[Евгений]

One of the "most Moscow churches, has become the pearl of Moscow baroque and the supreme example of this architectural style, had a very sophisticated device. On the first floor of the lower church was consecrated in the name of St. Peter's Chapel of Moscow with the Nativity of John the Baptist, to name day hramozdatelya Ivan Sverchkova. In 1699 built the top, actually Assumption Church. This church was composed of 13 chapters, symbolizing the Lord Jesus Christ and His 12 apostles. The magnificent bell tower, which was connected with the church porch was so magnificent that it could be taken for an independent hip church, "who under the bells". The game was a brilliant white-foamed, snow lace decor with flaming fiery-red temple. Contemporaries Assumption Church appeared as composed of churches community by flying into the heavens, yet graceful, like an architectural poem. This miracle has been carved on the portal symbolic inscription "work of man.

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remained an ordinary parish church, but at the same time honor "house" for the merchant Ivan Sverchkova: Second steps of the temple with the main staircase led into the garden surrounding the house Sverchkova, and thus the landlord has its own separate entrance. The church was very high ladder and high promenade - open floor gallery at the entrance to the temple. Each prayer went up the stairs to the promenade and, before crossing the threshold of the temple of God, surveyed revealed from this height the panorama: both created a sense of ascension, cut off from the land which leads to a prayerful mood. To elevate the human soul and mind of this world, letting it to heaven - and what's called bizarre, unearthly beauty of the Assumption Church, symbolizing the beauty of God's creation. Academician Likhachev said that it had to see it surrounded by "low everyday buildings.

Moreover, according to scientists this gigantic church marked the one of the seven sacred hills of Moscow, just as the bell tower of Ivan the Great was crowned chief - Borovitckii hill. Quite close to the Kremlin, Assumption Church almost immediately after construction, in the first half of XVIII century, was among the other determined to be heard cathedral bells ringing. Then there were more patriarchal order: urban churches did not begin before the cathedral bells ringing, to the ringing of bells was not jumble and neblagochestiya. In Moscow, the cathedral bells were in the Assumption Belfry in Kremlin with the bell tower of Ivan the Great, and the bells should not start before or later than the ring Kremlin belfry. (In the case of the patronal feast of the temple of his clergy should receive the blessing of Metropolitan of the early church bells with a record of the order of church affairs.) In order to better compliance with this rule, as many churches in Moscow were remote from the Kremlin and have not heard cathedral bells, created a kind of ecclesiastical "Telegraph." Was told to "listen to the sound" in certain designated to the central church, which heard the bells of the Kremlin and began to ring with him, and they have already started ringing to call the rest of the church. Along with the Sretensky monastery and church of St. Nicholas phenomena on the Arbat in a long list of "blagovestnyh" Churches in Moscow and got Assumption Church on the Pokrovka. The responsibility was enormous, and the blunder of the priests who had missed the cathedral bells, not only fined, but also deprived of dignity.

Church stunned his contemporaries and successors, becoming a brilliant result of the development of Russian architecture, and the forerunner of future architectural eras. She soon became a mysterious parallel with the temple of the Intercession on the Moat, which is Red Square, which will run until the end of her days - too much in common, was echoed in the legends of these churches, starting with the fact that they both were named the eighth wonder of the world. After all, only very rare, unique, if not the only church could be compared with St. Basil's Cathedral. In one series with Assumption Church was originally set Vasily Bazhenov, who considered her not only one of the most beautiful buildings in Moscow, but also a creation of "bright national. Architect and compared it with zamoskvorechenskim temple Clement of Rome, saying that she was even "more affluent tastes deceive, because sozizhdena on a single good pleasure of the builder," that is a holistic architectural creations, like a sculpture carved from a single block of marble.

Assumption Church in awe and foreigners who visited Moscow. For the architect Rastrelli, the greatest master of Baroque, it was the entire creative inspiration: it is her he took as a model for its Smolny Cathedral in St. Petersburg, "the most Russian" from all works of Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the expression of IE Grabar. I remember a figure of speech and the writer Vadim Kojinova that the Paris-born architect Rastrelli was born in Moscow. And it was not the only example of St. Petersburg Moscow imitation pearl. In the northern capital, there is another temple, created by way of explanation of the Assumption Church - a Resurrection in the Smolensk cemetery where the funeral of Alexander Blok.

Even Napoleon was appalled at this church and, according to legend, put a special guard to protect it from fire and looters. However, another legend states that he ordered to take it apart brick by brick, and moved to Paris. It is easy to see here yet another parallel with the temple of the Protection of the moat: it is precisely his Napoleon supposedly wanted to move to Paris and ordered to blow it, when this idea is technically not a success. There are a legend, though Napoleon's Marshal (probably Mortier, which took home the Countess Razumovskaya early Maroseyka), seeing the church, he exclaimed: "Oh! Russian Notre Dame! "Another tradition ascribes this grandiloquent exclamation Napoleon himself. Anyway, the temple of the fire of 1812 is truly a miracle was not injured. But was this the merit of Napoleon? After all, there is evidence and it is quite plausible that in reality the church saved from the fire is not the mythical guard and Tyutchevs serfs, who lived nearby; father's house, a poet and now stands at Armenian Street.

It was lovely and the Moscow Church of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. His wife recalled that, visiting Moscow, he took her, "radical peterburzhku", look at this church because of its highly valued architecture. And visiting the Moscow one, Dostoevsky always rode on Pokrovka pray in the Church of Assumption and admire her. He previously stopped the cab and walked to her foot, the route to consider the church in all its glory. And he visited in these parts and because Starosadsky Lane lived his favorite aunt and godmother, A. Kumanin, which he often visited. Relations with Moscow in Dostoevsky were deep and personal: the greatest genius of Russia was born in it, absorbed here "Russian soul" and hence bore the church and national origin in their works. Moscow for him was a city of churches and church bells. And Assumption Church was true, the national symbol of Moscow.

And the parishioners at the church were wonderful. Features of the parish decided, first, its central location, and, secondly, the changing nature of Pokrovka, where she became known to settle, the rich, the manufacturers. The first of its parishioners have Acris, household hramozdatelya Sverchkova Ivan, who was himself with family members died in the lower church. Their house - magnificent white-stone house - and now is in the eponymous street (house number 8). When Chambers Sverchkov founded another charitable institution - hospice.

Soon after the construction of the Assumption Church, in 1705, the owner of Cricket chambers and a new parishioner of this church was treasurer ID Diamonds - steward of Queen Praskovya Feodorovna, wife of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich. It is believed that the Chamber officially remained in his possession until 1765, has not yet moved to a new owner - privy councilor AG Zherebtsov. But in Moscow, went to a legend, though in the basements of houses languishing in prison himself Vanka Kain, a robber and a detective (or rather, donositel) in one person. A famous thief, Ivan Osipov Cain, long plundered on the Volga, suddenly at the end of 1741 he came to Moscow in order to detective, and joined the donositeli then gave the whole adventure by sheltering the large catching thieves and small, opening the underground gambling houses, and encouraging looting. "Farmed out" he was a big part of the Moscow police, and they did not touch. Only when the outrage reached the limit and Muscovites have preferred to spend the night in a field, just would not stay in their homes, from St. Petersburg came from the military command of General Ushakov, who in 1749 established an independent commission in the case of Cain. Robber was soon arrested and in 1755 exiled to hard labor in Siberia. Only in this interval Cain and could be contained in the former house of Cricket.

But if the story of a captive Vanka Cain - the legend, the glorious annals of architecture of Moscow, these phenomena from the walls - a reliable fact. In 1779, the Chamber have been sold to the Stone Office, and there established a school of draughtsmen, where he taught Bazhenov and Legrand, and where did the details for a huge wooden model of the Great Kremlin Palace, which the carts were taken to St. Petersburg to the approval of the Empress. And since 1813 in Cricket Chambers worked for the Commission's famous buildings, created by order of Alexander I, in order to restore Moscow after Napoleon's fire. And not just rebuild on the ashes and rebuild in the same historical and architectural style, to prevent the mass of elemental building and keep the face of the city. Chairman of the commission appointed himself mayor Fedor Rostopchin, and members have become Bove, VPStasov, DI Gilardi, A. Grigoriev. The first task set to revive the injured from the explosion Kremlin, as a matter of honor, then the commission has developed exemplary types of buildings and facades, "appropriate to copy, and published them in special albums. Every new house being built in Moscow, was built strictly according to the standard approved by the Commission of the model, thereby create a single style of urban sprawl. The only difference was the status of homeowners: for every social category has been developed its model type. Thus was the famous Moscow Empire miniature mansion, and a typical Moscow house with a mezzanine, and a richer tenants - with the "inevitable" alabaster lions. The Commission worked Cricket wards to 1843, then they became privately owned, and the next interesting page of history was still to come.

At Church of the Assumption were other, more famous parishioners. The first among them should be called famous Pashkov, who lived in Pokrovka - places whose relatives had a magnificent castle on the moss. Their ancestor, a native of Poland, Gregory Pashkevich arrived in Russia in the service of Ivan the Terrible, and since then their name was listed as Pashkova. One of them, languor Pashkov, Tula was a member of the gentry militia in the rebel army, Ivan Bolotnikov and then went over to the king of Basil Shuisky. Another Pashkov, Yegor Ivanovich, was orderly Peter the Great, and his son, PE Pashkov legendary palace built for Moss, known as the home Pashkova.


Owning the same manor in Pokrovka, Alexander Ilyich and Daria Ivanovna Pashkov, belonged to another famous Pashkov House, too, standing on the moss: the very end of the XVIII century Vasily Bazhenov built their homestead with the theatrical wing for balls and Pashkovsky theater, which was very prestigious - to have own home theater. Then, when in 1806 the wing have leased Moscow Imperial Theater, on its stage debut Shchepkin and Mochalov. One of the most luxurious in Moscow, this estate with a wing in 1832, was purchased for the Moscow University. In the main house is located Classroom building (now the Department of Journalism), and in the wing architect Evgraf Tyurin gave houses university Tatyaninsk church.

Main possession of these Pashkov located on Pokrovka in the Big Assumption Lane (in the courtyard of the house number 7). In 1811 was born here Evdokia Petrovna Rostopchina, the future poet and daughter-governor Earl FA Rostopchina, who married his youngest son Andrew. In this house have been Pashkov and Pushkin: Carnival in 1831 full of happiness, he came here with his young wife to ride in a sleigh on the festivities, hosted by the masters of the house. And after only nine years later, in 1840, a vast fortune Pashkov was lost at cards. Villas at the Bolshoi Assumption Treasury bought for Pharmacies, warehouses for the storage of drugs, and under the office. At one time this medical institution supervised incorruptible Dr Haas, who was able not only to protect valuable medical supplies from mice and rats (formally instituted regular cats ...), but to stop theft of drugs, after which he appeared quite a few enemies before they withdraw stolen in mice.

In Pashkova, eminent parishioners of Assumption Church were Prince Shcherbdtov who owned the estate in Cricket Lane, house number 4. Prince Osip Ivanovich accounted YANKOVA great-grandfather of Elizabeth, who left the most prominent memories of the old aristocratic Moscow - "Grandmother Stories", recorded her grandson D. Blagovo. The spirit of Moscow's architecture as a particularly hovers over these places: at the beginning of the XIX century of ownership bought Dobroselov Kazakov, Matvey Kazakov's daughter, who married his middle son, Matthew Matveye, also an architect.

Do not fall behind and trade. In 1890 the parishioners of Assumption Church became brothers Eliseevs, the future founders of the Moscow grocery in Tver, who settled in the house number 10 in Cricket Lane. The principal is a local Orthodox merchants were the kings of chocolate Abrikosov, established in Moscow of its oldest and largest domestic confectionery company (now the concern Babayevsky) - their family business in the most blessed an icon of its source Abbot Novospassky monastery. The head of the firm Alexei Ivanovich Abrikosov, grandsons came to its founder, was not only zealous parishioner, but also a caring elder Assumption Church for many years. Since 1865, he lived with a very large family in those same former Cricket houses sold Abrikosov their former owners. And later bought the house next door, and number 5, writing his wife, Agrippina Alexandrovna, which, incidentally, being the mother of 22 children, based on Miussah Maternity Hospital, now once again bearing her name.

Apricot called kings and Russian advertising, they have something to learn from our contemporaries. For example, in its original packaging, in box and casket, they put tiny little books of Russian writers - Pushkin, Krylov. And the sweets they had an extremely high quality. Confectioner Abrikosov, grasp the truth that Moscow - a capital of tea, tea table Muscovites provided a wide range of fare: from brand candy, jams and candies (those "crows feet" and "Cervical Cancer") to the very elegant dessert - fresh berries, glazed chocolate. In 1900, another chapter in life, the firm won the highest in Russia, commercial title "Supplier of the court of His Imperial Majesty." This meant that his product really was fed to the table, the emperor and to diplomatic receptions at the court. Suppliers have the right to place on its proprietary labels, signs and posters advertising the National Emblem and the signature of the rank - it was not only the highest "quality mark" in pre-revolutionary Russia, but the highest form of advertising.

Another equally famous parishioners of Assumption Church were Botkin tea merchant, also successfully comprehended "true tea" in Moscow - their family home was in Petroverigsky street, house number 4. The company, founded by merchant Peter Kononovich Botkin, even in Catherine's time, was the most famous supplier of Chinese tea, especially beloved in old Moscow. In the middle of the XIX century Botkin, among the first to deliver outlandish Indian and Ceylon tea, which had just mastered on their plantations by the British. Chaetorgovlya was primarily familial case Botkins, but because of their kind have occurred and patrons, and artists, and doctors. One of the sons of the company's founder was the famous Sergei Petrovich Botkin, whose name is now famous Moscow hospital. For many years he has successfully treated a patient in St. Petersburg Saltykov-Shchedrin and extended his life. And his son, Eugene S. Botkin, the latest Russian Life medic, to the end remained faithful to the Tsar Nicholas II and with it died as a martyr in the Ipatiev house.

Another well-known tea merchant's son, Peter Petrovich Botkin, taken after the death of his father's main family business, as was his Assumption church in Pokrovka, while the Kremlin's Archangel Cathedral elder, and later the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. He was very devout, and unusual, though a born merchant, spent whole days sitting in Gostiny yard, where he had a very serious trading. This devout merchant did not wear a mustache and beard, which was a rarity among the Orthodox merchants. One of his daughters - Hope was married to a famous painter Ilya Ostroukhova (in whose house in Trubnikovsky Lane was arranged review of projects of the monument to Gogol, and whose art collection formed the basis of the current icon painting department of the State Tretyakov Gallery). The second daughter - Vera became the wife of NI Guchkov, mayor of Moscow, which contributed to the opening of the National University named AL Shanyavsky - this idea, many have met with hostility. He was the brother of the famous Guchkov, leader of the party "Octobrists" and Defense Minister of the Provisional Government, which in the tragic March 1917 together with VV Shulgin took a bet from Nicholas II's act of abdication.

The Assumption church in Pokrovka had a wonderful gift to influence the human soul, and even fate. It is said that once he saw him, AV Schusev decided to become an architect. Had he and the crucial role for the young DS Likhachev, when he first arrived in Moscow and accidentally came across this church. Future academician later recalled: "The meeting with her I was stunned. In front of me surged frozen cloud of white and red lace ... It was so easy that all she seemed the embodiment of an unknown idea, a dream of something incredibly beautiful. I lived under the impression that meeting. That meeting with the Assumption Church inspired him to devote his life studying ancient cultures. However, the tragic words Likhachev: "If a person is indifferent to the monuments of the history of his country - he is usually indifferent to their country, were under a historical basis.

The tragedy of the century
After the revolution of Assumption Church has acted for a long time for Moscow standards - until 1935. People's Commissariat theomachist Lunacharsky himself was among its fans: it was on his initiative in 1922, Great Uspensky Lane was named in honor of Potapovsky serf masters, and in general he bustled about the church as he could. The authority and power Lunacharskogo shaken during his lifetime, and it is unlikely that further word he could have saved this house, if he lived to the time of its destruction.

In November 1935 the Moscow City Council, chaired by NA Bulganin decided to close and demolish the Church of the Assumption, "having in mind the urgent need to increase travel on a street. Pokrovka ". And then the Muscovite tradition again, for the last time, resonates like an echo of St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square: if the architect PD Baranowski locked in the Assumption Church, either to protect it from demolition or perish along with it, saying, : "Blast me!" Exactly the same legend about the church of the Intercession on the Moat refers to 1936, when the Church of the Assumption has died. The cynicism of the authorities had no limit. A shame it was to rename the street in honor of the great architect of the fortress and demolish the ashes of his creation, famous master.

Before the demolition carried out the necessary research work and measurements. Two carved jamb and fragments of the facade transferred to the museum at the Donskoy Monastery, the top iconostasis in 1706 - in the Novodevichy monastery, where he was placed in the gate Transfiguration Cathedral. Winter 1936 Assumption Church was demolished to the ground, in its place was formed a little square with the notorious birch trees at the corner of Pokrovka and Potapov alley. For a long time there was a beer, then a cafe. "Is not killing us something? Should we not robbed spiritually? "- Bitterly inquired about this academician DS Likhachev. How many tragedies in these lines ...

Too great was the loss, too egregious was the destruction of the church - the national wealth is too great the pain of her death. Maybe that is why in our time increasingly advocated to restore the Church of the Assumption of the surviving measurements, drawings, sketches, newsreels. Moreover, most recently in one of the local houses were found fragments of the church - the remains of the stairs of the lower tiers of the belfry, the elements of outdoor decor. It is believed that the restoration of the temple will help bring the creation of his community. A reconstruction of the holy soul craves Moscow! Most of the Assumption Church as a monument of history compared to the Sukharev Tower or Red Gate, but it seems that it is more applicable to such shrines of Moscow as the chapel of Panagia and the Kazan Cathedral, because it yavila full force of the Orthodox idea of Moscow and all its fantastic beauty and national genius . In the meantime, what remains of the great churches, except the ruins - only the name Potapov Lane.

Elena Lebedeva http://www.pravoslavie.ru/jurnal/573.htm