Kuzminki Estate: Church

At different times in Kuzminki there were three documented churches in succession. The first of them was built in 1716 by the Stroganovs, who received a blessed charter, that is, permission to build it. That church was wooden, consecrated in honor of the family shrine of the owners of Kuzminki - the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God and had a chapel of Alexander Nevsky. The entire estate was named after this church - the village of Vlahernskoe. The church was destroyed by fire in 1732, but a new one was built in its place. Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God, also wooden. She, in turn, died from “fiery ignition” on November 18, 1758.

The current church is the third in a row. It was built in two stages. In 1759-62, a church building was built, as well as a separate wooden bell tower, the author of which was Zherebtsov. However, by 1779 the church building was in need of repair. Prince M.M. Golitsyn soon rebuilt the building in the forms of mature classicism and built a new bell tower instead of the old one. These works were carried out according to the design of the architect R. Kazakov in 1784-85.
There was a family heirloom in the church - Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God(Hodegetria), dates back to the 7th century AD. One of the most revered Greek icons in Moscow. They were brought to Constantinople as a gift to the father of Peter I, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, in 1653. Along with the icon, a letter was sent in which its origin was associated with the Blachernae Monastery of Constantinople, and the history of its veneration with the early history of the Hodegetria of Constantinople. The icon was kept in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin; the tsar took it with him on military campaigns. The celebration of the icon took place on the fifth week of Lent - Saturday of the Akathist. The Blachernae icon is in relief, made using the wax-mastic technique. The relics of Christian martyrs are added to the wax, thus the icon is a reliquary. In terms of iconographic type, the Hodegetria list, close to the Smolensk icon of the Mother of God, was created in the second half of the 15th - early 16th centuries, possibly as a repetition of an ancient icon on an old board. The icon has a Greek inscription - “God-protected”. Currently, the icon is in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in the Moscow Kremlin. One of the revered relief lists of the second half of the 17th - early 18th centuries was kept in the family estate of the Stroganov-Golitsyns in the village of Vlahernskoe. The father of the already mentioned Grigory Stroganov was granted to them for his services to the Fatherland. After the temple was built, the area received a third name - the village of Vlahernskoe.
Vlaherna is the name of a locality in Constantinople. A long time ago there stood a church with a miraculous icon. This icon patronized Constantinople and the Byzantine emperors. According to legend, she put to flight the enemies who attacked the city in 626. The icon demonstrated its miraculous power more than once while in Russia. In 1830, a cholera epidemic broke out. It was difficult to indicate at least one place in Moscow or near Moscow that was free from the raging disease. Thousands of people died every day... And yet in Blachernae not a single person died, but even got sick. The Mother of God also showed her intercession in 1871, when another cholera epidemic broke out in Moscow. It is not surprising that Muscovites and surrounding residents revered the icon and considered it miraculous. By the way, all three names - Kuzminki, Melnitsa and Vlahernskoye - were used until 1917, we find all three names in newspapers, guidebooks, letters and diaries of contemporaries. July 2 became the local Christian holiday of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God. In 1920, the Blachernae Church closed, and the icon of the Mother of God was transferred to the Assumption Church in Veshnyaki. When it closed in 1941, the icon went to the Tretyakov Gallery, where it is kept in storage to this day.

Temple destruction

Reconstruction of the church in Kuzminki. Photo 1938

In 1923 it opened in Moscow Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, at which the decision was made to close the churches. Monasteries and churches were transferred to the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for camps and prisons for criminals and children's colonies. Thousands of churches were closed in short order. Warehouses, clubs, sobering stations, hostels and museums were built in the ruined churches. In Kuzminki, in response to the “lofty” ideas of building a new state, all the gravestones and crosses of the small churchyard behind the church were destroyed, freeing up the territory for the construction of a dormitory for the institute’s employees. Not far from the dam there was once a well with holy water, which was filled up.

In 1929, the village council confiscated the keys from the rector of the Church of the Blachera Icon of the Mother of God, prohibiting the holding of services. But that is not all. One day in 1929, a cart rolled along Lipovaya Alley to expropriate church valuables in favor of the state and transfer the temple Central Committee of the Automotive Industry. Having learned about this, priest Poretsky tried to protect the holy place, calling on the residents for help. The people warmly responded to the call. The results of the confrontation were sad. In the fall of 1929, the drum of the temple and the bell tower, on which the ancient tower clock was located, were destroyed.

When remodeling the temple only the main skeleton of the building and the portico remained. The pediments were replaced by large and disproportionate attics. The windows were altered beyond recognition: instead of round windows, rectangular ones appeared, and the cast metal strips that held the structure together were damaged. Everything inside has also been redone. In place of the altar (!) they built a toilet and painted over the wall paintings. Many manuscripts and icons were burned. The only picturesque icon of the Vlahere Mother of God known to us hung for a long time in the left aisle of the Veshnyakovsky church. Miraculously, this icon survived and was of undoubted value and, by decision of the commission, was transferred to the funds of one of the museums in Moscow.

Today

In 1992 year, by order of 717 Moscow Mayor Luzhkov, the building of the Church of the Blachersk Icon of the Mother of God with the chapels of St. Sergius of Radonezh and St. Alexander Nevsky were transferred to the Patriarchate. The seemingly impossible dreams of restoring the estate began to come true. The rector of the church, Father Alexander, and the newly created community brought life into the dead temple and hope into the hearts of Muscovites. An important stage in the restoration was the dismantling of the water tower, ugly Soviet architecture (it was destroyed by explosion, so carefully that none of the surrounding buildings were damaged). Many organizations and restoration teams took part in the restoration of the temple. Dynasties worked here: the Gvozdev brothers and their sons. And the multi-pound bell helped to cast the staff of the plant named after. Likhacheva.

Website http://vlahernskoe.prihod.ru/

Rector - Priest Alexander Kashkin

Temple opening hours: On Sunday - Matins and Liturgy at 9 a.m., the day before all-night vigil at 5 p.m.

Telephone: 377-87-88

Address: st. Skryabina, 1 (Starye Kuzminki St., 26),

Directions: from metro station Ryazansky Prospekt, bus. 29 to the final stop

For the Stroganov family of merchants, who were once simple Pomeranian peasants, 1716 turned out to be an unusually troublesome year. It's no joke, the construction of a church specially erected for the icon, once granted to him for services to the fatherland by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich himself, was completed! It was this icon, the Blachernae Mother of God, that gave the name to both the church, where it was kept since then, and the village, which became known as Blachernae.

Origin of the icon

The name of the icon comes from the name of the part of Constantinople where the temple with this shrine was once located. Not only Constantinople, but also the whole of Byzantium was under her protection. The chronicles of those years tell how in 626, through prayers offered before the icon, the Most Holy Theotokos saved the city from the invasion of invaders. Many centuries later, already in Russia, its miraculous power will be revealed during the cholera epidemic in 1830. She saved all the inhabitants of Kuzminki, where she was, and all the inhabitants of the surrounding villages from a terrible disease.

This icon was not ordinary. Its creation is attributed to the Evangelist Luke, a contemporary and one of the apostles of Jesus Christ. The icon was in relief and made using a unique wax-mastic technique. Its peculiarity was that crushed particles of the relics of saints were added to the wax. An image made in this way is called a reliquary.

The appearance of the icon in Russia

It is known that in the 5th century it came to Constantinople, which was at that time the capital of the Christian world, and from there to Holy Athos. In 1654, Athonite monks brought it to Moscow and presented it to the pious sovereign Alexei Mikhailovich, and he, in turn, granted the shrine to the Stroganovs. The wooden Church of Our Lady of Blachernae was built for this icon.

But a rare wooden temple has a long life. This church stood for only sixteen years and burned down in a fire, but by the Will of God the precious icon was saved. In the same year, having asked for the blessing of the ruling bishop, they began to build a new church, also wooden, but it also met the same fate as the previous one. In 1758, as a result of a “fiery ignition,” she died. But this time too the shrine was taken out of the fire.

Construction of a stone temple building

By the time of the fire, the Kuzminki family had passed into the possession of the family of Count Golitsyn. Descendants of the Lithuanian prince Gediminas, they have been the pillar of state power for centuries. This year marks six hundred years since they began their ministry.

A year later, the construction of a stone temple began on the site where the burnt church stood. The count entrusted the creation of the project and the work to the architect I.P. Zherebtsov, who was also involved in the redevelopment and reconstruction of the entire estate. He entered the history of architecture as a representative of In addition, his name is associated with a movement called early Moscow classicism. For many years he supervised all construction work on the estate.

Architectural features of the new temple

The design of the stone temple was based on the traditional tetrahedral lower part of the building for Russian churches and an octagonal drum built on top. This is how many Orthodox churches in Russia were built. A wooden octagonal bell tower was built nearby. All the decorative design of the temple was made in the Baroque style. In 1762, the construction work was generally completed, but finishing continued for another twelve years.

The Kuzminki estate was the pride of the Golitsyn counts, and they spared no expense on its arrangement. In 1784, they invited the famous Moscow architect R.R. Kazakov, a student of the famous V.I. Bazhenov, who worked with him on the Bolshoi project. He began reconstructing the temple in accordance with the architectural requirements of that time.

Reconstruction of the temple

R.R. Kazakov changed the tetrahedral layout of the main building to a round one, made in the form of a drum, and built a dome on top. On four sides of the building there were entrances with decorative steps and porticoes. The overall composition was complemented by a two-tier stone bell tower. Thus, the Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God in Kuzminki acquired the outlines familiar to us.

During the War of 1812, the temple suffered significant destruction. Objects and icons were stolen. There are eyewitness accounts that tell of numerous incidents of sacrilege committed by French soldiers. At the invitation of the Golitsyns, the best architects worked on its restoration. In 1819, the completely recreated chapel of St. Sergius of Radonezh was consecrated. However, work on the temple continued for several more years. Contemporaries wrote about the extraordinary marble iconostasis in this area. The best stone-cutters in the country worked on it. Famous Ural masters were also invited.

There is much evidence that the Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God in Kuzminki was constantly owned by the reigning family. For example, in 1828, Empress Maria Feodorovna donated a precious brooch made of pearls and diamonds to decorate the icon. In 1858, Emperor Alexander II visited the temple. In addition, the Kuzminki estate saw many other representatives of the House of Romanov. Since 1859, the temple became the Golitsyn family tomb. In the first years of the 20th century, it was again restored and consecrated.

The fate of the church after the revolution

After the revolution, the Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God in Kuzminki shared the fate of many religious buildings in Russia. Literally in the first years, representatives of the atheistic authorities confiscated all valuables and church utensils. When the temple was finally closed, the miraculous icon was transferred to the Assumption Church in Vishnyaki, and when it ceased to function, the icon was transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery, in whose funds it is kept to this day. In 1929, the domes were demolished, and the building itself was rebuilt beyond recognition, turning it into a holiday home. During the entire period of Soviet power, both production facilities and classrooms were located here. The wall paintings and stucco decorations were completely destroyed. Your heart fills with pain when you see photographs of the temple from those years.

Renaissance

In the years following perestroika, many Russian Orthodox churches were returned to the faithful. A period of historical insight has arrived. It was necessary to revive what had been mercilessly destroyed for decades. Government agencies and various countries provided great assistance in this regard. Restorers also came to the Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God in Kuzminki. It was on the list of objects to be restored first. The work was supervised by architect E. A. Vorontsova. In three years, builders and restorers returned the temple to its original appearance. In 1995, it was solemnly consecrated, like many Orthodox churches in Russia.

Life of the temple today

Today the temple is a major religious and cultural center. It runs a Sunday school and a catechesis school for adults and children. In addition, there is a library whose doors are open to everyone. A separate building has a baptismal font with a font for adults. Like many churches, it has become a place where everyone can gain knowledge about the basics of Orthodoxy, which for many decades was practically closed to the general public.

The current Blachernae Church in Kuzminki is the third in a row, was built in the period from 1759-1762. according to the project of the St. Petersburg architect S.V. Chevakinsky and architect I.P. Zherebtsov. The central part of the church was finally finished and consecrated in 1774. In 1784-1785 the church was rebuilt in classicist forms.

The author of the restructuring project was architect. R.R. Kazakov and V.I. Bazhenov.
In 1812, the church was plundered by Napoleonic soldiers. According to eyewitnesses, the French entered the temple on horseback, church utensils and icons were stolen.

In 1828, Empress Maria Feodorovna presented the family shrine of the temple - the Blachernae Icon - with a brooch made of pearls and diamonds, which decorated the main icon.

In 1829, in a church designed by architect. M.D. Bykovsky and D.I. Gilardi built the border of Sergius of Radonezh, which in 1839 was connected by a wooden gallery. In 1842, a clock was installed at the limit, which differed from the usual ones in that it had one hour hand.

During the period of 1858, the church was visited by Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Feodorovna. After the death of S.M. Golitsyn (1774-1859), the border of Sergius of Radonezh was turned into the Golitsyn family tomb, where S.M. Golitsyn was buried.

In 1899-1900 the church was again restored and consecrated in 1901.
In the first years of Soviet power, all religious objects were removed from the church, in 1929 the domes were demolished, and the Blachernae Church was rebuilt as a holiday home for the Central Committee of Automobile Industry Trade Unions. Subsequently, the church was used for residential premises and administrative buildings of VIEV.

In 1994-1995 According to the project of architect E.A. Vorontsova, the church was restored.

Thrones:

· The throne of the central chapel was consecrated in honor of the Blachernae icon of the Mother of God

· The throne of the southern aisle - in honor of the holy noble prince Alexander Nevsky

· The throne of the northern aisle is in honor of St. Sergius, abbot of Radonezh.

Shrines of the temple:

The temple does not have shrines that could be classified as especially revered. The icons are equipped with particles of the relics of the saints of God:

· Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called;

· Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky;

· Venerable Seraphim of Sarov;

· Holy Blessed Prince Peter and Princess Fevronia;

· holy righteous warrior Theodore Ushakov.

Divine service

Every day in our church Matins and Liturgy are served at 8.00; on Sundays, twelve days and great holidays, an early Liturgy is served at 7:00 and a late one at 9:30; on the eve the All-Night Vigil is celebrated at 17:00.

Address:

Moscow, st. Kuzminskaya, 7, building 1

This year marks the 600th anniversary of the family of princes Golitsyn and the beginning of their service to Russia. Before the revolution, they also owned the Kuzminki estate with the house Blachernae church. It was created by the most famous Russian architects, saints, emperors, great people prayed under its arches, and the estate itself was compared to Peterhof, Pavlovsk and Versailles.

According to legend, the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God was painted by the Apostle-Evangelist Luke during the earthly life of the Blessed Virgin Mary and sent as a gift to the ruler of Antioch. According to another version, it was created by Christians of the city of Nicomedia at the beginning of the 4th century, when the persecution of Emperor Diocletian was raging. The icon is made in relief from wax mastic, into which particles of holy relics are added.

Then the shrine ended up in Jerusalem. In the first half of the 5th century, Empress Eudokia, the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II, traveling around the Holy Land, sent the icon as a gift to the Emperor’s sister Pulcheria in Constantinople, where it was placed in the Blachernae Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary - hence its name. She miraculously defended the Second Rome more than once. It was with this icon that in 626 Patriarch Sergius walked around the walls of Constantinople, besieged by the Avars, after which they fled away, and in honor of this miracle the Feast of the Praise of the Virgin Mary was established. Byzantine emperors had the custom of taking the Blachernae icon with them on military campaigns.

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Blachernae icon was transferred to Athos, and then sent to Moscow as a gift to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. In October 1654, Patriarch Nikon solemnly greeted her at the Execution Ground. The message from the proto-Singelian Patriarch of Jerusalem Gabriel said: “The holy icon that was delivered to you, sir, is the patroness of Constantinople. She will now be the protector of Russia and the sacred person of Your Majesty, as she was once the protector of Constantinople and its pious kings.”

The icon was placed in the Assumption Cathedral. From now on, the king of the Third Rome also took her with him on military campaigns, and the list was granted to “eminent people” by the Stroganovs. This is how the Blachernae icon ended up in Kuzminki.

“Vlakhernskoe village, Mill also”

Legend has it that in ancient times, here, in a dense pine forest on the banks of the Goledyanka River, there were mills, and one of them belonged to the mysterious miller Kuzma - as if his name remained in the name of Kuzminka. Scientists believe that the name comes from the local church or chapel of Saints Cosmas and Damian, revered as healers and patrons of animals. Their holiday was popularly called Kuzminki.

Reliable information about the history of Kuzminki appears in the first half of the 17th century, when these lands and “the wasteland that was the Kuzminsk mill” belonged to the Simonov and Nikolo-Ugreshsky monasteries: here were their fishing and forest lands. Perhaps earlier, before the Time of Troubles, there was a small village here called Kuzminki: a chapel of holy healers could have stood there. After the Time of Troubles, only the mill remained, which is why the area was also called the Mill. Its third name - the village of Vlahernskoye - appeared under the next owners, the famous Stroganovs, who were one of the most ancient and wealthy Russian industrialists.

According to legend, their founder Spiridon was the son of a Tatar prince. He, against the will of his father, converted to Christianity. He allegedly went to Moscow with an army, captured his son, who dared to come out to meet him, and demanded that he renounce Christ. Without waiting for the abdication, the prince put his son to execution by planing. This happened in 1395. The descendants adopted the Stroganov surname. Also N.M. Karamzin doubted this legend, and now it is generally accepted that the Stroganovs are rich natives of Veliky Novgorod, but their ancestor was really Spiridon, who lived during the time of Dmitry Donskoy. According to legend, his grandson Luka Kuzmich ransomed Grand Duke Vasily II the Dark from Tatar captivity.

Under Ivan the Terrible, the Stroganovs were engaged in salt mining. They created saltworks in Sol Vychegda, and the tsar granted them huge estates in the Perm region. To protect these possessions and for the sake of further territorial expansion of Russia, the Stroganovs, at their own expense, organized Ermak’s campaign to Siberia. During the Time of Troubles, they donated almost a million to the state for military needs, for which they were awarded a special, established only for them, title of “famous people” and the right to be written with “-vich,” that is, with a full patronymic. This rank was above the “guest” - the merchant elite, but still not the nobility. The title of nobility remained the Stroganovs' cherished dream; it could only be achieved by diligent help to the Fatherland. In the meantime, for this help the Stroganovs received other highest awards, testifying to the attitude of the Russian sovereigns towards this family. They supported the first Romanov in his election to the throne and soon received as a gift part of the Robe of the Lord, brought in 1625 from the Persian Shah Abass. Another award was the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God, which Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich presented to the Stroganovs for their services. According to one, the most accepted version, three copies were made from the miraculous icon sent to Rus' from Athos. One was donated by Stroganov, the second ended up in the church in the name of St. Sergius of Radonezh in the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery, the third in the village of Dedenevo near Dmitrov, in the Spaso-Vlaherna Monastery.

According to another version, these lists were also brought to Rus' from Athos along with the miraculous image. There are also disagreements regarding which of the Stroganovs the icon was presented to: some believe that it was Dmitry Andreevich Stroganov, others believe that it was his son Grigory Dmitrievich. By the way, Saint Demetrius of Rostov corresponded with him and once asked him to borrow the book “Chronograph” from his personal library.

At the end of the 17th century, Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov, having united the main family holdings in his hands, became the richest man in Russia, supplying more than 60% of Russian salt. They tell this legend. One day Peter I invited him to dinner in the Summer Garden. G.D. Stroganov brought a large wine barrel as a gift to the Tsar. He seemed indignant: “What do I need your keg! It would be better if St. Petersburg lent money to build!” Stroganov threw off the lid, and it turned out that the barrel was filled to the top with gold. And then Peter granted Stroganov a fief in Kuzminki.

This, of course, is a legend, but Stroganov really helped the Tsar in the Northern War, when he built and equipped two military frigates at his own expense. With these ships, Peter won his first victory near Arkhangelsk and, in gratitude, in 1704 he presented Stroganov with his portrait with diamonds and many estates, including Kuzminki with the right to have his own house church. G.D. Stroganov, the last “famous man,” was not involved in the estate. He died in 1715 and was buried in the family parish church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Kotelniki near Taganka, where their Moscow house stood on Shvivaya Gorka.

After his death in 1715, his heirs took over the organization of Kuzminki: his wife Maria Yakovlevna, the first Russian lady of state, granted by Peter as a sign of respect the privilege to wear Russian dress, and his sons, especially the eldest Alexander Grigorievich, who was famous for his education, carried with him a “travel library” and translated Milton's Paradise Lost into Russian.

It was under him that an estate with outbuildings, a cascade of ponds, and the first park appeared in Kuzminki. And first of all, in 1716, a wooden church was built, consecrated in honor of the Stroganov family heirloom - the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God. There is also this explanation: the Stroganovs piously did not dare to keep their shrine in the house where assemblies, social balls, and feasts were held, and they built a temple for it. One of the chapels was consecrated in the name of Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky on the name day of A.G. Stroganov. An icon depicting the Stroganov family tree was also kept in it. The property began to be called “the village of Vlahernskoye, Melnitsa also.”

Stroganov’s friendship with the Tsar continued: Peter was the father-in-law at Stroganov’s wedding, often visited (a wooden house was even built for him), prayed in the old church and came with his wife and daughters Anna and Elizabeth to its consecration. And in 1722, the emperor, returning victoriously from the Persian campaign, of which Alexander Stroganov was a participant, stopped with him before the ceremonial entry into the capital. And he granted the Stroganovs barons “as a sign of the merits of their ancestors” - they became the third Russian family, after Shafirov and Osterman, to receive this title. Their family coat of arms depicted a knight's helmet with the visor down. It symbolized that the Stroganovs never turned their heads and did not pay attention to what others did and said, but silently and honestly obeyed their sovereign. Their motto was “Earthly riches for the Fatherland, a name for yourself.”

In 1757, the owner’s daughter, Baroness Anna Alexandrovna Stroganova, maid of honor to Elizabeth Petrovna, married Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn, nephew of the famous Peter the Great’s field marshal. The Kuzminks went to him as a dowry and remained with the Golitsyns until 1917.

Noble nest of the Golitsyns

The Golitsyns were descended from the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas. His grandson, Prince Patrick, in 1408 went into the service of the Great Moscow Prince Vasily I, son of Dmitry Donskoy, and was received “with great honor.” The Moscow sovereign gave his daughter Anna as a wife to the prince's son, Yuri Patrikeevich. The grandson of Yuri Patrikeevich, Prince Ivan Vasilyevich, nicknamed Bulgaka (that is, the proud man), had four sons, among them was the founder of the Golitsyns, Prince Mikhail Ivanovich, nicknamed “Golitsa”. It is usually believed that the nickname was given to him for the habit of wearing an iron combat glove - a glove - on only one hand. But there is another opinion: the prince lost his hand in battle and since then wore an iron glove as a prosthesis.

He was a okolnichy and a governor under Grand Duke Vasily III, but fate treated him harshly. In September 1514, at the Battle of Orsha, he was captured in Lithuania, where he spent 38 years, and returned to his homeland only in 1552, released by the king for loyalty to his sovereign, when his fourth cousin Ivan the Terrible was already reigning on the Russian throne. Seriously ill and exhausted, the first Golitsyn became a monk at the Trinity Monastery under the name of Jonah and died a few years later.

His distant descendant, Lieutenant General Prince M.M. Golitsyn, who became the first owner of Kuzminki from the Golitsyns, was the leader of the Tarusa and Kaluga nobility and the president of the Admiralty Collegium. There is such a legend about him. As if Peter III forbade his wife Ekaterina Alekseevna to sniff tobacco, but she could not live without it and asked M.M. Golitsyna sat next to her at dinner, where she quietly helped herself from his snuff box under the table. The Emperor once noticed this trick and scolded Golitsyn, but disgrace did not follow. Then Golitsyn even acted as a mediator in the reconciliation of the august couple after another quarrel.

His own marriage turned out to be successful; in honor of his wife, he even founded the village of Annino in the vicinity of Kuzminki. His wife handed over all the affairs to him, and he began to build a real noble nest here, inviting young I.P. for the work. Zherebtsov, the architect of the beautiful bell tower of the Novospassky Monastery. And again, the first task of the new owner of Kuzminki was to build a manor church: in the middle of the 18th century, the wooden Blachernae church burned down for the second time, and Golitsyn decided to build a stone one. Sometimes the design of this temple is attributed to the St. Petersburg architect S. Chevakinsky, who erected the famous St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral on the Kryukov Canal in the northern capital, and in Moscow the Golitsyn estate on Volkhonka, 14. In 1759–1762, a stone temple was built in Kuzminki, but the bell tower remained wooden. In 1762, the Alexander chapel was consecrated by Archpriest Ioann Ioannov, rector of the Tagan Church of the Savior in Chigasy, and the entire church was consecrated only in June 1774 by Archpriest of the Archangel Cathedral Peter Alekseev. However, ten years later the temple fell into disrepair again. Then Golitsyn, having asked for permission from Archbishop Plato for the reconstruction, invited Rodion Kazakov, who erected the now existing temple with a magnificent rotunda dome and a stone bell tower in 1784–1785. This temple is sometimes compared in style to another magnificent creation of Rodion Kazakov - the Church of Martin the Confessor on Bolshaya Alekseevskaya near Taganka, built in the image of the Cathedral of the Apostle Paul in London. It is sometimes believed that the Blachernae Church had some kind of Western European prototype. According to legend, Matvey Kazakov participated in the construction of the Kuzminsky temple, but he was probably confused with Rodin, but Vasily Bazhenov actually worked for some time in Kuzminki during the reconstruction of the temple. The images for the iconostases were painted by the Italian artist Antonio Claudio, who also painted the aforementioned Martinovsky Church.

A crystal lamp set in silver burned in front of the Blachernae icon. And a piece of the Lord’s Robe was kept in a gilded silver reliquary studded with diamonds. These shrines were brought to the Golitsyns by Anna Stroganova, and since then they have become a relic of their family. The Golitsyns also brought their family shrines into the temple: a piece of the Tree of the Lord, pieces of the relics of the great saints John the Baptist, the Apostle Matthew, and John Chrysostom.

The temple did not have a permanent parish. Its parishioners were the gentlemen who spent the summer at the estate, and their servants (and the temple did not have a separate chapel for serfs, like, for example, the Church of the Intercession in Fili), employees, managers of the Golitsyns, then summer residents and surrounding peasants who came to venerate the miraculous icon. However, the Blachernae Church had its own clergy supported by the Golitsyns, and, moreover, in the 1870s the summer Peter and Paul Church in neighboring Lyublino was assigned to it.

There is a version that A.V. visited here in 1774. Suvorov, who married Varvara Prozorovskaya, a distant relative of the Golitsyns. And the hospitable host presented the newlyweds with a cup made by B. Cellini. And in 1775, Catherine II came to Kuzminki. She served in the church, dined at Golitsyn’s house and, according to legend, rewarded the owner with her traveling gold tea set for the magnificent reception.

In 1804 M.M. Golitsyn died, and all his affairs were managed by his widow. The architects invited by the Golitsyns to Kuzminki did not change the estate layout that had developed under the Stroganovs, but only rebuilt individual buildings or built additional new ones. In 1808, the architect I.D. began working here. Gilardi, who built according to his own designs and those of A.N. Voronikhin, a former serf of the Stroganovs. The father was helped by his son, Domenico Gilardi - it was to him, the “genius of the Russian Empire style,” that the honor of creating the integral appearance of the estate after the Patriotic War belongs.

In 1812, the youngest son of Mikhail Mikhailovich, Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn, donated 100 thousand for defense. No one then expected that Moscow would be abandoned, so he did not have time to take almost anything from the estate, and in the fall Blachernae was taken by the troops of Marshal Murat. According to legend, some Moscow landowner met Napoleon with keys that she passed off as Kremlin ones. And as if for this Napoleon granted her Kuzminki. In reality, the French were rampaging here. They plundered and desecrated the church, which they rode into on horseback, and the manor house. The poultry house and barnyard were not spared. But already in December 1812, divine services began in the chapel of Alexander Nevsky, and in 1816 the estate finally passed to Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn, under whom it experienced its dazzling heyday.

Blachernae perspective

He was called the last Moscow nobleman, but he remained in the memory of Moscow primarily as a great philanthropist. Suffice it to say that after the Patriotic War, he completely restored the Orphanage at his own expense and became its honorary guardian, was the manager of the Pavlovsk and Golitsyn hospitals, a trustee of Moscow University, and president of the commission for the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. He was a member of the State Council and was awarded all Russian orders of the first degree, including the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. Almost every summer, Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, visited him in Kuzminki and consulted with him about state affairs. Saint Innocent, “the Apostle of Siberia and America,” the future Metropolitan of Moscow, also visited him here.

Both beggars and poor students came to him here, and Golitsyn did not leave anyone without help. He was considered the second person in Moscow after the Governor-General, but not everyone had a kind word to say about him. Herzen, for example, called him “a holy fool with the reputation of a good man,” but he had his reasons for this: Nicholas I appointed Golitsyn chairman of the investigative commission in the case of Herzen and Ogarev. P.A. Vyazemsky, having visited Golitsyn at a ball in his house on Volkhonka, saw that the university trustee had not invited a single professor, and compared him to a horse master, “who is in charge of a stable, but does not let horses in.” According to legend, S.M. Golitsyn was the godfather of Alexander II. He remained a staunch supporter of serfdom, although he was a good gentleman. They said that Golitsyn, having learned about the impending reform and that the obligatory relations of the peasants to their landowners would be maintained for 12 years, prayed that he would die in these 12 years - which came true, and even earlier.

In the personal life of S.M. Golitsyn was not happy, and this affected the fate of Kuzminki. Paul I loved to arrange “equal marriages” of his subjects. At his insistence, Sergei Mikhailovich married the beautiful Evdokia Izmailova, the famous princesse Nocturne (“princess of the night”). As a child, a gypsy predicted death for her at night, and therefore she went to bed early in the morning, and stayed awake at night and held receptions. Pushkin often visited the princess’s night salon in St. Petersburg, who was a little in love with her and dedicated poems to her. She captivated me with her extraordinary personality. She was passionate about science, wrote a two-volume work on mathematics in French, and was the first among Russian women to publish a scientific treatise “On the Analysis of Force.”

However, the life of the spouses did not work out. Two years after the wedding, they lived separately, then she asked Golitsyn for a divorce in order to marry an English lord for love, but was refused, and a few years later she repaid her husband in kind. Both remained childless. Prince Golitsyn devoted himself entirely to the estate near Moscow, retreating into it from personal sorrows, and achieved the transformation of Kuzminki into a primordium - a family estate, inherited only by the eldest in the family, which could not be divided or sold.

He wanted to embody here the idea of ​​“Peisan life”, the image of an earthly paradise within the estate. To do this, Golitsyn invited Domenico Gilardi to reconstruct the estate in a single classicist style. It became a single architectural ensemble, which included both a ceremonial complex and outbuildings, which also turned into a work of art, be it a barnyard or an ordinary bathhouse.

This ensemble developed from the entrance, which was decorated with magnificent Cast Iron Gates, cast at the Golitsyn Ural factories based on the model of the Nikolaev Gates created by C. Rossi for Pavlovsk. From the gate, the alley led to the manor house and the manor church, which is why it received the name Blachernae Perspective (bus route No. 29 now runs along it). In 1829, with the permission of St. Philaret S.M. Golitsyn renovated the temple and built a second chapel in it in the name of Sergius of Radonezh on his name day. Its iconostasis was crowned with a golden Chalice in radiance with angels on the sides. An amazing clock with one hand appeared on the bell tower, and for the family tomb the owner built a rotunda-mausoleum nearby, but this building was never used for its intended purpose and turned into a sacristy. In August 1856, Saint Philaret, visiting the newly decorated church, said to the priest: “For the upcoming coronation, you have crowned your church well.” Golitsyn ordered his clerks to ensure that all servants “perform their Christian duties every year” in the Blachernae Church, and to report those who evaded “to determine punishment.” The clerks themselves pledged to be sober at all times, not to treat their subordinates harshly, and to always “observe justice.” The peasants were supposed to be dressed cleanly, and on holidays - in national attire.

At the end of the Blachernae prospect there was a Grand Courtyard with cast iron lions. In the corners it is decorated with amazing cast-iron floor lamps with winged griffins guarding the palace. According to legend, these formidable birds guard countless treasures and tear apart anyone who encroaches on them. At the same time, they are symbols of strength and protection of the weak, and in manor parks they also symbolized relaxation and celebration. In the depths of the courtyard there was a magnificent Lord's house with 28 rooms. It was a miniature copy of the royal palace in Pavlovsk. Near the house there is an Egyptian pavilion (kitchen), where the princely cooks prepared food and lived. Its architecture uses motifs from ancient Egyptian architecture, with capitals in the form of lotus flowers and the head of a sphinx on the pediment - this style is believed to have come into fashion after Napoleon's Egyptian campaign.

Golitsyn created an exemplary estate farm. The pride was the Orangery greenhouse, where exotic trees grew, bringing the owner a lot of income, and fruit was served to the table when royalty visited Kuzminki. And they even sent them to the Winter Palace. At the Animal Farm, once decorated with sculptures of bulls based on the sketches of P.K. Klodt (they were moved to the Mikoyan meat processing plant in Soviet times), kept pedigree Yorkshire cows imported from England. They said that a liter of their milk cost more than a liter of champagne. A “guest” section was set up here, where high society ladies could milk the cows themselves if they wished. In the Aviary, along with turkeys, geese and ducks, peacocks, swans, Egyptian pigeons and other exotic creatures walked around. After 1812, Gilardi rebuilt the Poultry House into a Forge to supply horseshoes to the neighboring Stable Yard, the estate's most famous building and considered Domenico Gilardi's finest work. In its center, the architect placed a Musical Pavilion with excellent acoustics, which, according to the last rector of the Blachernae Church, Fr. Nikolai Poretsky, “has a place of honor among the architectural vagaries of the Russian Empire style.” The pavilion is located opposite the manor house so that you can delight your ears with music without leaving the palace. On the sides there are copies of two of Klodt’s “Horse Tamers” cast at Golitsyn factories that decorate the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg. In the ideas of classicism, these were symbols of the victory of the human mind over the elements of wild, unbridled nature. As you know, Nicholas I gave the same copies to the Prussian king.

The two-story House on the Dam, built in the 1840s by M.D., was intended for guests. Bykovsky on the base of the oldest building of the estate - a mill, the same one that supposedly belonged to the legendary miller Kuzma. They say that friends of S.M. Golitsyn was jokingly nicknamed “the miller,” and he decided to get rid of his historical mill, replacing it with a guest house. Near it, according to legend, there was a well with holy water, filled up after the revolution.

Two ceremonial piers were also intended for guests, to which boats moored so that the ladies who stepped on them could not get their skirts wet. The first is the Lion's Room, with cast iron lions. The second was romantically called “at the Propylaea”, as it was located next to the park pavilion of the Propylaea, built by Gilardi in the form of a wooden two-tier colonnade, a place for secret meetings of lovers.

The staff lived in a separate complex in Poplar Alley, called Slobodka. There was also a clergy house for the clergy of the Blachernae Church and a summer hospital for courtyard people.

Every year on July 2, Golitsyn organized celebrations in honor of the temple holiday, which he, as usual, celebrated on this day, and not on July 7. All the surrounding peasants were freed from work and went to pray at the estate church of Blachernae. Wide hospitable festivities for all classes took place here, with festive services, tea drinking, and fireworks, and the collection from the stalls went to the maintenance of the temple. All that was required was to be cleanly dressed, not to break trees, not to pick flowers and fruits, not to pick berries and mushrooms. In those days, Karamzin, Zhukovsky, and Zagoskin, the author of Yuri Miloslavsky, visited Kuzminki more than once. There is a legend that Pushkin also visited here and wrote “The Mermaid” here. He was friendly with S.M. Golitsyn and was going to marry N. Goncharova in his home church on Volkhonka.

The highest persons continued to visit the estate. In the summer of 1826, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna visited Vlakhernskoe - this was a sign of her special affection for the prince, who was engaged in charity and restored the Orphanage, which she headed, from oblivion. The Empress donated a diamond and pearl brooch to the Blachernae icon to decorate the chasuble. In response, Golitsyn built a monument to Maria Feodorovna in the place that she liked most in the estate: inside the cast-iron rotunda there was a bronze statue of the empress with a palm branch in her hand (an allegory of the world), made by the sculptor I.P. Vitali. He also presented the august guest with an album - a series of engravings with views of the estate, executed by the artist H. Rauch in honor of her “picturesque journey” through Kuzminki and in order to “leave a memory for posterity.” This truly invaluable publication contributed to the modern restoration of the estate. Her son Nicholas I, beloved Emperor S.M., also visited the estate. Golitsyn.

In 1830, a cholera epidemic broke out, the same one with the strictest quarantines, because of which Pushkin could not get to Moscow to see his bride. In Blachernae, no one even got sick, and Golitsyn, in gratitude, cast a bell for the temple. When the heir Alexander Nikolaevich visited Kuzminki in 1837, he held a prayer service in the estate church and venerated the icons. Hearing the ringing of this bell, he was simply shocked.

The last monument to Kuzminki, erected during the life of Sergei Mikhailovich, was the monument to Emperor Nicholas I, built in 1856 according to the design of M.D. Bykovsky and sculptor A. Campioni in the form of a granite column topped with a crown. This was the first monument to Nicholas I in Russia. In August 1858, Emperor Alexander II and his wife Maria Alexandrovna came to pay homage to him and entered the temple again. The old prince was already very ill and could not come out to meet him. He died in February of the following year. He was buried in the house Catherine Church of the Orphanage with a huge crowd of people, and then, according to his will, he was buried in his beloved Kuzminki - in the Sergius chapel of the Blachernae Church.

On August 9, 1859, on the half-year anniversary of his death, Saint Philaret served a funeral liturgy for the deceased in this church and spoke of the prince as “his true friend, an accomplice in deeds of goodness and Christian charity.” His death marked the beginning of the decline of Kuzminki.

Summer season

His nephew Mikhail Alexandrovich, who was the Russian ambassador to Spain, briefly became the new owner of the estate. It was he who collected a valuable collection of rarities, including books by the Marquise of Pompadour and exhibits from Pompeii, which became the basis of the Golitsyn Museum on Volkhonka. He sometimes visited Kuzminki, but, having become the owner, he never visited the estate; he only ordered in writing that a marble tombstone be placed on his uncle’s grave. Mikhail Alexandrovich died in France in 1860. His son, also Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn, who became the last owner of Kuzminki, was “not so much a friend of books as a friend of horses,” but at his expense a monument to Suvorov’s soldiers was erected in Switzerland, and then he became chairman of the construction of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Nice.

CM. Golitsyn the Second, as historians call him, was distinguished by his eccentricity: after retiring, he joined the merchant class and began to engage in commerce (later many nobles followed his example). He himself was the elder of the Blachernae Church. After the first attempt on the life of Alexander II by Dmitry Karakozov in April 1866, Saint Philaret allowed Golitsyn to renovate the chapel of Alexander Nevsky in the Blachernae Church in memory of the salvation of the emperor. On the same occasion, in August, the prince arranged a solemn reception in Kuzminki for Admiral Fox, who arrived in Russia on behalf of the US President to bring congratulations to Emperor Alexander II, for which he was the first foreigner to be awarded the title of honorary citizen of Moscow.

In the same summer of 1866, F.M. came to Kuzminki for a walk. Dostoevsky, who rented a dacha in Lyublino. On July 15, 1868, Saint Innocent came here again to serve a memorial service for S.M. in the church. Golitsyn the first. And in 1871 cholera struck again. The sick watchman sent to Moscow died, and local residents surrounded the Blachernae icon with the Robe of the Lord around the village with prayers. After this, cholera, which raged in neighboring villages, did not touch Kuzminok.

Meanwhile, the “dacha season” was heating up here. Golitsyn showed a commercial streak here too. He turned the house on Volkhonka into rented furnished rooms, closing the museum, and in Vlakhernskoye he began to rent out land and premises for dachas, since after the abolition of serfdom it turned out to be unprofitable to maintain such a huge estate. But personal feelings again played a decisive role in the fate of Kuzminki, only now - fatal. Once Golitsyn invited Fyodor Sokolov’s gypsy choir here. Soloist Alexandra Gladkova captivated the prince's heart, and in 1867 he married her. After the wedding, the couple constantly spent the summer months in Kuzminki until 1873 came. CM. Golitsyn indulged in a new love feeling, abandoned his disgusted wife in Kuzminki, and he himself moved to his other estate - Dubrovitsy. After the owner’s departure, Kuzminki finally turned into an expensive holiday village, and pious summer residents now invited the Blachernae icon to their homes.

The architect I.E. had dachas here. Bondarenko, who built Old Believer churches on Basmannaya and Rogozhskaya Sloboda, art critic I.E. Grabar, M.T. Elizarov, husband of Anna Ulyanova. In the summer of 1894, at his dacha, Lenin wrote the article “What are enemies of the people and how do they fight against the Social Democrats?” On this occasion, under Soviet rule, a Lenin museum almost appeared in Kuzminki.

CM. Golitsyn II gave the hospital in Poplar Alley to the local zemstvo hospital. In 1880, the future proletarian poet Fyodor Shkulev, author of the song “We are blacksmiths, and our spirit is young” and a friend of Maxim Gorky, was treated there. The son of a washerwoman, who lost his father before birth, at the age of 11 he went to work in a factory, there he injured his right hand and was taken to Kuzminki. And two years later, in the mezzanine of this hospital in the apartment of the zemstvo doctor K.K. Tolstoy was settled by the artist Vasily Perov, who was dying of consumption - he himself asked to be taken to Kuzminki. Here he was visited by the young K. Korovin and M. Nesterov, and here on May 29, 1882 he died. Probably, A.P. also visited his colleagues in the zemstvo hospital. Chekhov, who mentioned Kuzminki in the story “At Friends”.

In 1888, the Blachernae Church received a new and last rector - Father Nikolai Poretsky. A young native of Tver, he married the daughter of the Kuzminsk priest Fr. Dimitri Zverev, and his father-in-law gave him his parish that same year. The parishioners fell in love with him and after the service they went to his house for tea. Having once refused to marry S.M. Golitsyn II with his next wife (he was married four times in total), he earned even more respect. And on June 21, 1890, the temple saw Father John of Kronstadt within its walls when he arrived in Kuzminki to visit A.I.’s dacha. Osipova. Soon after this, the Blachernae Church shone with even greater splendor - Elder Golitsyn paid so much attention to it, bringing it into a “wonderful appearance.”

In 1899, he and the rector turned to Metropolitan Vladimir with a request to renovate the church. Permission was granted on the condition that the style be kept intact. All work was carried out under the supervision of architect K.M. Bykovsky, who built the buildings of the University Library on Mokhovaya and the Zoological Museum on Bolshaya Nikitskaya in Moscow. Then a new luxurious unusual marble iconostasis appeared in the temple in the form of a double colonnade, vaguely reminiscent of the cast iron gates of the estate. It is completed by a huge and very beautiful bronze figure of the God of Hosts with angels. After the restoration, the Blachernae Church became one of the best churches in Moscow. One of her parishioners, Andrei Genrikhovich Tsim, who converted to Orthodoxy here, presented in memory of his deceased wife an unusual image of the Holy Spirit in the form of a life-size silver dove, sprinkled with diamonds.

In May 1901, Moscow Governor General Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife Elizaveta Fedorovna visited the renovated church. The Grand Duke sincerely admired the temple and praised it for its excellent contents. A legend has been preserved that the passion-bearer Emperor Nicholas II also visited the Blachernae Church.

CM. Golitsyn II died in the summer of 1915 in Lausanne. Kuzminki passed to his eldest son, Prince Sergei Sergeevich Golitsyn. And in February of the following year, the main disaster befell them: the manor’s house, where at that time there was a hospital for wounded Russian officers, burned down to the ground, either from an unextinguished cigar, or it was deliberately set on fire by a certain quartermaster, who had lost at the hippodrome, in order to destroy documentation. The Earl S.D. Volunteer Fire Department helped extinguish the fire. Sheremetev. They intended to restore the estate, but did not have time.

"Cultural Terror"

Already in 1918, by Lenin’s personal order, the Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine (IEV) was evacuated from Petrograd, and Kuzminki was provided to it. Of course, the new owners disfigured the estate to the limit with various reconstructions for non-core needs and merciless exploitation. The cast-iron gates, the monument to Peter I that stood on the site of his house, the monuments to Nicholas I and Maria Feodorovna were melted down, and the granite pedestal of the monument to Nicholas I was crowned with a statue of Lenin - while it still stands there.

In 1922, jewelry was confiscated from the Blachernae Church, and the management of the automobile and tractor industry laid claim to its building. The priest tried to defend the temple and even called local residents for help, but it was all to no avail. In 1925, he was forced to leave the clergy’s house, where Taras Shevchenko’s autograph was then mysteriously discovered. And in November 1928, the Presidium of the Moscow Soviet adopted a resolution to close the Blachernae Church, “taking into account the desire of the population of the village of Kuzmiki... the small number of believers and the presence of other churches of the same kind nearby.” It was decided to transfer the church to the IEV “for use for cultural and educational purposes.” P. Smidovich himself refused the request of the believers not to close the temple. “Cultural and educational goals” required a radical restructuring of the temple building, which was a valuable monument of classicism. According to legend, the chairman of the village council, who was removing the cross from the dome, fell and fell to his death. In the fall of 1929, the bell tower and drum were demolished, the church was built with an additional third floor, new windows were cut, and the temple turned... into an ordinary residential building. The Blachernae icon was transferred to the Assumption Church in Veshnyaki, and after its closure - to the Tretyakov Gallery. Grave S.M. Golitsyn was destroyed. The rector was repressed “for hooliganism,” that is, for trying to protect the temple. He died in the camp and was rehabilitated in 1988. During Soviet rule, the former church was a bus station, a cafeteria, a rest house, a laboratory, a hostel and a residential building, completely losing its historical appearance.

And in the 1930s, according to the design of architect S.A. Toropov, on the site of the burnt manor house, a new stylized palace in a pseudo-classical style was built for the institute. They were quick to comment unflatteringly about it: “Deprived of any artistic interest, the building appears as an ugly stain on the general tone of the estate.” Although it was the best that could be done under those conditions. At the same time, Kuzminki continued to be a place of privileged dacha recreation. Among the summer residents were Lyubov Orlova, Klim Voroshilov, and Semyon Budyonny.

The bombs of the Great Patriotic War bypassed the estate, but losses followed one after another and continued even in our time: the Propylaea was dismantled for firewood, the figures of lions from the pier were taken to Lyubertsy, the Music Pavilion and some other monuments burned down. Just a few years ago, it seemed that Kuzminki would “never be revived after the communist era.”

Renaissance

It is amazing that the revival of the estate, like its creation once upon a time, began with the restoration of the Blachernae Church. In 1992, by decree of the mayor, it was transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate. Restoration of the temple, carried out according to the design of architect E.A. Vorontsova, recognized as one of the best and exemplary in Moscow over the past 15 years.

And already in 1998, by decree of the Moscow government, the estates of Kuzminki and Lyublino were combined into a historical and recreational complex. Now the Veterinary Academy has left Kuzminki, and restoration of the estate, which was once called the Russian Versailles, is in full swing. Soon guests of Kuzminki will see the recreated Golitsyn palace with interiors, the Egyptian pavilion, the Orangery greenhouse, monuments to royalty and even the Cast Iron Gate.

In the meantime, Muscovites can relax here in nature, admire the recreated Horse Yard and Lion's Pier, wander along the alleys, visit an interesting museum, and most importantly, pray in the original, saved Blachernae Church and feel extraordinary grace under its arches.

The following materials were used in writing the article: Romanyuk S.K. Through the lands of Moscow villages and settlements. M., 1999. Part 2; Kuzmina N.D. Kuzminki. The village of Vlahernskoe. Mill. M., 1997; Korobko M.Yu. Kuzminki–Lublino. M., 1999

The Temple of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God in Kuzminki is a patrimonial church in the Kuzminki estate, which gave it its second official name - Blachernae. Since 1995, it has been an Orthodox church belonging to the Blachernae deanery of the Moscow city diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The central aisle of the temple is consecrated in honor of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God, the right aisle - in honor of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, the left aisle - in honor of St. Sergius, Abbot of Radonezh.

History of the temple:
At different times, three documented churches successively existed in Kuzminki. The first of them was built in 1716 by the Stroganovs, who received a blessed charter, that is, permission to build it. That church was wooden, consecrated in honor of the family shrine of the owners of Kuzminki - the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God and had a chapel of Alexander Nevsky. The entire estate was named after this church - the village of Vlahernskoe. The church was destroyed by fire in 1732, and then a new Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God, also wooden, was built in its place. She, in turn, died from “fiery ignition” on November 18, 1758.

The current church is the third in a row. It was built in two stages. In 1759-62, a church building was built, as well as a separate wooden bell tower, the author of which was Zherebtsov. However, by 1779 the church building was in need of repair. Prince M.M. Golitsyn soon rebuilt the building in the forms of mature classicism and built a new bell tower instead of the old one. These works were carried out according to the design of the architect R. Kazakov in 1784-85.

In the church there was a family heirloom - the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God (Hodegetria), dating back to the 7th century AD. One of the most revered Greek icons in Moscow. They were brought to Constantinople as a gift to the father of Peter I, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, in 1653. Along with the icon, a letter was sent in which its origin was associated with the Blachernae Monastery of Constantinople, and the history of its veneration with the early history of the Hodegetria of Constantinople. The icon was kept in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin; the tsar took it with him on military campaigns. The celebration of the icon took place on the fifth week of Lent - Saturday of the Akathist.

The Blachernae icon is in relief, made using the wax-mastic technique. The relics of Christian martyrs are added to the wax, thus the icon is a reliquary. In terms of iconographic type, the Hodegetria list, close to the Smolensk icon of the Mother of God, was created in the second half of the 15th - early 16th centuries, perhaps as a repetition of an ancient icon on an old board. The icon has a Greek inscription - “God-protected”. Currently, the icon is in the Tretyakov Gallery. One of the revered relief lists of the second half of the 17th - early 18th centuries was kept in the family estate of the Stroganov-Golitsyns in the village of Vlahernskoe. The father of the already mentioned Grigory Stroganov was granted to them for his services to the Fatherland. After the temple that was built, the area was named the village of Vlahernskoe.