Church on the armored road. Church of St. John the Theologian on the Bronnaya

The Temple in the Name of John the Theologian is an Orthodox church belonging to the Central Deanery of the Moscow City Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and located at the address: Bogoslovsky Lane, 4. It has two altars - in honor of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian and in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

In the middle of the 16th century, between Tverskaya and Malaya Nikitskaya streets (at that time - the very outskirts of the Mother See) a settlement of sovereign armorers and armorers was established. Their presence for more than a century is reflected in the names of the streets and alleys: Bronnaya, Palashevsky, Granatny, etc. One of the alleys, passing through the very center of this area, is named Bogoslovsky. It was here that the then wooden parish church was erected to glorify St. Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. According to some information, this happened during the reign of the pious Tsar Theodore Ioannovich (possibly around 1587).

In 1615, Mikhail Fedorovich, who ascended the kingdom, donated to the temple an icon of the Byzantine letter of St. Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian with a dedicatory inscription, “From Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich,” which became one of his main shrines.

The Posad church, characteristic of its time, initially consisted of a temple with an apse, a refectory and a bell tower. In the salary books for 1625, this church is mentioned as the wooden single-altar Church of St. John the Evangelist - “in Bronniki, behind the Tver Gate.” In the second half of the 17th century. The location of the church was already designated “behind the Nikitsky Gate in Bronnaya Sloboda,” and then “on Bronnaya,” when the main street of the settlement was meant.

The beginning of a new stage in the life of the temple was the construction of a stone church building, when, with donations from parishioners, “the diligence of the parish people”, construction work began in 1652, which ended with the consecration of the temple in 1665. A few years after the construction of the stone church in 1668, at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, on the initiative of parishioners with the direct participation of Simeon of Polotsk, the first private Orthodox school in Moscow was opened. The school was financed from parishioners' funds. A significant event in the life of the parish and the city after 1678 was the construction at the church of one of the first almshouses in Moscow, which housed “one hundred beggars in memory of the royal parents.”

The two-height quadrangle of the church, stretched from north to south, was crowned with a five-domed structure, placed on rows of kokoshniks. A three-part lowered altar (not preserved) adjoined it from the east; a one-story refectory and a hipped bell tower were simultaneously added to the west, completing the composition (replacing the existing one). In the external appearance of the building, through the patterned architectural and decorative design, previously supplemented by coloring (fragmentally preserved in the frieze part of the entablature), one can see the desire to imitate the forms of ancient five-domed temples; the proportions of the quadrangle are monumental, the large keel-shaped kokoshniks at its end can be read as zakomaras, despite the deep profile and powerful crepe entablature separating them from the walls.

This was also facilitated by the five-domed structure with an enlarged central light drum and helmet-shaped domes, as well as large (for the entire middle division of the facades) perspective portals with a keeled top (restored by recent restoration). The quadrangle is covered with a closed vault bearing a light central chapter; in the lower part the main vault is supplemented with cylindrical vaults according to the number of kokoshniks corresponding to them - “zakomar”; at the corners of the quadrangle, blind chapters rest on these arches. The top of the quadrangle is decorated with a belt of kokoshniks, elements of which are also used to decorate the drums and frame the windows.

Inside, the temple is connected to the vaulted refectory by three wide arched openings; The northern wall of the refectory is cut through by an even wider, possibly hewn passage into the St. Nicholas chapel. Changes in the refectory could have been caused not only by the construction of this chapel, but also by the placement here in 1837 of the throne of Mitrofan of Voronezh.

The St. Nicholas chapel, perceived from the outside and inside to a large extent independently, consists of a two-height quadrangle, elongated along the transverse axis, crowned with one chapter on a two-tier octagonal drum and a lowered three-part apse and a refectory.

It was completed in 1694, which corresponds to the existing treatment of facades in the “Moscow Baroque” style (large windows with broken pediments of platbands are especially characteristic). At the end of the work in 1694, the St. Nicholas chapel was consecrated by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Adrian.

Research has shown that an earlier volume is hidden inside the quadrangle. On the northern façade, the surviving part of the masonry of the ancient core with fragments of the portal that previously existed here is revealed (where the western window of the lower tier is now). Presumably (based on the decorative features) the earliest dating of the temple known in the literature is associated with this ancient building - 1620.

The three-tiered, heavy proportions baroque bell tower, located on the axis of the main temple and introducing elements of classicism into the architecture and decor of the temple, was built in the 1740s on the site of the 17th century bell tower. The lower tier, opened by arches, together with the “tents” formed by the completion, formed a kind of vestibule of the church, in the northern part of which there is an entrance to the bell tower (the staircase runs in the wall of the refectory).

There were 7 bells on the bell tower, one of which was cast by the famous master Ivan Matorin in 1692. Initially, in the low-rise buildings surrounding the church, the bell tower was impressively visible from Bolshaya Bronnaya Street, which ran along the walls of the White City, and from the parallel Bolshoi Palashevsky Lane. Currently, the church is surrounded on all sides by late multi-storey buildings; Bogoslovsky Lane is almost completely built up, with its western façade on the red line.

In 1812, A. I. Herzen was baptized in the church. In 1837-38, a second chapel was built in the volume of St. John the Theological Church - Mitrophania of Voronezh. During these years, repair work was also carried out, after which in 1842 the consecration of the entire temple was performed by St. Filaret of Moscow. In 1870, the new chapel was abolished, and the throne of Mitrofan of Voronezh was moved by Bishop Ignatius (Rozhdestvensky) of Mozhaisk, vicar of the Moscow diocese, from the middle of the church to the right apse of the St. John the Theologian altar.

In 1876-1879, a new iconostasis was installed in the temple, made in the Baroque style, the walls of the temple were painted with oil paints, oven heating was installed and the floors were rebuilt, and window sills were made from “Podolsk marble”. At the end of the 19th century, a new metal fence was built around the temple, and the entrance to the temple was decorated with a cast-iron umbrella on cast posts.

By 1917, the temple had extensive land with a courtyard and garden. There were four houses on the church land, in one of which, a stone four-story apartment building, some of the apartments were occupied by clergy and church workers, and some of them were rented out. Behind the altars of the temple there was a parish cemetery.

The interior decoration of the temple was distinguished by its integrity and harmony. In addition to the main shrine of the temple - the icon of John the Theologian, donated by Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the temple housed the miraculous Icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness”. In the main iconostasis of the temple, in the local row, the Icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk from the mid-17th century attracted attention. Later, in 1836, she was given a good frame, as well as an icon of St. John the Evangelist made by royal icon painters in a frame of the 1810s.

The changes that befell all of Russia after the October Revolution did not escape the Church of St. ap. John the Theologian. The temple lost all its possessions. In 1922, during a campaign to confiscate church valuables, the temple was subjected to blasphemous looting.

The temple was closed in the mid-20s of the 20th century, the building was turned into a warehouse, and occasionally its premises were used to hold prisoners.

Back in 1914, the building next to the temple was occupied by the Chamber Theater (later renamed the Pushkin Theater). In 1932, the Moscow City Chamber Theater made a proposal to demolish the temple, but the architect D.P. Sukhov, who was at that time engaged in the restoration of monuments in the Moscow Kremlin, opposed it - and only the domes and the drum were destroyed. In November 1933, at the request of the theater, the church community was abolished, and the church building was transferred to the “needs” of the theater. During the “rent”, the main altar of the temple was destroyed, the chapters were demolished, the drums of the main temple were dismantled, a huge hole was made in the wall to install a gate through which large decorations were brought in, the painting was destroyed, the fence was demolished, and a garage was added to the altar of the chapel. For a long time there was a dormitory in the temple, and then it was adapted for the theater's carpentry and metalworking workshops, and therefore machines were installed in it. The temple has practically lost its original appearance.

Attempts to study and restore the architectural monument began in 1956 and continued until 1998. A succession of famous architects, replacing each other for 34 years, worked on a restoration project to restore the temple. First, Alexander Vyacheslavovich Okh, who prepared the materials for the restoration project, then the work was continued by his student Georgy Konstantinovich Ignatiev, and in the subsequent years after his death, the architect of workshop 13 of Mosproekt-2, Lidiya Alekseevna Shitova, completed the work and summed up the results of such a long period of restoration.

In 1973, restoration work began on the bell tower, which was quickly completed. Then there was a break, but even until the 90s, no significant changes were made, except for some emergency work. In addition, the restoration work itself often led to devastating consequences. For example, a pit dug for many years to study the condition of the foundation was filled with water, which led to significant deformations and cracks in the walls and vaults.

The management of the theater actively contributed to the delay in work, periodically making requests to postpone them, since they were carried out partially at the expense of the theater, and for 2 years they could not pay for the work on developing project documentation. Due to problems with financing, the cross, made in 1972, rusted in the courtyard of the Mosoblstroyrestavratsi workshop for 13 years.

In 1991, after 36 years of unsuccessful restoration work, the temple was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. At the time of the legal transfer of the temple, the architectural monument was in an acute state of emergency. The first service in the Nikolsky limit was held in 1992; by 1995, the building was completely vacated by the theater workshop. The restoration of the temple was financed by Incobank and donations from organizations and parishioners. On May 21, 1991, the temple was illuminated by Patriarch Alexy.

In 1996, major work was carried out to strengthen the walls and vaults and restore the metal ties. The walls and vaults of the temple were strengthened, the drums of the main quadrangle were recreated, domes with gilded crosses were erected, the entrance doors and windows were restored, and plastering and painting work was carried out on the facades.

In 1997, restoration work continued. This year is noted in the annals of the temple as the resolution of many years of petitions from the parish and the struggle for the integrity of the historical appearance of the temple. The most important event for the temple was the end of a 5-year lawsuit with the theater. Pushkin for the reconstruction of the three-apse altar of St. St. John the Theologian on the historical foundations and design of the interiors of the temple, which was crowned with the installation of the magnificent St. John the Theologian iconostasis.

Both iconostases of the temple were made by the workshop of the Novosimonovsky Monastery in the style of the Moscow school of the 15th – 16th centuries by a team of icon painters, including A. Lavdansky, A. Sokolov, A. Eteneier, A. Vronsky and others, as well as a team of carvers led by A. Fechner. For the excellent execution of iconostases, these creative teams were awarded two awards: a certificate of honor from His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' and first place in the annual competition held by the Moscow Government for the best restoration, reconstruction of architectural monuments and other objects of the historical and urban environment of Moscow. In 1998, the main restoration work on the temple was completed.

Work began on landscaping the temple grounds and erecting a new wrought iron fence on a white stone plinth.

On October 9, 2003, on the day of the patronal feast in honor of St. Apostle and evangelist John the Theologian, with a gathering of parishioners, the rector of the church, Archpriest Andrei Khokhlov, performed the first religious procession around the church in 70 years.

The next significant milestone in the history of the temple was 2008. In 2008, repair and restoration work was carried out in the temple on the bell tower of the temple and the western facade of the refectory of St. Nicholas.

On December 1, 2011, on the landscaped territory of the temple, the burial of the remains of the deceased, found on the territory of the temple from 1996 to 2011 during repair and restoration work and improvement of the territory of the temple, and which previously rested in the church cemetery, destroyed in Soviet times during the construction of the buildings of the theater, took place. . Pushkin. On December 9, 2011, a Golgotha ​​with a memorial inscription “Eternal memory to those who died in the vicinity of this temple buried” was installed at the burial site.

Currently, the church has a parish library, a Sunday group for children, a Sunday lecture hall for adults, which offers lecturers a series of lectures on “Biblical Archaeology”, “History of the Russian Orthodox Church”, “History of Church Art”; and an elective in Greek. Training is free. The children's Sunday group is engaged in two areas: the Law of God and drawing. Youth work occupies a special place in the parish. The youth sector organizes excursions, competitions, and quests for lovers of the history and architecture of Moscow.

Since 2010, the parish has been under the care of two social facilities: the Ophthalmological Clinical Hospital on Mamonovsky Lane and the Presnensky Central Clinical Hospital, with which permanent cooperation agreements have been concluded.

Partial material has been taken.

I had a difficult fate Church of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian on Bronnaya, however, like most religious buildings, which barely survived some historical events and were on the verge of complete disappearance.

There is an assumption that the temple arose back in 1587. In 1615, Mikhail Fedorovich, who ascended the throne, gives the church an icon of the holy Apostle John the Theologian, which will become its main shrine.

Until 1652, the construction of the temple was made of wood, but donations from parishioners became enough to begin construction of a stone building.

Life in the church begins to be in full swing. An Orthodox school was opened here, which became the first private educational institution in Moscow, almshouses were built (at that time there were only a few of them in Moscow), the Nikolsky limit was erected, the style of which repeated the basic concept of the temple, but also introduced baroque elements.

In 1740, a bell tower appeared, made in the style of classicism.

Until 1917, the temple lived its usual life: it was supplemented with new buildings, underwent repair work, grew larger, and became richer. It was already a whole complex where houses were located for clergy, temple workers, and some premises were even rented out.

The October Revolution divided the history of the temple into before and after.

Before - an exquisite center of religious life, after - plundered and, it seems, forgotten by God.

From the Chamber Theater, located next door, one day there was a proposal to demolish the Church of St. John the Evangelist in order to free up the land for theatrical needs. Fortunately, I had to agree with the opinion of the architect Sukhov, who opposed the demolition.

In 1933, the church building was transferred to the theater. The altar is destroyed, the drum of the temple is dismantled, not a trace remains of the paintings on the walls, the fence is demolished, and a garage is added to the temple.

Only in 1956 did attempts at restoration begin. The work proceeded very slowly and often to the detriment of the building itself. So, for example, when they dug a pit to explore the foundation of the temple, it filled with water from time to time, and this in turn led to the appearance of cracks on the walls of the shrine.

When the temple was returned to the Orthodox Church in 1991, its condition left much to be desired. Since everything had to be done with one’s own hands, and there were often not enough funds, restoration proceeded very slowly.

Nevertheless, by 1996 most of the renovation work was completed. In 1997, all disputes between the theater were finally resolved, the buildings of which surrounded the temple in a tight ring. For the first time after a long break, the shrine regains its integrity.

However, much still had to be done, because only 2003 would be called the final year in the history of recreating the appearance of the temple.

Today the church lives its normal life. There is a parish library, a Sunday school, and all kinds of religious ceremonies are performed here: weddings, baptisms, prayer services, funeral services, memorial services. The temple took its rightful place of honor among other religious buildings in Moscow.

The Church of the Apostle John the Theologian on Bronnaya is located at the address: Moscow, Bogoslovsky Lane, 4 (metro stations Pushkinskaya and Tverskaya).

What is what in the church

In 1652 the church on Bronnaya was rebuilt in stone. Soon an almshouse appeared there, and an Orthodox school opened (the first private educational institution in Moscow). And in 1740, a bell tower in the classicist style was added to the temple. There were 7 bells on it. One of them was cast by the famous master Ivan Motorin in 1692.

In the Church of St. John the Evangelist on Bronnaya in 1812, Alexander Herzen, who was born in a house nearby, was baptized. And by 1917, the temple had turned into a whole complex with houses for clergy, church workers, its own cemetery and premises for rent.

After the revolution, workers at the nearby Chamber Theater proposed demolishing the church to free up the land for theatrical needs. The architect Sukhov stood up for the Church of St. John the Evangelist, but in 1933 the building was transferred to the theater. The altar was destroyed, the drums were dismantled, the paintings were covered over, the valuables were looted. A garage was erected in place of the temple fence.

The first attempts to restore the Church of St. John the Evangelist on Bronnaya began in 1956, but work proceeded slowly and often caused new damage.

Guide to Architectural Styles

For example, a pit used to study the foundation of a temple was often filled with water, which led to the appearance of cracks on the walls. It is not surprising that by 1991 the condition of the temple was depressing.

Message quote

Church of St. John the Evangelist on Bronnaya. Moscow.

The Temple in the Name of John the Theologian is an Orthodox church belonging to the Central Deanery of the Moscow City Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and located at 4 Bogoslovsky Lane. It has two altars - in honor of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian and in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

In the middle of the 16th century, between Tverskaya and Malaya Nikitskaya streets (at that time - the very outskirts of the Mother See) a settlement of sovereign armorers and armorers was established. Their presence for more than a century is reflected in the names of the streets and alleys: Bronnaya, Palashevsky, Granatny, etc. One of the alleys, passing through the very center of this area, is named Bogoslovsky. It was here that the then wooden parish church was erected to glorify St. Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. According to some information, this happened during the reign of the pious Tsar Theodore Ioannovich (possibly around 1587).

In 1615, Mikhail Fedorovich, who ascended the kingdom, donated to the temple an icon of the Byzantine letter of St. Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian with a dedicatory inscription, “From Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich,” which became one of his main shrines.

"Artist. John Heinrich Wedekind. Portrait of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. 1728, Tretyakov Gallery. Copy of a portrait executed in 1636 (Tallinn City Museum)."

The Posad church, characteristic of its time, initially consisted of a temple with an apse, a refectory and a bell tower. In the salary books for 1625, this church is mentioned as the wooden single-altar Church of St. John the Evangelist - “in Bronniki, behind the Tver Gate.” In the second half of the 17th century. The location of the church was already designated “behind the Nikitsky Gate in Bronnaya Sloboda,” and then “on Bronnaya,” when the main street of the settlement was meant.

The beginning of a new stage in the life of the temple was the construction of a stone church building, when, with donations from parishioners, “the diligence of the parish people”, construction work began in 1652, which ended with the consecration of the temple in 1665. A few years after the construction of the stone church in 1668, at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, on the initiative of parishioners with the direct participation of Simeon of Polotsk, the first private Orthodox school in Moscow was opened. The school was financed from parishioners' funds. A significant event in the life of the parish and the city after 1678 was the construction at the church of one of the first almshouses in Moscow, which housed “one hundred beggars in memory of the royal parents.”

The two-height quadrangle of the church, stretched from north to south, was crowned with a five-domed structure, placed on rows of kokoshniks. A three-part lowered altar (not preserved) adjoined it from the east; a one-story refectory and a hipped bell tower were simultaneously added to the west, completing the composition (replacing the existing one). In the external appearance of the building, through the patterned architectural and decorative design, previously supplemented by coloring (fragmentally preserved in the frieze part of the entablature), one can see the desire to imitate the forms of ancient five-domed temples; the proportions of the quadrangle are monumental, the large keel-shaped kokoshniks at its end can be read as zakomaras, despite the deep profile and powerful crepe entablature separating them from the walls.

This was also facilitated by the five-domed structure with an enlarged central light drum and helmet-shaped domes, as well as large (for the entire middle division of the facades) perspective portals with a keeled top (restored by recent restoration). The quadrangle is covered with a closed vault bearing a light central chapter; in the lower part the main vault is supplemented with cylindrical vaults according to the number of kokoshniks corresponding to them - “zakomar”; at the corners of the quadrangle, blind chapters rest on these arches. The top of the quadrangle is decorated with a belt of kokoshniks, elements of which are also used to decorate the drums and frame the windows.

Inside, the temple is connected to the vaulted refectory by three wide arched openings; The northern wall of the refectory is cut through by an even wider, possibly hewn passage into the St. Nicholas chapel. Changes in the refectory could have been caused not only by the construction of this chapel, but also by the placement here in 1837 of the throne of Mitrofan of Voronezh.

The St. Nicholas chapel, perceived from the outside and inside to a large extent independently, consists of a two-height quadrangle, elongated along the transverse axis, crowned with one chapter on a two-tier octagonal drum and a lowered three-part apse and a refectory.

It was completed in 1694, which corresponds to the existing treatment of the facades in the “Moscow Baroque” style (large windows with broken pediments of platbands are especially characteristic). At the end of the work in 1694, the St. Nicholas chapel was consecrated by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Adrian.

Research has shown that an earlier volume is hidden inside the quadrangle. On the northern façade, the surviving part of the masonry of the ancient core with fragments of the portal that previously existed here is revealed (where the western window of the lower tier is now). Presumably (based on the decorative features) this ancient building is associated with the earliest dating of the temple known in the literature - 1620.

The three-tiered, heavy proportions baroque bell tower, located on the axis of the main temple and introducing elements of classicism into the architecture and decor of the temple, was built in the 1740s on the site of the 17th century bell tower. The lower tier, opened by arches, together with the “tents” formed by the completion, formed a kind of vestibule of the church, in the northern part of which there is an entrance to the bell tower (the staircase runs in the wall of the refectory).

There were 7 bells on the bell tower, one of which was cast by the famous master Ivan Matorin in 1692. Initially, in the low-rise buildings surrounding the church, the bell tower was impressively visible from Bolshaya Bronnaya Street, which ran along the walls of the White City, and from the parallel Bolshoi Palashevsky Lane. Currently, the church is surrounded on all sides by late multi-storey buildings; Bogoslovsky Lane is almost completely built up, with its western façade on the red line.

The upper tiers of the bell tower.

In 1812, A. I. Herzen was baptized in the church. In 1837-38, a second chapel was built in the volume of St. John the Theological Church - Mitrophania of Voronezh. During these years, repair work was also carried out, after which in 1842 the consecration of the entire temple was performed by St. Filaret of Moscow. In 1870, the new chapel was abolished, and the throne of Mitrofan of Voronezh was moved by Bishop Ignatius (Rozhdestvensky) of Mozhaisk, vicar of the Moscow diocese, from the middle of the church to the right apse of the St. John the Theologian altar.

In 1876-1879, a new iconostasis was installed in the temple, made in the Baroque style, the walls of the temple were painted with oil paints, oven heating was installed and the floors were rebuilt, and window sills were made from “Podolsk marble”. At the end of the 19th century, a new metal fence was built around the temple, and the entrance to the temple was decorated with a cast-iron umbrella on cast posts.

By 1917, the temple had extensive land with a courtyard and garden. There were four houses on the church land, in one of which, a stone four-story apartment building, some of the apartments were occupied by clergy and church workers, and some of them were rented out. Behind the altars of the temple there was a parish cemetery.

The interior decoration of the temple was distinguished by its integrity and harmony. In addition to the main shrine of the temple - the icon of John the Theologian, donated by Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the temple housed the miraculous Icon of the Mother of God "Tenderness". In the main iconostasis of the temple, in the local row, the Icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk from the mid-17th century attracted attention. Later, in 1836, she was given a good frame, as well as an icon of St. John the Evangelist made by royal icon painters in a frame of the 1810s.

The changes that befell all of Russia after the October Revolution did not escape the Church of St. ap. John the Theologian. The temple lost all its possessions. In 1922, during a campaign to confiscate church valuables, the temple was subjected to blasphemous looting.

The temple was closed in the mid-20s of the 20th century, the building was turned into a warehouse, and occasionally its premises were used to hold prisoners.

Back in 1914, the building next to the temple was occupied by the Chamber Theater (later renamed the Pushkin Theater). In 1932, the Moscow City Chamber Theater made a proposal to demolish the temple, but the architect D.P. Sukhov, who was at that time engaged in the restoration of monuments of the Moscow Kremlin, opposed it - and only the domes and the drum were destroyed. In November 1933, at the request of the theater, the church community was abolished, and the church building was transferred to the “needs” of the theater. During the “rent”, the main altar of the temple was destroyed, the chapters were demolished, the drums of the main temple were dismantled, a huge hole was made in the wall to install a gate through which large decorations were brought in, the painting was destroyed, the fence was demolished, and a garage was added to the altar of the chapel. For a long time there was a dormitory in the temple, and then it was adapted for the theater's carpentry and metalworking workshops, and therefore machines were installed in it. The temple has practically lost its original appearance.

Attempts to study and restore the architectural monument began in 1956 and continued until 1998. A succession of famous architects, replacing each other for 34 years, worked on a restoration project to restore the temple. First, Alexander Vyacheslavovich Okh, who prepared the materials for the restoration project, then the work was continued by his student Georgy Konstantinovich Ignatiev, and in the subsequent years after his death, the architect of the workshop 13 04Mosproekt-2 Lidiya Alekseevna Shitova completed the work, who summed up the results of such a long period of restoration.

South facade. Restoration project Authors G.K. Ignatiev and L.A. Shitova

In 1973, restoration work began on the bell tower, which was quickly completed. Then there was a break, but even until the 90s, no significant changes were made, except for some emergency work. In addition, the restoration work itself often led to devastating consequences. For example, a pit dug for many years to study the condition of the foundation was filled with water, which led to significant deformations and cracks in the walls and vaults.

The management of the theater actively contributed to the delay in work, periodically making requests to postpone them, since they were carried out partially at the expense of the theater, and for 2 years they could not pay for the work on developing project documentation. Due to problems with financing, the cross, made in 1972, rusted in the courtyard of the Mosoblstroyrestavratsi workshop for 13 years.

In 1991, after 36 years of unsuccessful restoration work, the temple was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. At the time of the legal transfer of the temple, the architectural monument was in an acute state of emergency. The first service in the Nikolsky limit was held in 1992; by 1995, the building was completely vacated by the theater workshop. The restoration of the temple was financed by Incobank and donations from organizations and parishioners. On May 21, 1991, the temple was illuminated by Patriarch Alexy.

In 1996, major work was carried out to strengthen the walls and vaults and restore the metal ties. The walls and vaults of the temple were strengthened, the drums of the main quadrangle were recreated, domes with gilded crosses were erected, the entrance doors and windows were restored, and plastering and painting work was carried out on the facades.

In 1997, restoration work continued. This year is noted in the annals of the temple as the resolution of many years of petitions from the parish and the struggle for the integrity of the historical appearance of the temple. The most important event for the temple was the end of a 5-year lawsuit with the theater. Pushkin for the reconstruction of the three-apse altar of St. St. John the Theologian on the historical foundations and design of the interiors of the temple, which was crowned with the installation of the magnificent St. John the Theologian iconostasis.

Both iconostases of the temple were made by the workshop of the Novosimonovsky Monastery in the style of the Moscow school of the 15th - 16th centuries by a team of icon painters, including A. Lavdansky, A. Sokolov, A. Eteneyer, A. Vronsky and others, as well as a team of carvers led by A. Fechner. For the excellent execution of iconostases, these creative teams were awarded two awards: a certificate of honor from His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' and first place in the annual competition held by the Moscow Government for the best restoration, reconstruction of architectural monuments and other objects of the historical and urban environment of Moscow. In 1998, the main restoration work on the temple was completed.

Work began on landscaping the temple grounds and erecting a new wrought iron fence on a white stone plinth.

On October 9, 2003, on the day of the patronal feast in honor of St. Apostle and evangelist John the Theologian, with a gathering of parishioners, the rector of the church, Archpriest Andrei Khokhlov, performed the first religious procession around the church in 70 years.

The next significant milestone in the history of the temple was 2008. In 2008, repair and restoration work was carried out in the temple on the bell tower of the temple and the western facade of the refectory of St. Nicholas.

On December 1, 2011, on the landscaped territory of the temple, the burial of the remains of the deceased, found on the territory of the temple from 1996 to 2011 during repair and restoration work and improvement of the territory of the temple, and which previously rested in the church cemetery, destroyed in Soviet times during the construction of the buildings of the theater, took place. . Pushkin. On December 9, 2011, a Golgotha ​​was erected at the burial site with the memorial inscription “Eternal memory to those who died in the vicinity of this temple and were buried.”

Currently, the church has a church parish library, a Sunday group for children, a Sunday lecture hall for adults, which offers lecturers a series of lectures on “Biblical Archaeology”, “History of the Russian Orthodox Church”, “History of Church Art”; and an elective in Greek. Training is free. The children's Sunday group is engaged in two areas: the Law of God and drawing. Youth work occupies a special place in the parish. The youth sector organizes excursions, competitions, and quests for lovers of the history and architecture of Moscow.
Since 2010, the parish has been under the care of two social facilities: the Ophthalmological Clinical Hospital on Mamonovsky Lane and the Presnensky State Clinical Hospital, with which permanent cooperation agreements have been concluded.

Kruglova Svetlana "Church of St. John the Evangelist on Bronnaya"