Showing 1-15 of 15 results
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Annunciation Cathedral
The Annunciation Cathedral, at the southwest corner of Sobornaya ploshchad, contains the celebrated icons of master painter Theophanes the Greek. They have a timeless beauty that appeals even to those usually left cold by icons.
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Church Of The Deposition Of The Robe
This delicate single-domed church, beside the west door of the Assumption Cathedral, was built between 1484 and 1486 in exclusively Russian style. It was the private chapel of the heads of the Church, who tended to be highly suspicious of such people as Italian architects.
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Church Of The Nativity Of The Virgin In Putinki
When this church was completed in 1652, the Patriarch Nikon responded by banning tent roofs like those featured here. Apparently, he considered such architecture too Russian, too secular, and too far from the Church's Byzantine roots. Fortunately, the Church of the Nativity has survived to grace this corner near Pushkinskaya ploshchad.
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Church Of The Trinity In Nikitniki
This little gem of a church, built in the 1630s, is a exquisite example of Russian baroque. Its onion domes and tiers of red and white spade gables rise from a square tower. Its interior - only partially open due to renovation - is covered with 1650s' gospel frescoes by Simon Ushakov and others. A carved doorway leads into St Nikita the Martyr's chapel, above the vault of the Nikitnikov merchant family, one of whom built the church.
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Churches Of The Grand & Small Ascension
In 1831 the poet Alexander Pushkin married Natalia Goncharova in the elegant Church of the Grand Ascension, on the western side of ploshchad Nikitskie Vorota. Six years later he died in St Petersburg, defending her honour in a duel. Such passion, such romance... The church is frequently closed, but the celebrated couple is featured in the Rotunda Fountain, erected in 1999 to commemorate the poet's 100th birthday.
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Danilovsky Monastery
The headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church stands behind white fortress walls. The Danilovsky Monastery was built in the late 13th century by Daniil, the first Prince of Moscow, as an outer city defence. It was repeatedly altered over the next several hundred years, and served as a factory and a detention centre during the Soviet period.
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Donskoy Monastery
The youngest of Moscow's fortified monasteries was founded in 1591 and was built to house the Virgin of the Don icon (now in the Tretyakov Gallery). This revered icon is credited with victory in the 1380 battle of Kulikovo; it's also said that in 1591 the Tatar Khan Giri retreated without a fight after the icon showered him with burning arrows in a dream.
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Kazan Cathedral
The tiny Kazan Cathedral, opposite the northern end of GUM, is a 1993 replica. The original was founded in 1636 in thanks for the 1612 expulsion of Polish invaders (for two centuries it housed the Virgin of Kazan icon, which supposedly helped to rout the Poles). Three hundred years later the cathedral was completely demolished, allegedly because it impeded the flow of celebrating workers in May Day and Revolution Day parades.
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Lyubavicheskaya Synagogue
Converted to a theatre in the 1930s, this building was still used for gatherings by the Jewish community throughout the Soviet period. The rug on the altar hides a trapdoor leading to a small cell where Jews used to hide - from the communists or the Nazis or both. Today it serves as a working synagogue, as well as a social centre for the small but reviving Jewish community in Moscow.
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Monastery of the Epiphany
Look out for the charming, brightly painted Monastery of the Epiphany opposite Ploshchad Revolyutsii Metro station and the small churches along ul Varvarka, incongruously surrounded by general concrete sprawl.
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Novospassky Monastery
Another 15th-century fort-monastery is one kilometre south of Taganskaya ploshchad: the New Monastery of the Saviour, or Novospassky Monastery.
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Old Believers' Community
One of Russia's most atmospheric religious centres is the Old Believers' Community, located at Rogozhskoe, 3km east of Taganskaya ploshchad. The Old Believers split from the main Russian Orthodox Church in 1653 when they refused to accept certain reforms. They have maintained old forms of worship and customs ever since. In the late 18th century, during a brief period free of persecution, rich Old Believer merchants founded this community, among the most important in the country.
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Upper St Peter Monastery
The Upper St Peter Monastery was founded in the 1380s, part of an early defensive ring around Moscow. The grounds are pleasant in a peaceful, near-deserted way. The main onion-domed Virgin of Bogolyubovo Church dates from the late 17th century. The loveliest structure is the brick Cathedral of Metropolitan Pyotr in the middle of the grounds, restored with a shingle roof. (When Peter the Great ousted the Regent Sofia in 1690, his mother was so pleased she built him this church.)
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Yelokhovsky Cathedral
Spartakovskaya ulitsa is the unlikely address of Moscow's senior Orthodox cathedral. This role was given to the Church of the Epiphany in Yelokhovo in 1943. (The Patriarch had been evicted from the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral in 1918.) The Patriarch leads important services here today.
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Zaikonospassky Monastery
This monastery was founded by Boris Godunov in 1600, although the church was built in 1660. The name means 'behind the icon stall', a reference to the busy icon trade which took place here. On the orders of Tsar Alexei, the Likhud brothers, scholars of Greek, opened the Slavonic Greek and Latin Academy on the monastery premises in 1866. (Mikhail Lomonosov was a student here.) The school later became a divinity school, and was transferred to the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius in 1814.
Showing 1-15 of 15 results
