Varvarka is one of the most ancient Moscow streets; its name (after the Church of St. Barbara the Great Martyr) has been preserved since the 15th-16th centuries. In Soviet times, from 1933 to 1993, Varvarka was called Razin Street in honor of the Don Cossack, leader of the peasant uprising of 1670-1671 Stepan Razin. On its even side, several ancient churches are lined up, which survived the town-planning reforms and have now been transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church.
When the area was cleared for the construction of the Rossiya Hotel, only these churches and the Chambers of the Romanov Boyars were preserved. The dilapidated residential areas of Zaryadye began to be demolished even before the war, and in the 1960s, of the numerous buildings from Varvarka to the embankment, only the Church of the Conception of St. Anna was left.
In addition to the workers' slums, several elegant city estates and the building of the Trading House of the Partnership "Vikula Morozov and Sons, Ivan Polyakov and Company" (in the old photo - on the right, behind the Church of St. George the Victorious) went under the excavator's bucket. 1903-1904: https://pastvu.com/p/4764
Church of the Conception of St. Anne. 1950: https://pastvu.com/p/38162
Church of the Conception of St. Anne. 2012
Demolition on Varvarka in 1966: https://pastvu.com/p/237607
IN Soviet period no services were held in churches, the buildings were used as warehouses, housing or a club (the churches have excellent acoustics for concerts) and looked unsightly. But in the end, after their restoration, we got an excellent picture for tourists: old pre-revolutionary and new socialist Moscow in one frame. But this is only externally, the interior was plundered, iconostases disappeared, ancient frescoes were painted over. It will take more than one year of work by restorers to restore at least part of the historical interiors. What they were like can be judged from old photographs and surviving fragments of paintings from the 18th-19th centuries.
Unpreserved iconostasis in the Znamensky Cathedral. 1920
Currently, the Church of St. Barbara the Great Martyr, the Church of St. Maximus the Blessed, the Church of the Sign Mother of God, the Church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious and the Church of the Conception of St. Anne are part of the Compound of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' churches in Zaryadye, in Kitay-Gorod. The rector is Archpriest Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Shestakov.
In the spring of 2014, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced the upcoming restoration of churches in Zaryadye: “Together with the federal authorities, this year we are starting to restore these architectural monuments of religious significance. We need to start now, so that by the time Zaryadye Park opens there will be a single architectural ensemble around with updated churches and new pedestrian streets, primarily Varvarka."
Citizens' interest in Moscow history is growing, as evidenced by the Varvarka Street holiday, which took place on November 23, 2014. initiative social movement Archnadzor was supported by city authorities and representatives of the Church. On this day, Moscow experts Rustam Rakhmatullin, Dmitry Lisitsin, Alexander Rakitin, Konstantin Mikhailov, Denis Sergeev, Alexander Frolov conducted excursions to the memorable places of Varvarka, and the number of groups ranged from 80 to 120 excursionists. And in the evening there was a discussion about the future of Zaryadye with the participation of the chief architect of Moscow Sergei Kuznetsov, who stated that he was ready to take into account the wishes of architects and historians. Among the proposals are the restoration of the lost Pskovsky Lane as a pedestrian route, the recreation of the orchard at the English courtyard, the need to conduct archaeological research around the stylobate of the demolished Rossiya Hotel (this is a six-meter cultural layer under the remains of the foundations of buildings of the 18th-19th centuries), the reconstruction of the complex of buildings of the Partnership of Manufactories " Vikuly Morozova with her sons."
http://www.archnadzor.ru/2014/11/26/prazdnik-lyubvi/
Church of Varvara the Great Martyr (Varvarka, building 2). 1968-1972: https://pastvu.com/p/76185
Church of St. Maxim the Blessed (Varvarka, building 4). 1966-1967: https://pastvu.com/p/16157
Temple of the Sign of the Mother of God (Varvarka, building 8). Znamensky Monastery. 1882: https://pastvu.com/p/2040
The land where the Znamensky Monastery is located belonged to the Romanov boyars in the 16th century. There was a boyar's courtyard and a house church, consecrated in the name of the icon of the Mother of God "The Sign". The monastery was founded in 1631; in 1679-1684, architects Fyodor Grigoriev and Grigory Anisimov built a five-domed cathedral. These walls survived both numerous Moscow fires and the invasion of Napoleonic army.
There is still a club curtain and a low stage on the second floor
Church of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara on Varvarka located in the heart of the capital - in Kitai-Gorod.
Life was always in full swing here, and there was brisk trade. Varvarskaya Street, on which the temple was located, was famous for its healers, who were able to relieve any pain with herbs and medicinal infusions.
Spiritual healing was received in the temple, where believers rushed to venerate the image of Saint Barbara.
Barbara was the daughter of Dioscorus, a noble resident of the city of Iliopolis.
The girl was famous for her beauty, her father dreamed of finding her a rich groom. However, Varvara went against his will, secretly received Baptism, and renounced all worldly joys. The girl’s faith was so strong that she bravely endured all the torture and bullying. Varvara suffered death from the sword of her own father, who was never able to understand his young daughter.
Particles of the saint’s relics were kept in the church on Varvarka, a very revered place not only among Muscovites, but also visitors.
History of the Church of the Great Martyr Barbara
The Church of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara was built in 1514 at the expense of wealthy merchants from Sudak. The architect was the Italian Aleviz Fryazin (in Rus' all immigrants from Italy were called Fryazins).
In 1731, the church was renovated on the orders of Empress Anna Ioannovna.
In the fire of 1737, church utensils were damaged, icons and iconostasis were burned. The request to restore the temple was granted.
In 1796, they decided to dismantle the old Church of the Great Martyr Barbara and build a new one in its place (although the building was not dilapidated, and the condition was quite satisfactory, it was considered that the temple did not harmonize with the neighboring buildings).
The author of the project was Rodion Kazakov, the namesake of the famous architect.
They decided to leave the old foundation along with several rows of masonry. The building turned out to be very bright due to large quantity windows that were even in the dome drum.
The Church of St. Barbara looked quite simple - clear lines, moderate decor. But despite all its external simplicity, the church was beautiful; it was not for nothing that its design was taken as the basis for the construction of some other churches.
In 1812, some of the church utensils were looted, but the building itself was not damaged - even the gilded iconostasis and part of the icons were preserved.
After the revolution, the Church of Varvara on Varvarka was decided to be closed. At first, a warehouse was located within its walls, and later office buildings.
Moscow Church of St. The Great Martyr Varvara is located near the Kremlin on the street of the same name in Kitai-Gorod, Varvarka. The temple was built by himself in 1514 Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin, who built the Kremlin Archangel Cathedral. The miraculous image of St. was kept in the church. Barbara the Great Martyr, who became famous during the time of Ivan the Terrible. In Soviet times, since 1933, the street bore the name of Stepan Razin - it was along this road that in June 1671 he was taken to his execution at Vasilyevsky Spusk.
Barbara, a holy martyr of the 3rd–4th centuries AD, was the daughter of the noble and wealthy Dioscorus from the Phoenician city of Iliopolis. During the persecution of Christianity, she accepted holy baptism and was imprisoned by her own father for this. Then Dioscorus completely gave his daughter to the ruler of the city, Martian. St. Barbara was imprisoned and cruelly tortured, but the Savior himself appeared to her at night and healed her wounds. Once Varvara was taken out into the street, and from the gathered crowd one Christian woman named Juliana began to denounce her tormentors at the top of her voice. She was captured and beheaded along with Barbara in 306.
Like Paraskeva Friday, St. Varvara was revered in Moscow as the patroness of trade, so her church was erected in the very heart of the Moscow trading district. Since ancient times, artisans and merchants settled here, near the Kremlin’s eastern wall, and a lively trade was in full swing right next to the Kremlin.
On main square The city then housed the largest trading center in the capital, and from it this square was initially called Torgovaya. Only in the 19th century, having changed several more names (Troitskaya, Pozharnaya), it began to be officially called Red.
And already in 1534-1538, 20 years after the construction of the first Barbarian Church here, by order of the mother of Ivan the Terrible, Grand Duchess Elena Glinskaya enclosed the entire Moscow trading settlement with a stone fortification wall of Kitay-Gorod, also according to the design of the Italian master Petrok Maly, who built the Assumption Belfry in the Kremlin.
It is believed that the name, so unusual for the Moscow language - “China-city” - came from bundles - poles, called kits, used in the construction of the wall. Another version connects the name “China” with the word “middle”, that is, located between the Kremlin and the White City.
There were passage gates in the wall, named after the main streets of Kitai-Gorod to which they led: Nikolsky, Ilyinsky, Varvarsky - and these, in turn, were named after the churches that stood on them. It was at the Barbarian Tower that the famous Moscow uprising broke out during the terrible plague epidemic of 1771.
In ancient times, here, in the commercial Kitay-Gorod, there were houses of noble and rich people, and even the highest officials of the Moscow state - it was on Varvarka that the chambers of the Romanov boyars were located. Since the middle of the 19th century, Kitay-gorod became only the business part of the city, something like Moscow City. Shop and bank buildings grew here, displacing almost all residential buildings. And during the day in Kitai-gorod, as in our days, business life was in full swing, and with the arrival of evening this corner in the very center of Moscow became deserted and quiet.
But China Town became a “city within a city” from the very beginning of its appearance precisely thanks to trade and its own trade specialization. On the territory between Varvarka and Moskvoretskaya embankment, including on the site of the Rossiya Hotel, there was the ancient Zaryadye, which meant “behind the shopping arcades,” which stood in huge numbers in Kitay-Gorod right up to Tverskaya Street, including the famous Okhotny Ryad.
Here, in Zaryadye, according to the scientific research of Moscow historian Pyotr Sytin, was the first known street in Moscow named Velikaya, which appeared back in 1468. And here, in ancient Zaryadye, lived rich trading people, or, as they were called in the old days, guests - i.e. merchants engaged in foreign or wholesale trade.
It was precisely such guests, rich Surozh residents with colorful old Russian names and nicknames Vasily Bober, Fyodor Vepr and Yushka Urvikhvostov (they said that these were siblings) who asked to build a church of St. The barbarians provided funds for it. And on right side streets from the Kremlin in 1514, the Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin himself, who built the Kremlin Archangel Cathedral, erected the stone church of St. Barbarians. This posad church under the Kremlin walls was built with the obvious participation and approval of the Moscow authorities, who monitored their posad.
The merchant Yushka, by the way, remained in the memory of Moscow for a long time: it was his name that, until the revolution, was borne by one of the Chinese city lanes - Yushkov, now Nikolsky, where the famous Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker “Red Bell” stands.
Soon the Barbarian Church became one of the most revered in Moscow. Its location in that distant antiquity was indicated as “behind the market, opposite the Master's Court” - where the Master's Court stood with the Poles living in it, or, according to another, unreliable version, where simply rich people lived.
The miraculous image of St. was kept in the church. Barbara the Great Martyr, who became famous during the time of Ivan the Terrible. The church became the canopy of all trade in Kitay-Gorod. More ancient church St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa was located outside its borders, which means that the Barbarian Church was built only for the Kremlin Posad, which had its own Posad temple. Later, the Chinese city church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa was built near Gostiny Dvor, but it was dismantled long before the revolution.
Initially, there were long wooden rows at the Market, each for a special product. The names of some of them are still preserved in the names of Kitaygorod lanes - Rybny, Vetoshny... And there were silver, and copper, and kvass, and bast, and even icon rows. By the way, icons were never sold in Moscow - this was considered sacrilege - but only “bartered” and did not haggle over the price. If the person purchasing the icon considered the price set too high for exchange, then the owner told him that this was the “divine” price.
In the first half of the 16th century, the king decided to somehow streamline the trade that spread almost under his windows, and ordered the construction of a special building to move the shops under the roof.
In 1547, on the site of ancient shopping arcades between Ilyinka and Varvarka, the famous Gostiny Dvor was built - a distant ancestor of the modern Gostiny Dvor and GUM, with a name derived from the word “guest”. Part of this huge courtyard were the future Upper and Lower Trading Rows, in late XIX centuries, united into a single shopping complex (in Soviet times - GUM). Only for the Lower Rows was built separate building. (In 1626, Gostiny Dvor burned down and was rebuilt, receiving the name New Gostiny Dvor, rebuilt by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich).
And soon, next to the church, the English Courtyard (house No. 4) appeared - one of the oldest civil buildings in Moscow that has survived to this day. Having established trade relations with England in 1552, Ivan the Terrible granted these ancient chambers to English merchants. A hundred years later, by order of Alexei Mikhailovich, outraged by the execution of the English king Charles I during the English Revolution (“they killed their king Charles to death”), the merchants left Russia, and Peter I opened a “digital” (mathematics school) here.
In the old days, there was also a court order near the church, where inquiries were carried out. This is where the saying “Go to Varvara for punishment” came from.
At the end of the 18th century, the Aleviz Church of St. Varvara was dismantled because Metropolitan Platon (Levshin) considered it not beautiful enough and “not at all appropriate for the splendor of such a special place.” In addition, in the 1730s there was a fire in it, although after that it was restored by Empress Anna Ioannovna and re-consecrated.
The artillery major I. Baryshnikov and the Moscow merchant of the 1st guild N. Samgin also asked for the construction of a new beautiful church - their seriously ill wives were miraculously healed from the relics of St. Barbarians. They also provided funds for its construction.
And then the architect Rodion Kazakov, a namesake and student of the famous Moscow master, erected a beautiful building of the Barbarian Church in the classicist style, which has survived to this day. (Among the works of Rodion Kazakov, who built a lot in Moscow, one can also name the marvelous Church of Martin the Confessor in Taganka and the Batashovs’ estate on Yauzskaya Street, where the 23rd city hospital is now located.)
The new church turned out to be so elegant that they began to imitate this temple in other buildings. Thus, one landowner built an exact copy of the Barbarian Church in his village of Mikhalevo.
At the same time, at the turn of the 18th – 19th centuries, Gostiny Dvor was rebuilt in its modern form. Architect Giacomo Quarenghi, who built Gostiny Dvor on Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg, received an order to build exactly the same building in Moscow, modeled on the capital one.
After the fire of 1812, Gostiny Dvor was restored and rebuilt by the architect O. Bove. Along with the ancient shopping arcades, lines with trading shops appeared here. At first, even under the Code of 1649, only wholesale trade was carried out in Gostiny Dvor, leaving retail trade for the shopping arcades.
The Moscow Gostiny Dvor, under the shadow of St. Barbara, became famous in the Mother See for giving the city the famous expression “the leftovers are sweet,” as well as the experience of wholesale sales of goods at discounted prices. It was like that. One day, a merchant of the Knife Line of the Gostiny Dvor was walking down the street at the end of a working day, and he was stopped by a peddler with raisins: “Buy, sir, the rest, I’ll sell it cheaply for the evening.” He didn’t need the raisins, but the peddler didn’t lag behind and persuaded: “Take it, sir, there are leftovers!” Cheap and cheerful!” He couldn’t stand it and turned to him: “Well, show me your balance!” However, there were a lot of leftover raisins - 7 pounds (about 3.5 kg). “Well, the remainder, as the remainder should be!” - the seller made excuses. And the buyer suddenly had a brilliant idea about selling cheap leftovers: “Selling leftovers of such and such goods at the cheapest prices.” There was no end to buyers... This is where the saying came from - “the leftovers are sweet,” apparently with a hint of the taste of those same raisins.
Then this practice became an officially established rule - to organize a similar sale of remaining goods in bulk on the first day of the week after Easter - on Fomin Monday. Soon the commercial opening of China Town spread throughout Moscow. Even the chic French shops of Kuznetsky Most fell ill with “residual” fever. One merchant even came up with the idea of selling “literary remains” by organizing... a sale of books in his shop at reduced prices. They had a good laugh at him...
In general, the Kitaygorod merchants had a great sense of humor, and many of their jokes remained in the memory of old Moscow. The objects of such innocent entertainment were mainly buyers. So, noticing a bargainer in the crowd, a merchant from a cloth shop sent a boy as a messenger to other sellers with the question: “Shall we paint it red or green?” Let’s say they conspired to “turn red.” An unsuspecting customer enters the store and asks to see the gray material for his wife’s dress. The merchant with a good-natured smile spreads a roll of red fabric in front of him and praises its deep gray color for a long time. Angry at the crazy salesman, the poor fellow goes to the second shop, to the third... The same story is repeated everywhere. As a result, the buyer runs away in horror, deciding that he has problems with his vision, or even worse - with his head.
In the 70-80s in Moscow there were only bakeries, vegetable and tobacco grocery stores, and therefore for every little thing you had to send to the “city”, that is, to Gostiny Dvor. In front of the shops of Gostiny Dvor there were boys - barkers who invited people to come inside. Their cries were heard from everywhere: “Vax, personal lipstick, Lilac perfume - straight from the garden!” or “We’re selling it, we’re giving a bonus as a souvenir!” The merchants of Gostiny Dvor often sent their boys to fetch customers and to Red Square, handing them a sample of the goods, for example, a pair of boots. Such boys (and often the customers who came from there) were called “area boys.”
Here on Varvarka there were not only shopping establishments, but also drinking establishments. At the corner with the current Nikolsky Lane there stood, judging by the name, an ancient drinking house “Vetoshnaya hysteria”, distorted from the Latin word “austeria” - this is how taverns, hotels and drinking houses were called under Peter. “Vetoshny” came from Vetoshny Row, where they sold second-hand things, which is why one of the alleys of Kitai-Gorod is still called Vetoshny.
Regarding the abundance of such amusements, a funny song appeared, “How Kasyan, a Kamarinsky man, sleeps on Varvarinskaya Street.” Although it was not only the taverns that Chinese city folk went to Varvarka to have fun. This is what the sweetest old Moscow ditty says:
I was walking along Varvarka Street
With a familiar cook,
Because it's Sunday
I turned up at the establishment,
Ordered two couples of tea
For myself and for the cook.
Ordinary taverns were also called “establishments”, where visitors were offered tea in two large teapots - for boiling water and for brewing. One of the most famous Moscow taverns, the famous Bubnov Tavern, stood in the same Vetoshny Lane.
And in front of the Varvarskaya Tower of Kitay-Gorod there used to be a water intake fountain, where water carriers filled their barrels. This fountain supplied water to the whole of Moscow, and was used as a water supply for a long time.
Church of St. Varvara was closed during Soviet times and partially destroyed - the top of the bell tower was broken and the head with the cross was demolished. A warehouse was first built inside, and then the temple building was given over to office buildings. In the 1920s of the 20th century, almost the entire wall of Kitai-Gorod and all of Zaryadye, on the site of which the Rossiya Hotel was built, were demolished.
History has spared only the Barbarian Church. It has survived as an architectural monument and as a definite architectural dominant of the street. Subsequently, it housed a branch of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, and local history exhibitions were held.
In 1991, the Church of St. The barbarians were returned to the believers.
Initially it started from the Spassky Gate of the Kremlin and walked along the ridge of the hill above the Moscow River. According to some reports, the ancient road to Vladimir passed along its route. It was first mentioned under the name of All Saints (after the Church of All Saints on Kulishki) at the end of the 14th century, when Prince Dmitry Donskoy entered Moscow along it, returning from the Battle of Kulikovo (1380). Since 1434 it was called Varvarskaya or Varskaya.
The stone church of St. Barbara the Great Martyr was built in 1514 by the architect Aleviz Novy. The building in the style of Russian classicism, which has survived to this day, was built in 1796-1801 according to the design of the architect M.F. Kazakova in the same place. Judging by the fact that in one of the records in the chronicle of the mid-15th century the street is mentioned as Varskaya, a wooden church stood here even before the Aleviz building.
The street developed as a road along the edge of the hill above the Moscow River, passing from the Kremlin to the Vladimir, Ryazan, Kolomenskaya roads. Boyars lived in the settlement on Varvarskaya Street, as evidenced by the museum - “Chambers of the Romanov Boyars”. At the same time, it was a shopping area where the poor settled, where people from all over Moscow gathered to buy or sell something in the numerous rows and shops.
In the 17th century, the street was at one time called either Znamenskaya (after the Znamensky Monastery), or Bolshaya Pokrovka (after the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God on Pskov Mountain), but the names did not stick.
At the end of the 18th century. Varvarka was cleared of dilapidated buildings. After the fire of 1812, most of the houses and shops on Varvarka were rebuilt in stone.
After 1917, Varvarka was occupied by institutions and warehouses.
In 1933, the street was renamed Razin Street in honor of the leader of the peasant uprising of 1670-1671. S.T. Razin, in 1993 the street's historical name was returned.
After the demolition of the Kitai-Gorod wall in 1934, an exit to Nogin Square (Varvarskie Vorota Square) was opened.
In the 1960s Along with all the residential buildings in Zaryadye, the buildings on the southern side of Varvarka were destroyed, except for ancient architectural monuments and the current house No. 14.
Space
Varvarka moves in a smooth wave from the Varvarsky Gate to Red Square. The side facing Zaryadye amazes with its antiquity and vastness of sky in contrast to the opposite side, filled with monumental buildings. This can already be seen in photo A1.
Buildings
photo B1
Photo B1 - Church of St. Maximus the Blessed (Maximus the Confessor). It is believed that initially, slightly to the south of the existing church, from the second half of the 14th century there stood a house church of merchants from the city of Surozh (Sudak) with the main altar of Boris and Gleb. In 1434, the holy fool Maxim the Blessed, revered in Moscow, was buried with her. At the beginning of the 16th century. A stone church was built at the expense of the merchant - Surozhan Vasily Bobr. In 1568 the church had the name St. Maximus the Confessor, patron saint of the holy fool. In 1676, the church burned and was renovated by Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, the mother of the future Emperor Peter I.
In 1698, two wealthy merchants, Moscow Maxim Verkhovitinov and Kostroma Maxim Sharovnikov, built the current church building, which is already mentioned under the name of the Church of St. Maxim the Blessed. During the fire of 1737, the church almost completely burned down and was repaired by 1742. In 1829, the modern bell tower was built.
The temple is a structure typical of the 17th century: a pillarless rectangle with a light dome, a refectory and a narrow aisle on the right. The lower floor - the basement - served to store the property of the townspeople. The main volume - a double-height quadrangle - is covered with a closed vault cut through by a light drum. Brick walls and details. A large space inside is covered without additional supports.
The temple was closed in the early 1930s, after which its domes were broken. In 1969, the church was restored (architect S.S. Podyapolsky). Since 1992, the exhibition hall of the Nature Conservation Society has been located in the temple building.
Divine services resumed after 1994. The temple is part of the Patriarchal Metochion in Kitai-Gorod.
photo B2
Photo B2 - Church of Barbara the Great Martyr. Church of Barbara the Great Martyr on Varvarka, which gave the name to one of the oldest streets in Moscow, was built on this site in 1514 by the architect Aleviz Novy by order of wealthy “Surozhans” - merchants who came from Sudak (then called Surozh). In the chronicle, the place of construction is designated “behind the market, opposite the Master’s court.” This church soon after its construction gained great popularity in Moscow. According to it in the 16th century. Not only the street was named, but also the corner tower of Kitay-Gorod was named Varvarinskaya. Varvarka until the 16th century It was called All Saints Street, after the Church of All Saints on Kulishki.
The appearance of the white stone Alevizov temple can only be imagined from the ancient times. master plans. Barbara's Church was square in plan, with semicircles protruding from four sides, perhaps similar to the Church of Metropolitan Peter in the Vysokopetrovsky Monastery.
In 1795, Moscow Metropolitan Platon ordered the dismantling of the ancient church building, which by that time was still “all solid, full of utensils,” for reasons of its inconsistency with the general appearance of the place. The new temple was built from 1796 to 1804. according to the design of Rodion Kazakov on the old Alevizovsky foundation. Its main volume is cruciform in plan, with porticoes whose pediments rest on Corinthian columns. The inside of the church is very bright - due to two tiers of windows and an under-dome drum with light windows. This is an excellent representative of mature Moscow classicism - restrained external decor with clear lines throughout the main volume, a wide round dome with a small dome. The bell tower of the temple is not very high, ending in a small hemisphere with a cross; the upper tier of the bell has wide arched openings framed by pilasters with Corinthian capitals and pediments. The second tier was broken after 1917 and restored in 1967 during restoration (under the direction of architect G.A. Makarov). Inside the church, 19th-century paintings and a choir-box in the western part have been preserved.
As was the case with many churches, there was a warehouse in the Varvara Church during Soviet times; later it was transferred to office buildings; by 1980, it housed the Council of the Moscow regional branch of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments (VOOPIiK). Since 1991, it has again been handed over to believers.
photo B3
Photo B3 - Old English courtyard. The building of the Old English Court is one of the oldest civil buildings in Moscow. White stone chambers appeared here in the 15th - early 16th centuries. and at that time belonged to the merchant I. Bobrishchev. Having established trade relations with England in 1552, Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible granted chambers to English merchants. And a hundred years later, by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, outraged by the execution of the English king Charles I during the English Revolution, the merchants left Russia. At the beginning of the 18th century. Peter I opened a digital (mathematics) school here.
Then the building was rebuilt several times, completely losing its original appearance, but in the 20th century. it was restored by architect P.D. Baranovsky. Nowadays there is a branch of the Historical Museum.
photo B4
Photo B4 - Cathedral of the Icon of the Mother of God “Znamenie”. The first Russian Tsar from the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, founded the Znamensky Monastery in 1629-30. on the site of his former family estate.
The Cathedral of the Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign” was the center of the monastery ensemble. The altars of the upper church are the icons of the Mother of God “The Sign”, the chapel is St. Mikhail Malein; lower temple - St. Sergius of Radonezh, chapel of St. Nicholas.
Construction began in 1679. The cathedral was built by order of I.M. Miloslavsky serf from Kostroma district Fyodor Grigoriev and “boyar Prince Golitsyn peasant” Grigory Anisimov “and comrades”. In 1683, Miloslavsky died without finishing the construction of the cathedral. It was completed in 1684. By decree of the tsar, the construction was “swept away” by boyar Vasily Fedorovich Odoevsky.
The five-domed cube-shaped cathedral with a high hipped bell tower, galleries and stairs was placed on the mountainside on a foundation made of oak piles. The lower tier of the cathedral housed the warm winter Church of Athanasius of Athos and an extensive refectory. Adjacent to the north was a “cookhouse with a bakery”, and to the north-west there was a premises for rent. On the second floor there is a cold summer church of Our Lady of the Sign with galleries-porches on the western and northern sides and a sacristy.
The bell tower was from the southwest, the stone staircase was from the northwest. The bell tower and staircase were dismantled at the end of the 18th century. Numerous fires and restorations after them led to great changes in the appearance of the cathedral. Beautiful paintings in the interior were carried out in 1740 and in 1782-83. In 1929, the monastery was closed and converted into housing.
During the restoration in 1967, the image of the cathedral that had developed by 1684 was taken as a basis. A lecture hall was opened in the building. The lower temple was consecrated in October 1992. The temple is part of the Patriarchal Metochion in Kitay-Gorod.
photo B5
Photo B5 - Temple of the Intercession Holy Mother of God on Pskov Mountain. Another name is the Church of St. George the Victorious, on Pskov Mountain. The temple was built in 1657-58. on Pskov Mountain (a settlement of Pskovites resettled by Grand Duke Vasily III at the beginning of the 16th century. It included part of its predecessor - the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary (first written mention - 1462). Heavily damaged during the invasion of Napoleonic troops in 1812.
Renewed in 1818, a twice-large refectory was added to it from the west, and a porch-promenade and a two-tier bell tower (all in the pseudo-Gothic style, the upper tier of the bell tower is in the Empire style) was added to it from the north. Type of Posad church of the 17th century. Quadrangular in plan. Five-headed. On a high basement, preserved from the old temple, with separate, covered with vaults, rooms (the property of the townspeople was stored in them during fires and disasters). The facades are crowned with a multi-row cornice made of profile bricks with kokoshniks, blind drums with onion-shaped heads. The windows of the altar projections are decorated with platbands. The hall is double-height with a closed vault. Painting on walls and vaults - XVII-XVIII centuries.
The main altar is the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, the aisles: St. George the Victorious, Great Martyr (1818), the southern altar - Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow (1837). After 1917 it was closed. It was in desolation. It was used as a warehouse, and in 1979 it was transferred to the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments. In 1965-72. external restoration was carried out. In 1991 it was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. Divine services have been held since 1995.
Forms
photo B1
Photo B1 - perspective of the cell building with the bell tower of the Znamensky Monastery, closing on the ruins of Zaryadye. The bell tower was erected in 1784-89. on the basis of the Church of Jacob that was here in 1756. The lower part of the bell tower with two large arched openings served as the main entrance to the territory of the monastery. The adjacent cell building was also built at the end of the 18th century. Although the bell tower is not visible here, would I really lie to you?
photo B2
Photo B2 - porch of the Old English Court. We see the arch, the gate, as well as the steps of the porch itself, which, according to the principle of Russian towers, has three turning points that had social and ceremonial significance. If the guest was welcome, the owner went downstairs to him. If the guest was so-so, he met from the middle of the porch, but if the guest was uninvited, then the owner went out only to the upper platform.
photo B3
Photo B3 - light and sound column. Like a flower, it emits in waves the fragrance of the light of lamps and the sound of loudspeakers.
Time
photo G1
Photo G1 - a colorful, confectionery picture of the platbands of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Pskov Mountain.
photo G2
Photo G2 - the antiquity of the chambers of the Romanov boyars. The chambers are the only building remaining from the large estate of the Romanov boyars. From the middle of the 16th century. it belonged to the boyar Nikita Romanovich Yuryev, then to his eldest son Fyodor Nikitich Romanov, who later became the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. According to legend, in this estate on July 12, 1596, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was born, who became the Founder of the new royal dynasty. In 1633, Mikhail Fedorovich donated this estate to the Znamensky Monastery, which repeatedly rebuilt the buildings of the ancient Romanov estate, but despite this, the Romanov house has not lost its significance to this day as a monument of Russian civil architecture of the 15th-17th centuries.
In the middle of the nineteenth century. By the highest order of Emperor Alexander, one of the first museums in Moscow, the “House of the Romanov Boyars,” was opened in the chambers. Currently, the interior decoration of the Chambers introduces the patriarchal boyar life of the late 17th century. By tradition, the Chambers are divided into male and female halves. On the first floor - the men's half - the interiors are presented: “Dining Chamber”, “Boyar’s Office”, “Library”, “Room of the Elder Sons”. On the second floor - the women's half - "Seni", "Boyaryna's Room", "Svetlitsa". The basements contain storage rooms. The interiors of the ancient Chambers convey the originality of Russian life and culture of the 17th century. The exhibition displays genuine masterpieces of applied art from the collections of the State Historical Museum.
photo G3
Photo G3 is a post-apocalyptic landscape containing the Church of the Conception of Righteous Anna, which is in the corner of the Kitai-Gorod wall. In ancient times, the wall of Kitay-gorod faced the Moskvoretskaya embankment and made a turn here to the Beklemishevskaya tower of the Moscow Kremlin. In this corner, one of the oldest Moscow posad churches “made of stone” has been preserved - the Church of the Conception of Anna. Corner or Sharp End is the name of the place where the church was built. The temple was first mentioned in the description of the Moscow fire of 1493, but it is not said whether it was then made of stone or wood.
The building belongs to the group of churches with a cross vault and one dome. Such a vault makes it possible to solve the internal space without supporting pillars, thereby increasing its internal volume. Among the narrow streets of the town there was no room for large buildings. The parishioners did not have the funds to build them. This form solved two problems: the building took up little space on the street and could accommodate enough parishioners inside by eliminating the pillars. The temple was made of white stone.
In 1480, in memory of the liberation from the Tatar yoke (the Tatars retreated from the Ugra on the day of commemoration of St. Mina), a chapel of St. was added to the south. Mines. After 1547 the vault was made of brick. The facades were completed in the form of a three-lobed arch. Around 1617, the chapel was built in stone. It is associated with the name of Prince Pozharsky and with deliverance from the Polish-Lithuanian invasion. Chapel of St. Catherine from the north was added in 1658.
It was closed in the 1920s. During restoration in the 1960s. the building has been cleared of later additions. The layers that arose in pre-Petrine times have been preserved, since they do not contradict early architectural forms. Returned to the Church and consecrated in 1994. The temple is part of the Patriarchal Metochion in Zaryadye.
Place in action
photo D1
Photo D1 is a hint at Gostiny Dvor (see).
Decor
photo E1
photo E2
Photo E1 - a balcony with balusters of the house where the Collective Security Treaty Organization meets. Former office and trading house “Varvarinskoye Podvorye”. Built in 1890-92. architect R.I. Klein. In photo E2 - balusters close up.
photo E3
Photo E3 - one of the vases on top of the bell tower of the Znamensky Monastery.
photo E4
People
photo Zh1
Photo G1 - a group of indirect participants in the Spasskaya Tower festival on the eve of City Day.
Metaphysics
Varvarka connects Red Square with the Varvarsky Gate. The street faces Vasilyevsky Spusk and Solyansky Proezd. Vasilyevsky Spusk descends to the river, Solyansky Proezd ascends to Ivanovskaya Hill. At the same time, Vasilyevsky Spusk turns into the Kremlin embankment, which along the edge of the Kremlin turns into the western road, and Solyansky passage turns into Merchant Solyanka, which begins the eastern, Vladimir road.
By right hand from Varvarka St. Basil's Cathedral and the Church of All Saints on Kulishki. Both are masterpieces of ancient Russian architecture, but the Church of All Saints was built later, and its style is simpler.
By left hand- Big Moskvoretsky Bridge and Old Square, their open spaces. The bridge serves as the beginning of the steppe road, and Old Square is the beginning of the northern roads, Yaroslavl and Tver.
Thus, Varvarka connects the crossroads of the western and southern roads, marked by St. Basil's Cathedral, and the crossroads of the eastern and northern roads, marked by the Church of All Saints on Kulishki and traces of the merchant presence.
Starting from Red Square, Varvarka moves from the signs of the south and west to the signs of the north and east. In fact, let us remember the Sourozh merchants, the Old English Court, the Pskov Hill... The influence of the West on Varvarka is very strong, its signs replaced the signs of the north and east, we can see their presence only by the growth of trading and business buildings closer to the end of the street.