orthodox church in an open field are not a unique phenomenon. Many of these are scattered throughout the country. As a reminder that once there was life. Many of these temples are architectural monuments. But, villages and villages remained only in the names on the maps, the parishioners have been gone for a long time, it is not profitable to restore, therefore they stand like that, destroyed by bad weather ...
This abandoned temple is located in the Orenburg region, in the Pervomayskoye tract. This was the name of the village in Soviet times. But there are several versions about earlier names - Novomertovka, Mikhailovka, Novaya Mertovschina. All these names are associated with the noble surname of Mertvago.
In 1762, the captain of the Sheshlinsky dragoon regiment Boris Fedorovich Mertvago bought for 70 rubles from the Bashkirs of the Kyr-Ilan volost of the Kazan road a vast plot of land along the Bolshoi Kandyz river. In the same or next year, the serfs of Mertvago began to settle on the purchased land. The village was named "Mertovschina" by the name of the owner. Later, a wooden church in the name of Boris and Gleb was built in the village, and the former village became known as Borisoglebsoka.
At the end of the 18th century, the landowner Mertvago founded a new village near this village, which he gave the name - Seltso Novopole. In 1808, a stone church was built in this village, in the name of the Archangel Michael. With the construction of the temple, the old village receives the double name of Mertovshchina-Mikhailovskoye. Then the confusion with the names began. On the maps of 1900 - the name Mikhailovskoe. On a later map of 1912 - Mertovschina. In Soviet times, the village was named Pervomayskoye.
In the 30s, the temple suffered the fate of thousands of others; it was closed and given over for economic needs. What was in it is unknown. Maybe a warehouse, maybe some workshops, after so many years it is difficult to find eyewitnesses of those years.
The village itself ceased to exist in the early 80s. The last residents left, the abandoned buildings began to collapse. Now there is not a single reminder of residential buildings on the territory of the former village. According to a resident of a neighboring village, the skeletons of brick buildings stood 15-10 years ago. Now there is only an abandoned church, and the old cemetery aside.
The church was built not quite usually, partly from bricks, and partly from large clay blocks. The walls were plastered, and the mortar was placed on a wire tied to nails driven into the wall. By the way, this temple is a monument of urban planning and architecture of regional significance.
Inside the church, you can see the remains of frescoes, but with great difficulty you can make out what is painted on them.
They say that a holy place is considered inviolable, even though it is destroyed. And the ruined temple remains holy. Sometimes someone comes to this church, there are icons, there is a small altar with a cross, candles. I wonder what attracts believers to such churches.?
