Church on Malaya Bronnaya. Church of St. John the Theologian on the Bronnaya

Address:	123104, Moscow, Bogoslovsky lane, 4 building 2
Driving directions:	metro stations “Pushkinskaya”, “Tverskaya”, then walk along Tverskoy Boulevard or Bolshaya Bronnaya Street to Bogoslovsky Lane.
Temple phone number:	catechist- Nikita Muratov mobile phone 8-999-810-35-83, Social worker- Vlasova Lyudmila Nikolaevna mob. tel. 8-985-640-28-77; resp. for working with youth- Piskunova Anastasia Valerievna mobile phone 8-906-083-76-36, organizer of donor events- Medvedeva-Yakubitskaya Maria Valerievna mobile phone 8-903-730-61-21,

History of the temple

Historical overview

about the construction, destruction and reconstruction of the Church of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian on Bronnaya in Moscow

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 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. The temple is distinguished by harmony, sophistication and at the same time stylistic rigor in the solution of its volumetric-spatial composition and decorative design. The main place in the architectural space of the temple is occupied by a double-height quadrangle, covered with a closed vault, which supports a central light drum and four small blind drums located at the corners of the quadrangle. The composition is completed by helmet-shaped chapters. Adjacent to the quadrangle from the east and west are the lower volumes of the three-apse altar and refectory. 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.

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.”

A new milestone in the history of the temple was the construction of a stone Nikolsky chapel on the northern side of the temple, which, upon completion of work in 1694, was consecrated by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Adrian. The St. Nicholas chapel, crowned with one onion dome on a two-tier drum, in its architectural composition combines fidelity to the style set by the main temple with new elements of the Moscow Baroque (for example, broken pediments above the windows).

In 1740, on the site of the old dilapidated bell tower, a new two-tier bell tower was erected, introducing elements of classicism into the architecture and decor of the temple. There were 7 bells on the bell tower, one of which was cast by the famous master Ivan Matorin in 1692.

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. Word of St. Philaret on the consecration of the temple.

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.

In 1932, to the Church of St. ap. John the Theologian, Hieromonk Cyprian, the spiritual son of Bishop Varnava (Belyaev), was appointed rector. Prmch. Cyprian (Konstantin Alekseevich Nelidov) was born on July 14, 1901 into a noble family. In 1925, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) tonsured him and ordained him to the rank of hieromonk. In 1932, Hieromonk Cyprian was appointed rector of the Church of the Apostle John the Theologian on Bronnaya and worked in the office of the Holy Synod. In March 1933, Father Cyprian was arrested, sentenced to three years in prison and sent to a camp in Altai. Here he had to endure a lot; even, calm, not reproaching anyone, he tried to help everyone and conquered everything with his meekness. Excessive work undermined his health, and he fell seriously ill. O. Cyprian died in the camp hospital on June 16, 1934. Hieromonk Cyprian was glorified at the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in 2002. His memorial day is June 16.

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 opposed it - and only the domes and 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, openings that disfigured the building were broken through, 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.

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 first Liturgy after a sixty-year break was celebrated by the rector of the church, priest Andrei Khokhlov, on Easter 1993 in a small part of the St. Nicholas chapel fenced off for worship with a temporary altar.

Only by Easter 1995 the temple building was mostly cleared of carpentry workshops, which allowed the temple community to begin restoration work, which it initially carried out on its own. The buildings of the theater named after him were adjacent to the temple on all sides. Pushkin, surrounding him with a dense ring. The church continued to remain in such an acute state of disrepair until 1996.

With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, in February 1996, the restoration of the temple was undertaken by the charitable foundation “Revival and Preservation of Traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church,” headed by Nina Anatolyevna Oreshko and operating under Inkombank. From that time on, work on the restoration of the temple proceeded at a rapid pace.

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.

Also in 1996, on December 11, His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II visited the temple for the first time and was able to see with his own eyes the results of its restoration from the ruins. During the Patriarch’s visit to the temple, a new carved iconostasis of the St. Nicholas chapel was presented and a ceremonial transfer of the collection of ancient icons was made by the Conservation Foundation of the Association of Restorers of Russia with the participation and full financial support of Inkombank. This event was preceded by the consecration of five-domed crosses and the exaltation of the cross on December 2, 1996. The rite of consecration of the crosses was performed by the vicar of the Moscow diocese, Bishop, and now Archbishop of Istra, His Eminence Arseny.

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. Began

work on landscaping the temple grounds, erecting a new wrought-iron fence on a white stone plinth.

In January 1998, His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II visited the Church of St. for the second time. ap. John the Theologian. His Holiness noted the splendor of the new iconostases, “before which many generations of Russian people will pray and they themselves, someday through the centuries, will become our shrine.” His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' thanked the leadership of Inkombank and the Foundation for the Revival and Preservation of Traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church for their invaluable contribution to the return of the shrine, calling the resurrection of the temple to a new life a miracle of our days.

In June - August 1998, one of the most important works in terms of landscaping the territory was completed - the passage to the internal territory of the temple was cleared. For this purpose, a section of the city heating network running through the territory of the temple and closing the passage to the internal territory of the temple was reconstructed.

The year 1999 is noted in the annals of the temple as the year of the Great Consecration of the temple.

May 21, the day of the Patronal Feast in honor of St. ap. John the Theologian, His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II performed the Rite of Great Consecration of the Church and the Divine Liturgy in the co-service of Archbishop of Istra, His Eminence Arseny, Dean of the Churches of the Central District, Archpriest Vladimir Divakov. and the Moscow clergy. At the end of the service, the High Hierarch donated to the temple the holy icon of the Vladimir Mother of God, which is currently one of the shrines of the temple. This was the third and last visit of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' to the Church of St. ap. John the Theologian.

The year 2003 entered the annals of the temple as the most important final historical milestone in recreating the integrity of the temple territory. This is the year of the end of the ten-year confrontation with the management of the theater. Pushkin for the liberation of church land behind the Main Altar of the temple and the opportunity to conduct religious processions around the church. In 2003, with city funding, the “stage pocket of the theater” was reconstructed. To free up the passage behind the Main Altar, the seven-meter wall of the “theater stage” pocket was actually demolished and rebuilt. Behind the main altar of the temple, a passage of 2.5 meters opened.

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. Over the next 2009 and 2010, all repair and restoration work on the facades of the temple was completed, which virtually eliminated all the identified shortcomings of the restoration of 1996-1998: the dilapidated roof of the temple was completely replaced with copper; The rafter system and roof sheathing were reinforced and in parts completely rebuilt. A new ventilation system has been installed in the chapels and altars. These voluminous and complex works were carried out with the highest quality by the restoration company Migstroy LLC. During the same period, the parish premises of the clergy and sacristy, located on the first floor of the former apartment building of the temple, were completely renovated.

The year 2011 entered the chronicle of the church as a year of work to improve the territory of the church: new areas were created for flower beds for future plantings, the vertical layout was restored, the entire plot of church land was re-paved, with a blind area around the church, the fence was repaired and a collapsible shed was installed for storing building materials .

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. The rector of the church, Archpriest Andrei Khokhlov, served a lithium and memorial service for the deceased and buried in the church grounds. Father Andrei expressed hope that the newly buried remains would no longer be disturbed. 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.

In the spring of 2012, landscaping work was completed. New flower beds were filled with flowering plants - evergreen junipers and dwarf spruces. The snow-white temple, framed by colorful plants, became noticeable to passersby hurrying about their business, who in their haste did not have time to notice it among the residential high-rise buildings. On October 9, also on the day of the patronal feast at the end of the Divine Liturgy, which was led by the First Vicar of His Holiness the Patriarch, Archbishop Arseny of Istra, Vladyka examined the territory of the temple and noted its improvement and transformation.

Subsequently, from 2012 to 2014, very important work for the temple was carried out at the parish: four crosses on the small heads of the quadrangle were repaired and gilded, new electric lighting and electrical outlet networks were laid, an acoustic sound system was installed, the temple lamps were gilded; The walls and vaults of the temple were prepared for future painting, both iconostases were washed and cleared of soot, and a security and video surveillance system was installed in the temple. In addition, thanks to the care of the temple’s long-time benefactor A.N. Zakharov, the parish received an icon of Alexei, the Man of God with a piece of the relics of the saint, painted for our church.

In 2014, for long-term assistance to the Church of St. John the Evangelist on Bronnaya Zakharov A.N. was awarded the sign of Patriarchal attention - the Order of St. Seraphim of Sarov, II degree, which was presented to him by Bishop Philaret (Karagodin) on the day of the patronal feast of the temple.

The year 2014 is especially inscribed in the chronicle of the church, because on March 26, 2014, on Wednesday of the 4th week of Great Lent, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' visited the church of St. ap. John the Theologian on Bronnaya and performed the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. At the end of the service, the High Hierarch addressed the believers. He said: “I am very pleased to visit this historical temple, one of the oldest in Moscow, whose history dates back to the 16th century. At that time, there was still a wooden church here, but even then it was very revered by Muscovites, and Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich made donations to this temple, marking it with his royal favor... The temple was consecrated by Patriarch Adrian; in the 19th century, after restoration and significant restructuring, by St. Philaret; and, finally, in the 90s, after a remarkable restoration, by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy, my blessed predecessor.

Since 1993, Father Andrei Khokhlov has been working here as rector, whom I remember when he was very young - he was a student at Leningrad theological schools and my co-worker when I was rector. Every time I met Father Andrei, I asked him about where and how he served, and he told me about this church and about his service.

It’s really not easy for the Patriarch to choose a time to visit Moscow churches, but I try to do it, and in my busy schedule was also the Church of St. John the Theologian, beloved disciple and apostle of Christ. I rejoice that at the end of Great Lent, Holy Pentecost, on Wednesday of the Week of the Cross, I was able to fulfill my good intention and visit your parish. Today we do not celebrate a special holiday, but every time the Christian community gathers to pray and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, it is a holiday, because every person knows that, leaving the temple, he feels the renewal of his spiritual strength through the touch of grace God's. Secular holidays, accompanied by unbridled fun and libations of alcohol, often seem joyful when we participate in them, but this is followed by the deepest disappointment, because fun is not joy. Fun is a certain influence of external stimulating factors on the human psyche, and this influence is not always useful. In some cases it is useful, but often it is excessive and destroys the human nervous system... What is joy? And joy may not be accompanied by external joy. Instead of loud laughter, it is sometimes a soft smile; and even if there is laughter, then the laughter is completely different. Joy comes from the inner, spiritual state of a person. Joy is nothing more than the touch of Divine grace on us, the same one that we feel, first of all, when we partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ; it is a quiet, peaceful state of mind. And for spiritually enlightened people this is not just a quiet state, but an abundant heartfelt joy, which turns out to be the brightest, most powerful, in the positive sense of the word, manifestation of the human soul. It is this kind of joy that is identified with human happiness, and everyone knows that this state does not always, but most often never depends on any external, material factors. It is associated with deep mental and spiritual experiences. True and sincere love brings joy to a person. Why? Yes, because love is the power that God gave to people. This is the moral ideal that He proclaimed as the highest ideal, and therefore the achievement of this ideal, the experience of love is the greatest joy for a person.

This state does not always last long, because external circumstances significantly deform our soul and crowd out many things from it, including love. And in order to have a feeling of joy, you need to constantly be in communication with God. Constantly means never interrupting this connection, neither at work, nor in transport, nor in free time. This does not mean that we should pray all the time and read some long prayers - it means that God should never leave our lives, and we should not move away from Him. And in order to restore this connection with God, it is enough to simply say “Lord, forgive me” when we feel that we are doing something wrong, when we think sinfully, when we utter incorrect, sinful words.

“Lord, help me” - such simple words. We must pronounce them whenever we need God’s help, pronounce them as often as necessary. With these words we establish a connection with God, we turn to Him, and He answers us - not always, but when we are worthy of this answer. This connection contains a certain barometer of our relationship with God. If God is silent and does not answer us, then something is wrong in our life. This is why we are given a time of repentance and prayer, a time of fasting, so that we can rethink our lives, so that we can repent of our sins, cleanse our souls, establish a living connection with the Lord, through which we are given both forgiveness of sins and an answer to our petitions , and joy, which is a consequence of the touch of Divine grace on us.

So I wish for all of us to go through the course of the Holy Pentecost, in order to become closer to God, in order to feel the Lord every day and, perhaps, every hour of our lives, in order to become accustomed to this communication with God, and then much of what we have today annoying and overwhelming, destroying our peace, will really step aside. We will rise above the ordinary. Just as a bird flies above the earth and sees more than a man walking on earth, so everyone who comes into contact with God and receives the gift of grace rises upward and gains breadth of vision, and therefore a depth of understanding of what is happening to him and with the outside world. May the Lord help us to pass the days of the Holy Pentecost in a salutary manner.” In memory of the stay of the Apostle of Love in the temple, His Holiness presented an icon of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity with a parting blessing: “May the Triune Lord, the Lord Who is Love, help all members of the parish to grow in love and joy in the Lord. God bless you." The gift of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' found its place next to the gift of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus'.

Currently, the church has a church parish library, a Sunday group for children, and a Sunday lecture hall for adults, where anyone can enroll. Training is free.

The parish carries out work on catechesis and social service, which is headed by the rector of the temple.

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.

In the ophthalmological clinical hospital, the rector of the temple conducts weekly prayers for the health of the sick who are being treated in the hospital’s inpatient department. After anointing and sprinkling with holy water, icons of the Savior, the Mother of God and holy Healers are distributed to those who wish. Taking into account the specifics of the hospital, a duty library for the visually impaired has been created at the nurse’s post. The hospital's patients, mostly elderly people, feel comforted and reassured after prayers and conversations with the priest. The cooperation between the temple and the clinic also brought positive results not only for patients, but also for the medical institution. For many years, no repairs were carried out in the hospital, and now, with God’s help, funds have been allocated for repairs in all departments of the clinic.

The wards of the State Budgetary Institution CSO "Presnensky" are large low-income families, disabled children, people with disabilities and pensioners, therefore the social service of the parish is developing in several directions: participation in the organization and holding of social events for the Center's wards (concerts, organization of tea parties, gifts or flowers); holding events related to church holidays (conversations about Orthodoxy, the lives of saints, watching films, drinking tea and presenting gifts); children's events (organizing puppet shows for the Christmas and Easter holidays, participating in programs to prepare children for the school year, organizing excursions, purchasing gifts for children and holding tea parties). The social service of the parish in social institutions is also a missionary service, since many of the Center’s wards are non-believers, or were baptized in childhood, but still heard the Word of God. A new, but already strengthened direction in the parish is gratuitous donation. Volunteers and donors of the temple, together with the parish of the Church of the Ascension of the Lord at the Nikitsky Gate, took part in 6 blood donation events for the Center for Cardiovascular Surgery named after. Bakuleva. All social events in the parish are carried out through donations collected at charity fairs, where products made by employees and parishioners of the temple are presented.

The parish has 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. 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. On the initiative of the youth of the church, in November 2014, the first issue of the Parish Bulletin was published, which should become a monthly publication of our parish. All parish life can be viewed on the pages of our website.

The modern chronicle of the temple does not end there, but is reflected in the future events of subsequent years. Amen.

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.

“Hood. 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 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.

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.

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.

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

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 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 Central Clinical Hospital, with which permanent cooperation agreements have been concluded.

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

It happened to me to serve in the A.S. Pushkin Theater just at the time when the theater workshops were located in the Temple and restorers found an underground passage there. I had heard before that the theater stood on “bones,” and then we decided to explore this underground passage (according to rumors, it led to the Passion Monastery). We climbed up together with the restorer, tied ourselves with a rope, took the lanterns, and gave the end of the rope into the hands of the third participant in the enterprise, who was sitting on the edge, well, sort of belaying and during the entire expedition she pulled the end of the rope, finding out whether we were alive there or what... In general I still remember this journey with horror; it is only at 25 crazy years that a person is capable of such a thing of his own free will. The passage was very narrow, it was impossible to turn around; skeletons of people were visible in the niches on the left and right. We crawled, as we felt, to Tverskaya and ran into brickwork, there was no further way - we were walled up. They returned, backing away like crayfish, in reverse. What a joy it was to be among people again and breathe in the fresh air of a spring night, drinking a glass of wine in one gulp to calm my shaking knees...))))))))

The Church of St. John the Evangelist on Bolshaya Bronnaya has been known since 1625 and was founded under the Romanovs. It contained an ancient icon of St. Evangelist John the Theologian, donated by Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. Slobozhans were rich, and in 1652, “through the diligence of the parish people” a new, large and beautiful stone temple was erected, which has survived to this day.

In 1892, on the feast of St. John the Theologian, Marina Tsvetaeva was born nearby, in Trekhprudny Lane, and lived her entire childhood not far from this temple.
Red brush
The rowan tree lit up.
Leaves were falling
I was born.
Hundreds argued
Kolokolov
The day was Saturday
John the Theologian.
To this day I
I want to gnaw
Roast rowan
Red brush.
In this “dispute” of bells there was also the voice of the Church of St. John the Evangelist.
Under Soviet rule, the temple suffered, but did not die.
In 1932, a neighbor, the Moscow City Chamber Theater (named after Pushkin), petitioned for the demolition of the temple, but the architect D.P. Sukhov opposed it, and then only the church domes and the drum itself were destroyed. Then theater workshops, a scenery warehouse and a carpentry shop were located inside.
In the early 70s, the slow restoration of the temple began: the bell tower was repaired and a cross was made from a photograph from Naydenov’s album. However, construction work was carried out intermittently; there were not enough funds or builders. They said that one day M.A. Suslov, the main ideologist of the Communist Party, who lived next to the church on Bolshaya Bronnaya Street, was walking near the house and noticed a dilapidated church, which had been restored for a long time and could not be completed. There was one call from him to the Ministry of Culture - and funds, materials, and builders appeared. Only Suslov’s intervention was limited to just this one call, and the restoration work soon came to a standstill again.

Message quote

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

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

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.”

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.

The upper tiers of the bell tower.

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 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.

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

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

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"

The Church of St. John the Evangelist in Bronnaya Sloboda on Tverskoy Boulevard has been known since 1625 and was founded under the Romanovs. It contained an ancient icon of St. Evangelist John the Theologian, donated by Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich.

The area is named after the ancient settlement of armor workers located here at that time - master gunsmiths who made weapons and armor. Later, the name “armor workers” remained only for those craftsmen who made only armor: helmets, chain mail, and shells. Slobozhans were rich, and in 1652, “through the diligence of the parish people,” a new, large and beautiful stone church was erected, which has survived to this day.

Since the middle of the 19th century, the area of Tverskoy Boulevard and especially the famous Kozikha (so named because in the old days the goats of the Patriarchal Sloboda grazed here) were chosen by Moscow students. The area between both Bronnaya streets and Palashevsky Lane was even called the “Latin Quarter” of Moscow - poor students lived here. They considered Kozikha, traditional for students, to be “native”, and settling there was a matter of honor for them. On the left side of Malaya Bronnaya Street stood the former houses of Hirsch with cheap apartments for rent, which were rented by students (house No. 13 has been preserved). On Bolshaya Bronnaya and Kozikha there were also two houses owned by the Chebyshevs - "Chebyshev Fortress" or "Chebyshi" - with student apartments, as they would now say, like dormitories.

Four people lived in each room, sometimes with only two pairs of boots and dresses between four of them. In clothes, they took turns going to lectures at the university: two sat on Mokhovaya and recorded lectures, two in the room waited for them and prepared a modest lunch, and the next day they changed. Instead of tea, which, by the way, was very useful for students, they often drank cheap chicory - according to recollections, one round stick was enough for four people for 10 days.

And since not all students could afford apartments, the “homeless people” spent the night right on Tverskoy Boulevard in the warm season. So, the Church of St. John the Evangelist turned out to be the very center of student free life that was in full swing in this area of Moscow.

Available in the capital Moscow
One noisy quarter -
He is called Big Kozikha.
From dawn to dawn
As soon as the lanterns are lit
A line of students are staggering,
And Ivan Bogoslov
looking at them without words
From his bell tower he smiles

This student song was often sung in Moscow. They say that this was our Moscow version of the song of the Kyiv students, where St. Vladimir is replaced by St. John the Theologian.

Until 1884, students did not have a uniform, and they dressed freely, according to the latest chic student fashion of the freedom-loving 60s: especially “radical” ones wore long hair, a wide-brimmed hat pulled down over their eyes, a plaid on their shoulders and glasses, which gave them seriousness and a respectable, scholarly appearance. The new university charter of 1884 destroyed professorial autonomy, doubled tuition fees and introduced compulsory student uniforms: uniforms, frock coats, coats with coat of arms buttons and caps with blue bands. Then it became fashionable to wear a shabby cap and an unbuttoned frock coat. This form of clothing expressed the idea of students - free, daring, desperate...

By the way, V.O. himself lived in Bolshoi Kozikhinsky Lane when he was a student. Klyuchevsky.

On October 9, 1892 (new style), on the feast of St. John the Theologian, Marina Tsvetaeva was born in Moscow, who lived her entire childhood not far from this church in Trekhprudny Lane.

Red brush
The rowan tree lit up.
Leaves were falling
I was born.
Hundreds argued
Kolokolov
The day was Saturday
John the Theologian.
To this day I
I want to gnaw
Roast rowan
Red brush.

The removal of church valuables from the temple in 1922 was observed by O.E. Mandelstam and his wife, who wrote down what they saw: “We entered the church, and no one stopped us. The priest, elderly, disheveled, was trembling all over, and large tears were rolling down his face when they tore off the vestments and slammed the icons right onto the floor. Those who carried out the seizure "conducted noisy anti-religious propaganda accompanied by the cries of old women and the hooting of the crowd, enjoying an unprecedented spectacle. The church, as you know, is a superstructure, and it was destroyed along with the previous basis."

In 1932, the Moscow City Chamber Theater (named after Pushkin) petitioned for the demolition of the temple, but the architect D.P. Sukhov opposed it, and then only the church domes and the drum itself were destroyed. Then theater workshops, a scenery warehouse and a carpentry shop were located inside.

In the early 70s, the slow restoration of the temple began: the bell tower was repaired and a cross was made from a photograph from Naydenov’s album. However, construction work was carried out intermittently; there were not enough funds or builders. They said that once M.A. Suslov, the main ideologist of the Communist Party, who lived next to the church on Bolshaya Bronnaya Street, was walking near the house and drew attention to the dilapidated church, which had been restored for a long time and could not be completed. There was one call from him to the Ministry of Culture - and funds, materials, and builders appeared. Only Suslov’s intervention was limited to just this one call, and the restoration work soon came to a standstill again.

Back in the 90s, the church building was scary with its cracks gaping across the entire wall. It turned out that in 1985, a pit was opened near the western wall of the refectory to examine the foundation, and the water that got under the foundation led to the appearance of these deep cracks. Then it seemed that the condition of the temple was hopeless, although services had resumed there since 1992.

Temple of St. John the Evangelist, "under the Elm, near the Chinese Wall"

Another famous Moscow Church of St. John the Evangelist, “which is under the Elm, near the Chinese Wall,” is located on Novaya Square near Lubyanka, directly opposite the Polytechnic Museum. The onion dome and the cross on it have not been preserved, and on the pediment there is the inscription “1825” - the time of its foundation. The name "Under the Elm" comes from a huge elm tree that once grew in front of the altar during the time of Catherine the Great. Until 1934, the wall of Kitay-Gorod ran next to the temple, and this is also reflected in the name.

The church appeared here back in 1493, first wooden, then stone, rebuilt several times. The current one was consecrated in 1837.

From 1934 to the present time, the Museum of History and Reconstruction of Moscow has been housed in the building of the former church. Previously, he was located in the Sukharev Tower and was transferred from there when the tower was demolished. There have been various projects for transferring the museum (moreover, from a rather cramped building for it) to other, more suitable premises, for example, to the building of the Novo-Ekaterininskaya Hospital on Strastnoy Boulevard (with the relocation of the hospital), but so far all of them have not been resolved.

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Church on Malaya Bronnaya. Church of St. John the Theologian on the Bronnaya

History of the temple

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