Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Putinki, church

The wooden Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been known since 1625. like a church in the Old Embassy Courtyard, behind the Tverskaya Gate on the land of the New Sloboda. In 1648 The wooden church burned down, and the parishioners of the temple, through the Patriarch of Jerusalem Paisius, who was staying in Moscow at that time, asked Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to allocate money for the construction of a stone church. For the first time in Rus', its chapel was consecrated in honor of the icon of the Mother of God of the Burning Bush, which protects from fires. The church became one of the last tented churches built in Rus', due to the prohibition of their construction by Patriarch Nikon in 1653. The chapel of the "Burning Bush" is located on the northern side of the temple and was built simultaneously with the church and the tented bell tower. The chapel of Fyodor Tiron in the refectory dates back to the beginning of the 18th century. The western entrance to the temple was built in 1864. designed by architect Zavyalov. It is known that there used to be 9 bells on the bell tower. One of which was cast by the famous Russian foundry maker Ivan Fedorovich Matorin (b. earlier 1687 - d. 1735), whose hands cast a large number of large bells for Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Staraya Russa.

The temple is a narrow, transversely elongated two-story quadrangle, completed with three tents (which, apparently, is a repetition of the completion of the previous wooden church). The belfry is octagonal, tented, located between the chapel and the temple, standing on the vaults of the refectory. The composition is complemented by a large hipped porch on the western facade of the refectory, located on Malaya Dmitrovka (restored in 1957). The façades of the church are decorated with lancet kokoshniks, columnar keel-shaped platbands and complex unbraced cornices typical of the 16th century.

After the revolution of 1917 The temple was not closed immediately. In the 1930s The brethren of the Vysokopetrovsky Monastery served in the church. After the closure of the temple in 1938. For a long time, it housed offices, then a rehearsal hall for the Moscow directorate of Circus on Stage. Gradually, the temple building fell into critical condition, and in 1959-1960. under the leadership of the architect Nikolai Nikolaevich Sveshnikov, its comprehensive restoration was carried out.

In 1990 the temple was returned to believers.

The Nativity of the Theotokos Church in Putinki is unusual; it cannot be confused with any other church. It is difficult to find a flat surface on its walls - its decor is so varied and rich. Igor Grabar noted in this regard: “The bell tower and the temple of the Burning Bush, covered with kokoshniks “back-to-back”, are dotted from top to bottom. Here there is everything that Moscow architecture has developed in the interpretation of restroom parts. The main temple is somewhat more strict, differing in the smoothness of the walls. Let us note the peculiarity of the structure of the top the Church of the Burning Bush, where everything is prepared for the installation of a dome instead of a tent; an ordinary octagon has been turned into a round neck with all the processing inherent in it.” Art critic I. L. Buseva-Davydova pointed out that the Nativity of the Virgin Mary Church is a “relative” - for example, the Trinity Church in Nikitniki can be considered such. However, the appearance of Putinkov’s church still cannot be called typical. “The side chapel of the Burning Bush and the main temple are located in relation to each other quite randomly, the internal structure of the building from the outside is difficult to read... Violations of tectonics and design logic in this monument are so deliberate that they are obviously programmatic. The forms become willful, disobedient, prone to self-destruction,” writes the researcher.

The main volume of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki is not striking in its large size. In shape, it resembles a highly elongated rectangle, topped on the outside with three tents standing on blind drums. Perhaps the most noticeable element of the temple is the very tents that crown both the main volume and the chapel of the Burning Bush icon of the Mother of God, and the bell tower connecting them. Small tents are erected on large drums. On top of them there are small drums separating the tents from the domes. As for the tent on the aisle on the north side, its light drum is narrower. The Mother of God Church is crowned with five bright blue domes, merging with the sky in clear weather. Their color changed over time. They were both green and gold, but they always remained recognizable - regardless of color. Like other tented churches, a distinctive feature of the architecture of the Church of the Virgin Mary is the kokoshniks. They surround the bases of all tents and drums. The drums of the main volume are surrounded by arcatures with pointed ends. Near the small drums under the domes there are also three tiers of kokoshniks. Low apses adjoin the temple from the east, and a rather spacious and not very high refectory from the west. On the southern side there is a chapel in the name of the martyr Theodore Tiron, on the northern side there is a chapel of the icon of the Mother of God "Burning Bush" with a decorative tent on a light drum. Between them and the northern wall of the temple stands a tent-roofed bell tower. The decor is incredibly varied. So, to complete the platbands, triangular and semicircular pediments are used. In the front part of the chapel of the icon of the Mother of God "The Burning Bush", of the six columns of the upper tier, four differ from the lower ones. The horizontal thrust seems to divide the building into two halves.

When viewed from the outside, it seems that the temple is two-story. Among the architectural “relatives” of the Nativity of the Theotokos Church one can name, in addition to the capital’s Trinity Church in Nikitniki, the Moscow Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Medvedkovo, the Church of St. Nicholas of Myra in Khamovniki, and the Yaroslavl Church of Elijah the Prophet. The entrance to the temple is decorated with an expressive porch topped with a tent with a cross. On the outer walls there are mosaic images of the Savior and the Mother of God. The interior of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary looks quite modest. The previous iconostasis was lost during the Soviet years, when the church was used for other purposes. However, some interior details were preserved. The walls of the temple are lined with special molded bricks in the “Russian pattern” style. They are painted white. It is not at all a fact that this was originally the case, but Soviet restorers of the mid-twentieth century decided that the interiors of the seventeenth-century church should be painted white. Inside the temple there are small fragments of wall painting from the 17th century, but most of the painting was done already in the 1990s. The central column, erected at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, has survived to this day. On the western side it depicts St. Nicholas of Myra, on the northern side - St. Panteleimon, on the southern side - Blessed Xenia of Petersburg, and on the eastern side - St. Sergius of Radonezh. The entrance to the chapel of the Burning Bush icon of the Mother of God is located on the left. The chapel of the martyr Theodore Tyrone is on the right. The galleries and vestibule, which are quite traditional for Russian temple architecture, are absent here. In fact, the central zone was also removed, which is even rarer. At the same time, such a design is aimed at maximizing the “intimacy” of communication with God. As soon as a parishioner enters the temple, he approaches the soleya and the altar. The height of the main room is just over 11 meters. You can see the vault only in the chapel of the Burning Bush icon of the Mother of God, where services are rarely performed.

Of the images in the temple, it is worth noting the list of the icon of the Mother of God “Vsetsaritsa” (“Pantanassa”), in front of which they pray for deliverance from cancer. It depicts the Virgin Mary seated on a throne surrounded by archangels with the Child Jesus on her left arm. The first icon of this kind in Rus' dates back to the 17th century. The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Putinki is a relatively small parish church. The height of the building from the base to the cross is 30 meters, the height of the main room is slightly more than 11 meters. The distance between the salt and the western wall is only three meters. The area of ​​the premises allocated to parishioners is approximately 40 square meters. The walls are made of brick and white stone, the floor is paved with modern stone slabs.

In conclusion, it is worth saying that the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Putinki became the first Russian church, one of the altars of which was consecrated in honor of the Burning Bush icon of the Mother of God.

The name of the architect who created the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Putinki remains a mystery. However, it is known that the current temple arose on the site of an earlier one that died in a fire. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich contributed to the fact that the shrine rose from the ashes. The first temple on the site of the current Nativity of the Virgin Church appeared back in the 14th century. He stood in the outlying settlement of Putinki, located outside the Tverskaya Gate of the White City. In those days, two highways leading to Tver and Dmitrov began there, and the “Great Meadows” stretched a little further away. There is a hypothesis that the name “Putinki” itself goes back to the word “path”, and it meant the place where two roads converged. But there is another, more common, version of this toponym. According to legend, in the 16th century, approximately in the area of ​​modern Strastnoy Boulevard, one of the country palaces of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III stood. Later, the status of the building changed - foreign ambassadors now stayed in it. You had to go to the palace along crooked streets and alleys - “cobwebs”, or “putinki”. In the same area in the 16th century there were houses where people from Dmitrov, near Moscow, lived - mostly craftsmen and merchants, obliged to bear tax duties. This is how Dmitrovskaya Sloboda appeared on the map of Moscow. Initially, it lay within the White City, hence the name of Bolshaya Dmitrovka street. Subsequently, the settlement grew beyond the walls of the White City - Malaya Dmitrovka Street and Malaya Dmitrovskaya Sloboda appeared. It is unclear how many churches once stood on the site of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The plan of Moscow of 1595-1599 shows a certain church in Dmitrovskaya Sloboda. The same is true on the plan of 1610. Perhaps it later burned down and a new one was erected in its place. One way or another, in 1625 a wooden three-tent church was built here, consecrated in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was called differently: the church on the Old Embassy Courtyard, the temple outside the Tver Gate, the church on the land of the New Sloboda... Alas, its life was also short-lived - it died in a fire in 1648. Muscovites were extremely annoyed by the loss of the temple. However, the opportunity soon arose to quickly revive it.

In 1649, Patriarch Paisius of Jerusalem visited Moscow. The townspeople turned to him with a request to help build a new, now stone, church. In order to protect it from fire in the future, they wanted to consecrate the church in honor of the Burning Bush icon of the Mother of God, which was considered a protector from fiery disasters. The distinguished guest from Jerusalem supported the idea. He was amazed by the fact that in all of Russia there was not yet a single temple in honor of this icon. And he wrote a message to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. “And I, your pilgrim,” reported the Patriarch, “know that it has happened that, Sovereign, your church of the Holy Burning Bushes does not exist in Rus', and is worthy of being a magnate.” The autocrat reacted favorably to the request of the distinguished guest and ordered the release of 300 rubles from the treasury for construction, and along with the money also “stone reserves,” that is, building materials. The amount was huge at that time, and the parishioners also managed to collect a certain amount of money. Work began in 1649, but a year later it turned out that there were not enough funds. At the beginning of 1650, I had to write a second petition to Alexei Mikhailovich. Historian I. E. Zabelin describes what happened after this: “The petition was reported to the sovereign on March 27, 1650 with the mark of the Duma clerk Semyon Zaborovsky: “The sovereign ordered to give a quarter of a hundred money, against the previous petition...” Then on April 5 it was also noted: “ Give money with a guarantee against the previous one..." Two years later, another 100 rubles were allocated from the treasury. As a result, on the site of the burnt church, a building erected from specially molded bricks grew up. The material was very expensive, but the danger of fires outweighed all arguments in favor of a larger As a result, they decided to build, as it were, “two churches in one.” Since ancient times, there has been a tradition of attaching a chapel to a church, consecrated in honor of some saint or significant event, and so it happened in this case. dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And a separate chapel was dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God “The Burning Bush”.

Art historian I.E. Grabar emphasized that as a result the church received a very complex composition from an architectural point of view. “Obviously, not only the Church of the Burning Bush was built, but also the entire set of temples with their bell tower, economically pushed into the general group. The task of connecting the temples and the bell tower into one group was accomplished excellently, although not without defects at the junction points,” he wrote. The main part of the temple was designed to be as similar as possible to the burnt Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - in memory of the latter there were three hipped roofs, under which there was a quadrangle stretching from north to south. A small refectory adjoined the quadrangle from the west. Between the temple and the chapel of the icon of the Mother of God "The Burning Bush" on the north side, an original two-tier tented bell tower was erected. The chapel itself was decorated with a pile of kokoshniks, and the end was given the appearance of a small tent on a drum. They tried to emphasize its special significance with the splendor of its decoration. There were complex cornices with figured bolsters, keeled platbands, pointed kokoshniks, and something like a necklace at the base of the tent. “The architect strove to place the different volumes of the temple in such a way,” noted art critic M. A. Ilyin, “so that the building would look primarily from one point of view - from Pushkin Square. Such a construction of the “main facade” should not be surprising. In the 17th century, when the temple was erected , here stood the stone walls of the White City. From the passage tower of the fortifications, the street began - the path to Dmitrov. At its beginning, the temple was built... in such a way as to show all its intricacy of architecture precisely from the exit from the city. Construction work was completed in 1652. Then the temple was consecrated.

The temple was destined to go down in history as one of the last tented churches in the history of Rus' (along with the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Troitsky-Golenishchev in the west of Moscow, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Veshnyaki in the southeast of the capital and some others). After the expulsion of Patriarch Nikon, his ban on the construction of tent churches will be lifted, but then a new style will rule the roost - the so-called “Moscow Baroque”. In the last decade of the 17th century, the Nativity of the Virgin Mary Church acquired a large ringing bell. It was cast by the famous master Ivan Motorin. The creations of his hands were also the Great Assumption Bell of the Moscow Kremlin, the main bell of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the bell of the first St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Motorin created over 100 cannons that were used in the battles of the Northern War of 1700-1721. At the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, the appearance of the Theotokos Church underwent changes. A new wide refectory was added to it and a gatehouse was erected with a passage to the bell tower. The belfry is located above the refectory. The southern aisle that appeared in the name of the Great Martyr Theodore Tiron looked very unusual, as if it “blocked” the southern entrance. A column appeared inside the temple. All these “renovations” were made in the Baroque style. The temple itself remained rather modest. The composition of the church clergy did not change: a rector, a deacon and one or two sextons.

Miraculously, the Nativity of the Theotokos Church survived the fire of Moscow in 1812. The estates located next to it burned to the ground. The French burst into the neighboring Strastnoy Monastery, settled in the monastic cells, plundered the monastery property, and set up a store in the monastery. Napoleon himself was driving towards the Kremlin along Tverskaya and could not help but notice the Church of the Virgin Mary. But the church survived - services stopped there only for two weeks. By the second half of the 19th century, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Putinki had become very dilapidated (the Moscow fire of 1812 also had an impact), and the time had come to begin its repair and renovation. In 1856, four new bells rang at the church belfry. Eight years later, a new tented porch was erected on the western side and the church was restored under the leadership of the famous architect N.V. Sultanov. At the same time, scientific study of the monument began. Not every church could boast of such attention to itself as the Church of the Virgin Mary evoked. Artists and photographers happily captured it. From the works dedicated to the church it is clear that its appearance changed more than once at this time. The domes were painted either green or golden, the tents were painted in checkered patterns... At the beginning of the twentieth century, multi-storey buildings and apartment buildings began to be built around the temple and the church was lost among the environment. After the October Revolution, the temple had to face a much more serious challenge than the construction of apartment buildings. The church standing in the very center of the city could not help but be an eyesore for adherents of the new atheistic government.

In 1929, the authorities closed the churches on the territory of the nearby Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery. For several years, his brethren served in the Church of the Mother of God, and part of the brethren of the liquidated St. Smolensk Zosimova Hermitage found shelter here. In 1935, the last priest, rector of the Theotokos Church, Bishop Bartholomew (Remov), was shot. At the end of the 1930s, the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary was closed. there is a legend according to which it was supposed to be blown up on June 22, 1941. That day there was clearly no time to blow up the church, and during the years of difficult trials for the country, the attitude of the authorities towards the Church changed for the better. After the closure of the temple, various offices were located in the building. In the end, the former church was turned into a rehearsal hall for the Moscow directorate of Circus on Stage. Even before this, the condition of the temple left much to be desired, but after rehearsals with dogs and monkeys it was brought to a critical state. Fortunately, it didn't come down to demolition.

In 1959-1960, a comprehensive restoration was carried out in the church under the leadership of architect N. N. Sveshnikov. Together with his assistants, Sveshnikov literally went through the entire building brick by brick, from the floor to the domes. The porch, rebuilt in the 19th century, was, if possible, freed from later layers, returning it to its original “tent” appearance. The masterpiece of “Russian pattern making” was saved. Quite a high-quality restoration, although there were some overlays. The restorers limited themselves to constructing a single door leading directly to the refectory part of the church, which is why it could be entered directly from the street. It is worth saying that in those days they hardly thought that the shrine would again be used for its intended purpose. However, a miracle happened, and in the late 1980s the Church of the Virgin Mary was revived.

In 1990, the capital authorities decided to transfer the church to believers, and at the same time it received the status of the Patriarchal Metochion. Hegumen Seraphim (Shlykov), who died tragically under unclear circumstances on the night of February 1-2, 1991, was appointed rector. The first divine liturgy was served on August 24, 1991, and this day can be considered the second birthday of the temple. Within several years after the resumption of services, it was possible to carry out restoration work both in the main building and in both aisles. The walls had to be painted again; parishioners and simply caring people helped in purchasing the icons. Among the latter were actors of the Lenkom Theater, bass guitarist of the Zvuki Mu group Alexander Lipnitsky, leader of the Aquarium group Boris Grebenshchikov and others. Some images were transferred directly from customs - these were stolen icons intended for sale at foreign auctions. Part of the funds for the restoration of the church was allocated by the Moscow mayor's office in the 1990s. Alexander Abdulov made a great contribution to the restoration of the temple, on whose initiative in the courtyard of the theater. Since the late 1980s, the Lenin Komsomol has hosted the "Backyards" festival, funds from which were used to restore the temple. Abdulov also became the director of the concert film “Backyards-3, or the Temple must remain a Temple,” the entire proceeds of which were also transferred to the fund for the restoration of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Putinki. On January 5, 2008, the funeral service for Alexander Abdulov was held in this church. Today, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Putinki again lives a full parish life.

From the magazine "Orthodox Temples. Travel to holy places." Issue No. 27, 2013

Total 9 photos

This amazing church at the beginning of Malaya Dmitrovka Street is impossible not to notice, just as it is impossible not to enjoy its sensual beauty. This temple is notable, first of all, for the fact that it is, in fact, one of the last tented churches built in Russia due to the ban on their construction by Patriarch Nikon in 1653. At the same time, it is the first church in Rus' with a throne in honor of the Burning Bush icon of the Mother of God. The tented style of temples is extremely interesting and inspiring to me, because, in my opinion, it is in this typology of temple construction that the most sublime and heavenward spiritual impulse of the Russian soul is embodied. Such temples give her the opportunity to soar above the vanity, and for us to feel our inner impulse to connect with God.

The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki was built in the most striking manifestation of the so-called “Russian patterned” style, when churches and towers were characterized by intricate shapes, abundance of decor, complexity of composition and picturesque silhouette. In the architecture of Russian patterns, the former constructive role of the tent is completely lost. The tent becomes one of many decorative elements. It is not surprising that just a year after the completion of the church, a patriarchal decree was issued that put an end to the “blasphemous pattern.”

However, about the history of the church and the events associated with its construction.

The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Putinki, which is in the old “Putevoy” Ambassadorial Courtyard, was founded in 1649 and completed in 1652 under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Construction of a new stone church building began after a fire that destroyed the previous wooden Church of the Nativity of the Virgin.

A wooden three-tent church was built in Putinki in 1625. The settlement may have received its name from the ancient routes diverging from here, from the Tverskaya Gate of Moscow, to Tver and Dmitrov. At different times, “what is behind the Tver Gate on Dmitrovka”, “at the old Ambassadorial yard, in Putinki” was added to the name of the temple, until the modern name was established. This unique temple was built according to drawings, and not according to engineering drawings. As a result, the building turned out to be lively and dynamic.

The chapel of the temple on Malaya Dmitrovka and the bell tower are crowned with decorative tents (initially the main volume of the church had three tents). The decorative design of the shrine is interesting. The tents are all different and not alike; slender drums are crowned with bulbous domes. At the base of the tents there are kokoshniks. The drums are surrounded by an arcature with a pointed end. The edges of the temple building are decorated with zakomaras, and underneath them there is a carved frieze. The drum of the tent on the aisle is narrow, its base is cut through with high windows. The bell tower of the temple is octagonal; there are openings on the bell tier. Thanks to the holes in the tent, the bell tower seems openwork and light. The church building is decorated richly and elegantly; it is almost impossible to find a flat surface on the facades - stone lace or carvings are present everywhere.

Initially, only the main volume with three tents was built - a small rectangular building with a small refectory, a northern aisle of the Burning Bush Icon of the Mother of God (also crowned with a tent) and a hipped bell tower. What is unusual about the temple's composition is that the building was designed to have views from all four sides; even the apses are practically hidden in the rectangle and hardly protrude outward. The decorative decoration of all parts of the temple is extremely beautiful - from the tents to the lower windows.

The most noticeable part - the tents - are not alike; the builders of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki showed the richest imagination and ingenuity in their decor. Small tents are placed on slender decorated drums and crowned with onion-like domes on smaller drums. The bases of all the tents and the drums on which they rest are surrounded by rows of kokoshniks, echoing each other in shape. The drums themselves of the main volume are surrounded by arcatures with pointed ends. The small drums under the heads are also surrounded by kokoshniks. Along the edge of the main volume is decorated with a number of false zakomaras with keel-shaped ends, and under the zakomaras there is a wide carved frieze. Even more remarkable is the decor of the tent on the aisle. Its light drum is narrower than the tent itself, the base of which is, as it were, extended beyond the drum, which is also cut through by narrow high windows, and under the drum rises a “fiery” hill of kokoshniks in three tiers.
04.

The beautiful octagonal bell tower with carved openings of the bell tier seems even lighter and more openwork thanks to a number of “rumor” holes in the tent. On the bell tower, among the bells, there was one made by the famous master Ivan Motorin in 1715. It is almost impossible to find a flat surface on all the facades of the temple - it is so decorated with various carvings and stone lace.
05.

At the end of the 17th century, a new wide refectory with a chapel of the Great Martyr Theodore Tiron was added to the temple, including older parts of the church, and a guardhouse was built with a passage to the bell tower. The complexity and fragmentation of the architectural design of the temple was enhanced by external paintings and multi-colored tiles.
06.

In 1864, a new west porch of the temple was built with a finish copied from those of the temple itself. This porch was dismantled during the restoration of the temple in 1957 and replaced with a new one, stylized in the 17th century. The restoration was led by architect N.N. Sveshnikov. The work was carried out under the constant supervision of the Academy of Architecture in the person of corresponding member of the academy D.P. Sukhova. The restoration received the highest praise from the Academy of Architecture.

In 1990, the temple was transferred to the Orthodox Church, and its restoration began. Father Seraphim (S.P. Shlykov) was appointed rector of the temple, but on the night of February 1-2, 1991, the priest was killed under unclear circumstances. Services in the temple resumed in August 1991.
08.


The photo was taken in 2010 from the courtyard of the Shekhtel House

The famous actor Alexander Abdulov made a great contribution to the restoration of the temple, on whose initiative in the courtyard of the theater. Since the late 1980s, the Lenin Komsomol has hosted the “Backyards” festival, the funds from which were directed to the restoration of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. Abdulov also became the director of the concert film “Backyards-3, or the Temple must remain the Temple,” the entire proceeds from which were also transferred to the Temple restoration fund. On January 5, 2008, the funeral service of A. Abdulov took place in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki.
09.

Sources:

Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki. Portal "Temples of Russia".

Oleg Starodubtsev. Tent architecture. Portal "Russian People's Line".

100 Great Sights of Moscow Myasnikov Sr. Alexander Leonidovich

Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki

This is a magnificent tented church, as if twisted from snow-white lace, - the last such church erected in Moscow. After its consecration in 1652, Patriarch Nikon banned the construction of tented churches in Rus'.

Today, the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki is the oldest church that has survived in Moscow, consecrated in honor of this holiday.

It is full of unusual, poetic harmony, characteristic, as a rule, of the spirit of wooden architecture of the North. And this is not surprising. After all, the hipped style in stone construction is borrowed from wooden architecture. Tent temples did not have pillars inside, and the entire mass of the building rested on the foundation. Tent-shaped stone churches in Rus' appeared at the turn of the 15th–16th centuries. The tented form of churches turned out to be the most suitable for the construction of monument temples - they had to be high, visible from afar, but the small area of ​​the temple did not play a role, since they were not created for a huge crowd of people. The style, which spread and became popular in just one century, was banned after the church reform of Patriarch Nikon in 1653 as inappropriate for the rank.

Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki

Patriarch Nikon (in the world Nikita Minin, a native of a Mordovian family), the sixth Moscow patriarch, had the following official title: by the grace of God, great lord and sovereign, archbishop of the reigning city of Moscow and all great and small and white Russia and all northern countries and Pomoria and many States Patriarch. Nikon was solemnly enthroned as the Patriarchs of Moscow and All-Russia in 1652. His reforms, including the replacement of the two-finger sign with the three-finger sign, split the Church into supporters of Nikon (Nikonians) and his opponents (Old Believers, Old Believers), one of whose leaders was Avvakum.

The first wooden three-tent church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which stood on this site, appeared much earlier than Nikon. It has been known since 1625, that is, since the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich. Parishioners knew it as the Church of the Mother of God or the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the Old Embassy Courtyard, behind the Tverskaya Gate in Novaya Sloboda, in Putinki.

The settlement got its name from the ancient roads diverging from here, from the Tverskaya Gate of Moscow, to Tver and Dmitrov. There is also an assumption that the word “Putinki” was formed from “Cobweb” - a close and bizarre interweaving of narrow alleys near the Tverskaya Gate.

Behind the temple there was a traveling Ambassadorial yard, and around it were the courtyards of people from Dmitrovskaya Sloboda (present-day Bolshaya Dmitrovskaya Street), from which the rapidly growing Malaya Dmitrovskaya Sloboda received its name.

The Church of the Virgin Mary burned down in a strong fire in 1648.

The parishioners decided to build a new, stone, church. In response to a request for help addressed to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, they received huge money for those times from the treasury - 800 rubles and a brick for the construction of the temple. The rest of the funds were collected by parishioners.

Malaya Dmitrovka - the road to Dmitrov - is a continuation of Bolshaya Dmitrovka, which began in the city center, not far from the Kremlin. The walls of the White City began to lose their significance when the construction of houses went beyond its borders. And this happened with the appearance of Dmitrovskaya Sloboda in this area, which stretches from modern Pushkinskaya Square to the Garden Ring. The tent-roofed Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki was the first stone structure in the area outside the gates of the White City.

But the first was not only the temple itself, but also one of its side chapels. The memory of the terrible fire forced the creators of the temple, for the first time in Rus', to consecrate one chapel in honor of the Burning Bush icon of the Mother of God, which protects against fires. The chapel of the “Burning Bush” is located on the northern side of the temple and was built simultaneously with the church and the tented bell tower.

From 1649 to 1652, this outstanding monument of ancient Russian architecture, made in the “Russian patterned” style, was erected - the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki.

Architecturally, this church was a narrow quadrangle, decorated with three tents. A chapel of the Burning Bush icon of the Mother of God was attached to the quadrangle. The octagonal hipped belfry is placed directly on the vaults of the refectory, connecting the church with the chapel.

The small decorative tents that crown the entire composition of the temple buildings are the most remarkable detail of this temple. They are not alike, mounted on slender drums decorated with magnificent decorative carvings. The tents are crowned with onion-shaped domes attached to smaller drums, also richly decorated. The light drum on the aisle is significantly narrower than the tent itself, and its base is placed outside the boundaries of the drum. And the drum itself is cut through with narrow, high windows.

At the end of the 17th century, a wide refectory with a chapel in the name of Fyodor Tiron and a guardhouse at the entrance to the bell tower were added to the temple. The third chapel, founded in the church, was traditionally consecrated in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

In 1864, an entrance to the temple was made from the western side. A new porch was built, which was covered with a tent on a narrow drum. During the restoration work of 1957, this porch was dismantled and replaced with a new one, which was stylized as the 17th century.

Lancet kokoshniks, columnar keeled platbands and complex unbraced cornices characteristic of the 16th century have survived to this day. They were used in the design of the facades of the temple, as well as fragments of ancient paintings of the 17th century - inside it.

This temple escaped destruction after the 1917 revolution. But he did not escape closure. Only until 1938 were services still held there. They were conducted by the monks of the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery.

After the church closed, various offices were located in its premises.

In 1959–1960, a complex of restoration work was carried out in the temple, which had fallen into critical condition. Thanks to the painstaking work of restorers, it was possible to restore the temple building with its amazing architecture, returning it to its original appearance obtained during construction work in the 17th–18th centuries. And then the building was transferred to the rehearsal hall of the Moscow directorate of Circus on Stage. Until 1990, under the arches of the temple, tigers and lions roared, dogs barked and horses neighed: circus animals were trained here.

In 1990, the temple was returned to believers, and already in 1991 the church was re-consecrated. All thrones were restored in it, except Nikolsky, and a Sunday school was opened under him.

From the very beginning of Malaya Dmitrovka you can see the graceful silhouette of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Putinki. And the beautiful snow-white lace, as if enveloping the entire temple building, seems to be the most beautiful decoration of this ancient street in the historical center of Moscow.

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What is in the old Ambassadorial yard was founded in 1649. and finished in 1652.

Construction of a new stone church building began after a fire that destroyed the previous wooden Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. A wooden three-tent church was built in Putinki in 1625. The settlement got its name from the ancient roads diverging from here, from the Tverskaya Gate of Moscow, to Tver and Dmitrov. There is also an assumption that the word “Putinki” was formed from “Cobweb” - a close and bizarre interweaving of narrow alleys near the Tverskaya Gate. Behind the temple there was a traveling Ambassadorial yard, and around it were the courtyards of people from Dmitrovskaya Sloboda (present-day Bolshaya Dmitrovskaya Street), from which the rapidly growing Malaya Dmitrovskaya Sloboda received its name.

The construction of the new church was carried out, as was the case with many ancient Russian churches, not according to engineering drawings, but according to drawings, which is why the composition of the building turned out to be very dynamic and picturesque. The most noticeable feature is the small decorative tents crowning the main volume, the chapel of the temple, and its bell tower. Initially, only the main volume with three tents was built - a small rectangular building with a small refectory, a northern aisle of the Burning Bush Icon of the Mother of God (also crowned with a tent) and a hipped bell tower. What is unusual about the temple's composition is that the building is designed to be viewed from all four sides; even the apses are practically hidden in the rectangle and hardly protrude outward.

The decorative decoration of all parts of the temple is extremely beautiful - from the tents to the lower windows. The most noticeable part - the tents - are unlike one another, the builders

showed the richest imagination and ingenuity in their decor. Small tents are placed on slender decorated drums and crowned with onion-shaped domes on smaller drums. The bases of all the tents and the drums on which they rest are surrounded by rows of kokoshniks, echoing each other in shape. The drums themselves of the main volume are surrounded by arcatures with pointed ends. The small drums under the heads are also surrounded by kokoshniks. Along the edge of the main volume is decorated with a number of false zakomaras with keel-shaped ends, and under the zakomaras there is a wide carved frieze. Even more remarkable is the decor of the tent on the aisle. Its light drum is narrower than the tent itself, the base of which is, as it were, extended beyond the drum, which is also cut through by narrow high windows, and under the drum rises a “fiery” hill of kokoshniks in three tiers.

The beautiful octagonal bell tower with carved openings of the bell tier seems even lighter and more openwork thanks to a number of “rumor” holes in the tent. On the bell tower, among the bells, there was one made by the famous master Ivan Motorin in 1715.

The wide refectory with the side-chapel of Theodore Tiron, added at the end of the 17th century, is decorated more modestly, in the Baroque style, rather than ornate. At the same time, a gatehouse was built with a passage to the bell tower. In 1864 They built a new western porch with a tent on a narrow drum, similar in appearance to the other tents. This porch was dismantled during the restoration in 1957. and was replaced by a new one, stylized in the 17th century. Inside the temple, fragments of ancient paintings from the 17th century have been preserved.

After the revolution, the temple was not closed immediately, but only in 1935. In the 1930s The brethren of the Vysokopetrovsky monastery served there.

First, after closing, it was used as office space, then as a rehearsal room for the Moscow directorate of Circus on Stage. In 1990 a decision was made to hand over the temple to believers. Now the temple has been completely restored, and a Sunday school has been opened there. The slender, elegant church building, visible from the very beginning of Malaya Dmitrovka, looks unusually good, although now not from all four sides, as it was originally, and is the best decoration of one of the ancient streets of the historical center of Moscow.

In the Moscow outskirts of the settlement, located behind the Tver Gate, a wooden church was built in the 16th century. Previously, the place was called Putinki. Now this is the area of ​​Strastnoy Boulevard and Pushkinskaya Square. The temple was given the name of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The stone church was completed around 1676. At the same time, a refectory was built, and in 1690 a chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas was erected. Towards the end of the 18th century, a bell tower was added.

History of the Assumption Church The first mention of Putinki dates back to the 14th century.

. According to legend, at that time there were meadows there that were called Velikiye. Two large highways began there - to Dmitrov and Tver. In the 16th century, one of the country residences of Tsar Vasily III was located in these places. Later it was turned into a Travel Palace to stop foreign ambassadors.

Presumably the name Putinki is a derivative of the word path. The fact is that it was necessary to get to the palace by paths, that is, curved alleys and streets.

For the first time in chronicles, a church built of wood was mentioned in 1621. It was called the Church of the Assumption in the old Embassy Courtyard, the second name is the Church on Dmitrovka outside the city. In those days, it was famous for its icon depicting the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, exuding myrrh.

By the end of the 17th century, the wooden temple was either dismantled or burned down on its own. There is no precise documentary information on this matter. . Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1676 A stone church is being built on the site where a wooden church previously stood. In the 17th century, in the 90s, the first mention of the construction of a chapel in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on the northern side of the temple appears.

The new chapel was made in the Moscow Baroque style. The dome of the main tower of the temple was made in the shape of an apple. This was a rather rare occurrence; there were only two such domes in Moscow. In the second half of the 18th century, a bell tower was erected.

The Church of the Assumption of Our Lady gave its name to the lane on which it was located. They called him Uspensky. Later it was renamed Proezzhiy. Towards the end of the 18th century, the main development of the temple property took shape.

Buildings were erected on the churchyard, which are located:

• Priest.
• Deacon.
• Sexton.
• Women baking bread.

Shrines of the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God

The church in Putinki has shrines that are revered by parishioners. There are quite a lot of icons in the small church.

Among them are icons depicting:

Particularly revered icon from Constantinople

Among the faces especially revered by Christians are Icon of the Mother of God from Constantinople. One of its lists (copies) is located in the Assumption Church in Putinki. A legend has been preserved about this icon, which says that in ancient times two Greek monks from Constantinople were passing through Staraya Russa. There they served the Divine Liturgy in the cathedral church.

In memory of their presence, the monks left in this church a small icon of the Mother of God, which was engraved on a slate board. This miniature face soon became famous for its miracles. After which lists were made from it, which are kept to this day in various churches in Russia, including in the Church of the Assumption in Putinki.

Repair and destruction of the Assumption Church

In 1898 An unknown benefactor donated a large sum for that time to the temple - 6 thousand rubles. This money was used to repair the building and restore the icons. The iconostasis was re-covered with gold leaf, and the walls were decorated with paintings.

In 1922, the church was closed, and subsequently it was subject to partial destruction and looting. 34 spools (145 g) of gold, 6 poods and 5 pounds (100 kg) of silver and precious objects disappear from it.

The domes of the temple and the bell tower were destroyed, and the entrance to it was blocked with bricks. They also destroyed apses - buildings adjacent to the main part of the structure. In their place, the door and windows were broken through. After the desecration and closure of the church, the building was used as a residential building for many years.

Reduction of territory and return to the fold of the church

Over time, the building was surrounded by extensions, which radically changed the once voluminous composition of the cathedral. The territory of the temple property was greatly reduced. They seized the northwestern part of the territory, on which a three-story house was built in 1927. Currently, it houses the embassy of the African Republic of Benin.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the residential building was resettled. A sewing workshop was located there. In 1990, the temple was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. After this, its restoration began. In 1991, services were resumed here.

Schedule of services

Temple in Putinki

The Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary in Putinki is located in Moscow, on Uspensky Lane, in house number 4. The church is open to the public every day from 10:00 to 19:00, as well as during services.

Information about the schedule of services in the Assumption Church as follows:

Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki

This church, located in Putinki, is truly unique. It is the only three-tent temple building on the territory of Moscow, the appearance of which has survived to this day. In 1648, the wooden temple was destroyed by fire, but on the site of the previous structure, a new one was erected from stone according to its model. Its uniqueness lies in its lack of facade, that is, from any point of view it does not have a uniformly expressed facade due to the non-standard architectural solutions that were used during construction. The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary is a historical architectural monument, but at the same time the temple is active and services are held in it.

Service schedule:

• On weekdays, morning services begin at 7:30 am.
• On Saturday, Sunday, and also on holidays, the Divine Liturgy is held from 9-00.
• The All-Night Vigil begins at 6:00 pm.

Cathedral of the Assumption of the Mother of God in Moscow

Another Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the capital located on the territory of the Kremlin, on the square called Cathedral. It belongs to the historical and cultural museum-reserve "Moscow Kremlin". The church was built in 1475 - 1479. The development of the project was entrusted to the famous Italian architect Aristotle Fioravanti.

This temple was the main cathedral of the Russian Empire until the abolition of the monarchy in 1917. The Church of the Assumption is the oldest building in Moscow that has been completely preserved. The ashes of all the patriarchs of Moscow of the first patriarchal period, with the exception of Ignatius and Nikon, rest in the cathedral.

The first capital temple made of stone

The first temple made of stone it was erected on this site at the beginning of the 14th century, during the reign of Prince Ivan I Kalita. In the August days of 1326, in the place where the previous wooden cathedral stood, a new white-stone Assumption Church was founded. It was consecrated in 1327.

The Assumption Church was the first built of stone in Moscow. Archaeological research shows that it was a single-domed temple, supported by four pillars, with triple apses. It was built in the image of St. George's Cathedral, located in the city of Yuryev-Polsky.

The church was erected in an architectural style characteristic of the 14th century. The masonry consisted of squares of rough white stone. It was combined with smoothly polished decorative architectural elements. The facade of the church was crowned with kokoshniks, and the central tower was crowned with a dome.

Moscow Assumption Cathedral in the 15th century

During the reign of Ivan III the Great The Moscow state was gaining strength. The Assumption Cathedral ceased to correspond to the status of a cathedral. The chronicles mention that it became very dilapidated and was no longer repaired. Most likely, a decision had already been made to demolish the old one and build a new stone temple.

The construction of the new church, the largest in size for those years, was entrusted to the Russian architects Myshkin and Krivtsov. At the end of April 1471 the first stone was laid. However, the construction could not be completed, since on May 20, 1474, an earthquake occurred in Moscow and the cathedral collapsed.

After this, Ivan III invites the Italian architect Aristotle Fioravanti, who completely dismantles what remains of the destroyed temple. At this place, under his leadership, a building is being built on the model of the Assumption Cathedral, located in Vladimir. The Assumption Church is still located on Kremlin Square. The cathedral was consecrated in August 1479, the ceremony was performed by Metropolitan Gerontius.

Laconic architecture

The temple has a laconic and monolithic appearance. The unity of the building is emphasized by the uniform division of the facades using vertical flat projections. Smooth walls are crowned with narrow arcature windows. This is the name given to the rows of decorative false arches on the façade. Apses (lower projections of a building adjacent to the main structure) are not very high. They are covered with pylons from the north and south. The pylons are a tower-like structure in the shape of a truncated pyramid.

The cathedral is decorated with five large towers topped with massive domes. Aristotle Fioravanti managed to cope with the most difficult task. He increased the internal volume of the cathedral, which Myshkin and Krivtsov failed to do. The Italian, for the first time in the temple architecture of Rus', used cross vaults 1 brick thick, as well as metal openings and intra-wall connections. Essentially, he applied reinforcement.

The main idea of ​​the Italian architect

But the main engineering and architectural idea of ​​the Italian master was that he built behind the iconostasis there are additional arches. Thanks to this, the eastern halls, united by the through passages of the cathedral, in fact became a monolith. Additional arches took on a significant share of the load from the colossal towers of the cathedral.

This technique made it possible to build relatively thin round pillars in the western and central parts of the temple. This gave a feeling of unusual lightness of the large structure and its integrity with the main part of the pump. The naos is the central place in the temple where parishioners are present during worship.

Moscow temple in the 15th - 16th centuries

Period from 1482 to 1515. At this time, the initial painting of the cathedral was completed. The famous Moscow icon painter and fresco master Dionysius took part in the painting of the temple. Later, the church is redecorated, but some fragments of the original painting are preserved. They are the oldest examples of fresco painting of Rus' on the territory of the Kremlin that have survived to this day.

1574. The Assumption Cathedral suffered from numerous fires, which occurred quite often at that time, but it was constantly restored and updated. After a severe fire in 1574, Ivan I. V. the Terrible issued a decree to cover the top of the cathedral with gilded copper sheets. The relics of Metropolitan Peter, kept in the church, were moved from a silver shrine to a gold one. In the same year, the crowning of Ivan the Terrible took place in the cathedral, the first in the history of the temple.

Assumption Cathedral in the 17th century

The most significant events for the temple in the 17th century were the following:

• In 1613, the Zemsky Sobor was held here, at which Mikhail Fedorovich, the first of the Romanov dynasty, was elected tsar.
• In 1624, the church vaults were worn out and threatened to collapse. To avoid this, they were disassembled and reassembled according to the modified drawing, using additional reinforcement. They also erected additional girth arches, which increased the strength of the structure.
• In 1625, the Robe of the Lord, presented to Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich by the Shah of Persia Abbas I, was transferred to the Assumption Cathedral.

Events of the 18th - 20th centuries associated with the Assumption Church

A brief chronicle of events at this time is as follows:

Currently, the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary operates as a museum. It can be visited any day except Thursday, from 10:00 to 18:00.

While in Moscow, it is worth visiting such architectural pearls of the architecture of ancient Rus', such as churches dedicated to the Nativity and Dormition of the Mother of God.