Red village. Church of the Transfiguration
The amazing church is located in the ass of the world, 600 kilometers from St. Petersburg, 25 kilometers from the town of Staritsa and 5 kilometers from a conventionally paved road.
In the village of Krasnoye itself, you can still somehow get around by car, but the access road is 5 km from the highway ... it’s easier to just drive across the field.
At first glance, the village is more or less decent, it does not cause a feeling of devastation.
But the color is there. 
The Church of the Transfiguration, built in 1790 in the estate of the actual State Councilor Poltoratsky (grandfather Anna Kern, about which "I remember a wonderful moment" and "M-me Kern, which, with the help of God, I recently killed" (c) A.S. Pushkin ).
Gothic.
Ladder.
The church was built as an author's copy of the Chesme Church in the capital, built in 1780 by order of Catherine II by the architect Felten. In the 1930s it was converted into a collective farm warehouse, in the 1990s it was converted back.
If anyone has not seen, the Chesme Church looks like this: 
(I drove by the other day).
Churches, of course, are not exact copies, which is clearly visible in small details.
The modern regional road P88 between Staritsa and Torzhok completely repeats the intricate pirouettes of the old postal route. It passes through picturesque places between the Volga, Darkness and Tvertsa rivers and differs from the highway only in that in Soviet times it was covered with uncertain asphalt.- a good story about this track. And we were already driving in complete darkness, so we didn’t see anything interesting.
Bratkovo. The last minutes of daylight and the last meters of a satisfactory road. Further into the night with headlights on, accelerating faster than 30 km/h would be epic recklessness. It was mostly possible to drive only along the oncoming roadside, despite the fact that this shame is a tourist route "Pushkin Ring of the Upper Volga" with a bunch of historical sites and attractions.
Church of the Savior in Bratkovo (1804, architect Lvov).
Mass grave near: 
Last year, at about the same time, we went to the Staritsky district to see the Gothic church in the village of Krasnoye. Here she is:
The Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior was built in 1790 and is a copy of the church built near St. Petersburg a little earlier. There is another one of the same in the Pskov region. There are three of them in Russia.
When we arrived, there was no one in the church, except for the caretaker, or I don't know what it's called. She welcomed us warmly and told us about the history of the church. It turns out that the church was built by a certain state councilor, Mr. Poltoratsky, whose estate is nearby in a ruined state. Here she is:
Pushkin visited this church, at least he was definitely at the wedding of some childhood friend with whom he was in love. The church was built of staritsa white stone, which was actively mined at that time, and now in Staritsa, after the extraction of this stone, the so-called staritsa caves remained.
Sculptures preserved on the church:
A woman in the church complained that there was no money for restoration, so the restoration was proceeding extremely slowly. Everything is bad inside. In Soviet times, there was a collective farm warehouse, right up to the 80s. The local father, priest Dmitry Kasparov has been serving here for many years and is making every effort to restore the church. If someone wants to help or come to visit - call, come 89267682444 or 89106483277
For 25 r. from a person we were allowed to climb the bell tower, from where we even rang the bell a little.
Beautiful view from the bell tower
The village of Krasnoye itself is a typical Russian village, dying out and depressive. The gothic church in the middle of a Russian village is full of surreal and cosmic, I think that if it is restored, the contrast with the surrounding area will become so strong that the earth here may not withstand and crack.
Manor Red(Russia, Tver region, Staritsky district, Krasnoe village)
How to get there? By car from the town of Staritsa to the west - along the highway to the village of Novoe and Staraya Staritsa. After a couple of kilometers in the Bratkovo area - a right turn, and another 4 km along an asphalted, but rather broken, road. Signposts are almost never found, so you have to be guided by road atlases, which for the most part are outright lies, or rely on intuition.
Preserved: ruined main house, church, outbuilding, park with a pond
The Tver region surprised me with an abundance of beautiful, capital-level architecture, the absence of domestic dumps, and power lines, which are literally stuffed with the Moscow region.
We drove from Torzhok, through Gruziny, Glukhovo, Mlevichi and Bernovo, and were amazed by the poetry of the surrounding landscape and the lack of housing along the roads. The feeling of loss, isolation from the civilized world did not leave us throughout the journey. Isn't it wonderful, for a resident of a bustling metropolis, to suddenly plunge into the atmosphere of the Russian outback?!
The outlandish Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and other buildings of the Poltoratsky estate, founded in late XVIII century, are nearby, on the same street.
The dilapidated, tormented main house in its austere decoration seems too simple compared to the royally luxurious manor temple. The prototype for this religious building was the church of the Chesme Palace in St. Petersburg, built by the famous architect Yu.M. Felten. The project turned out to be so successful that it received another incarnation - in the Lanskoy estate, in the Pskov region.
This is a pseudo-Gothic monument, unique for the Tver region, with an unusual four-leaf composition, in the decoration of which white stone is used much more widely than in the original, up to the sculptures above the portal.
A light openwork of vertical rods, ending at a jagged parapet with a thin pattern, makes the body of a massive tetraconch, with rare lancet windows, almost weightless, illusory-airy. Perfectly proportioned round window-"rose", framed by an exquisite ornament.
We were lucky to visit not only inside the church, but also climb the bell tower along a narrow winding staircase, and admire the surroundings from a height; close up to see domes with sharp spiers and pinnacles hewn from old stone. This is an unforgettable experience!
I walked here not in vain,
swallowing road dust,
white-stone and gable roof
true story turned to dust...
House with windows on the bell tower,
to the temple (which is always to the east),
on the waters of the Holokholenka River,
to someone's family origin...
I walked here not in vain -
through close flashes of thunderstorms,
pearl glows red
in a simple birch necklace.
Beautifully beautiful grows old.
Don't let the beauty fade
please, guests, to Staritsa,
to ring the copper on the temple ...
Poems - Tamara Karyakina
Somehow I was quite surprised when I saw in the photographs a Velma similar to the Chesme Church in St. Petersburg, but in a different landscape. 
This one in Petersburg
And this one in the Tver region
The village of Krasnoye is once a rich estate of the Poltoratskys, close friends of A. S. Pushkin. From the estate, the Outlandish Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, outbuildings, the remains of a landscape park descending to the Holokholna River have been preserved.
They are all nearby, on the same street. The dilapidated, tormented main house in its austere decoration seems too simple compared to the royally luxurious manor temple. The prototype for this religious building was the church of the Chesme Palace in St. Petersburg, built by the famous architect Yu.M. Felten. The project turned out to be so successful that it received another incarnation - in the Lansky estate, in the Pskov region.
This is a pseudo-Gothic monument, unique for the Tver region, with an unusual four-leaf composition, in the decoration of which white stone is used much more widely than in the original, up to the sculptures above the portal.
The Church of the Transfiguration, built by the Poltoratskys in their estate in 1790, is the author's repetition of the famous church of the already mentioned Chesme Church - instead of the dilapidated wooden Church of the Resurrection of the Word, built according to the project of the famous Russian architect Yu. M. Felten near St. Petersburg. Another similar building appeared in the estate of A. D. Lansky in the village of Posadnikovo, Pskov province. The creation of three identical structures according to one project testifies to the high appreciation of the author's intention by contemporaries. The building is one of the rarest pseudo-Gothic structures of the 18th century in Tver.
The building is made of brick with the use of white oxbow stone in the decor, it is a “four-leaf” in plan, the decoration of the facades of the temple is distinguished by its originality and arbitrary interpretation of Gothic motifs. The surface of the walls, treated with narrow vertical rods and lancet arches, is cut through by high lancet windows. Above the entrance is a round window of the "Gothic rose" type. The composition of the portal includes sculptural images of angels. The walls, like a crown, are crowned with a low spongy parapet with sharp pinnacles characteristic of the Gothic style. Turrets with sharp Gothic spiers complete the main and four small domes of the church. Everything here speaks of an unstoppable striving upwards. The building is as if woven from openwork lace, full of refined grace.
Casting a glance at the estate from the church, one involuntarily marvels at the simplicity and earthiness of the buildings. The two-storey building (not counting the semi-basement floor) is almost square in plan and lacks rich decoration.
However, it cannot be said that the estate is devoid of its charm and some nobility of lines. The main façade is somewhat dry or boring.
(C) photo of Elena Terkel and Dmitry Terkel
The park facade of the main house looks more interesting. It is clear that much has been lost here. Some sources say that it was a house with a mezzanine. The location of the main house on the high bank of the Holokholnya made it possible to admire distant landscapes until the park alleys were overgrown and ancient trees did not fall.
Now you can go down to the dammed river along the old alley. A little sad.
The history of this family is interesting: Fyodor Filippovich Poltoratsky at the beginning of the 18th century settled in Sosnitsa, Chernihiv province, and became a priest. In 1929, his son was born - Mark, determined by his father to study first at the Chernigov "Latin School", and then at the Kiev-Mohyla Theological Academy. The boy had a good voice and sang in the academic choir. In 1744, Aleksey Grigoryevich Razumovsky, who accompanied Empress Elizabeth Petrovna on a trip to Ukraine, heard him singing. The count liked the singing of the young man and he took Poltoratsky to Petersburg for singing service at court. From that moment on, the life of young Mark Fedorovich changed dramatically. In 1750 he was enrolled in the St. Petersburg Italian Opera Company, where he received the stage name "Marco Porturatsky". In 1753, he became the regent of the Court Singing Chapel, where the empress regularly heard him singing, sending more than once to select the best singers in Ukraine (by the way, in 1790, 9-year-old Dmitry Bortnyansky, the future great composer, was among those selected). But back to the career of M.F. Poltoratsky. In 1754 he became a colonel, in 1763 he received a noble rank. Family life his was prosperous. Married to Agafoklea Alexandrovna Shishkova, he became the father of 22 children. Of course, there were also estates in the Tver and Kursk provinces. Among them is Red. Already in 1783, Mark Fedorovich filed the first petition for the construction of a stone church in Red to replace the dilapidated wooden one, permission was received in 1785 - after a second petition. But only in 1790 the Church of the Transfiguration was built, and the consecration took place in 1803 after the death of M.F. Poltoratsky (died in 1795). The temple was erected according to the project of the architect Yu.M. The church has been well preserved, despite the fact that in the 1930s a collective farm warehouse was placed in it. In 1979-1982 the building was conserved. Now the church has been restored and is functioning. Manor buildings were less fortunate. We simply do not know anything about the old ones, and the current ones were most likely erected in the second half of the 19th century under the descendants of M.F. Poltoratsky. Interestingly, Mark Fedorovich was the grandfather of Anna Petrovna Kern. By the way, Aleksey Pavlovich Poltoratsky, who became the owner of the estate in 1826, also visited Krasnoye, and A.S. Pushkin himself. Further, Krasnoye remained in the Poltoratsky family until the beginning of the 20th century, when the doctor Boris Borisovich Kostylev, who lived here before the revolution, became the owner of the estate. The main house of the estate and the park served the people for a long time. While the school was located in the building, everything was fine: the roof was being repaired, the children were watching the park. But the school has moved to a new building. The result - no one needs the estate, although it is registered with the Regional Committee for the Protection of Monuments. In the early 1990s, it seemed that the Patriarchate even acquired it, as N.A. Poltoratsky wrote in his memoirs: “In the conversation that took place this time, Vladyka Pitirim told us that he had recently bought the Poltoratsky family estate in the Tver province, in the village of Krasnoye, and, ... suggested that we make a trip to this estate in the car provided by him, the house of which has been preserved without redevelopment and which Vladyka Pitirim wants to equip for some kind of charitable institution. Alas, something did not work out with the charitable institution, and now the wind is walking around the house ...
Well, as a bonus, a few photos of both churches.
This article appeared thanks to archival research by V.I. Sysoev, who kindly provided me with this information. I dedicate the material to my friend Vladimir Ivanovich who passed away untimely. Eternal memory to him.
This history of the stone Transfiguration Church in the village of Krasnoe has 218 years. It seemed that everything had already been written about this temple. But new pages of its history are coming to light, which are found in the Tver archive. It is they who supplement interesting information not only about the uniqueness of the ancient church, but also reveal to us some details of the initial period of the construction of the temple by the staritsa landowners-patrons.
From the second half of the 18th century, Mark Fedorovich Poltoratsky (1729–1795), the first director of the court singing chapel, became the owner of the Krasnoye estate, who in 1763 was granted the hereditary nobility, and in 1783 was promoted to actual state councilors, which was equated to the rank of general.
His wife Agafokleya Alexandrovna (1737-1822) came from the family of Tver landowners Shishkov, whose estates were located in the Novotorzhsky district of the Tver province. Poltoratskaya was an outstanding personality: and in St. Petersburg, legends were made about her wealth, master's grip, as well as cruelty and tyranny. She donated to monasteries, built temples, helped the poor. These qualities of her were also manifested during the construction of the famous Transfiguration Church in Krasnoe.
Since the 1780s, large-scale construction began in Krasnoe. And it started with the church. In 1783, M.F. Poltoratsky applied to Bishop Arseny of Tver with a request for permission to build a new stone church in the village: “... The diocese of Your Eminence in the Staritsky district of my patrimony in the village of Krasnoye has a wooden dilapidated church of the Renewal of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, which I intend to transfer, transfer to another place where it will be allotted for the burial of the dying, but instead of that I have a desire to again put a stone one in the name Ascension of Christ, which is called a bright holiday, and put it with my own wallet according to the ability of the place of position, without moving away, however, from residence ... ".
The bishop's resolution was as follows: “1783, May 30th day. Inquire about the church, the number of households, parishioners, and other things to present. Arseny".
The spiritual consistory prepared a note: “In the deanery statements of the Staritsky district of 1782 in the village of Krasnoe, it is shown: the Church is wooden, named the Resurrection of Christ, without aisles, dilapidated, enough utensils, built in 1720. Priest, deacon, deacon and sexton - one each. Parish yards 287 ... ".
June 13, 1783 Bishop of Tver and Kashinsky Arseniy gives a blessing: “... How reassuring that other parishioners in good intention and desire to build a new stone church instead of the old wooden one and in other things, as depicted in the petition of the patrimony Mr. God help to fulfill in the name of the Lord I bless, about which, for the proper announcement to the parishioners and according to their consent, to fulfill and send a decree to the dean.
However, for some reason, the building certificate for the construction of the temple was not issued, and it did not begin either in 1783 or in 1784. By this time, the head of the Tver diocese had changed.
And on July 21, 1785, Mark Fedorovich turned to the new Archbishop Joasaph: “... In my patrimony, the village of Krasnoye, there is a dilapidated wooden church in the name of the glorifying ascension of Christ ... For this, Your Eminence, I humbly ask for the above shown wooden church in dismantling and re-assembly, as well as the construction of a stone church, give me your archpastoral letter ... ".
On June 30, 1785, the building charter for the construction new church was finally issued to Poltoratsky.
It was decided to build a church similar to the famous Chesme Church, built in 1777-1780 at the behest of Catherine II by architect Yuri Matveyevich Felten near St. Petersburg. Probably, the wife of Mark Fedorovich Poltoratsky Agafokleya Alexandrovna, who literally idolized the empress, hoped by building the church, which was a complete copy of Chesmenskaya, to once again attract the attention of Catherine II and achieve her goodwill. By the way, another similar temple was built in 1780 according to the project of Yu. M. Felten in the estate of A. D. Lansky in the village of Posadnikovo, Novorzhevsky district, Pskov province.
The construction of the temple was carried out under the care and dependence of A. A. Poltoratskaya for five years, and was completed in 1790, on the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Chesma, but its consecration in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord took place only 13 years later, on July 21, 1803. It was carried out by the Archbishop of Tver and Kashin Pavel.
According to an inventory compiled in 1848, “... the church is stone, cross-shaped, round, of the Gothic type, 10 sazhens long and wide. The walls of this church, both inside and out, are plastered and painted, outside - in smooth places, with yellow paint, and the plinth, pilasters of the walls, three figured stone cornices, on the church dome, towers and pillars are bleached, inside the walls are painted in smooth places with blue , and the pilasters of the walls and in some places with white paints with stucco work on the arches and kumpole ... The floor in the church and the altar is stone, unpainted. There are 11 windows in the whole church, namely: in the kumpole 4, one round above the western door and 6 below, and in the windows there are 11 frames made of pine wood with glass, reinforced with iron bars below, and above the doors there are three triangular windows with bars. The church has one dome with four towers on its sides, of which each has 4 unframed windows, covered with iron and painted with black paint. There are eight corners around the chapter, four towers around each, and around the whole church along the edges of the roof there are 16 white stone curly columns. On the head and towers there are copper crosses, figured, eight-pointed, with a crescent below (according to the metric of 1887 - six-pointed with crescents), painted with yellow paint. The roof of the church is iron, on wooden rafters, painted with black paint. Entrance doors into the church from three sides, wooden, mortar, painted with wild paint, with external masks, internal locks and iron hooks.
The stone porches are not covered. There is no bell tower, but 4 copper bells weighing 50 pounds. 20 f. (812 kg), 16 pounds. 27 f. (267 kg.), 1 pood 39 f. (20 kg.) and 1 pound 2 f. (17 kg), cast in Moscow, hung on two western and northern towers on top of the church.
At the entrance to the church, over two twisted columns were placed images of Angels - one with a trumpet, the Apocalyptic symbol, and the other with a cross in his hands, above them were pyramids 120 cm high.
The plinth, ornamental details of the façade, cornices, framing of the portal and windows, the figures of Angels above the pilasters - the "obelisks" of the portal, as well as domes and vimpergi with tented endings are made of old white limestone, which gives the building a special sophistication.
Inside the church, on an unclothed oak throne, there was a yellow satin antimension, consecrated in 1802 by Bishop Paul. Clothes for the throne were donated by former professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy D. Vershinsky. The carved figured gilded altar cross had in five gilded hallmarks enamel images of the Exaltation, the Entry into the Temple, Christ the Savior, Reverend Sergius With Mother of God yu and the Apostles Peter and John and St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow. On the High Place on the wall was placed a picturesque image of Christ the Savior on the throne, surrounded by nine angelic faces, the Lord of hosts was depicted above. According to another description, the altarpiece was two-sided and depicted the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and Saint Barbara, in a gilded oval frame with a crown on top. Above the altar was placed a picturesque icon depicting the position in the tomb of Christ the Savior. The metric of 1887 describes a two-tiered iconostasis “with columns, above the columns there is a cornice, above it there are decorations in the form of circles, for the most part its field is smooth and all gilded.”
The carved wooden iconostasis with images painted on canvas was made by Agafoklea Alexandrovna Poltoratskaya, and the landowner Anna Nikolaevna Ermolaeva gilded it. The gilded latticed Royal Doors were decorated with traditional images of the Annunciation and the Evangelists, with a Triangle in radiance and the word "GOD" above them. Other icons were also distinguished by great originality. For example, the Savior in the local row was depicted blessing right hand and holding a globe in the left. The Mother of God with the Eternal Child was surrounded by the faces of Angels. On the southern gates there was an icon of St. Simeon the God-Receiver with the God-child in his arms, on the northern gates - the Holy Prophet Moses with the tablets. Above the gate, respectively, were placed the images of the Nativity of Christ and the Introduction. The first tier also contained images of St. Nicholas and St. Demetrius of Rostov. In the upper tier above royal doors there was an image of the Fatherland, surrounded by icons of 12 Apostles (including the Apostle Mark - probably heavenly patron the builder of the temple Mark Fedorovich Poltoratsky) and the Holy Prophet David. On top of the entire iconostasis was placed the Crucifixion with those present.
WITH south side at the door of the temple there was a richly decorated shroud, on the right - the icon of St. John the Baptist in a gilded riza, considered miraculous and revealed in the village of Maslovo, Krasnovsky parish. A “very valuable chandelier” stood out - a crystal chandelier with copper chandeliers, two ancient altar crosses and images of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Tikhon of Zadonsk in the altar (the antiquity of the latter, however, is doubtful, given the time of the canonization of St. Tikhon - 1861). Other icons include images of the Savior and the Mother of God in Greek letters, the fiery ascent to heaven of the Prophet Elijah, the Great Martyr George and St. Nicholas, banners with images of Theophany and St. Nicholas, the Resurrection and the Mother of God. Among the old books of the temple were the Apostle of 1699, Menaion of 1754 and 1796, Trebniks of 1698 and 1754, and Creations of the Holy Fathers.
Agathoklea Aleksandrovna Poltoratskaya donated two liturgical sets, two Gospels, including one (1800) overlaid with silver, and two chasubles to the new church.
Most of the church utensils from the former church were transferred to the chapel of the village of Kushnikovo, and a “pillar-chapel” was subsequently installed on the site of the old church.
In 1822, Agathoklea Alexandrovna Poltoratskaya died.
By her will, she assigned the Krasnoye estate to her son Alexander Markovich, who settled here in 1810, immediately after retiring.
In 1824, Alexander Markovich built a stone fence with a wooden lattice around the church in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Poltoratsky, in a petition addressed to Ion, Archbishop of Tver and Kashinsky, wrote: “... Staritsky district in the village of Krasnoye, near my patrimony, the stone church in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord, built by my late parent, is sufficient with its splendor and property against other churches, but it is not surrounded by a fence, on which a fence decent to her building, I put a firm intention with my own dependency, without touching in the slightest on the church sum, to proceed with its construction exactly with your archpastoral blessing.
That is why I ask this church to allow me to enclose this church with a decent fence for its building. April 25, 1824"
On the petition, a resolution of June 8, 1824: “According to the desire of the petitioner, the fence to encircle the church at his own expense is blessed.”
After the death of Alexander Markovich Poltoratsky in 1843, the village of Krasnoe and the village of Sloboda, in which there were 99 male serf souls, went to his daughter Praskovya.
The daughter of A. M. Poltoratsky Praskovya Alexandrovna rarely appeared in Krasnoye - she lived in Moscow, in her own house, which was located in Levshin Lane. All affairs in the estate were managed by the manager. The estate was repeatedly mortgaged in the Moscow Board of Trustees, the last time in 1856.
On December 29, 1859, P. A. Poltoratskaya sold the village of Krasnoye with the master’s house, services, a garden and a flour-grinding water mill, as well as the village of Sloboda to a retired collegiate adviser Boris Vasilyevich Kostylev (1801–1871).
Then the estate was owned by his son Boris Borisovich. He was a doctor, served in the Tver Provincial Zemstvo Hospital, and after his resignation began to practice at home. For these purposes, on the ground floor of the manor house in Krasnoye, he was equipped with a medical office.
In 1901, B. B. Kostylev had to take out a loan from the State Noble Land Bank to purchase new agricultural equipment. The estate was assessed - it amounted to 181,218 rubles. Kostylev failed to repay the loan in time, and, starting from 1905, the estate was put up for auction several times. Finally, in December 1910, at the next auction, his sister B.B. Kostyleva Anna Borisovna, thereby keeping the estate for the family.
Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, B. B. Kostylev organized a 50-bed hospital for the sick and wounded soldiers on the top floor of the manor's house in Krasnoye, and he himself became its head. In addition, he donated a kitchen, a laundry room and a room for medical personnel for the needs of this medical institution. Until 1918, this hospital worked in Krasnoye. On December 1, 1917, Kostylev was arrested, after some time he was released, but he never returned to Krasnoe.
In 1931, the Krasnovskaya Transfiguration Church was closed. The bells of the temple were destroyed, the fence was removed and, according to the recollections of the old-timers, they were placed around the city garden in the city of Staritsa. Until 1998, the collective farm used the church as a warehouse.
On July 12, 1998, the day of the chief apostles Peter and Paul, the Transfiguration Church was opened in the village of Krasnoe.
