Religious, Spiritual sights in Moscow
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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.
Vasily I built the first wooden church on this site in 1397. Between 1484 and 1489, Ivan III had the Annunciation Cathedral rebuilt to serve as the royal family's private chapel. Originally the cathedral had just three domes and an open gallery round three sides. Ivan the Terrible, whose tastes were more elaborate, added six more domes and chapels at each corner, enclosed the gallery and gilded the roof.
Under Orthodox law, Ivan's fourth marriage d…
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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 pl. The Old Believers split from the main Russian Orthodox Church in 1653, when they refused to accept certain reforms. They have maintained the 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, which is among the most important in the country. The yellow, classical-style Intercession Church contains one of Moscow’s finest collections of icons, all dating from before 1653, with the oldest being the 14th-century Saviour with …
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Yelokhovsky Cathedral
On the outskirts of Moscow, Spartakovskaya ul 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), and the Patriarch now leads important services here. Built between 1837 and 1845 with five domes in a Russian eclectic style, the cathedral is full of gilt and icons, not to mention old women kneeling, polishing, lighting candles, crossing themselves and kissing the floor. In the northern part is the tomb of St Nicholas the Miracle Worker (Svyatoy Nikolay Ugodnik). A shrine in front of the right side of the iconost…
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Churches of the Grand & Small Ascension
In 1831 the poet Alexander Pushkin married Natalya Goncharova in the elegant Church of the Grand Ascension, on the western side of pl 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. Down the street, the festive Church of the Small Ascension sits on the corner of Voznesensky per. Built in the early 17th century, it features whitewashed walls and stone embellishments carved in a primitive style.
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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.
Originally an open gallery or porch surrounded the church; it was later removed and the church was connected with the palace for the convenience of the tsars. The interior walls, ceilings and pillars are covered with 17th-century frescoes. It houses an exhibition of 15th- to 17th-century woodcarvings.
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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 that once took place here. On the orders of Tsar Alexey, the Likhud brothers, scholars of Greek, opened the Slavonic Greek and Latin Academy on the monastery premises in 1687. (Mikhail Lomonosov was a student here.) The academy later became a divinity school and was transferred to the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius in 1814.
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Church of the Trinity in Nikitniki
This little gem of a church, built in the 1630s, is an exquisite example of Russian baroque. Its onion domes and tiers of red and white spade gables rise from a square tower. Its interior 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 the patrons who financed the construction of the church.
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Monastery of the Epiphany
This monastery is the second-oldest in Moscow; it was founded in 1296 by Prince Daniil, son of Alexander Nevsky. Stefan, one of the first abbots of the monastery, was the brother of Sergei Radonezhsky, who was patron saint of Russia and founder of the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius. The current Epiphany Cathedral was constructed in the 1690s in the Moscow baroque style.
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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. Today the building serves as a working synagogue, as well as a social centre for the small but growing Jewish community in Moscow.
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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 the ones featured here. Apparently, he considered such architecture too Russian, too secular and too far removed from the Church’s Byzantine roots. Fortunately, the Church of the Nativity has survived to grace this corner near Pushkinskaya pl.
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Ecclesiastic Residence
This sumptuous Ecclesiastic Residence is near Novospassky Monastery. It was the home of the Moscow metropolitans after the founding of the Russian patriarchate in the 16th century, when they lost their place in the Kremlin.
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