Church of Archangel Michael

The village of Gorodishche was founded, presumably, in the 20s of the XIX century by settlers from the Voronezh province. The history of the church of Archangel Michael began in 1836, when the villagers applied for permission to build their own wooden church. Permission was obtained, but the first wooden church, as well as, possibly, the second one built later, also wooden, died from the fire. In 1880, the construction of the current stone church began according to one of the slightly modified model projects of architect K.A. Ton. Clay for bricks was mined near the village. The bricks were delivered to the temple manually. When young people gathered for evening gatherings, the first thing they had to do was bring bricks to the temple under construction, lift it through the scaffolding to the place of laying and carefully fold it, only then the boys and girls went on walks. The temple was built "by the whole world." In 1892, bells were installed in the bell tower, and the church was consecrated by Bishop Makariy (Troitskiy) of Orenburg and Ural.

The church was closed on April 14, 1931. Two clergymen of the church and several members of the clergy were repressed. The temple building was used as a granary, tractor repair shop, cement warehouse, and then it was abandoned. In the 50s of the XX century, the temple, as an unacceptable reminder of faith, was tried to be destroyed, but the building stood, although badly damaged.

The restoration of the temple began in 1991 by the villagers and with the help of philanthropists. The dilapidated bell tower was completed, the murals and the iconostasis were restored (using small preserved fragments of the pre-revolutionary iconostasis), new temple icons were painted, a hotel for pilgrims was built and the territory was put in order. In 2010, the construction of a wooden chapel and font at the newly built holy spring in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Skoroposlushnitsa" was completed.

After the restoration and resumption of divine services, the Church of Archangel Michael became famous as a place of glorification of the miraculous list of the Athos icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary "The Quick-Hearer". This icon was returned to the temple with the beginning of its restoration, and from the very beginning, those who turned to the Blessed Virgin in front of her began to receive grace-filled help in illnesses, strengthening in faith, and blessing in deeds.

Therefore, every Friday and Sunday evenings, special prayer services were held in front of the "Skoroposlushnitsa" icon in the temple, which were attended not only by villagers, but also by believers from Orenburg, surrounding villages and even neighboring regions. The village of Gorodishche is known as one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Orenburg diocese (along with, for example, St. Nicholas Cathedral in Orenburg, where, with the blessing of Metropolitan Valentin of Orenburg and Saraktash, the modern icon storage site was identified). In addition, since its restoration, the church of Archangel Michael has collected fragments of the relics of many revered saints of the Orthodox Church: Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Optina elders and many others, and the appearance of many of them in our church has its own history.