The Church of the Archangel Gabriel on Chistye Prudy received the mysterious name “Menshikov Tower” among the people. In the past, this temple was the tallest building in Moscow, taller than the famous bell tower of Ivan the Great. The famous Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg was built in the likeness of this temple.
Today, the courtyard of the Antiochian Church is located in the temples of the Archangel Gabriel and the Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates. We will talk about these ancient temples and courtyard.
Orthodox metochion - remote church representation
The courtyard happens:
- monastic;
- bishop's;
- representative patriarchal metochion of a foreign church.
The Church is a separate state, the canonical territory of which is located within several powers.
Relations between churches are determined by canonical rules established at ecumenical councils.
How in interstate relations Consulates were created, and metochions were organized in relations between churches. They are located in the capitals, have their own temples, and a staff of clergy.
The Antioch Church is the oldest church founded by the Apostles Peter and Paul.
this year the Antioch Church was formed
This Church is one of the first four ancient churches. It was founded around 37 AD. In 451 the patriarchate was formed. The jurisdiction of the Church of Antioch is located in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Kuwait. Several dioceses are founded in Europe, Australia, South and North America.
Church writers of the first centuries testify that the Apostles Peter and Paul founded the church. While Paul was on his way to Damascus, Christ appeared to him, and there Paul preached his first sermon.
After this, until 324, the church suffered persecution, which ended under Emperor Constantine the Great. In the 4th century, monasticism emerged in Syria.
In the 5th-6th centuries, the church was undermined by the heretical troubles of the Nestorians and Monophysites.
In 637 Syria was conquered by Muslim Arabs. After this, for three centuries, Christians were subjected to persecution and pogroms as infidels. The Patriarchate of Antioch strengthened during the reign of Byzantium. In 1084, the Seljuk Turks conquered Antioch.
In 1100 The Patriarch of Antioch was expelled by Catholics. The Patriarchate is forced to emigrate to Constantinople, until 1269. Within 200 years, as a result of religious wars, Christians, who made up half of the population, were almost completely destroyed. In 1342, the department was moved to Damascus, where it remains to this day.
In 1517 Damascus was captured by the Ottoman Turks. In 1860, as a result of pogroms in Damascus, most of the Christians were killed and all the churches were destroyed.
Today the situation of Christians remains difficult. The Church includes 22 dioceses and 400 churches. The Church of Antioch is one of the poorest jurisdictions.
Primate - His Beatitude Patriarch of Antioch John X.
Antioch courtyard on the territory of two Moscow churches
The farmstead first appeared in the mid-19th century. After the coup d'etat of 1917, it lost its existence. It was revived under the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy I, in 1948.
The Antioch courtyard is located on the territory of the churches of the Archangel Gabriel and in the name of Theodore Stratilates.
Rector of the Antioch Metochion in Moscow
The rector of both churches is Bishop Niphon (Saikali) of Philippopolis.
from this year Bishop Niphon serves as rector of the Antioch metochion
Bishop Niphon is one of the well-known and beloved bishops of Muscovites. Since 1977, he has been obedient to the rector of the metochion, sincerely and passionately preaching the Orthodox faith.
In those difficult years, thanks to the archpastor, on the territory of the Antioch courtyard people were baptized and married without a passport or other documents required by secular authorities.
The bishop combines the traditions of the ancient Antiochian and Russian Churches. He is a living witness of the love between these Churches.
Temple of the Archangel Gabriel - historical architectural monument
For 70 years this most beautiful temple in Moscow has been the main cathedral of the Antioch courtyard. A wooden church was built on this site in 1551. The stone temple was erected 100 years later.
The temple, which has a modern appearance, was built in 1707 according to the design of the architect I.P. Zaprudny. Ordered the construction by A.D. Menshikov.
this year the first wooden church was erected on the site of the courtyard
The church became the tallest building, 81 meters high. The building acquired the second name “Menshikov Tower”.
In 1723, as a result of a lightning strike, the oak spire burned down, and for 140 years the temple was not in use. It was restored and services resumed in 1863.
The temple is richly decorated with sculptural decorations, adding airiness and beauty. This narrative sculpture on evangelical themes was used for the first time in the Moscow tradition of temple architecture.
Three times a year, on November 21, April 8 and July 26, the Council of the Archangel Gabriel is celebrated. On this holiday, celebrations are held in the church, headed by the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church. On this day, a festive Divine Liturgy is served in the courtyard.
Divine services in the temple are held daily. The schedule is published on the website vk.com, in the group
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Menshikov Tower (Church of the Archangel Gabriel) is the most noticeable landmark of the Myasnitskaya and Chistye Prudy area. This is one of the few buildings in Moscow in the Baroque style - after the founding of St. Petersburg, Peter the Great banned stone construction in the Mother See.
History of the construction of the Menshikov Tower
For the first time, the “Church of Gabriel the Archangel in Myasniki” was mentioned in documents from 1551. In the 2nd half of the 17th century it was rebuilt in stone. In 1699, the property north of it was bought by the Tsar’s associate, Alexander Danilovich Menshikov.
A manor house was built on the site of the current Post Office. In 1704, construction began on the current temple, which was completed in 1707. The Menshikov Tower amazed with its height (81 meters) and the splendor of its decoration. Domestic and foreign masters took part in its creation, among whom were I.P. Zarudny, Trezzini, Fontana, etc. In 1708, a clock of English work with chimes was installed. Fifty bells were hung on the bell tower. The Menshikov Tower was crowned by a thirty-meter spire with a gilded angel.
After Menshikov became governor-general of St. Petersburg in 1710 and began arranging his palace there, work on the interior decoration of the temple slowed down.
In 1723, a fire broke out from lightning striking the spire of the Menshikov Tower. The wooden top was destroyed, the bells broke through the vaults, the English clock was lost, the building was seriously damaged and was nearing completion. interior decoration temple.
In 1773-1779, the Menshikov Tower was restored, the vaults of the central part were re-erected, and the bell openings were laid. White stone vases were placed in place of the statues. In 1821, the Church of the Archangel Gabriel became a “post office” church, and in the middle of the same century - a parish church.
During the restoration of 1830, it was supposed to open the bells, but this was never done. At the same time, the current dome with a cross was erected. In the 1960s, an iconostasis from the late 19th century was moved here from the dismantled Church of Peter and Paul in Preobrazhenskaya Sloboda.
Nearby, in 1782-1806, as a winter church “under the bells”, it was erected Church of Theodore Stratilates. The project is attributed to I.V. Egotov. Since 1821, the Fedorovskaya Church also became a post office.
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, multi-storey apartment buildings began to be built in the surrounding alleys and on Myasnitskaya Street, and the beautiful tower was closed by them.
Alas, you can’t take pictures inside, although the structure is truly unique and it’s a shame that I can’t show this beauty.
Krivokolenny Lane and surrounding area
And in addition to the story about the Menshikov Tower - several photographs of Krivokolenny Lane and its surroundings. Many ancient estates and apartment buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries have been preserved here.
Address: Moscow, Arkhangelsky lane, 15Ас9.
© , 2009-2019. Copying and reprinting of any materials and photographs from the site in electronic publications and printed publications prohibited.
Menshikov Tower in winter.Church of the Archangel Gabriel (Menshikov Tower) on Chistye Prudy in Moscow
Cultural heritage Russian Federation, object No. 7710021000 Baroque monument in the Basmanny district (Arkhangelsky lane, 15a).
The church was originally built in 1707 by order of Alexander Menshikov by Ivan Zarudny with the help of Domenico Trezzini, a group of Italian and Swiss craftsmen from the cantons of Ticino and Friborg and Russian stonemasons from Kostroma and Yaroslavl.
The earliest surviving Peter the Great baroque building in Moscow, the Menshikov Tower was significantly altered in the 1770s. The church functioned only in the summer; in winter, services were held nearby, in the Church of Theodore Stratelates, built in 1782-1806. The Church of St. Theodore Stratelates also had bells. Despite its height, the Menshikov Tower did not have bells.
Both churches have belonged to the Antioch courtyard since July 17, 1948.
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The first church in the name of the Archangel Gabriel on this site was first mentioned in the 1551 census records. By 1657 it was rebuilt in stone, and was enlarged in 1679.
Twenty years later, the influential statesman Alexander Menshikov consolidated land plots south of modern Chistye Prudy. The Church of the Archangel Gabriel became the home church of his family, who lived in the next block to the west, on the site of the current Central Post Office.
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In 1701, Menshikov repaired the old church, and in 1704 he ordered its demolition. Menshikov entrusted the general management of construction to Ivan Zarudny. Domenico Trezzini, Zarudny’s subordinate, was from European masters (from the families Fontana, Rusco, Ferrara, etc. from the canton of Ticino), but six months later he was sent to St. Petersburg.
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The new church was structurally completed by 1707, the height was 81 meters and was comparable to the height of the bell tower of Ivan the Great. The building originally had five levels with stone (nave, square tower and three lower octagonal levels; the upper two octagons were built of wood). In 1708 the tower acquired 50 bells and an English clock mechanism. It was crowned with a 30-meter spire with an angel in the shape of a weather vane. The original building of the Menshikov Tower in Moscow was richly decorated with decorative sculpture, but most of it was lost in the 18th century.
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In 1710, Menshikov was appointed governor of St. Petersburg and abandoned all his Moscow projects, taking most of the craftsmen with him. Work on the tower's interiors slowed; Menshikov's private property inside the temple was rebuilt into an ordinary altar.
In 1723, the tower was struck by lightning and the fire completely destroyed the upper wooden part with the clock. The bells fell, shattering the wooden ceilings and (partially) destroying the interiors of the naves. The side altars, however, survived and continue to operate while main tower stood beheaded until 1773.
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In 1773-1779 the tower was restored by the mason G.Z. Izmailov and acquired its current form: instead of recreating the destroyed upper octagon, the new architects replaced it with a compact but complex dome in the Baroque style. Vases at the corners of the first octagon, installed in the 1770s, replaced the lost statues of 1723; Later, the vases were regularly replaced; the current ones are made of concrete. The windows of the octagonal vaults were filled with brick, making the installation of bells impossible.
On the other hand, the original sculptural decorations of this period were practically lost (modern sculpture consists mainly of cement copies).
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The building was used for Masonic meetings; restored as a temple in 1863, when, by order of Metropolitan Philaret, Masonic symbols and sayings were erased from the walls. (According to other sources, in 1821 the Menshikov Tower was assigned to the postal department and was called the Church of the Archangel Gabriel at the Post Office as a summer (unheated) temple).
As a warm one, the smaller neoclassical Church of Theodore Stratelates was built (completed 1806), which is also used as a bell tower.
The book “Moscow with Its Shrines and Sacred Attractions”, published in 1888, stated: “In 1806, a bell tower with a chapel in the name of Theodore Stratilates was added to the Church of the Archangel Gabriel. Currently, only in this chapel is worship performed. The Arkhangelsk Church remains only as a monument to the times of Emperor Peter.”
At the very end of the 19th century, the post office authorities abandoned the maintenance of the church and it became a parish.
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In 1945, His Beatitude Patriarch Alexander III (Takhan) of Antioch was present at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. During his official interview with Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow, it was decided to resume the activities of the Antioch metochion. Two churches were transferred to the courtyard, in the name of the Archangel Gabriel and in the name of the Great Martyr Theodore Stratilates; The opening of the metochion took place on July 17, 1948 at the end of the Meeting of the heads and representatives of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches of the world.
Temple shrines
In the Church of the Archangel Gabriel, there are remarkable icons in the local row of the iconostasis: the Archangel Gabriel in a silver robe and the icon of Our Lady of the Blessed Heaven to the left of the Royal Doors.
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The original iconostasis c. Archangel Gabriel ("Menshikov Tower")
The existing iconostasis was moved from the Church of the Transfiguration in Preobrazhenskoye, which was destroyed in the 1960s; The iconostasis of the Menshikov Tower itself, with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy I, was transferred to the Assumption Church in the city of Makhachkala in 1969.
P. Palamarchuk writes that this iconostasis was transferred to the Assumption Cathedral in Makhachkala in the 1960s. There are photographs of him in a new place, but now there is a different iconostasis: What is the fate of the original iconostasis? Was there a pogrom in the cathedral or was the iconostasis simply dismantled by the “restorers”? Is it preserved or completely destroyed?
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In 1923 the temple was closed. Divine services were resumed in 1947, and currently the temple is open all day, and services are held on Sundays and holidays. The patronal feast - the Council of the Archangel Gabriel - is celebrated on April 9 and July 26 according to the new style.
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Wikipedia material
“The Sukharev Tower is the bride of Ivan the Great, and Menshikova is his sister.”
Until the beginning of the 18th century, on the site of the current Menshikov Tower there was a small church of the Archangel Gabriel, “at the Myasnitsky Gate,” known since the 16th century. Its name can be associated with the second, Christian name of Grand Duke Vasily III, father of Ivan the Terrible - Gabriel.
In 1704, His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Danilovich Menshikov was a parishioner of the church. Returning from one campaign, he brought an ancient icon of the Mother of God that he had bought in Polotsk, according to legend, painted by the Evangelist Luke himself, and wished to build a new temple for it on the site of the old church.
In these places there passes Myasnitskaya Street, which at the end of the 16th century was cut by the fortress wall of the White City, and the Myasnitsky Gate was built at the intersection. The name of the street and the fortress gate comes from the butchers' settlement located outside the city walls.
And inside the city, next to the gates, in 1699, A.D. Menshikov, a friend and ally of Peter I, bought the estate. This was before the founding of the city of St. Petersburg, so Menshikov intended to settle in the Moscow estate for a long time.
The butchers also did not intend to move anywhere and continued to do their job, and the production waste was dumped into a pond located nearby. This pond exuded a bad smell, which is why Muscovites received the dissonant name “Filthy” pond.
And why was it necessary to buy land in such an unfortunate place? The matter was in Myasnitskaya, along which at that time one of the roads to the German Settlement passed, where Peter I often visited and Alexander Danilovich, being a resourceful man, did not fail to take advantage of this. Having bought the estate, Menshikov ordered the cleansing of the Pogany Pond, which has since been called Clean, and even in the plural.
Construction of the Menshikov Tower began in 1704 and ended three years later.
The photo below is not mine, it was taken from one of the windows of the Moscow Post Office.
The construction of the new Temple of the Archangel Gabriel was entrusted to the architect Ivan Zarudny and his subordinate, the European master Domenico Trezzini. True, the latter was sent to St. Petersburg six months later, where eight years later he founded the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The Menshikov Tower is considered the prototype of the cathedral.
By 1707 the temple was structurally completed. Initially, the tower had four tiers and a height of 84.2 meters, which exceeded the height of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the Kremlin by three meters. This caused discontent among native Muscovites, who did not particularly like Alexander Danilovich.
Before the fire of 1723, the tower ended with a high spire, topped with a weather vane in the form of a figure of a soaring angel with a cross in his hand. This is how she is depicted in an engraving by A. Zubov from 1711, depicting the triumphal entry into Moscow after the Battle of Poltava of Peter I with generals, troops and numerous prisoners.
The Menshikov Tower, at first glance, has little in common with previous Russian architecture, but in fact it is its own flesh and blood. Essentially, this is a traditional tower church “like the bells.”
To facilitate the construction, the upper tier was made of wood. In 1708, a clock with chimes, imported from England, was placed on the upper tier of the temple. The chimes struck the hour, half hour and quarter hour, and at noon all fifty tower bells rang and shimmered for half an hour, delighting the ears of the townspeople.
The tower was decorated with an unprecedented abundance of stone sculpture. Garlands of flowers and fruits, vases, cornices - all this gives the tower lightness despite its considerable size. Kostroma and Yaroslavl craftsmen, who have long been famous as skilled stone carvers, worked on decorating the church.
After Menshikov left for St. Petersburg, funding for the temple stopped. It began to quickly deteriorate. Ivan Zarudny warned the prince about the possible consequences of the devastation, but Alexander Danilovich had already lost interest in his brainchild.
In 1723, a great fire occurred in the Temple of the Archangel Gabriel.
On June 14, the day of the funeral service for the priest who died the day before during evening prayer within the walls of the church, a thunderstorm came and lightning struck directly on the cross. The dome of the structure caught fire first. Then the fire engulfed the wooden part, causing the domes attached there to begin to crumble and break the vaults of the church. Many people who tried to remove various valuables from the building engulfed in fire died in this disaster.
The building stood in this form for more than fifty years. Everyone had already forgotten that it was a church, and the dilapidated structure was simply called the Menshikov Tower.
In 1787, Gabriel Izmailov, who lived nearby on Myasnitskaya Street, undertook to restore the church. During the restoration of the church, instead of the upper tier with a 30-meter spire, a rounded dome with a screw spire was made. The temple acquired special features and its current appearance: the dome was designed in the form of a helical candle, the upper octagon was replaced with a baroque dome, the sculptures at the corners of the lower octagon were replaced with vases. In addition, the external and internal walls of the Temple were decorated with Masonic inscriptions, symbols and emblems.
All this greatly changed the appearance of the Tower. The sharpness that the high spire gave it, as if “piercing” the sky, was gone. The tower acquired a rounded shape and “softness”. And this despite the fact that the Tower remained the tallest church in Moscow. After reconstruction, the church became a universal favorite of Muscovites.
The bells did not return to the tower. They put it next to them new church- in the name of Theodore Stratilates. These two temples are related as Baroque and Classicism. The dedication of the church to Saint Theodore is apparently due to the fact that the Moscow postal director bore the name Fedor - Fedor Petrovich Klyucharyov, an actual privy councilor and senator. A prominent figure in Russian Freemasonry, author of mystical and religious poems.
Almost nothing is known about G.Z. Izmailovo. Sources mention that he was from a wealthy family and owned a house located on the site of house 19 on Myasnitskaya Street. That's all. Meanwhile, after reconstruction, the Menshikov Tower should rather be called the Izmailov Tower.
Gabriel Izmailov belonged to the then existing lodge of Masons in Moscow, who called themselves Martinists. In Krivokolenny Lane, not far from the Church of the Archangel Gabriel, about fifty students of the Pedagogical Seminary, organized by the Masons, lived in the house of Professor Schwartz. It was for them that Izmailov restored the Church of the Archangel Gabriel, decorating it inside and out with Masonic symbols and emblems with Latin inscriptions.
For a long time, the authorities looked condescendingly at the existence of Masonic lodges in the country. Catherine II believed that this was just a harmless passion for mystical teachings. Everything changed when the Moscow Masons were caught in a secret connection with the Prussian court, hostile to Russia. From the decrypted secret correspondence it was clear that the “champions of enlightenment” were preparing a coup d’etat. As a result, Novikov and several other masons were arrested and imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress.
However, the secret signs that decorated the walls of the Menshikov Tower existed for several more decades. In 1852, Metropolitan Philaret (1782-1867) suddenly remembered the Masonic signs and Latin inscriptions and ordered them all to be destroyed. They were in no hurry to fulfill the Metropolitan’s demand. The inscriptions and symbols were partially replaced or knocked down only in 1863. What remained was a spire that looked like a candle flame, and vases that replaced the burnt white stone angels. They couldn’t get to them or didn’t want to. Figures remain above the southern entrance, holding scrolls with erased inscriptions.
The numerous sculptural decorations that have come down to us are not just modeling or carving, they are “story sculptures” on evangelical themes, perhaps the first in the Moscow tradition.
In 1792, a post office was located in the building of the estate of Alexander Menshikov, to which the Menshikov Tower was also assigned. Until the end of the nineteenth century, the church was considered departmental and was called the “Temple of the Archangel Gabriel at the Post Office.” Only due to the lack of money from the postal department to maintain the church, it became a parish.
The post office and other buildings blocked the Menshikov Tower so much that now a rare passer-by, not knowing about its existence, being nearby, will guess that in the depths of the block there is a temple, rivaling in height the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin, and once challenging the very bell tower of Ivan the Great.
The temple was closed for worship in the 30s of the twentieth century. In 1945, at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, it was decided to restore the Antioch metochion. This was connected with the arrival of Alexander III, Patriarch of Antioch, at the Council.
Finally, for lovers of mysticism, a few facts. If we look at the map of Moscow as it developed after Peter the Great, when the Petrovskaya Yauza square was added to the round Kremlin Moscow, and put a ruler between its most distant outposts, Luzhnetskaya and Preobrazhenskaya, the center of Moscow will turn out to be the Myasnitsky Gate.
Moreover, the Menshikov Tower was located near the top of Sretensky Hill, the highest hill in Moscow, higher than the Kremlin Hill. Here, near the post office, was then the “zero kilometer”, the beginning of all Russian roads. And at the beginning of World War II, military control was carried out not from the Kremlin, but from the dungeons of the Kirovskaya metro station, now Chistye Prudy.
Gradually we will look at all the farmsteads located in Moscow.
Fais se que dois adviegne que peut.
