The Church of St. Sergius in Krapivniki has been known since the end of the 16th century. It is depicted on the "Peter's Drawing" of Moscow, and this is so far the only evidence of the existence of a single-domed church at that time. The first written confirmation of the existence of the church dates back to 1625, when it was made of wood.
The name of the church "in Krapivniki" has no clear explanation. According to one version, this could be called a sparsely populated area, overgrown with weeds and nettles. According to another point of view, the lane in which the church stands was named after the owner of one of the yards.
Indeed, in 1752, one of the properties next to the temple belonged to collegiate assessor Alexei Krapivin. In the past, there were other names for the church: “in Starye Serebryaniki”, “at the Trumpet”, that is, near Trubnaya Square, “in Watchmen”.
In pre-revolutionary times, the church in Krapivniki was the only church in the center of the capital, the main throne in which was consecrated in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh.
Sergius Church is not large, it stands at an angle to Krapivensky Lane and protrudes far into the roadway with its bell tower. This arrangement tells us about the antiquity of the temple. The oldest part of the church is a small square built in stone in 1678. From the north, south and west it is surrounded by later additions. Only its eastern wall was not built up with anything. Here we can see the altar apse, window frames, the old cornice. What was the initial completion of the cubic building is not exactly known. Most likely, the church was single-domed.
The southern chapel in the name of the Beheading of John the Baptist was added to the temple in 1702. It is combined with the refectory in a single space. In 1885-1886, the chapel of John the Baptist was enlarged. The apse was rebuilt and moved to the east. She became flush with the other two altars of the temple. The Predtechensky aisle became larger in area than the ancient quadrangle and the northern aisle. Now this chapel is dedicated to All Saints who shone in the Russian land.
In 1749, the church was rebuilt, and it became almost the same as we see it today. Above the old quadrangle, a new completion appeared in the form of a rectangular volume with cut corners. Arched niches with keystones were arranged on its short sides. All corners of the superstructure were decorated with pilasters. The new completion of the temple is covered with a high octagonal dome and crowned with a simple, unadorned, smooth drum with a small dome and an openwork forged cross. At the same time, the northern Nikolsky chapel was added to the temple (in 1998 it was consecrated in the name of Seraphim of Sarov). The church received features of the Baroque style. It is possible that the reconstruction of the temple was carried out according to the project of the master of the school, Prince D.V. Ukhtomsky - the chief architect of Moscow in the middle of the 18th century.
The well-known Russian philosopher, public figure, writer and music critic V.F. Odoevsky (1804-1869). In 1812, during the stay of the Napoleonic army in Moscow, the church was badly damaged. After the departure of the French, it was assigned to the neighboring church of St. John the Evangelist (it was not preserved, it stood in Petrovsky Lane). Divine services resumed only in 1875.
On November 15, 1883, the Church of St. Sergius, which did not have its own parish, was transferred to the Patriarchate of Constantinople for the device of its own courtyard (representation in the Russian Empire).
In 1920, the Church of St. Sergius in Krapivniki largely shared the fate of the entire Russian Orthodox Church. Values (liturgical vessels, ancient robes on icons and the icons themselves) were forcibly seized from it. It is known that the seizure of valuables was accompanied by unrest among parishioners. In 1934, the last Greek rector of the temple dies. Due to the fact that, from a formal point of view, the Constantinople Compound did not belong to the Russian Church, it was not closed for several more years. The temple was closed one of the last in Moscow - in 1938. In the late 1930s, the ringing tier of the bell tower and the drum above the main volume were dismantled near the already closed church. Inside, handicraft production was set up for sharpening skates, which is explained by the proximity of the Dynamo skating rink, beloved by Muscovites. In this form, the temple was preserved until August 30, 1991, when it was consecrated by Patriarch Alexy II. Now the temple is the Patriarchal Compound.
In 2001, the bell tower dismantled by the Bolsheviks was restored, and in 2010 the chapel was consecrated in honor of All Saints, who shone in the Russian land. In 2013, the painting of the Serafimovsky chapel, made by the icon painter Irina Zaron, was opened.
On the outer northern wall of the temple, there are boards with inscriptions in beautiful script, telling about the parishioners buried next to them. Several representatives of the Ukhtomsky princely family are buried here. They lived in the Sergievsky parish in the 16th-18th centuries. Here were the graves of Princess E.M. Dashkova (1711), steward M.B. Chelishchev and his wife and others. Until our time, under the south-western corner of the refectory, the tomb of the princes of Ukhtomsky has been preserved. The necropolis of the Sergius Church is one of the most famous in Moscow
Since 1991, the Church of Sergius has housed an outstanding work of art and a revered shrine - the Kiysky Cross, one of the most significant reliquaries in the history of Christianity. The cross, repeating the dimensions of the Cross of Christ, was made by order of Patriarch Nikon and consecrated on August 1, 1656 in Moscow. It was intended for the Monastery of the Cross founded by Nikon on Kiy Island in the White Sea. Patriarch Nikon placed in the Cross relics of 104 saints and 16 stones from various holy places in Palestine. The cross was in its place, in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross Monastery, until 1923. Then he was transferred to the anti-religious museum on Solovki, and in 1930 to the State Historical Museum in Moscow. Among other revered shrines of this ancient temple are miraculous icons: the image of the Mother of God Feodorovskaya and the image of St. Sergius of Radonezh.
The fact is that not only monks worked in the monastery, but also lay people who settled nearby. As you know, you can neither baptize nor marry in the monastery. For these needs of the surrounding inhabitants, a temple was built in the name of St. Sergius.
Often, “what is in Starye Serebryaniki”, “on Petrovka near the Pipe”, “in Krapivniki” was often added to its name. All three definitions are understandable.
Previously, in this area there was an old Silver Sloboda, where silversmiths lived. "On Petrovka near the Pipe" indicates the location between Petrovka and Trubnaya Square. (The square itself, by the way, is called so because the “Pipe” was the name of the drain of the Neglinnaya River under the wall of the White City. In the 17th century, at the bottom of the current Petrovsky Boulevard, there was a Lubyanoy market: they sold logs, boards, doors, etc. In the next century, this place arranged a square, which became known as Trubnaya.)
As for the definition "in Krapivniki" (or "in Krapivki"), there are two opinions. Either a lot of nettles grew on the site where the church was built, or the name of the lane Krapivensky came from the name of the owner of the land in the area.
Nikon Cross
The main shrine of the temple is the Cross, in which 300 particles of the relics of saints are placed. Among them are the relics of the prophet Daniel, St. John the Baptist, the Evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke, the Apostles Paul, Thomas and Brother of the Lord James, Equal-to-the-Apostles Tsar Constantine, Saints Basil the Great and John Chrysostom.
And also particles of such shrines as the Stones of the Holy Sepulcher and the Sepulcher of the Most Holy Theotokos, and even the Stone from the place where Abraham arranged a meal for the Holy Trinity.
It is unlikely that somewhere there is something like this Cross. Its history is interesting.
This Reliquary Cross was the main shrine of the Holy Cross Monastery on Kiy Island. It was brought to Russia from Palestine at the behest of Patriarch Nikon, which is why it is called Nikonovsky.
In 1639, Nikon had to sail along the White Sea "in a small ship with a certain Christian." A storm broke out, and the travelers were threatened with imminent death, but they noticed a small island and landed on it. The island (essentially a stone rock) was completely uninhabited and uninhabitable.
Cue this island? - Nikon asked his companion, wanting to know the name of the island. But he did not know this.
“Let this island be called Kiy,” Nikon decided.
To thank the Lord for salvation, he placed a worship Cross on the shore, on which he himself wrote the image of the Crucified Christ.
In 1652, Nikon (then Metropolitan of Novgorod), by order of the Tsar, went to the Solovetsky Monastery for the relics of Metropolitan Philip. Along the way, he landed on the already familiar Kiyu Island and saw with joy that the Cross he had set was safe and sound. Standing in front of him with the relics of Metropolitan Philip, he promised to build a church and a monastery on the island, about which four years later he beat Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with his brow.
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It was decided to call the monastery the Cross.
Approximately in 1656, at the request of Nikon (he was already a patriarch), two cypress crosses were brought to Moscow from Palestine, the dimensions of which corresponded to the size of the Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. One was intended for the Golgotha chapel of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the New Jerusalem Monastery, the other for the Holy Cross Monastery on Kiy Island.
From Moscow, the Cross was taken to the White Sea. And along the way, when stopping for the night, copies of it were made. One of them has been preserved in the cemetery church of the Resurrection of Lazarus in the city of Onega (data for 1997).
The cross stayed on Kiy Island until the closing of the monastery in 1923. During the existence of the monastery, it was taken out only once - in 1854 due to the invasion of the British. At the same time, some power was lost.
From 1923 to 1930 the Cross was in the anti-religious museum in the Solovetsky camp. Then he was brought to Moscow, where he was kept in the storerooms of the Historical Museum.
The Cross was transferred to the Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Krapivniki in August 1991. It is interesting that the secondary consecration of the main chapel of the temple was performed on August 30, 1991, on the day of memory of His Holiness Patriarch Nikon, 310 years after his death.
Very little is known of the history of this small church. Like many Moscow churches, at first it was wooden, then a stone building was built.
In the XVI-XVIII centuries. the temple served as the tomb of the Ukhtomsky princes. On the northern wall of the aisle of St. Sergius, one can still see four stone slabs and on the very left one can make out the name of Princess Ukhtomskaya. At the end of the XVIII century. pestilence raged in Moscow. The priest who served in the St. Sergius Church died, and so few parishioners remained in the church that they were transferred to one of the nearest churches - they were “assigned” to it (similar “assigned” churches existed in Moscow until the end of the 19th century).
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The city recovered from the epidemic, and the parishioners again appeared at the temple, but a new misfortune befell it. In 1812, during the French invasion, the building was so badly damaged that it was even deleted from the list of Moscow churches, and the parishioners were again “assigned” to another church. The rest of the utensils and property were also taken there. Only the miraculous icon of St. Sergius was transferred to the church of the village of Borodino.
Soon the civil authorities demanded that all houses in the White City be made of stone. Since the St. Sergius Church was empty, the enterprising townspeople decided to use it as a quarry, but Metropolitan Filaret did not allow the church to be destroyed. The church was rebuilt and services resumed.
Officially, he was still considered "assigned" and unparochial, because the parishioners moved to another church. In fact, the temple was not needed by the locals, so they decided to use it for the construction of the Patriarchal Metochion of Constantinople (something like a secular embassy). At the same time, the temple came into the possession of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and houses for the workers of the farmstead were built next to it.
These buildings are still a wonderful decoration of the city. It seems that this corner of Moscow has not changed a bit since that time. And it also gives the impression that you are not in Russia, but in Byzantium: these buildings look so unusually colorful compared to the rest. Outside, the walls are decorated with a red and white floral pattern, which was typical not so much for Greece, but for the Muslim East. From afar, they resemble a fabulous gingerbread house.
In the 20s. the temple was still active. But already in the next decade it was closed and the building was adapted for an institution. The bell tower housed the regional transformer substation.
In the early 1990s, the church was restored as the Patriarchal Metochion.
What is what in the churchAlso here could be located the settlement of wrens, who were engaged in harvesting nettles. In the old days, it was finely chopped, mixed with flour and fed to horses and pigs. And cabbage soup was cooked from young nettles.
In 1625, the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh appeared in Krapivniki. In 1678, a pillarless building was built on the site of a burned-out wooden church, and in 1749 it was rebuilt, a second tier was added and a bell tower was erected. Around the same time, a refectory and a chapel of John the Baptist appeared. The project for the reconstruction of the temple, presumably, was prepared by the architect from the team of D.V. Ukhtomsky.
In 1883, the Church of Sergius of Radonezh in Krapivniki, which did not have its own parish, was transferred to the Patriarchal Metochion of Constantinople, and a complex of three-story buildings designed by S.K. Rodionov. The facade was decorated with Byzantine, Old Russian and Muslim ornaments. So the architect wanted to show that the ancient Patriarchy is located in a Muslim country, but the courtyard is on Russian soil. For a long time the temple was also the tomb of the Ukhtomskys.
In 1938, the church in Krapivniki and the courtyard were closed, and the bell tower was partially dismantled. Inside they arranged the production of skates, as there was a Petrovsky skating rink nearby.
Guide to Architectural StylesIn 1991, the temple was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. Now its most famous shrine is the Kiysky Cross with the relics of 400 saints, although some of them have been lost. It was made for the Kiya Monastery in memory of the miraculous rescue of Patriarch Nikon from a storm on the White Sea. Especially for this cross, a cypress was brought from Jerusalem. The size of the shrine exactly repeats the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. The cross was overlaid with silver sheets, and particles of the Lord's cross, parts of the robe of Christ, were put inside. It was decorated with 15 gilded stars with particles of the Holy Sepulcher, parts of the stone of the Nativity scene and particles of the tomb of the Virgin. On the front side of the cross are the relics of 97 saints with signatures, and on the back - the relics of another 300 saints without signatures.
In the 1930s, the Kiysky cross was in the anti-religious museum on Solovki, then it was kept in the storerooms of the State Historical Museum. In 1991, the shrine was transferred to the Church of Sergius of Radonezh in Krapivniki.
