Church of St. John the Warrior on Yakimanka is official. Church of Ivan the Warrior

These places often suffered from floods, and the church was simply washed away during the flood. Therefore, a new temple was erected on Yakimanka. It was consecrated in 1711, and by 1717 all decorative work was completed. The only change in the architecture of the church was made in 1759: a chapel appeared in the name of Metropolitan Dmitry of Rostov.

The architect of the Church of St. John the Warrior remains unknown, although similarities with the Menshikov Tower suggest the work of Ivan Zarudny.

At its core, the temple is an octagon on a quadrangle, but visually similar to a rotunda.

What is what in the church

The Church of St. John the Warrior is decorated with white stone carvings and figurines of angels. The domes are painted with red, black, yellow and green “checkerboard” paint. It is not known when this color scheme appeared, but there is a legend that in the 1790s Paul I liked it and has been decorating the temple ever since.

The bell tower stands out a little from the general appearance of the church with its dry decor and painted clock. And the temple courtyard is surrounded by a forged fence in the form of curly branches with leaves.

The interior decoration of the Church of St. John the Warrior was created under the direction of Vasily Bazhenov, the paintings were carried out by the artist Gavriil Domozhirov. The original decor has not been completely preserved, although restorations were carried out as close as possible to the original.

The iconostasis, which now stands in the Church of St. John the Warrior, was created in 1712 for the Church of the Three Saints at the Red Gate (where Lermontov was baptized and General Skobelev’s funeral service was held). But in 1928 the temple was demolished, and the iconostasis miraculously ended up in the Church of St. John the Warrior.

This temple was in operation during Soviet times, so icons were transferred here from nearby closing churches: the “Saints Joachim and Anna” icon was transferred from the church on Yakimanka, the “Great Martyr Barbara” icon was transferred from the Varvara Church on , the Kazan Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary was transferred from the Kazan Church on Yakimanka .

Guide to Architectural Styles

They say that......the bells of the Church of St. John the Warrior had a magnificent sound, and by decree of the Consistory he was one of those who “listened” to the cathedral gospel.
Moscow churches were supposed to start ringing at the same time as the bell tower in Moskovskoye. Temples located far away were oriented toward “famous churches,” where they “listened” and “transmitted” the ringing of the Kremlin bell tower. They were chosen by the Consistory. In Zamoskvorechye such churches were the Church of the Resurrection in Kadashi, the Church of St. Nicholas on Bersenevka, the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Nizhnye Sadovniki and the Church of St. John the Warrior on Yakimanka.
Nevertheless, in the 1920s, some of the bells of St. John's Church were taken for melting down, and some were given for artistic accompaniment of performances at the Moscow Art Theater.

Temple of John the Warrior in Moscow- an outstanding monument of Peter the Great’s Baroque, it appeared as if “spontaneously”, thanks to the personal order of the Tsar, who simply glanced at this area.

The temple contains particles of the relics of more than 150 saints. By the time of the Napoleonic invasion, the temple bell tower had 7 bells, the largest of which weighed 130 pounds.
In the second half of the 19th century, there were twice as many bells, and the bell of the gospel weighed as much as 303 pounds. Unfortunately, all these bells have been lost.

First Church of St. John the Warrior on Yakimanka mentioned already in 1625, it stood much closer to the river, in the depths of the street, and also further to the south - approximately on the site of the current Central House of Artists. The temple served as the parish church of the Streltsy settlement, built here under Ivan the Terrible.

The constant destructive floods of the Moscow River prompted the Streltsy to rebuild the temple in stone, which was done in 1671. However, this did not help either - at first the temple fell into disrepair after the expulsion of the Streltsy from Moscow as a result of the Streletsky revolt, and at the beginning of the 18th century it was flooded during the flood of 1709.

According to legend, during that same flood, while driving along the shore, Peter I saw parishioners sailing on a boat to Church of John the Warrior standing directly in the water. The Tsar wished to move the temple to a hill near Bolshaya Street and allocated 300 rubles for the construction of the church. With this money it was possible to build not just a stone church, but a real masterpiece in the latest taste, which is what ultimately happened.

On June 12, 1717, a new temple was consecrated in the name of St. Martyr John the Warrior on Yakimanka, which now stood not in the depths of the river, but near the street line.

Sasha Mitrakhovich 09.02.2018 09:40

In the photo: Church of St. John the Warrior in Moscow in 1961.

The “blessing” of Peter I seemed to give the Church of St. John the Warrior inner strength: it became prettier, developed, survived wars and revolutions - not without losses, but almost without stopping the liturgical life, and in the 20th century it became the guardian of the shrines and values ​​of many other Moscow churches that were closed by the Soviet authorities.

History of the Church of St. John the Warrior on Yakimanka in Moscow proceeded calmly and measuredly. Diversity was brought only by periodic repairs and reconstruction of the church. The paintings of the temple and the iconostasis changed, and the temple acquired extensions. The Patriotic War of 1812 brought the first cataclysm into the calm life of the church.

Patriotic War of 1812

In 1812, the war came right under the walls of the Church of St. John the Warrior on Yakimanka. The French, who plundered all of Moscow, desecrated this temple too. Even worse, after the enemy, local wicked marauders also ruled here.

Fortunately, the plundered temple, by God's providence, survived the great Moscow fire. The fire that was blazing everywhere did not touch it: the entire opposite side of the street burned out, but the flames stopped right at the church fence, sparing the temple and leaving the neighboring buildings untouched.

The end of 1812 and the beginning of 1813 became the only long period in the entire history of the temple (including the 20th century!) when no services were held in it. After the looting and desecration, the church quickly recovered. Generous donors gradually replaced the lost utensils and decoration of the temple, and after some, although not a very short, time, it became no less magnificent than before.

Temple and new government

The 20th century, even for the churches that outwardly survived it safely, was still a terrible time. The Church of St. John the Warrior was no exception.

However, the temple was not closed. Not only did it become the only functioning church in a large surrounding area, where many people flocked
parishioners of various Zamoskvoretsk churches who were afraid to profess their faith, but also a kind of repository of shrines from churches that were closed one after another.

Along with the shrines, the church also acquired a new iconostasis: the iconostasis of 1708 was moved here from the Church of the Three Saints at the Red Gate, which was broken to expand the Garden Ring. This is how a coeval iconostasis appeared in the temple. People came from other parishes along with things and shrines.

In 1930, the former rector of the ancient temple of Maron the Hermit, Alexander Voskresensky, who survived Stalin’s repressions and the Great Patriotic War, became the rector of the church.

Sasha Mitrakhovich 09.02.2018 10:27

Architecture of the Temple of St. John the Warrior on Yakimanka- Peter's Baroque. This is a transitional style, which because of this became only an episode; the tsar wanted to open a “window to Europe” in all directions.

In Russia, the Petrine Baroque did not become popular, remaining only in isolated monuments, mainly associated with its great admirers, the princes Golitsyn. The most famous example of this is the famous one. The churches of the Peter the Great and Elizabethan style variations are identified at first glance as Russian. The Russian appearance is also characteristic of the Church of St. John the Warrior.

At the heart of the temple is a quadrangular volume, topped with an octagonal domed roof with dormer windows on the cardinal points, and then two successively smaller octagonal light drums and an elegant, almost round dome.

The quadruple at the base does not look massive at all thanks to the decor, raised middle spindles with an arched end and pinnacles at the corners. Further up, the “elegantness” only increases thanks to the baroque, luxuriously decorated dormer windows, the unusually bright coloring of the roof slopes and the almost toy-like balustrade running along the top of the roof. Just as the temple itself is intermediate between the Naryshkin and Elizabethan baroque, so this tier between the quadrangle and the octagon, completely absent in the more traditional temples of the era, becomes the semantic center in the composition of the church, and it is to it that the viewer pays the most attention.

The western part of the quadrangle continues with a one-story refectory, connecting the temple with a much more traditional, but harmoniously looking octagonal bell tower. It is a rare case that the bell tower is crowned with an even more massive and noticeable dome than the church itself, despite the fact that it is lower and, due to the location of the streets, stands as if in the depths.

Sasha Mitrakhovich 09.02.2018 10:37

Temples that were not closed under Soviet rule are distinguished by their special splendor and nobility of interior decoration. This also applies to the Church of St. John the Warrior, and local antiquity does not oppress and does not create a feeling of “museum-likeness”.

The entrance to the temple is located on the north side at the base of the bell tower. Even before entering the refectory, the visitor is greeted by an icon, as if reminding who the temple is dedicated to. There is a large icon of the saint inside, but the abundance of large dark ancient icons of various saints can really be confusing.

The internal structure of the temple is typical for churches of similar layout: a wide porch in the far part of the refectory ends with two side chapels, of which the southern one, in the name of, was consecrated before the central altar, and the northern one, in the name of St. Demetrius of Rostov, on the contrary, was added later. Between them, a narrow passage with icons (among them - an icon with a particle of relics) leads to the main, most spacious and most luxuriously decorated part of the temple.

The interior of the refectory, which has not seen the usual alterations for Soviet times, is distinguished by its splendor: stucco molding, ornamental and subject paintings, gilding, relief heads of angels and other figures. However, the main temple benefits from its spaciousness, light streaming from high windows, and a beautiful carved iconostasis.

The iconostasis narrows at the top, because of this there are not so many icons in its upper rows, but their lack, at least from a visual point of view, is compensated by the subtle decoration. Just like from the outside, from the inside the main quadrangle of the temple gives the impression of a rotunda, thanks to the oblique slopes of the roof and the octagonal end going up.

The current paintings and, in general, the interior decoration of the temple date back mainly to the middle of the 19th century, when they were completely renovated; the earlier paintings have not survived, but since then the interior appearance can be considered generally preserved.

VKontakte

Church of St. John the Warrior on Yakimanka in Moscow - an Orthodox church in honor of the martyr John the Warrior (IV); is administered by the Russian Orthodox Church; located in Moscow's Yakimanka district

The temple building was erected in 1704-1713, during the reign of Peter the Great. The supposed author of the project is an architect.

Story

The lowlands between the modern street Bolshaya Yakimanka and , regularly flooded in the spring, Sloboda settlements were located there, archers, Poles and ordinary peasants lived there.

In 1709, Peter I, having examined the damage caused by the flood, noticed the destruction of the Church of St. John (1625), which was then closer to the river, and ordered the construction of a new church in a safer place - in memory of the Battle of Poltava; According to legend, the new temple was built according to the drawings of the king himself.

N. A. Naydenov, Public Domain

In 1711, the construction of a refectory with a southern aisle was completed; The consecration of the entire temple was carried out on June 12, 1717 by Exarch Metropolitan of Ryazan Stefan Yavorsky. In 1759, the southern aisle was built.

The forged patterned fence on a brick foundation was erected in 1754-1758 (its eastern side was moved significantly closer to the temple in 1984 due to the expansion of the street; the fence on the southern side appeared even later, after the demolition of the house that stood there).

In 1785-1796, Priest Matvey Desnitsky, the future Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg Mikhail, served in the church. Already in his young years he gained fame as a talented preacher.

In 1779-1791, the church was decorated by Gabriel Domozhirov (frescoes) and (iconostasis); these works were lost in the 1860s. In 1928, the church was equipped with an iconostasis from the destroyed Church of the Three Saints at the Red Gate.

NVO, GNU 1.2

From 1906 until his death in May 1922, the rector of the temple was Archpriest Christopher Nadezhdin. Under him, in 1912, the temple celebrated its 200th anniversary - the liturgy on the occasion of the anniversary and the temple holiday on July 30 was performed by Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Vladimir (Epiphany).

In 1922, Archpriest Christopher was accused of “opposing the confiscation of church valuables” and was shot along with some other members of the Moscow clergy by the verdict of the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal (glorified by the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in 2000).

The temple was never closed for worship and was not renovated.

In the 1930s, some shrines from closed or destroyed neighboring churches were placed here; one of them was the closed temple of Maron the Hermit, whose rector Alexander Voskresensky in 1930 became rector of the temple of John the Warrior († 1950).

Architecture

The architecture of the building combines elements of the Moscow Baroque styles with the Ukrainian Baroque, and the European influence common in Russian architecture during the time of Peter the Great.

The architect remained unknown; similarities with suggest the work of Ivan Zarudny.

The main building is a traditional Moscow octagon in a square (an octagon on a quadrangle), however, in this case there are two coaxial octagons, each crowning half of the dome.

Photo gallery

Useful information

Church of St. John the Warrior on Yakimanka

Cost of visit

for free

Address and contacts

Moscow, B. Yakimanka st., 46

Shrines

The southern aisle of the temple is in the name of the martyr. Guria, Samona and Aviva; northern - St. Dimitry of Rostov; attached - Great Martyr Barbara

In the temple there is also a revered icon of the latter from the Varvara Church on Varvarka Street, particles of the relics of over 150 saints of God in arks and in icons.

In the temple, in addition, there are remarkable icons of Joachim and Anna (“The Conception of St. Anna, when the Most Holy Theotokos was conceived”) with marks - in the northern aisle (was brought from the destroyed temple of Joachim and Anna), and the Savior of the “Great Council Angel” - in front of the salt the main altar, next to the also highly revered temple icon of the martyr John the Warrior.

John the Warrior on Yakimanka was first mentioned in 1625. Only at that time there was no “Yakimanka” area, and the name of the saint itself sounded somewhat different: Ivan the Warrior.

St. Ivan, the patron saint of the archery warriors who lived nearby at that time, was originally wooden and was located below, “near the Crimean courtyard on the shore.” When the river flooded, it often flooded, so the archers, at their own expense, rebuilt it from stone in 1671.

Photo 1881

After the Streltsy uprising of 1682, many rebels were expelled from Moscow along with their families, and it was deserted.

The next flood in 1708 heavily flooded it. There is a legend about this flooding of the temple that Peter the Great himself, having seen the temple to which people traveled by boat, became interested in it, and upon learning that it was consecrated in honor of St. John the Warrior, the warlike king personally ordered the construction of a new one in another, safer place. They say that in 1709 he even sent a completed drawing and donated 300 rubles for the construction of a stone church, dedicating it to the memory of the victory in the Battle of Poltava.

This is how Ivanovonovskaya appeared on Yakimanka (by that time the area had already acquired this name in honor of the holy parents of the Mother of God Joachim (Yakim) and Anna, whose temple was nearby). True, the legend is a legend, but only the idea of ​​​​building a temple higher than the previous place existed for a long time, since the land for it from among the Streltsy was acquired back in 1702. On the site of the old church, a chapel was erected, as was customary in those days, but it was dismantled in 1920s and it didn’t reach us.

Icon of John the Warrior

It is not known exactly whose drawing sent by Peter I was, but many historians agree that the temple, designed by the architect Ivan Zarudny, is very similar to the Menshikov Tower (the Temple of the Archangel Gabriel). The traditional octagon, or more precisely, two octagons, on a two-light quadrangle are designed in such a way that visually the lower octagon looks like a rotunda. The refectory and bell tower were standard for that time. The church is an excellent example of Peter the Great's baroque, combining the features of Moscow, Ukrainian and European baroque architecture.

Construction was carried out at a rapid pace, perhaps thanks to the interest of Peter I himself, so that in 1711 the chapel of Sts. Mchch. Guria, Samon and Aviva. By 1712, the temple building was almost completed, its decoration and improvement began. The great consecration took place in 1717. The tsar sent him golden church vessels for worship, a pound weight on a chain (it was suspended above the entrance as a reminder of order during services) and a painting with the inscription “Pharmacy healing sins.”

Fragment of a fence

It came to us practically unchanged, only in 1759 (allegedly with the permission of Peter's daughter Elizabeth I) a second chapel was added in the name of St. Demetrius of Rostov. Around the same time, the temple was surrounded by a magnificent patterned forged fence on a stone base (in 1984 it was moved to its current location). The wall paintings by Gabriel Dozhirov and the iconostasis of Vasily Bazhenov, unfortunately, have not survived, but since the St. John’s Church was not closed, in the 1920s. Shrines from closing temples flocked into it. Thus, a magnificent carved iconostasis with gilding (1708), transferred here from the Church of the Three Saints at the Red Gate (the temple has not survived), ended up here.

Iconostasis from the Church of the Three Saints at the Red Gate

In 1812, the temple witnessed a miracle: the French looked for treasure in its cellars, but could not find it, and the fire they started went out, reaching the church fence.

The bell tower of the Church of St. John the Warrior on Yakimanka had a special sound and therefore the church belonged to those who “listened” to the Kremlin gospel. Unfortunately, some of the bells were melted down after the 1917 revolution, the rest were sent to the theater (Moscow Art Theater). The “theater” bells were returned to the temple by Tatyana Doronina in the 1990s. One of the current bells (Dutch, 16th century) was removed from the closed church. Now the bell ensemble again pleases the ears of Muscovites with its ringing.

It was not closed during the years of the most severe persecution; its rector, Christopher, who was shot in 1922, was canonized as the New Martyrs of Russia. The temple contains many holy icons brought here from damaged churches. Among them are the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God with stamps, the icon of the martyr. Barbarians with part of her finger and a ring from the temple of her name on Varvarka, an icon of Joachim and Anna from the temple that gave the name to Yakimanka and many others.