A few kilometers from Sergievsk, almost on the banks of the Sok River, there is the ancient village of Pavlovka. Noisy and rich once, today it is in great decline. Every year there are fewer inhabitants here, houses are dilapidated, paths are overgrown. And a symbol of this extinction stands on a hill a dilapidated wooden temple
A wooden unheated church on a stone foundation was erected in 1866. Almost all the villagers took part in the construction. In 1885, the temple was consecrated in honor of the Archangel Michael. It is difficult to say why the Pavlovians in peacetime chose the Archangel-warrior as the heavenly patron of their village. Maybe Michael was the name of one of the initiators of the construction of the village church. Or maybe people had a presentiment that the peaceful, serene years would not last long.
The inscription on the tablet under the cross - "Here lies the ashes of an unknown saint"
The temple was closed according to some sources, in 1935, according to others - in 1942. The locals tell the following story about one of the reasons for the closure: “One of the villagers, who lost his human appearance in the revolutionary dance, burst into the priest's house with an ax at night and killed the priest and mother. The villain hoped to profit here, but all he managed to find in the poor hut was a bag of crushed cereals. A commission has arrived in Pavlovka to conduct an investigation. However, instead of punishing the murderer, the investigators decided to evict the daughter of the deceased priest from the house. The villagers stood up for the girl. They also defended their native church."
After the closure, the building was transferred for collective farm needs - they made a collective farm warehouse. And this circumstance to some extent saved the temple from rapid destruction. It began in the nineties after the collapse of the collective farm, when the residents began to take away everything they could from the abandoned church. Including floorboards
Over time, the wooden structure of the bell tower was badly dilapidated and tilted. The beams supporting the roof of the main building rotted and collapsed. The vaults and the dome collapsed with them - it became open to rain and snow. But what is surprising is that the most unique frescoes and paintings that were made over a hundred years ago are still preserved on the walls inside.
Somewhere in 2015-2016, the Cossacks took up the restoration of the church. We cleared the premises of debris, fallen boards, some of the frescoes on the walls were covered with plexiglass and visors were made
Now there are no Cossacks. The church is locked. The keys to the building are kept by a local resident - if necessary, he opens the doors to everyone who wants to look at the remains of history.
