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Located at the intersection of Kitaygorodsky Proezd and. The existing building was built in the mid-16th century. It owes its current appearance to the post-war restoration (architect L. A. David).
Story
For the first time, the church “Conception, on the Eastern Corner” was mentioned in the chronicle in connection with the fire of 1493, when the wooden church burned down completely. It was also called the Church of Anna “at the Eastern End”, as it was built in a river tract that jutted out into Vasilyevsky Meadow.
During the fire of 1547, the temple was damaged and then restored. The exact date of the appearance of a stone church on the site of a wooden church is unknown, as A. Batalov notes, the earliest possible start of construction is after the fire of 1547. For the first time, the temple was listed as a stone building in the Census Book of 1626.
A. Savin, CC BY-SA 3.0The southern aisle of the temple is in honor of the Great Martyr Mina of Kotuan (erected in the first quarter of the 17th century, possibly by order of Prince Pozharsky in honor of the liberation of the capital from Polish and Lithuanian invaders). The chapel received the name of the great martyr, on whose memory day, November 11, in 1480, the troops of the Great Horde left the Ufa River.
The northern aisle of the temple is in honor of the Great Martyr Catherine (built in 1658-1668). There is a hypothesis that he appeared in connection with the birth of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich’s daughter named Ekaterina. In 1658-1668, a gallery-porch (gulbische) was built around the temple.
unknown, Public Domain The renovation of the temple took place in 1752 (at the expense of merchant Zamyatina) and in the 19th century. By the middle of the 19th century, chapels of the Nine Martyrs, martyrs Victor and Vincent appeared in the church.
A handwritten collection was kept in the church (it has not survived to this day), which contained a story that Ivan the Terrible, after the fire of 1547, sent a miraculous image of the Mother of God into it.
In St. Basil's Cathedral there is a bell weighing 30 pounds, taken from the bell tower of the Church of the Conception of Anna, dismantled during the restoration of 1954–1957. The bell was cast in France in 1547 and purchased by the merchant M. G. Tverdikov. During the Time of Troubles, the bell was taken out of the church; later redeemed and returned to the temple by Prince Pozharsky.
In the 1920s (according to other sources - in 1929) the temple was closed, but remained under state protection as a historical monument. Then the building housed office and tourist establishments. The decoration of the interior of the temple was irretrievably lost.
In 1947–1948, the structure was examined by the architect A. S. Fufaev, who compiled the results of his research into a graphic reconstruction. Some of the provisions of Fufaev's reconstruction were recognized as erroneous during the restoration of the church in 1954-1957.
In 1994, the temple was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and consecrated the same year.
Currently, due to construction, services are not held in the temple.
Restoration
In 1954-1957, the temple was studied and restored (on-site research and restoration project by L. A. David together with B. L. Altshuller and S. S. Podyapolsky). The purpose of the restoration work was to remove later layers of the monument (starting from the 18th century) and restore the architectural forms of the 16th century. Chapels of St. Minas, St. Catherine and the gulbische, which appeared in the 17th century, were recognized as having “historical and historical-architectural significance”; their creators, according to restorers, achieved “a certain compositional balance and harmony” with the main ancient core of the temple. These later buildings have been preserved.
David noted the discovery and restoration of the original portals, which were considered lost, as a great success of the restoration work. Three perspective portals with keel-shaped endings were returned to the temple - of the type that is “classical for early Moscow architecture.” At the same time, no traces of walkways or stairs were found that should have led to these portals.
The history of the modern Church of Anna’s Conception, in the corner, begins in 1493, when the church of the same name, most likely a wooden one, was mentioned in chronicles when describing the Moscow fire. The church, built in Zaryadye, in a tract called the Sharp End, is located at the intersection of Kitaygorodsky Proezd and Moskvoretskaya Embankment. The toponymy of the area gave the everyday names to the Church of the Conception of Anna - at the Eastern end, at the city wall in the Corner, in Kitai-Gorod on the shore, behind the Salt Row. Later, on the site of the wooden church, a white church was built stone temple on the basement, which was also damaged during the fire of 1547. Renovated after the fire, the temple was repeatedly changed and updated in subsequent years.
In 1617, at the expense of Prince D. Pozharsky, in honor of the liberation of Moscow from the Polish-Lithuanian invaders, the southern aisle of the temple was built in honor of the Great Martyr Mina of Kotuan. The northern aisle of the temple in honor of the Great Martyr Catherine was erected in 1658-1668, probably in connection with the birth of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich’s daughter Catherine. At the same time, a gallery-porch was built around the church. In the 16th-17th centuries there was a belfry at the temple, and in the 18th century a two-tier bell tower appeared near the Church of the Conception of Righteous Anna. The bell from it, weighing 30 pounds (about 500 kg), is now kept in the Intercession Cathedral (on the Moat) on Red Square. The bell, cast in 1547 in France, was purchased and donated to the temple in 1610 by the Moscow merchant M.G. Tverdikov. During the Time of Troubles, the bell was taken out of the church, but was later bought and returned to the church by Prince Pozharsky. One of the oldest churches in Moscow was closed in the 1920s, but as a historical monument it remained under state protection. Later, when it housed Soviet institutions, the original interiors were lost. In 1955-1958. The restoration of the temple was carried out by the architect David L.A., at the same time the bell tower of the 17th century was dismantled.
The temple was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1994 and consecrated in the same year. Restoration work in the temple is currently ongoing.
Over the centuries of its existence, this temple has had many names: the Conception of Righteous Anna at the Eastern End, near the city wall in the Corner, in Kitay-Gorod on the shore, behind the Salt Row.
The Church of the Conception of Righteous Anna, in the Corner, is one of the oldest in Moscow. The first mention of it dates back to 1493. But then, during the reign of Ivan III Vasilyevich, it was apparently made of wood.
The Church of the Conception of Anna at the Eastern End was built immediately after the panic associated with the expectation of the end of the world. According to Christian chronology, in 1492 the seventh thousand years from the biblical Creation of the world began (5508 years before the birth of Christ plus 1492 years after the birth of Christ equals 7000 years). In Orthodox Easter, the calculation of the celebration of Easter, the Resurrection of Christ, was extended only to 1491, and in relation to the fateful year 1492, postscripts were made: “woe, woe to those who have reached the end of the ages.” The end of the world was awaited with fear and trembling; it seemed inevitable; the exact date was even announced - on the night of March 25, 1492. In this situation of complete doom and hopelessness, by order of Ivan III Vasilyevich, the Church of the Conception of Righteous Anna was erected at the end of the main Velikaya Street of the ancient settlement. In 1493, when the church was first mentioned in documents, Ivan III Vasilyevich took the title “Sovereign of All Rus'”.
At the beginning of the 16th century, a white stone temple was built on the basement. But he suffered from terrible fire 1547. That year, in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, Ivan IV Vasilyevich was crowned king with the Monomakh cap, barmas and cross. Following this, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich married Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yuryeva. And then, on a hot June day, a few days after a large bell fell from the bell tower of the Annunciation Cathedral, the church on Arbat caught fire. An hour later the whole Neglinka was already burning. Then the wind blew towards the Kremlin. The roofs of the Kremlin cathedrals caught fire. The treasury, the Armory, and the royal stable were destroyed in the fire. The Annunciation Cathedral, whose frescoes were painted by Andrei Rublev, burned down. Explosions of gunpowder reserves destroyed part of the Kremlin walls and towers. 25 thousand households burned down. About two thousand residents died in the fire. Before Moscow had time to recover from the consequences of the fire, such a strong hailstorm passed through that the chronicler considered it necessary to note it in the chronicle. The hail was “strong and large, as big as a forest apple,” and the hailstones were of different shapes: “round and faceted.” After all these natural disasters, Ivan IV Vasilyevich ordered the city to begin to be rebuilt, including the renovation of the Church of the Conception of Righteous Anna. By this time, after the construction of the fortifications of Kitai-Gorod, by order of Ivan Vasilyevich’s mother Elena Glinskaya, the church had already received its now familiar name - “what’s in the Corner”, since it was between the eastern and southern walls. This location is reflected in its name.
Historians cannot accurately determine the architect of the stone church. It is generally accepted that the proportions of volumes and the nature of the profiles are reminiscent of some of the buildings of Aleviz Novy. The ancient core of the temple is a cubic volume with a semicircular apse on a vaulted basement somewhat buried in the ground. The pillarless quadrangle is covered with a cross vault and crowned with a slender drum with semi-circular kokoshniks at the base and elegant arcature. The windows of the originally blank drum were cut out later. The basement of the main church and its walls up to the base of the vault are white stone, the top of the church is made of small bricks. The facades, which retain perspective portals on three sides, are dissected by blades and completed with three-blade zakomaras. The planes of the walls are enlivened by framed platbands and wide keel-shaped perspective portals in the center of each of the three walls. The top of the walls is surrounded by a running belt. Two single-domed aisles with rectangular apses, similar in composition, and a two-tier arcade-gallery from the west, added in the 17th century, form a compact, plastic silhouette. The southern chapel of the Holy Great Martyr Mina was built at the expense of Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky in 1617. A small, brick aisle with a rectangular apse in plan is covered with a cross vault. In the architectural heritage of Moscow, this is one of the last vaults of this type. A head on a blind drum rises above the hipped roof. There is a version that the chapel existed in the wooden church and was founded in memory of the liberation of Rus' from the Golden Horde yoke - on November 11, 1480, on the day of St. Mina, the Mongol-Tatars withdrew and left the Ugra River. And Pozharsky, in fact, restored the chapel in stone.
The name of Prince Pozharsky is associated with the story of the unique bell of the temple. The bell was cast in 1547 in France, and in 1610 it was purchased and donated to the temple by the Moscow merchant Ivan Grigorievich Tverdikov. At the same time, the first inscription was engraved on the bell: “This bell was given to the house of the Most Pure Mother of God of Her honorable and glorious Conception, which is in the city of China, Ivan Grigoriev, the son of Tverdikov, after his parents...”. During the Polish-Lithuanian occupation of Moscow, the bell was stolen by “Russian thieves.” In 1617, having learned that a bell stolen from a church was being sold, Dmitry Mikhailovich bought it and returned it to the Conception Church. Then a second inscription appeared on the bell. Again, with a request to remember the parents.
The Church of the Conception of St. Anne in the Corner with three chapels of the Great Martyr Catherine, the Martyr Mina and the 9 Martyrs, walls, iconostases, icons that were robbed are intact. The rafters above two chapels were burned, the richest church utensils were all stolen, but the mediocre and dilapidated ones remained.
VMC chapel. Catherine's Church has been consecrated and services continue there. There are 8 parish courtyards, which, although they were all burned out, 6 have already been repaired.
Priest Alexander Vasiliev, deacon Vasily Mikhailov in the sexton position, sexton Ivan Andreev. The priests and church ministers lived in a stone church house, which burned down.
Skvortsov N.A. "Materials for the history of churches of the Moscow diocese during the war of 1812." Issue 1. Moscow, “Russian Printing House”. Sadovo-Triumfalnaya, 1911
The Church of Anna the Righteous Conception is located in Zaryadye, in Krivoy Lane, in the corner formed by the connection of the eastern and southern parts of the China Town Wall. It is usually called “Conception in the Corner” and was first mentioned in 1493.
Judging by the external decorations, the current main church built after the Archangel Cathedral (1508) and after the Church of John the Baptist on Bor (1509), built of white stone, has cross vaults. At the end of the 16th century. the church of the torment was built from the south. Minas, also with cross vaults, but in a somewhat simplified form. Around the beginning of the 17th century. The chapel of the Nine Martyrs was added from the southwest, now abolished and used to store church things.
On the occasion of the birth of his daughter Catherine in 1658, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich built a chapel to the north of the VMC. Catherine. In 1752 the church was renovated and the current bell tower was built.
In former times, the church was very revered by the residents of Moscow. The concerns of Tsars Ivan the Terrible and Mikhail Fedorovich about the splendor of this temple are known. Monuments of icon painting and foundry art from different centuries have been preserved here. On the bell tower there is a bell, donated, according to legend, by Prince D. M. Pozharsky. The crosses on the heads of the chapels are ancient, of a form that fell out of use already from the middle of the 16th century.
"Index of churches and chapels in Kitay-Gorod." Moscow, “Russian Printing House”, Bolshaya Sadovaya, No. 14, 1916
On December 22, the Holy Church honors the feast of the Saint’s Conception. righteous.Anna, when the Most Holy Theotokos was conceived. This quiet, intimate holiday gives the Church the beginning of lasting Joy - the Virgin is conceived, destined to become the Mother of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Today is a special day for the Conception Monastery - the patronal feast of the entire monastery. Today two Divine Liturgies were celebrated in the monastery. The early Liturgy was served in the Church of the Conception of St. Anne, built in 1997 in the New Refectory Building. In this temple, the souls of pilgrims are filled with peace and hope from an attentive glance at the paintings of the vaults and walls, telling about the wonderful life of the holy righteous godfathers Joachim and Anna and Holy Virgin- Mother of God Mary. Special Shrines temple icon Saint Righteous Anna - an exact list of the miraculous icon from the monastery of St. right Anna of Holy Mount Athos and ancient monastery icon Holy Mother of God"Irrigated Fleece". The late service in the recreated Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary was led by His Eminence Valentin, co-served by the monastery clergy. The abbess of the stauropegial monasteries came to share the joy of the patronal feast of the monastery - Abbess Victorina, abbess of the Nativity of the Mother of God Monastery and Abbess Maria, abbess of the Boriso-Gleb Monastery in Anosino. During the festive services, particles of the relics of the righteous saints Joachim and Anna were brought out for veneration. The tender joy of the Feast of the Conception of St. Anna of the Blessed Virgin Mary filled the hearts of all those praying, revealing the mysterious meaning of the conception of the inner, new man by the all-fulfilling grace of Christ in souls clean from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. After the Divine Liturgy, a short prayer of thanks was served to the holy righteous Fathers Joachim and Anna, and then the Patriarchal Jubilee Medal was awarded in honor of the 100th anniversary of the restoration of the Patriarchate to the venerable worker of the Conception Monastery, Valery Nikolaevich Smirnov. Mother Abbess greeted the Most Reverend Bishop with warm words of gratitude and prayerful wishes and presented a memorable gift - a written image of the Conception of St. Anne and a bouquet of flowers. Mother noted the extreme importance of today for the monastery, since exactly 25 years ago Mother Abbess with the first sisters, then still members of the Sisterhood in honor of the Merciful Icon of the Mother of God at the Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah in Obydensky Lane, entered the walls of the monastery to stay here for all life. The revival of the monastery began in 1991. In the fall of 1992, the sisters were provided with premises in the Northern building of the cells, and on December 22, the day of the main monastery holiday - the Conception of the Holy Righteous Anna, they moved into the shelter of the monastery. The housewarming day was marked by the first bishop's religious procession. It was headed by His Grace Bishop Arseniy of Istra (now Metropolitan).
His Eminence Bishop Valentin addressed Mother Abbess and the clergy with heartfelt gratitude. To the sisters of the monastery and all those praying, he conveyed blessings and congratulations on the holiday from His Holiness the Patriarch and prayerfully wished the monastery spiritual prosperity for the salvation of the souls of the nuns and all those who flow under the holy protection of the monastery.
Holy righteous Godfathers Joachim and Anno, pray to God for us!
Zachatievsky convent was founded in 1360 by Saint Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow for his sisters - the Venerable Juliania and Eupraxia. Initially, it bore the name Alekseevsky after the temple, consecrated in honor of the heavenly patron of the Metropolitan - St. Alexy, the man of God. The Conception Monastery began to be called later, when, by the command and support of Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich (father of Ioanni the Terrible), who wanted to ask God for an heir, a stone church with a throne was built in honor of the Conception of the Holy Righteous Anna. The Grand Duke invited a skilled architect, Aleviz Fryazin, to create the temple. In 1584, the pious Tsar Theodore Ioannovich, also in a prayer for the gift of a child by vow, restored the monastery, completely destroyed by the Great Moscow Fire of 1547, and again built the cathedral church of the Conception of St. Righteous Anna with chapels and the refectory Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, under the abbess Dorimedonte (Protopopova) and with the support of Metropolitan Platon (Levshin) of Moscow, a new majestic cathedral church was erected in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a chapel of the Conception of St. Righteous Anna in the choir. At all times, spouses came to the monastery - both simple peasants and noble nobles - to pray for the gift of children. Pious Russian rulers also had the custom of donating rich gifts to the monastery, asking for prayers for the birth of an heir. Since the 18th century, the monastery has miraculous icon Mother of God “Merciful”, revered for the sake of healing and resolution of family sorrows, as well as many cases of grace-filled help in case of childlessness. Since then, even more pilgrims began to resort to the monastery shrines with prayer for the gift of children, and by faith and the grace of God they received what they asked for.
In the 20th century, the Conception Monastery shared the fate of the persecutions brought against the Church: in 1925, the monastery was closed, the nuns were expelled, the churches were destroyed or rebuilt. The main shrine, the “Merciful” icon of the Mother of God, was moved to the neighboring church of the holy prophet of God Elijah. It was possible to preserve some other ancient icons, among them the monastery icon of the Conception of the holy righteous Anna, now located in the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the chapel consecrated in honor of the righteous saints Joachim and Anna.
The revival of the monastery began in 1992, and on December 22, on the day of the main holiday of the monastery - the Conception of the Holy Righteous Anna, the first religious procession was held.
In 1997, the Church of the Conception of St. Righteous Anna was built and consecrated in the New Refectory Building.
In 2010, the Great Consecration of the recreated monastery Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary took place, in which one of the chapels is dedicated to the Holy Fathers Joachim and Anna. In the cathedral there is a particle of the holy relics of Righteous Anna. On Saturdays at 12 o'clock a prayer service is held to the righteous saints Joachim and Anna for the gift of children to barren spouses. During the day in the cathedral church you can pray and order a prayer service for the gift of a child. In the monastery there are also revered icons of the Mother of God “Helper in Childbirth”, “Mammal”, and an Athonite copy of the icon of the holy righteous Anna with the Mother of God in her arms. Many spouses, through prayers to the Mother of God, the righteous Joachim and Anna and the founders of the monastery, the Venerable Juliania and Eupraxia, were released from the bonds of infertility and gave birth to long-awaited children.
In Zaryadye everyone immediately runs to the floating bridge, under the “glass crust” and to the “Flight over Moscow” attraction. But there is another amazing Zaryadye - with historical museums, ancient temples and miracles.
After the fence around the park was removed, direct access to the Patriarchal Compound opened along neighboring Varvarka and partly Moskvoretskaya embankment. At every step there are historical and architectural monuments, churches and museums of Zaryadye Park. This is the Old English Court, five ancient churches, the chambers of the Romanov boyars, the bell tower and the Brotherhood of the Znamensky Monastery. They all ended up in a new park. Now, instead of endless selfies on the floating bridge, you can see museum rarities and touch shrines. Besides, in cold weather you can’t really walk along the paths among the lawns. Let's take a look into the past and present of Moscow.
TEMPLES OF ZARYADYE PARK: THE FIRST FOOL LIVED ON VARVARKA
The Church of Varvara the Great Martyr (Varvarka St., 2) was built in the eighteenth century according to the design of the architect Rodion Kazakov. During the Patriotic War of 1812, French soldiers plundered the church and set up a stable in it. But the building itself survived, the iconostasis and some icons were preserved. The most revered among them is the icon of St. Barbara with a particle of her relics.
The Church of St. Maxim the Blessed on Varvarka (Varvarka St., 4) has been rebuilt several times since the seventeenth century. He was named after the predecessor of St. Basil the Blessed, the first famous Moscow holy fool, Maxim. In the fifteenth century he lived in this place and was buried here. Many received healing at his grave. In 1926, the young monk Platon, the future Patriarch Pimen, served as regent of the church. Inside, on the walls of the church and refectory, fragments of paintings from the 18th - 19th centuries with the image of Alexander Nevsky and two white stone mortgage boards have been preserved.
What else
In the courtyard of the temple on the side of the park there is a souvenir shop “Zaryadye” with Pavloposad scarves and stoles (from 940 rubles), icons (from 100 rubles), various goods from the monastery workshops (from 500 - 1000 rubles). And nearby you can have a snack in a church tent with food prepared in the refectory at the temple. The menu includes hot pies with apple, cabbage, ham and cheese, cheesecake with cottage cheese (40 - 50 rubles), tea and coffee (20 - 50 rubles), fragrant gingerbread cookies (150 rubles per 0.5 kg), bottle water 0.5 l (50 rub.). Open from 11.00 until the very last pie.
NAGAN FIRE INTO ICONS
The Church of St. George the Victorious on Pskov Mountain (Varvarka St., 12) appeared in the mid-seventeenth century. In the 60s of the last century there was an exhibition hall there. When services began to be held here again, the relatives of the last rector of the temple returned here the ancient temple icon of St. George that he had saved. Now here you can see not only a shrine with a particle of the relics of St. George the Victorious, but also several more icons with the relics of various saints. Among the most famous in the temple is the shot icon of the Mother of God “Kazan”. The image was pierced by 13 bullets from a revolver during the revolution. The surviving icon was shown at exhibitions in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, at exhibitions in Washington and Vienna.
The main temple of the Patriarchal Metochion in Zaryadye became the Znamensky Cathedral (Varvarka St., 8) - a five-domed building made of red brick. It was erected in 1679 - 1682 by architects Fyodor Grigoriev and Grigory Anisimov. The church gave its name to the Znamensky Monastery, founded in Zaryadye in the domain of the Romanov boyars by the first Russian Tsar from this dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich. The monastery was closed in the 20s of the last century. In addition to the cathedral, you can now see the eighteenth-century bell tower and the Brethren building of the monastery. Inside the Znamensky Cathedral, in the walls behind slabs with inscriptions, there are burials of church ministers and military personnel. Among the icons is the image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with a particle of relics.
Closer to the Moskvoretskaya embankment, between the “glass bark” and the floating bridge, there is the Church of the Conception of Righteous Anna, in the Corner. It was built in the sixteenth century. Ivan the Terrible presented the church with a miraculous image of the Mother of God. This temple was revered by the Romanov dynasty. It is now closed for reconstruction.
ATTENTION!
In the Patriarchal Compound all churches are open from 8.00 to 19.00. Divine services and rituals are held there, and parishioners constantly come to pray. Therefore, you should not disturb their established way of life, make noise, click a camera, or chew something. When dressing, try to adhere to Orthodox canons. For women - a scarf and a skirt below the knee; it is advisable to do without bright makeup. If necessary, you may be given a temporary scarf and skirt at the entrance. Or you can buy new ones here for an average of 50 – 100 rubles. Men must remove their hats upon entry. If you want to pray, light a candle, give a note about health or repose, then the temple workers will always tell you what and how to do. Notes about prayers in the Kremlin cathedrals are also accepted here.
MUSEUMS OF ZARYADYE PARK: BOYARS, WE HAVE COME TO YOU!
On both sides the Znamensky Cathedral is “propped up” by museum buildings. Nearby is the museum “Chambers of the Romanov Boyars” - a branch Historical Museum(Varvarka St., 10). Now this gingerbread house, which was the family nest of the very first representatives of the royal family, remains the only museum in Russia with authentic items of boyar life and buildings. You can only get here with a guided tour at certain hours. The 1.5 hour walk begins in the courtyard of the ancient chambers with the first underground museum in Moscow. You enter it through a small door in the street wall and along a slightly cramped rounded staircase. You feel like you’re in a secret room from the times of Ivan the Terrible. Underground, the guide will show you a recreated kitchen - an ancient kitchen where the boyars prepared food. And hidden in the wall under transparent glass is an archaeological excavation with fragments of ancient buildings - you immediately feel that you are in fifteenth-century Moscow.
One of the oldest churches built in Moscow, which has survived to this day, in the name of the Conception of Righteous Anna, “that in the Corner” is now the only one in the Mother See consecrated in honor of this holiday.
Its name is due to the fact that after the construction of the Kitay-Gorod fortress wall here, behind the Kremlin (the surviving section of which is now located in Kitay-Gorod Passage), the ancient townsman church ended up in the corner between the eastern and southern sides of the wall.
One pre-revolutionary Moscow expert wrote that in order to preserve the revered church, medieval masters had to push the wall here with a projection 4 fathoms forward.
And now this church is located on the corner formed by Kitay-gorodsky passage and Moskvoretskaya embankment - a miraculously surviving monument of the old Moscow Zaryadye.
It is not known exactly when the temple first appeared here. It is certain that this happened in the 15th century, long before the construction of the China Town Wall. Some pre-revolutionary historians considered it to be the oldest, almost after the Kremlin Church of the Savior on Bor. Sometimes the foundation of this church is attributed to the reign of Grand Duke Vasily II the Dark and to his wife Maria Yaroslavovna, who personally ordered the construction of the Conception Church here.
And it was he who burned down in the notorious Moscow fire of 1493, when Moscow caught fire from a penny candle in the Arbat Church of St. Nicholas on the Sands. Spreading quickly, the flames engulfed Zaryadye all the way to the Church of All Saints on Kulishki. At the same time, in the chronicle narrative about this fire, the Conception Church was mentioned for the first time in Moscow history. Later, in another place, it is said that the church caught fire from “heavenly fire” - apparently referring to a lightning strike during a thunderstorm.
And it is believed that the temple was actually founded shortly before this fire, because it was mentioned nowhere before - and fires in Moscow were a very common occurrence.
In the old days, before the construction of the Kitay-Gorod wall, the Posad Conception Church was also called “at the Eastern End” due to the peculiarities of the local landscape, because it was built in a tract (area) near the river, with an angle or “end jutting out into Vasilyevsky Meadow.
The early founding of the church is indicated by its chapel in the name of St. Great Martyr Mina. On the day of memory of this saint - November 11 according to the old style and November 24 according to the new style in 1480, the famous flight of Khan Akhmet from the Ugra River and the fall of the Mongol-Tatar yoke in Rus' took place. On the same day the memory of St. Theodore of Studite, and as we already wrote, in his honor and in commemoration of the salvation of Russia, first a chapel was founded at the Nikitsky Gate, and then the Studite Church.
And in the newly built Conception Church, in honor of this happy day in Russian history, a wooden chapel was founded and in honor of St. Great Martyr Mina.
The white-stone Conception Church, rebuilt after the fire of 1493, burned down again in 1547, but partially and was immediately restored by order of Ivan the Terrible. And then with reverence they transferred into it the miraculous image of the Mother of God, called “Hodegetria,” from the nearby chambers of the clerk Tretyak Teplov that were nearby and burned in that fire: his house burned down, but the icon itself, as well as the chambers where this image was located, did not burn damaged. At first, the tsar took this image to his Kremlin, but when the Conception Church was restored, he transferred it to this temple.
By this time, the second quarter of the 16th century, the construction of the current building of the Conception Church, built on the site of the previous one, is officially attributed - this date was determined during its Soviet restoration.
Previously, next to the church there was still its bell tower, built in ancient style, the same type as the bell tower of the oldest Moscow church of St. Tryphon in Naprudny - which is also evidence of the early time of its construction.
In this bell tower there was a foreign bell, possibly a captive that came here from Europe in 1566, during the iconoclastic persecutions in the Netherlands.
However, there is also a legend that this bell, called the Amsterdam bell, was donated to the Conception Church by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky himself to commemorate his parents.
It is reliably known that the prince actually participated in the construction of this church and restored the chapel of St. Mines - this time in honor of the deliverance of Moscow and all of Russia from the Polish-Lithuanian invaders in 1612..
And in the middle of the 17th century, in 1658-1668. By order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a northern aisle was built in the Conception Church in the name of St. Great Martyr Catherine - in honor of the birth of his daughter.
The first Romanovs were generally very fond of this ancient Chinese city church. Both Mikhail Fedorovich and Alexey Mikhailovich often splendidly updated it and came here on church holidays to listen to mass. And then the Patriarch himself sent the clergy to Kitay-Gorod for worship at the Conception Church. And its clergy were on the sovereign's cash and food, "bread" allowance.
The church was closed during Soviet times, the bell tower was demolished, but the building itself was under state protection as a historical monument. It acquired its modern appearance during restoration in 1955-1958, carried out under the leadership of architect L.A. David.
