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St. Basil's Cathedral, officially the Cathedral of the Intercession
of the Most Holy Theotokos, on the Moat (also the Intercession
Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Intercession on the Moat) is an Orthodox
church on Red Square in Moscow, a monument of Russian architecture.
Built in 1555-1561.
It unites eleven churches (chapels), some of
which are consecrated in honor of the saints, whose days of memory fell
on the decisive battles for Kazan. The central church was built in honor
of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, around which separate
churches are grouped in honor of: the Holy Trinity, the Entry of the
Lord into Jerusalem, St. Nicholas of Velikoretsky, the Three Patriarchs:
Alexander, John and Paul the New, Gregory of Armenia, Cyprian and
Justina, Alexander Svirsky and Varlaam Khutynsky , placed on the same
base-basement, as well as a chapel in honor of St. Basil the Blessed,
after whom the temple received a second, more well-known name, and the
Church of St. John the Blessed, reopened after a long desolation in
November 2018.
The name refers to a moat that ran along the
Kremlin wall and served as a defensive fortification (Alevizov moat),
its depth was about 13 meters, and its width was about 36 meters.
Included in the Russian list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is a
branch of the State Historical Museum.
The construction of temples near the Kremlin wall in honor of
military victories began with Vasily III, who ordered the construction
of a temple in the name of the Origin of the Holy Cross in honor of his
capture of Smolensk and dedicated its thrones to those holidays and
saints whose days of memory fell on the days of victories.
As a
result of the Kazan campaigns of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, the Kazan
Khanate was annexed to the Muscovite state. The capture of Kazan took
place on October 2, 1552, on the day of memory of Cyprian and Justina,
the day after the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. According to
Nina Moleva, during these campaigns, “camping” wooden churches were
erected on the outskirts of Troitskaya Square (today’s Red Square) in
memory of the victories won over the Tatars, and after Kazan was annexed
to the Moscow state, Ivan the Terrible ordered these churches to be
united into one stone church during the name of the Protection of the
Virgin.
On October 1, 1554, at the behest of Ivan IV the
Terrible, a wooden Church of the Intercession with seven side chapels
was consecrated in honor of the Kazan victory. It stood for less than a
year and was dismantled, and a stone cathedral was laid in its place.
The construction of the temple began in 1555. Its main part was erected
by the autumn of 1559. At the same time, all its churches were
consecrated, except for the central one. A year and a half later, on
June 29, 1561, the entire cathedral was consecrated, and this day became
the date of completion of the construction of the temple.
The
exact date of completion of the construction of the Intercession
Cathedral became known when the restorers in 1957-1961 revealed the text
of the temple-built “chronicle”, made in a circle at the transitions
from the octagon to the tent and on the edges of the tent of the
Intercession Church: By the command of the pious Tsar Grand Duke Ivan
Vasilyevich of All Russia, the autocrat and with his noble children,
under Tsarevich Ivan and under Tsarevich Theodore, with the blessing of
Metropolitan Macarius of All Russia, this holy Church of the
Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos was completed in the summer of
7069 of the month of June 29 in memory of the holy and all-praised
Supreme Apostles Peter and Paul in honor and glory of the Holy Trinity.
This gives the date June 29, 1561, when the construction of the church
was completed.
There are several versions of the construction of the cathedral.
According to one of them, which arose in the 1950s, the architect of the
temple was the famous Pskov master Postnik Yakovlev, nicknamed Barma.
However, this information is called into question by several sources.
According to the second, widely known version, Barma and Postnik are
two different architects who participated in the construction. Their
names became known only in 1895, when a 17th-century handwritten
collection found in the archives of the Rumyantsev Museum found an entry
where the chronicler said that “God gave” Ivan the Terrible “two Russian
masters named rekl [that is, nicknamed] Postnik and Barma. In another
collection, it is briefly reported that "the master [of the cathedral]
was Barma and his comrades." The chronicler explains that these masters
were “wisdom and convenient for such a wonderful deed.” Tatyana
Saracheva, head of the Pokrovsky Cathedral branch of the Historical
Museum, adheres to this version, but a number of historians believe that
this version is outdated.
According to the third version, the
cathedral was built by an unknown Western European master, presumably an
Italian, like a significant part of the structures of the Moscow Kremlin
erected earlier. Hence the unique style, which combines the traditions
of both Russian architecture and European architecture of the
Renaissance, but this version has not yet found clear documentary
evidence.
According to legend, the architects of the cathedral,
Barma and Postnik, and in another version, an unknown architect, were
blinded by order of Ivan the Terrible so that they could no longer build
such a temple. For the first time, a foreigner, the 17th-century
Holstein ambassador Adam Alearius (Olearius), calls the cathedral
"Jerusalem" for the first time. However, if the author of the cathedral
is Postnik, then he could not be blinded, since for several years after
the construction of the cathedral he participated in the creation of the
Kazan Kremlin. According to another legend, the architect saw how,
during the capture of Kazan, the famous eight-domed mosque Kul-Sharif
was destroyed. Returning to Moscow, he recreated her image in the
Intercession Cathedral, which also indicates that the architect was not
blinded. The postnik, as it were, made it clear to the Tatars that from
now on, having been baptized, they would find something native in
Orthodoxy. This version arose at the beginning of the 20th century among
Western art historians, who believe that Postnik was influenced by
Eastern architecture.
There is also a legend that the king
ordered the architect of the cathedral to be imprisoned after he boasted
that he could build a better church.
Another legend says that St.
Basil the Blessed collected money for the construction of the temple: he
brought coins to Red Square and threw them over his right shoulder, no
one touched them until the holy fool transferred the entire amount to
Ivan the Terrible before his death. It was believed that Vasily died in
1552, while the temple began to be built three years later. Currently,
the date of the death of St. Basil is considered to be 1557.
Tsar
Fyodor Ivanovich, convinced of the holiness of the life of St. Basil the
Blessed, ordered that his relics be buried at the Pokrovsky Cathedral.
According to the Solovetsky chronicler, on August 2, 1588 (7096),
several healings took place from the relics of the saint. The New
Chronicler indicated that on this day Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich established
a feast for St. Basil the Blessed, and in 1588 many miracles happened
from the coffin of Vasily, so Fyodor Ivanovich ordered that a gilded
silver shrine decorated with stones and pearls be built over his tomb,
and also built over his coffin is a stone temple. So in 1588, over the
relics of St. Basil the Blessed, which were hidden under the vaults of
the porch between the aisles of the Holy Trinity and the Three
Patriarchs, the tenth church was added to the Intercession Church, which
received his name. For its device, arched openings were laid in the
northeastern part of the cathedral. Architecturally, the church was an
independent temple with a separate entrance. During the Time of
Troubles, the Poles stole decorations from the shrine of St. Basil, and
horses were placed in the lower churches of the cathedral.
According to the assumption of some historians, the cathedral was
originally conceived as a likeness of the seven-tower Blachernae
Monastery with the Church of the Virgin, in which the miracle of the
Intercession once took place. By its presence and location, it was
supposed to assert a new state ideology: "Moscow is the third Rome." As
for the eighth chapel, scientists agree with the generally accepted
opinion, based on the annalistic report, that the masters built the
temple "not as it was commanded (by the king), but as if by Bose reason
was bestowed upon them in the dimension of the foundation."
According to other sources, the very idea of a multi-chapel cathedral
belonged to Metropolitan Macarius, who decided to recreate in the center
of Moscow the image of the holy city of Jerusalem - a city within a
city, which also corresponded to the concept of the Third Rome. The
Pokrovsky Cathedral symbolizes the Heavenly Jerusalem: the architects
put several churches on the same foundation, because that is how they
imagined the “promised city”.
However, the meaning of the
coloring of the domes remains unsolved to this day. Back in the 19th
century, the writer Nikolai Chaev suggested that the color of the domes
of the temple could be explained by the dream of Blessed Andrew the Holy
Fool (Constantinople), a holy ascetic, with whom, according to church
tradition, the feast of the Intercession of the Mother of God is
connected. He dreamed of Heavenly Jerusalem and there “there were many
gardens, in them tall trees, swaying with their tops ... Some of the
trees were in bloom, others were decorated with golden foliage, others
had various fruits of inexpressible beauty.”
In the middle of the 16th century, the cathedral had a strict but
elegant appearance: it was painted in the fresco technique and imitated
brickwork. At that time there were no porches, St. Basil's Church. The
bell tower looked different. Without later additions, the cathedral
initially looked like a building with a strict composition: the tented
church was surrounded by eight separate churches, some of which were
consecrated in honor of saints whose days of memory fell on the decisive
battles for Kazan, this complex was more of a memorial.
The
cathedral was not heated. In 1588, the tenth St. Basil's Church was
added to it, which became heated. Divine services were held daily in it,
unlike other churches of the cathedral. The name of this church was
assigned to the cathedral.
At the end of the 16th century,
figured domes of the cathedral appeared - instead of the original cover,
which burned down during the next fire. This event does not have a fixed
annalistic date. It is only known that during the reign of Tsar Fyodor
Ivanovich, “the tops at the Trinity and at the Pokrov on the Moat were
made with different samples and upholstered with German iron.”
The interiors of the cathedral, interconnected by a labyrinth of
passages, are distinguished by their small size and small capacity. On
the days of great church holidays, the inhabitants of Moscow and the
clergy gathered on Red Square. The clergy of the temple was located on
the Execution Ground, where the lectern was installed, and the cathedral
itself served as a kind of huge altar of a conditional open-air temple.
In the second half of the 17th century, significant
changes took place in the appearance of the cathedral. In the 1670s, the
ensemble was supplemented by a hipped bell tower, its heads were covered
with iron, and the porch was covered with tiles, a bright colorful
ornamental painting appeared on the cathedral. At the same time, the
dilapidated wooden churches on Red Square were closed and, with the
consent of Patriarch Joachim, eight more were added to the previous ten
thrones, bearing the name of the abolished ones. In 1672, a small chapel
was added to the cathedral over the grave of another revered Moscow
saint, John, who was buried in this place in 1589. There is no
unequivocal information about how many thrones were then transferred to
the cathedral. An inventory of ramshackle, compiled in 1688, indicates
only twenty.
Before the reconstruction of the Ivan the Great Bell
Tower in the Kremlin in 1600, the cathedral was the tallest building in
Moscow within its then borders (on the territory of present-day Moscow
it is surpassed by the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye).
In 1680, the cathedral was significantly restored. In the course of the
work, the wooden galleries-ambulances were replaced with brick ones,
instead of the belfry, a hipped bell tower was installed and a new
covering was made. At the same time, the altars of thirteen or fourteen
(it is not known exactly) churches that stood on Red Square along the
moat were transferred to the basement of the temple - they were
previously placed on the sites of public executions (all these churches
had the prefix "on blood" in their names). The outer and inner
galleries, platforms and parapets of the porches were painted with grass
ornaments. These renovations were completed by 1683, and information
about them is included in the inscriptions on the ceramic tiles that
decorated the facade of the cathedral.
As the historian Pyotr Khavsky pointed out, in the
book of 1722 there were 18 churches (thrones) in the temple:
Life-Giving Trinity
Entrance to Jerusalem
Paraskeva-Fridays
Nikola Velikoretsky
The Beheading of John the Baptist
Varlaam
Khutynsky
Apostle Andronicus
Cyprian and Justinia
Gregory of
Armenia
Deposition of the Virgin Mary (with the relics of St. John
the Blessed)
Basil the Great
Virgin of Theodosius
Alexander
Svirsky
Sergius of Radonezh
Mary of Egypt
Epiphany
All
Saints
Three Patriarchs
In 1737, the Trinity fire occurred in
Moscow, and the temple was almost completely burned out. In the
documents of the cathedral for that year, for the first time, the name
of the architect Ivan Michurin is mentioned, under whose leadership work
was carried out to restore the architecture and interiors of the
cathedral. The master drew up a description and plan of the cathedral
during restoration.
From 1784 to 1786, by decree of Catherine II,
the cathedral was significantly repaired and rebuilt. For the
restoration of the temple, Catherine allocated 10 thousand rubles to the
Moscow Archbishop Platon. The architect Ivan Yakovlev supervised the
work. A little more than a century, the northern facade of the Pokrovsky
Cathedral was decorated with the Feodosievskaya Church. As a result of
the work, the octagon and the drum with the cupola of this church were
dismantled, the lower tier turned into a covered porch of St. Basil's
Church, and the throne was abolished. In the premises of the second
tier, a new cathedral sacristy was founded. Where the sacristy was
previously located is unknown.
At that time, the cathedral had
not yet acquired its present form. From the Spassky Gates, the building
was blocked by two-story bookstores, and from the side of the Execution
Ground it was built up with Apple Row. Only under Alexander I,
arbitrarily placed benches were broken, the slope was leveled, lined
along Moskvoretskaya Street and from the side of the Execution Ground
with wild stone and surrounded by an iron grate.
In 1812, the French who occupied Moscow kept horses in
the basement of the Pokrovsky Cathedral. There is a legend that Napoleon
Bonaparte, admired by the beauty of the temple, intended to transport it
to France. However, when he realized that this was impossible, he
decided to blow up the cathedral. According to legend, the rain put out
the fuses of the French cannons after the Muscovites prayed. There is no
documentary evidence for this story.
Another legend says that
Napoleon, approaching the Kremlin on September 3 (15) at about three
o'clock in the afternoon, said: "Burn this mosque." There was no
explosion, but all the utensils, sacristy and iconostases were looted
and desecrated. Even the iron cap from the relics of Blessed John the
Fool was stolen. The roof of the cathedral was badly damaged by stones
from the blown up Kremlin buildings.
After the Patriotic War of
1812, Red Square began to be landscaped, but at that time the cathedral
still did not have a modern look. The story is known how Alexander I,
being in England after the war, saw the image of the Intercession
Cathedral without extensions and did not recognize it. In 1817, the
architect Osip Bove, reconstructing Red Square with shopping arcades,
laid out the retaining wall of the temple with "wild" stone and
installed a cast-iron fence: first along Moskvoretskaya Street, and in
1834, after the construction of Maslyany Lane, also on the south side of
the temple. In the 19th century, after the Neglinka River was closed
into a pipe, a fence of the Intercession Church was made from an
openwork cast-iron grate from its embankment
The French traveler
Astolfe de Custine in the book "Russia in 1839" describes the cathedral
as follows:
I saw him only from a distance and was completely
fascinated. Imagine a cluster of small turrets of different heights that
together make up a bush, a bouquet of flowers; Or rather, imagine a
gnarled fruit, all dotted with growths, a cantaloupe melon with bumpy
sides, or, even better, a multi-colored crystal, brightly sparkling with
its smooth edges in the sun, like a glass of Bohemian or Venetian glass,
like painted Delft faience, like Chinese lacquer a casket: these are the
scales of goldfish, snake skin spread over a shapeless pile of stones,
dragon heads, a chameleon skin, treasures of altars, robes of priests;
and all this is crowned with iridescent, like silk, pins; in the narrow
gaps between the elegant dapper turrets, a gray, pink, azure roof
shines, just as smooth and sparkling in the sun; these colorful carpets
dazzle the eyes and enchant the imagination.
However, not
all foreign travelers spoke flatteringly about the unusual Pokrovsky
Cathedral, some called it barbaric.
In 1880, the temple acquired
the Lepeshkin-Demidov estate on Pyatnitskaya Street. Until 1918, the
rector of the temple, Father John Vostorgov, a well-known preacher at
that time, a church and public figure associated with Grigory Rasputin,
lived in it. After the revolution and the overthrow of the royal family,
he read Sunday sermons from the Execution Ground, condemning the
Bolsheviks. The vigorous social activity of Father John caused concern
to the Soviet authorities. He was initially charged with anti-Semitism;
as an occasion, the prayer service served by John on May 3, 1918 in
memory of the martyr Gabriel of Bialystok, whose relics were kept in the
Intercession Cathedral, was used. Archpriest John Vostorgov was arrested
on May 31 and imprisoned in the Butyrka prison in Moscow. On September
4, John Vostorgov was extrajudicially sentenced to death by the decision
of the Investigation Commission of the Revolutionary Tribunal under the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee. On September 5, he was shot and
buried in an unknown common grave at the place of execution at the
Bratsk military cemetery. In 2000 Father John was canonized in the
Russian Orthodox Church. In 1918-1919, the rector of the church was
Roman Medved, later a clergyman.
In the 1890s, the temple was
again reconstructed on a large scale: the floors were strengthened, and
the cathedral sacristy was decorated with colored stained-glass windows,
designed by the order of the Moscow Archaeological Society by architect
Andrei Pavlinov. From the early 1900s to 1912, the temple was restored
under the guidance of architect Sergei Solovyov.
In 1918, the Intercession Cathedral became one of the
first cultural objects taken under state protection as a monument of
national and world significance. At the same time services were stopped
in the upper churches. From that moment began its museumification.
Archpriest John Kuznetsov became the first caretaker of the museum. In
the post-revolutionary years, the cathedral was in distress. Roofs
leaked in many places, windows were shattered, and snow lay inside the
churches in winter. In the 1920s, repair and restoration work was
carried out in the cathedral, which was led by architects Nikolai
Kurdyukov and Alexander Aleksandrovich Zhelyabuzhsky.
In 1923, it
was decided to create a historical and architectural museum in the
cathedral. Its first head was E. I. Silin, a researcher at the State
Historical Museum. The museum was opened to visitors on May 21, 1923,
and the collection of funds was carried out in parallel.
In
1923-1949, large-scale research was carried out in the museum. Legends
attributed to the temple a network of underground passages. In 1924, the
restorer and architect Dmitry Sukhov and the speleologist-historian
Ignatius Stelletsky discovered a walled-up room with a deep hole in the
floor under the chapel of John the Merciful. The window-loopholes of the
room were bricked up. “In the lower tier of the church, instead of
ordinary windows, there are embrasures, both from the side of the river
and from the side of Red Square. In the labyrinth of the basements of
the cathedral, the embrasures have the same approaches as for the
cannons in the towers of Kitay-gorod and any of the monasteries,” wrote
Ignatius Stelletsky. This discovery led him to the idea that in the 16th
century the lower part of St. Basil's Cathedral was intended for combat.
The theory about the passages leading from the temple to the territory
of the Kremlin was confirmed at the present time, when a badger,
presumably from the Tainitsky garden, made his way into an accidentally
discovered hole near the foundation. In addition, the work carried out
made it possible to restore the original appearance of the gallery.
In 1928, the Pokrovsky Cathedral museum became a branch of the State
Historical Museum. Despite regular restoration work, the temple was
always open to visitors. It was closed only once - during the Great
Patriotic War. In 1929, divine services were finally banned in the
cathedral, the bells were removed and melted down.
In the 1930s,
Joseph Stalin had an incident with Lazar Kaganovich, when he presented
Stalin with a project for the reconstruction of Red Square and removed
the figurine of the cathedral from the model, the leader commanded:
“Lazar, put it in its place!”.
Closer to the cathedral in 1931,
they moved the bronze monument to Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky,
which has been standing on Red Square since 1818.
In 1936, the
authorities ruled that the church was obstructing traffic, and suggested
that the restorer Pyotr Baranovsky take measurements for demolition. He
refused and threatened to commit suicide if the temple was demolished.
V. Peskov wrote about this in the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda on July
4, 1965. Also, the daughter of the architect Olga Baranovskaya said that
he wrote a telegram to Stalin with a request to "prevent the destruction
of St. Basil's Cathedral, as this would bring political harm to the
Soviet regime." However, there is no official evidence that Pyotr
Baranovsky actively advocated protecting the cathedral from destruction.
After the end of the Great Patriotic War, the cathedral began to be
restored, and on September 7, 1947, on the day of the celebration of the
800th anniversary of Moscow, the museum reopened.
In 1954-1955,
the restoration of the entire surface of the walls and the study of
their paint layers were carried out for the first time. At the same
time, the “brick-like” painting of the 16th century was opened, this
appearance was returned to the cathedral, also restoring the white-stone
details of the decor. During the work, the domes were partially covered
and painted.
In 1967-1969, for the first time in the history of
the cathedral, the domes, covered with iron and requiring restoration
every ten years, were covered with copper, which did not need to be
updated for a long time.
In 1990, the museum began to collect
bells again, the existing collection is one of the richest existing
collections in Russia. There are bells weighing from 8 kg to 2.6 tons in
the ringing of the cathedral. In total, the museum has 19 bells, created
in 1547-1996, cast in Russia and abroad.
Since 1991, the
Intercession Cathedral has been in the joint use of the State Historical
Museum and the Russian Orthodox Church. Divine services are performed
regularly on Sundays and on the second day of Bright Week (Easter) by
the priests of the Patriarchal Metochion of churches in Zaryadye and
Kitay-gorod.
By decree of the President of the RSFSR of November
18, 1991, the Russian Orthodox Church was allowed to hold regular
services in the Kremlin cathedrals and St. Basil's Cathedral. In
accordance with this decree, in November 1992, the Ministry of Culture
of the Russian Federation and the Moscow Patriarchate signed an
Agreement "On the use of the churches of the Moscow Kremlin and the
Church of the Intercession on the Moat (St. Basil's Cathedral) on Red
Square in Moscow."
The first divine service took place on the
patronal feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on October
1 (14), 1991.
In 2001, restoration work began, which lasted ten
years, ended by the 450th anniversary and cost 390 million rubles. As a
result, the interiors of ten churches were restored, the icon of the
Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos was restored, and the basements
were restored to their original appearance.
In 2008, the
cathedral entered the seven "wonders of the world" of Russia.
For
2017, the Intercession Cathedral is a branch of the State Historical
Museum. Included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Russia.
On August 15, 1997, after restoration, the Church of St. Basil the
Blessed was opened, in which regular services began to take place. Every
Sunday in St. Basil's Church at 10 o'clock in the morning, a Liturgy is
served with an akathist to St. Basil the Blessed.
In February
2021, as part of the project to maximize the accessibility of the
exhibition space for the blind and visually impaired people, which the
State Historical Museum has been implementing since 2018, two tactile
models of the Intercession Cathedral were opened on the territory of the
temple. A metal model is installed in front of the entrance to the
temple, and a collapsible plastic model, which makes it possible to get
acquainted with the structure of the first tier of the cathedral, is
placed inside the temple.
Initially, the appearance of the cathedral was
distinguished by austerity, it was characterized by a multi-part
composition, the absence of an accentuated main facade, the predominant
importance of a rich external appearance with relatively small interior
spaces, an important role was assigned to decorative elements.
The temple was built of brick, and its foundations, plinth and a number
of details are made of white stone. In the western part of the cathedral
there is a flat brick ceiling. These bricks are perforated with round
holes, through which metal clips are threaded, connecting two adjacent
bricks. This forms a reliable horizontal surface above the span. The
dome in the central church of the cathedral rests on bricks laid out in
a spiral.
St. Basil's Cathedral is an amazingly elegant, festive
building, similar to a giant plant, a flowering bush. Separate parts of
the building (domes, ornaments, coloring) indeed had plant forms, while
very complex, intricate and diverse.
- D. S. Likhachev "Culture of
the Russian people of the X-XVII centuries"
The cathedral is
unique in that the building, which is more than 60 meters high, does not
have a deep foundation - only a high basement on an artificially filled
hill in place of a defensive moat. This feature calls into question the
existing legend that the library of Ivan the Terrible is located in the
cellars of the Pokrovsky Cathedral. The only possible foundation was a
tape, hardly reaching a depth of two meters.
At the end of 2018,
the cathedral consists of eleven churches:
Basil's Church (northeast)
Church of Alexander Svirsky (southeast)
Church of St. John the
Blessed (southeast).
Church of Varlaam Khutynsky (southwest)
Church of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem (west)
Church of St.
Gregory of Armenia (northwest)
Church of Cyprian and Justina (North)
Church of St. Nicholas Velikoretsky (south)
Church of the Holy
Trinity (east)
Church of the Three Patriarchs (northeast)
Central
Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God (Pokrovskaya)
Eight churches - four axial and four smaller ones between them - are
crowned with onion domes and grouped around the central pillar-shaped
church towering above them in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy
Theotokos, completed with a tent with a small dome. This tent expressed
the idea of the divine Veil spread over the Russian land. A cathedral of
holy patrons for the Russian land was created. The Pokrovsky Cathedral
has only eleven domes: nine of them are located above the churches
(according to the number of thrones), two more are located above the
chapel of St. Basil the Blessed and above the bell tower.
St.
Basil's chapel adjoins the chapel of St. John the Blessed, built on the
site of finding the relics of the holy fool John of Moscow, nicknamed
the Big Cap, who was buried here in 1589. There is a version that when
he was buried, a strong thunder rumbled and lightning flashed, which
instilled fear in Muscovites. In the church where the burial took place,
"icons were burned, many people were beaten, and the Kolomna priest John
was lifted into the air." Later, many sick people who prayed over the
coffin of the holy fool were healed. In 1672, John of Moscow was
canonized as a saint. At the same time, the uncovering of the relics of
St. John the Blessed took place in the cathedral. At first, the chapel
was consecrated in honor of the Deposition of the Robe, but in 1680 it
was re-consecrated as the Nativity of the Theotokos, and in 1916 it was
re-consecrated in the name of Blessed John. The chapel also kept the
iron chains of John, which were placed on the suffering
All nine
churches are united by a common foundation, bypass (originally open)
gallery and internal vaulted passages. The tenth chapel, consecrated in
honor of St. Basil the Blessed, whose relics were on the site of the
construction of the temple, was attached to the cathedral in 1588. The
eleventh church in honor of John the Blessed was added to the cathedral
from the southeast side in 1672.
There are no cellars in the Intercession Cathedral.
Churches and galleries stand on a single base - a basement, consisting
of several rooms. Strong brick walls of the basement up to 3 m thick are
covered with vaults. The height of the premises is about 6.5 m.
The construction of the northern basement is unique for the 16th
century. Its long box vault has no supporting pillars. The walls are cut
with narrow holes - vents.
Previously, the basement premises were
inaccessible to parishioners. Deep niches-hiding places in it were used
as storage facilities. They were closed with doors, from which only
hinges have survived to this day. Until 1595, the royal treasury was
probably hidden in the basement. There is a legend that wealthy citizens
also brought their property here for storage.
An intra-walled
white-stone staircase led to the basement from the central church of the
Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, which only the initiates knew
about. Later, this narrow passage was laid, but during the restoration
process of the 1930s, a secret staircase was discovered.
Opened
during repairs in the early 2010s, the secret room is a shallow
underground less than two meters high between the sacristy floor and the
upper vaults of the porch below. Architects-restorers explain the
existence of this room with building needs. To date, everyone can visit
this room.
There are some icons in the basement. The oldest of
them - the icon of St. Basil the Blessed of the end of the 16th century
- was painted especially for the Pokrovsky Cathedral. There are also
exhibited two icons of the 17th century - “The Protection of the Most
Holy Theotokos” and “Our Lady of the Sign”. The second was painted in
the 1780s and is a copy of a facade icon located on the eastern wall of
the cathedral. Previously, the list was located above the entrance to
the aisle of St. Basil the Blessed.
Along the perimeter of the cathedral around all the
churches there is an external bypass gallery. It was originally open.
The gallery surrounds the central Church of the Intercession of the
Virgin. Its vaults hide the upper parts of the churches. In the second
half of the 17th century, the gallery was decorated with floral
ornaments. Later, narrative oil painting appeared in the cathedral,
which was repeatedly updated. Currently, tempera painting has been
uncovered in the gallery. On the eastern section, oil paintings of the
19th century have been preserved - images of saints combined with floral
ornaments.
In the middle of the 19th century, the glazed gallery
became part of the interior of the cathedral. Arched entrances lead from
the outer gallery to the platforms between the churches and connect it
with the internal passages. Carved brick entrances leading to the
central church organically complement the decor. The portal has been
preserved in its original form, without late plastering, which allows
you to see its decoration.
Previously, daylight entered the
gallery from windows located above the passages to the promenade.
Currently, it is illuminated by mica lanterns of the 17th century, which
were previously used during religious processions. The multi-headed
finials of the remote lanterns resemble the silhouette of a cathedral.
The floor of the gallery is made of herringbone bricks, bricks of
the 16th century have been preserved - darker and more resistant to
abrasion than modern restoration bricks.
The vault of the western
section of the gallery is covered with a flat brick ceiling. It
demonstrates an engineering method of flooring, unique for the 16th
century: many small bricks are fixed with lime mortar in the form of
caissons (squares), the edges of which are made of figured bricks. In
this section of the gallery, the floor is lined with a rosette pattern,
and the original painting imitating brickwork has been recreated on the
walls. The size of the drawn bricks corresponds to the real one.
Two galleries unite the aisles of the cathedral into a single ensemble.
Narrow internal passages and wide platforms give the impression of a
"city of churches". Having passed the labyrinth of the inner gallery,
you can get to the platforms of the porches of the cathedral. Their
arches are "flower carpets". On the upper platform of the right porch in
front of the Church of the Entry into Jerusalem, the bases of pillars or
columns have been preserved - the remains of the entrance decoration.
The chapel was attached to the cathedral in 1588 over
the burial place of St. Basil the Blessed after his canonization by
order of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, which is narrated by a stylized
inscription on the wall.
The cubic chapel is covered with a groin
vault and crowned with a small light drum with a cupola. The covering of
the aisle is made in the same style with the domes of the upper churches
of the cathedral. The floor is covered with cast-iron plates of Kasli
casting.
The oil painting of the chapel was made in 1905, on the
occasion of the 350th anniversary of the construction of the cathedral.
The Almighty Savior is depicted in the dome, the forefathers are
depicted in the drum, the Deesis (the Savior Not Made by Hands, the
Mother of God, John the Baptist) is depicted in the crosshairs of the
arch, the evangelists are in the sails of the arch. On the northern and
southern walls are scenes from the life of St. Basil the Blessed: "The
Miracle of Salvation at Sea" and "The Miracle of the Fur Coat". The
lower tier of the walls is decorated with a traditional ancient Russian
ornament in the form of towels. On the western wall there is a temple
image "Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos". In the upper tier there
are images of the patron saints of the reigning house: Theodore
Stratilates, John the Baptist, St. Anastasia, the martyr Irina. On the
southern wall of the chapel there is a rare large-sized icon painted on
metal - the Mother of God of Vladimir with selected saints of the Moscow
circle “Today the most glorious city of Moscow flaunts brightly” (1904).
The iconostasis was completed in 1895 according to the design of the
architect Andrey Pavlinov. This is the so-called iconostasis with an
inversion - it continues on the side walls of the chapel. The icons were
painted under the guidance of the famous Moscow icon painter and
restorer Osip Chirikov, whose signature is preserved on the icon "The
Savior on the Throne". The iconostasis includes earlier icons: “Our Lady
of Smolensk” of the 16th century and the local image of “St. Basil the
Blessed against the backdrop of the Kremlin and Red Square" of the 18th
century.
Above the burial place of St. Basil the Blessed, there
is an arch decorated with a carved canopy - one of the most revered
Moscow shrines. The shrine of the saint in this part was destroyed
during the Time of Troubles. However, the cover lying on it with an
embroidered image of St. Basil the Blessed, made in the workshops of
Tsarina Irina Godunova and made of satin and silk with gold threads, has
been preserved, which contributed to the safety of the fabric. After
1917, when a museum was created in the cathedral, its employees
understood the value of the cover as an invaluable example of church
applied art and managed to preserve it.
St. Basil's chapel was
closed in 1929. Only at the end of the 20th century was its decoration
restored. The first service after the closing of the chapel in the
Intercession Cathedral took place on Easter in 1991. On August 15, 1997,
on the day of the memory of St. Basil the Blessed, Sunday and holiday
services were resumed in the chapel. At the moment, this is the only
chapel in the temple, where regular services are held.
The southeastern church was consecrated in the name of
the Novgorod saint, the Monk Alexander Svirsky, because on August 30,
1552, on the day of the saint’s memory, one of the important battles of
the Kazan campaign took place - the defeat of the cavalry of Tsarevich
Yapanchi on the Arsky field.
The 15 m high church is one of the
four small churches, its area is 4.4 × 2.8 m.
The original
appearance of the interior of the 16th-century church was restored
during the restoration work of the 1920s and 1979-1980s: a brick floor
with a herringbone pattern, profiled cornices, and stepped window sills.
The walls of the church are covered with paintings imitating brickwork.
The dome depicts a "brick" spiral - a symbol of eternity.
The
iconostasis of the church was also reconstructed. Icons of the 16th -
early 18th centuries are located close to each other between the wooden
beams (tablas). The lower part of the iconostasis is covered with
skillfully embroidered hanging velvet sheets depicting the traditional
Golgotha cross.
The southwestern church was consecrated in the name of
the Monk Varlaam of Khutynsky, Novgorod saint, founder and abbot of the
Spaso-Preobrazhensky Khutynsky Monastery - in honor of this holy father
of Ivan the Terrible Vasily III took the monastic name in his dying
tonsure, because he was especially revered as the patron of the royal
family. Evidence indicates that Grand Duke Vasily prayed to this saint,
asking him to send him a legitimate heir, who became Ivan Vasilyevich.
Also, the appearance of this church in the Intercession Cathedral is
associated with the fact that on November 6, 1552, on the day of the
memory of the saint, the tsar's solemn entry into Moscow from the Kazan
campaign took place.
The aisle is also one of the four small
churches of the cathedral 15.2 m high. Its base has the shape of a
quadrangle, elongated from north to south with the apse shifted to the
south. The violation of symmetry in the construction of the temple was
caused by the need to arrange a passage between the small church and the
central part of the temple - the Church of the Intercession of the Most
Holy Theotokos. The peculiarity of the architecture of the church - the
irregular shape of the apse - determined the shift of the Royal Doors to
the right. The chetverik of the church turns into a low octagon. The
cylindrical light drum is covered with a vault. The church illuminates
the oldest chandelier in the cathedral of the 15th century.
The
iconostasis of the church was reconstructed in the 1920s and consists of
icons from the 16th-18th centuries. Of particular interest is the
separately hanging icon “The Vision of Sexton Tarasius”. It was written
in Novgorod at the end of the 16th century. The plot of the icon is
based on a story from the life of Varlaam Khutynsky about the vision of
the sexton of the Khutynsky monastery of disasters that threaten
Novgorod: floods, fires, “pestilence”. The icon painter depicted the
panorama of the city with topographical accuracy. The composition
organically includes scenes of fishing, plowing and sowing, telling
about the daily life of the ancient Novgorodians.
The Western Church was consecrated in honor of the
feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem, which was associated with the
solemn entry into Moscow of the Russian troops led by Ivan the Terrible
after the victory over the Kazan Khanate.
The Intercession
Cathedral with the chapel of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem became the
liturgical center for the celebration of Palm Sunday. It ended with the
procession on the donkey of the patriarch from the Assumption Cathedral,
so the chapel was attached to the side closest to the Kremlin.
The church is one of the four large churches and is an octagonal
two-tiered pillar covered with a vault. The temple is distinguished by
its large size and the solemn nature of the decoration. During the
restoration, fragments of the decoration of the 16th century were
discovered. Their original appearance has been preserved without the
restoration of damaged parts. No ancient painting was found in the
church. Above the northern entrance, there is a trace of a shell that
hit the wall in October 1917.
The current iconostasis was
transferred to the chapel in 1770 from the dismantled Alexander Nevsky
Kremlin Cathedral. It is richly decorated with openwork gilded pewter
overlays, which give lightness to the four-tiered structure. In the
middle of the 19th century, the iconostasis was supplemented with wooden
carved details. The icons of the lower row tell about the Creation of
the world.
The icon "Saint Alexander Nevsky in Life" of the 17th
century is presented in the church. The image, unique in terms of
iconography, probably comes from the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The
right-believing prince is represented in the center of the icon, and
around there are 33 stamps with scenes from his life: the Battle of the
Neva, the prince's trip to the khan's headquarters, as well as miracles
from the icon after his death.
The northwestern church of the cathedral was
consecrated in the name of St. Gregory, Enlightener of Greater Armenia,
who died in 325. He converted the king and the whole country to
Christianity, was the bishop of Armenia. His memory is celebrated on
September 30 (October 13). In 1552, on this day, the assault on Kazan
began, and the Arskaya tower of the fortress wall of Kazan was taken.
The church is one of the four small churches of the cathedral with a
height of 15 m, it also represents a quadrangle, turning into a low
octagon. Its base is elongated from north to south with the apse
shifting due to the passage to the central part of the temple. The light
drum is covered with a vault.
The table iconostasis consists of
icons from the 16th-17th centuries. The royal doors are shifted to the
left due to the violation of the symmetry of the internal space. In the
local row of the iconostasis is the image of St. John the Merciful,
Patriarch of Alexandria. The iconostasis was reconstructed in the 1920s.
The lower part of the iconostasis is covered with silk and velvet
shrouds depicting Calvary crosses.
In 1787, at the request of the
wealthy contributor Ivan Kislinsky, the chapel was re-consecrated in
honor of his heavenly patron, John the Merciful. In the 1920s, the
church returned to its former name.
The architectural decoration
of the 16th century has been restored in the church: ancient windows,
semi-columns, cornices, a brick floor laid out “in a Christmas tree”. As
in the 17th century, the walls are whitewashed.
The interior of
the church is complemented by the so-called "skinny" candles of the
17th-19th centuries - large painted wooden candlesticks of the old form.
In their upper part there is a metal base, in which thin candles were
placed. In the showcase there are items of priestly vestments of the
17th century: surplice and phelonion, embroidered with gold threads. The
19th-century lamp, decorated with multi-colored enamel, gives a special
elegance to the church. The church has a mica end - a portable lantern
of the 17th century.
Church of Cyprian and Justina
The
northern church of the cathedral has an unusual dedication for Russian
churches in the name of the Christian martyrs Cyprian and Justina, who
lived in Antioch in the 3rd-4th centuries. Cyprian was a pagan sorcerer
converted to Christianity by the devout Justina. Both accepted death
under the Roman emperor Decius. Their memorial day is October 2 (15). On
this day in 1552, the troops of Tsar Ivan IV stormed Kazan.
Oil
painting appeared in the church in the 1780s. On the walls are scenes
from the lives of saints: in the lower tier - Adrian and Natalia, in the
upper tier - Cyprian and Justina. They are complemented by multi-figure
compositions on the theme of gospel parables and stories from the Old
Testament. The painting of the images of the 4th century martyrs Adrian
and Natalia is associated with the renaming of the church in 1786, when
the wealthy contributor Natalya Mikhailovna Khrushcheva donated funds
for repairs and asked to consecrate the church in honor of her heavenly
patrons. In the 1920s, at the beginning of scientific museum activities
in the cathedral, the church returned to its original name.
The
church presents banners of the 18th century - icons-banners from the
time of the Crusades, preserved on the walls and fastenings for them.
The white stone floor was laid in the 18th century. At the same time, in
1780, a gilded iconostasis carved on wood in the style of classicism was
made. The lower row of the iconostasis depicts the scenes of the
Creation of the world - the first and fourth days. In 2007, the wall
paintings and the iconostasis were restored with the charitable support
of the Russian Railways Joint Stock Company.
Church of St.
Nicholas Velikoretsky
The southern church was consecrated in honor of
the Velikoretsky icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The icon of the
saint was found in the city of Khlynov on the Velikaya River and
subsequently received the name "Nikola Velikoretsky". In 1555, by order
of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, the miraculous icon was carried in procession
along the rivers from Vyatka to Moscow - through all the annexed lands,
as a sign of their entry into the Orthodox state.
The church is
one of the largest, its height is 28 meters, it is a two-tiered
octagonal pillar with a light drum and a vault.
The ancient
interior of the church was badly damaged in a fire in 1737. For the
first time the walls of the church were painted with icons in 1786. In
the second half of the 18th - early 19th centuries, a single complex of
decorative and fine arts was formed: a carved iconostasis with full
ranks of icons and a monumental plot painting of the walls and vault.
The existing oil painting dates back to the middle of the 19th century.
The lower tier of the octagon contains the texts of the Nikon
Chronicle about bringing the image to Moscow and illustrations for them.
In the upper tier, the Mother of God is depicted on a throne, surrounded
by prophets, above are the apostles, in the vault is the image of the
Almighty Savior.
The iconostasis is decorated with stucco floral
decor with gilding. The icons in narrow profiled frames are painted in
oil. In the local row there is an image of "St. Nicholas the
Wonderworker in the Life" of the 18th century. The lower tier is
decorated with gesso engraving imitating brocade fabric. The interior of
the church is complemented by two remote double-sided icons depicting
St. Nicholas. With them they made religious processions around the
cathedral.
At the end of the 18th century, the floor of the
church was covered with white stone slabs. During the restoration work,
a fragment of the original 16th-century oak checker covering was
discovered. This is the only place in the cathedral with a preserved
wooden floor.
In 2005-2006, the iconostasis and monumental
painting of the church were restored with the assistance of the Moscow
International Currency Exchange.
The Eastern Church was consecrated in the name of the
Holy Trinity - it is believed that the Intercession Cathedral was built
on the site of the ancient Trinity Church, by the name of which the
people often called the entire temple.
The church is one of the
four large churches of the cathedral - its height is 21 meters, it is a
two-tiered octagonal pillar, ending with a light drum and a dome.
During the restoration process of the 1920s, the ancient
architectural and decorative decoration was most fully restored in this
church: semi-columns and pilasters framing the arches-entrances of the
lower part of the octagon, a decorative belt of arches. In the vault of
the dome, a spiral is laid out with small-sized bricks - a symbol of
eternity. This is an extremely rare symbolic image of God in ancient
Russian art. Not a single fragment of ancient painting was found in this
church, which suggests that it was not painted in the 17th century. It
is authentically known that the churches of the cathedral were
whitewashed after a fire in 1735. Stepped window sills in combination
with the whitewashed surface of the walls and vault make the church
especially bright and elegant. Under the light drum, “voices”
(resonators) are mounted in the walls - clay vessels designed to amplify
sound. The church is illuminated by the oldest chandelier (chandelier)
in the cathedral, Russian work of the late 16th century.
On the
basis of restoration studies, the form of the original iconostasis was
established. Its peculiarity is the unusual shape of the low royal doors
and three-row icons that form three canonical ranks: prophetic, Deesis
and festive. The “Old Testament Trinity” among the iconostasis is one of
the most ancient and revered icons of the cathedral in the second half
of the 16th century.
The northeastern church of the cathedral was
consecrated in the name of the three Patriarchs of Constantinople:
Alexander, John and Paul the New. In 1552, on the day of memory of the
Patriarchs on August 30 (September 12), the troops of Tsar Ivan the
Terrible defeated the cavalry of the Tatar prince Yapanchi, who was
coming from the Crimea to help the Kazan Khanate.
The 14.9 m high
church is one of the four small churches of the cathedral. The walls of
the quarter turn into a low octagon with a cylindrical light drum. The
church is interesting for its original ceiling system with a wide dome,
in which the composition "The Savior Not Made by Hands" is located.
The wall oil painting was made in the middle of the 19th century and
reflects the change in the name of the church at that time: it was
re-consecrated in memory of the enlightener of Greater Armenia in
connection with the transfer of the throne of the cathedral church of
Gregory of Armenia. The first tier of the painting is dedicated to the
life of St. Gregory, in the second tier - the history of the image of
the Savior Not Made by Hands, bringing it to King Avgar in the Asia
Minor city of Edessa, as well as scenes from the life of the Patriarchs
of Constantinople. In the 1920s, the church returned to its original
name. Continuing the traditions of Russian patrons, the leadership of
the Moscow International Currency Exchange contributed to the
restoration of the interior of the church in 2007.
The
five-tiered iconostasis combines baroque elements with classical ones.
This is the only altar barrier in the cathedral from the middle of the
19th century. It was made especially for this church.
The central church was consecrated in honor of the
feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, celebrated on
October 1 (14). On this day in 1552, the assault on Kazan began.
The church is a pillar-like structure, at the base of which is a
four-sided tetrahedron. With the help of white triangles-tromps, it
passes into an octahedron-octahedron. It ends with an octagonal tent. It
is the tallest of all nine cathedral churches. Its height is 47.5
meters.
To the right of the iconostasis on the walls is an oil
painting of the end of the 19th century. During restoration in the late
1950s, an 18th-century oil painting was discovered underneath. The
original painting "like a brick" was made in the fresco technique on wet
plaster. The discovered chronicle of the 16th temple was also created
using the fresco method. It allows you to find out the exact date of the
consecration of the throne of the central church, which was considered
the official completion of the construction of the entire cathedral -
June 29 (July 12), 1561.
For the 450th anniversary of the
cathedral, the exhibition "Gold of the Sacristy" presented unique icons
of the 16th century from the original, not preserved iconostasis of the
central church of the Intercession Cathedral. In the Church of the
Intercession there is an iconostasis from the Kremlin Church of the
Chernihiv Wonderworkers, which was dismantled in 1770. In the 18th
century the iconostasis was sold to the Tver province. Only in the
1920s, thanks to the efforts of museum workers, the icons were found and
returned to the cathedral. The wooden frame iconostasis is decorated
with gilded pewter cast perforated overlays.
The Church of St. John the Blessed was added to the
cathedral in 1672 after the uncovering of the relics of the holy fool
John, who was buried in 1589 at his request not far from Blessed Basil.
It is believed that the church was originally dedicated to the Position
of the Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos. Then it was consecrated in honor
of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1916 it was
re-consecrated in honor of St. John the Blessed. Between the churches of
Saints Basil and John the Blessed there were internal passages, thanks
to which they constituted a single liturgical space. In the 1930s,
during the restoration work, these passages were laid. From 1929 to
November 2018, the church was closed to the public.
In 2016-2018,
the church was restored with the support of the Russian Orthodox Church
and the Transsoyuz charitable foundation of Russian Railways. The
brickwork of the walls, vault and floor covering was restored, fragments
of wall paintings of the 17th and 19th centuries were unearthed. The
lost iconostasis of the 19th century was recreated in strict accordance
with the photographs of 1935. The central place in the iconostasis was
occupied by the original Royal Doors of the 18th century. Most of the
icons from the iconostasis of this church have been preserved.
The main relic was returned to the church - iron chains (chains), which,
according to legend, belonged to St. John the Blessed. In the church
there is a reliquary over the relics of the holy fool John the Blessed
(the relics are under a bushel). The church has been open to the public
since November 2018.
The modern bell tower of the Pokrovsky Cathedral was
built on the site of an ancient belfry, which resembled the preserved
belfry of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Bolshiye Vyazemy. By the
second half of the 17th century, the original belfry was dilapidated and
fell into disrepair. In the 1680s, it was replaced by a bell tower,
which still stands today.
The base of the bell tower is a massive
high quadrangle, on which is placed an octagon with an open area, fenced
with eight pillars connected by arched spans. The platform is crowned
with a high octagonal tent, the edges of which are decorated with
multi-colored tiles with white, yellow, blue and brown glaze. The sides
of the tent are covered with figured green tiles, and it is completed by
a small onion dome with an eight-pointed cross. There are small windows
in the tent - the so-called "rumors", designed to amplify the sound of
bells. Inside the open area and in arched openings, bells cast by
outstanding Russian masters of the 17th-19th centuries are suspended on
thick wooden beams. After the Soviet era, they began to be used again in
1990. At the same time, wooden beams for hanging bells have been
preserved since pre-revolutionary times.
Ballad of the poet Dmitry Kedrin "Architects" (1938)
The novel by the writer Alexander Volkov "Architects" (1954)
Alexander Karpenko's poem "St. Basil's Cathedral" (1983)
Coin 5
rubles, USSR, 1989.