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

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

After the revolution, the workers of the nearby Chamber Theater offered to demolish the church in order to free up land for theatrical needs. The architect Sukhov stood up for the church of St. John the Evangelist, but in 1933 the building was transferred to the theater. The altar was destroyed, the drums were dismantled, the paintings were smeared over, the valuables were plundered. In place of the temple fence put a garage.

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

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

Temple history

Historical overview

on the construction, destruction and reconstruction of the Church of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian on Bronnaya, 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 gunsmiths-armourers was arranged. Their more than a century of existence is captured in the names of streets and lanes: Bronnaya, Palashevsky, Granatny, etc. One of the lanes that runs through the very center of this area is called Bogoslovsky. It was here that the then wooden parish church was erected to glorify St. Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. According to some sources, this happened during the reign of the pious Tsar Theodore Ioannovich (perhaps around 1587).

In 1615, Mikhail Fedorovich, who entered 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 building of the church, when construction work began in 1652 on the donations of the parishioners "by the diligence of the parish people", 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 solving its three-dimensional composition and decorative design. The main place in the architectural space of the temple is occupied by a double-height quad, covered with a closed vault, which supports the central light drum and four small deaf drums located at the corners of the quad. The helmet-shaped domes complete the composition. From the east and west, lower volumes of a three-apse altar and a refectory adjoin the quadrangle. From above, the quadrangle is decorated with a belt of kokoshniks, elements of which are also used in decorating drums and framing windows.

A few years after the construction of the stone church in 1668, at the church of St. John the Theologian, on the initiative of the parishioners, with the direct participation of Simeon of Polotsk, the first private Orthodox school in Moscow was opened. The school was funded by the parishioners.

A significant event in the life of the parish and the city after 1678 was the construction at the temple of one of the first almshouses in Moscow, which contained "a hundred beggars to commemorate the royal parents."

A new milestone in the history of the temple was the construction of the stone Nikolsky chapel on the north side of the temple, which, upon completion of work in 1694, was consecrated by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Adrian. St. Nicholas side-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, bursting pediments above the windows).

In 1740, on the site of the old dilapidated bell tower, a new two-tiered bell tower was raised, which introduced 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 - Mitrofaniya of Voronezh. During these years, repair work was also carried out, after which, in 1842, the consecration of the entire church was performed by St. Philaret of Moscow. Word of St. Filaret for the consecration of the temple.

In 1870, the new chapel was abolished, and the throne of Mitrofan of Voronezh was transferred by Bishop of Mozhaisk, His Eminence Ignatius (Rozhdestvensky), Vicar of the Moscow Diocese, from the middle of the church to the right apse of the John the Theologian Altar.

In 1876-1879, a new baroque iconostasis was erected in the church, the walls of the church were painted with oil paints, an oven heating was installed and the floors were re-laid, and window sills were made of "Podolsky marble". At the end of the 19th century, a new metal fence was built around the temple, the entrance to the temple was decorated with a cast-iron umbrella on cast columns.

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

The interior of the temple was distinguished by 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 miraculous Icon of the Mother of God "Tenderness" was located in the temple. In the main iconostasis of the temple, in the local row, the Icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk painted in the middle of the 17th century attracted attention. Later, in 1836, she was dressed in a good salary, as well as an icon of John the Theologian by the royal icon painters in the salary of the 1810s.

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

In 1932, in the church of St. app. John the Theologian was appointed rector Hieromonk Cyprian, the spiritual son of Bishop Barnabas (Belyaev). Prmch. Kiprian (Konstantin Alekseevich Nelidov) was born on July 14, 1901 into a noble family. In 1925, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) tonsured him into a mantle 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 Kiprian was arrested, sentenced to three years in prison and sent to a camp in Altai. Here he had to endure a lot; even, calm, without reproaching anyone, he tried to help everyone and conquered everything with his meekness. Excessive work undermined his health, he became seriously ill. O. Cyprian died in the camp hospital on June 16, 1934. Hieromonk Cyprian was glorified at the Cathedral 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 Theatre). In 1932, the Moscow City Chamber Theater made a proposal to demolish the temple, but the architect D.P. Sukhov opposed - 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 "lease" the main altar of the temple was destroyed, the domes were demolished, the drums of the main temple were dismantled, openings disfiguring the building were broken, the painting was destroyed, the fence was demolished, a garage was attached to the altar of the chapel. For a long time there was a hostel in the temple, and then it was adapted for the carpentry and locksmith workshops of the theater, in connection with which machines were installed in it.

Attempts to study and restore the architectural monument began in 1956 and continued until 1998. A series of famous architects, replacing each other for 34 years, worked on a restoration project to restore the temple. First, Alexander Vyacheslavovich Oh, who prepared the materials for the restoration project, then the work was continued by his student Georgy Konstantinovich Ignatiev, and in the following years after his death, the architect of workshop 13 of Mosproekt-2, Lidia Alekseevna Shitova, completed the work, which summed up such a long period of restoration. Since 1973, restoration work began on the bell tower, which were quickly completed. Then there was a break, but even until the 90s, no significant changes, except for some emergency work, were made. In addition, the restoration work itself often led to devastating consequences. For example, a pit opened for many years, dug to study the state of the foundation, was filled with water, which led to significant deformations and cracks in the walls and vaults.

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 emergency condition.

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

Only by Easter 1995, the temple building was mostly freed from carpentry workshops, which allowed the temple community to begin restoration work, which it carried out at first on its own. The buildings of the theater to them adjoined the temple from all sides. Pushkin, surrounding him with a dense ring. The church continued to remain in such an acutely emergency state until 1996.

With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, in February 1996, the charitable foundation "Revival and Preservation of the Traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church", headed by Nina Anatolyevna Oreshko and operating under Inkombank, took over the restoration of the temple. Since that time, work on the restoration of the temple has gone at a rapid pace.

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

In the same year, 1996, on December 11, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' 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 visit of the Patriarch to the temple, a new carved iconostasis of St. Nicholas side-chapel was presented and a solemn transfer of a collection of ancient icons was made by the Preservation Foundation under 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 raising of the cross on December 2, 1996. The ceremony of consecrating the crosses was performed by the Vicar of the Moscow Diocese, Bishop, and now the Archbishop of Istra, His Eminence Arseniy.

In 1997, restoration work was 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. John the Theologian on historical foundations and interior design of the temple, which was crowned with the establishment of the magnificent 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. Fekhner. For the excellent performance of the iconostases, these creative teams were awarded two awards: a certificate of honor from His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' and the 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. started

work on the improvement of the territory of the temple, the construction of a new forged fence on a white stone plinth.

In January 1998, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' visited St. app. John the Evangelist. His Holiness noted the magnificence of the new iconostasis, “before which many generations of Russian people will pray, and they themselves will someday become our shrine in centuries to come.” His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' thanked the leadership of Inkombank and the fund "Revival and Preservation of the Traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church" for their invaluable contribution to the return of the shrine, calling the resurrection of the church 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 inner territory of the temple was cleared. For this purpose, a section of the city heating network was reconstructed, passing through the territory of the temple and closing the passage to the inner territory of the temple.

The year 1999 is marked 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. app. John the Theologian, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' officiated the rite of the great consecration of the church and the Divine Liturgy, co-served by Archbishop of Istra His Eminence Arseny, dean of churches in the Central District, Archpriest Vladimir Divakov. and the Moscow clergy. At the end of the service, the Primate donated to the temple the holy icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir, 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 St. app. John the Evangelist.

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 a ten-year confrontation with the leadership of the theater. Pushkin for the liberation of the church land behind the main altar of the temple and the opportunity to make religious processions around the church. In 2003, with city funding, the reconstruction of the "stage pocket of the theater" was carried out. In order to free the passage behind the Main Altar, the seven-meter wall of the “stage of the theater” 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 confluence of parishioners, the rector of the temple, Archpriest Andrei Khokhlov, made the first religious procession around the temple in 70 years.

The next significant milestone in the history of the temple can be called 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. During the next 2009 and 2010, all repair and restoration work on the facades of the temple was completed, which actually eliminated all the identified shortcomings of the restoration of 1996-1998: the dilapidated roof of the temple was completely replaced with copper; the truss system and the roof sheathing were reinforced, and in parts the rafter system and the roof sheathing were completely shifted. A new ventilation system was installed in the aisles and altars. These voluminous and complex works were carried out with the highest quality by the restoration company Migstroy LLC. In 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 overhauled.

The year 2011 entered the annals of the temple as a year of work to improve the territory of the temple: new flower beds were created for future planting, the vertical layout was restored, the entire plot of church land was repaved, with a blind area around the temple, 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 the repair and restoration work and landscaping of the temple, and which previously rested in the church cemetery, destroyed in Soviet times during the construction of the buildings of the theater named after . Pushkin. The rector of the temple, Archpriest Andrei Khokhlov, served a litia and a memorial service for the departed and those buried in the church ground. Father Andrei expressed the hope that the newly buried remains would no longer be disturbed. On December 9, 2011, Golgotha ​​was installed at the burial site with a commemorative inscription "Eternal memory to those who died buried around this temple."

In the spring of 2012, the landscaping work was completed. New flower beds were filled with flowering plants - evergreen junipers and dwarf firs. The snow-white temple, framed by multi-colored plants, became noticeable to passers-by hurrying about their business, who in a hurry did not have time to notice it among 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 Arseniy 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 church was carried out at the parish: four crosses were repaired and gilded on the small heads of the quadrangle, new electrical lighting networks and electrical sockets were laid, an acoustic sound system was installed, the church lamps were gilded; the walls and vaults of the temple were prepared for future painting, both iconostasis were washed and cleaned of soot, a security and video surveillance system was installed in the temple. In addition, thanks to the care of the longtime benefactor of the temple, 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 Filaret (Karagodin) on the day of the patronal feast of the temple.

The year 2014 is especially inscribed in the chronicle of the temple, 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. app. John the Theologian on Bronnaya and celebrated the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. At the end of the service, the Primate addressed the faithful. He said: “I am very happy to visit this historic 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 mercy ... The temple was consecrated by Patriarch Adrian; in the 19th century, after restoration and significant restructuring, by St. Philaret; and, finally, in the 1990s, after a remarkable recovery, by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy, my blessedly deceased predecessor.

Since 1993 Father Andrey Khokhlov, whom I remember as a very young man, has been working here as rector. Every time I met Father Andrei, I asked him where and how he served, and he told me about this church and about his ministry.

It’s really not easy for a patriarch to choose the time to visit Moscow churches, but I try to do it, and in my busy schedule there was also the church of St. John the Theologian, beloved disciple and apostle of Christ. I rejoice that on the eve of Great Lent, Holy Fortecost, 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, partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, it is a holiday, because every person knows that, leaving the church, he feels the renewal of his spiritual strength through the touch of grace God's. Secular holidays, accompanied by unbridled joy, libation 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 kind of 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 redundant and destroys the human nervous system ... What is joy? And joy may not be accompanied by external fun. Instead of loud laughter, it is sometimes a soft smile; and even if it is laughter, laughter is quite different. Joy comes from the inner, spiritual state of a person. Joy is nothing else than a touch of Divine grace upon us, the very one that we feel, first of all, partaking 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 excess of heartfelt joy, which turns out to be the brightest, strongest, 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, depend 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 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 force a lot out of it, including love. And in order to have a sense of joy, you need to constantly be in communion with God. Constantly means never interrupting this connection, neither at work, nor in transport, nor in your 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 just to say “Lord, forgive me” when we feel that we are doing something wrong, when we think sinfully, when we pronounce wrong, sinful words.

"Lord, help" - such simple words. We must say them whenever we need God's help, say 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. For this, we are given a time of repentance and prayer, a time of fasting, so that we rethink our lives, so that we can repent of our sins, purify our soul, establish a living connection with the Lord, through which we are given both the forgiveness of sins and the answer to our petitions. , and joy, which is a consequence of the touch of Divine grace on us.

So I wish all of us to go through the field of Holy Fortecost in such a way, in order to become closer to God, to feel the Lord every day and, perhaps, every hour of our lives, in order to get used to this communion with God, and then much of what we have today annoying and overwhelming, destroying our peace, will really step aside. We rise above the ordinary. Just as a bird flies above the earth and sees more than a person walking on the earth, so everyone who comes into contact with God and receives the gift of grace rises up and acquires a breadth of vision, which means a depth of understanding of what is happening to him and with the surrounding world. May the Lord help us to spend the days of the Holy Forty Day in a salutary way.” In memory of the stay in the church of the Apostle of Love, His Holiness Vladyka presented the icon of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity with a parting blessing: “May the Lord of the Triune, the Lord Who is Love, help all members of the parish grow in love and in 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'.

At present, the church has a parish library, a Sunday group for children, a Sunday lecture hall for adults, where everyone can enroll. Education is free.

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

Since 2010, the parish has taken care of two social facilities: the Ophthalmological Clinical Hospital in Mamonovsky Lane and the State Budgetary Institution of Presnensky CSO, with which open-ended 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 hospital. After anointing with oil and sprinkling with holy water, the icons of the Savior, the Mother of God and the 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. Patients of the hospital, mostly elderly people, after prayers and conversations with the priest, feel comforted and hopeful. 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, the hospital has not been renovated, and now, with God's help, funds have been allocated for repairs in all departments of the clinic.

The wards of the Presnensky CSO are large low-income families, disabled children, the disabled and pensioners, so the social service of the parish is developing in several directions: participation in the organization and holding of secular holidays for the wards of the Center (concerts, organization of tea parties, gifts or flowers); holding events related to church holidays (conversations about Orthodoxy, about the life of saints, movie screenings, tea parties and gift giving); children's activities (organization of puppet shows for Christmas and Easter holidays, participation in programs to prepare children for the school year, organization of excursions, purchase of gifts for children and holding tea parties). The social service of the parish in socially oriented institutions is also missionary service, since among the wards of the Center many are unbelievers, 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 arrival of the Church of the Ascension of the Lord at the Nikitsky Gate, took part in 6 blood donation campaigns for the Center for Cardiovascular Surgery. Bakulev. All social events at the parish are carried out at the expense of 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 the audience of the lecture hall cycles of lectures on "Biblical Archeology", "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, quests for lovers of the history and architecture of Moscow. On the initiative of the youth of the temple, 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.

On this, the modern chronicle of the temple does not end, but is reflected in the upcoming events of subsequent years. Amen.

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

Church 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 Bogoslovsky lane, 4. It has two thrones - in honor of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian and in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

In the middle of the 16th century, between Tverskaya and Malaya Nikitskaya streets (at that time - the very outskirts of the Mother See) a settlement of sovereign gunsmiths-armourers was arranged. Their more than a century of existence is captured in the names of streets and lanes: Bronnaya, Palashevsky, Granatny, etc. One of the lanes that runs through the very center of this area is called Bogoslovsky. It was here that the then wooden parish church was erected to glorify St. Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. According to some sources, this happened during the reign of the pious Tsar Theodore Ioannovich (perhaps around 1587).

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

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

The township church, characteristic of its time, originally consisted of a temple with an apse, a refectory and a bell tower. In the salary books for 1625, this church is mentioned as a wooden one-altar church of John the Theologian - "in Bronniki, beyond the Tver Gates." In the second half of the XVII century. the place of the church was already designated "behind the Nikitsky Gates 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 building of the church, when construction work began in 1652 on the donations of the parishioners "by the diligence of the parish people", 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 Theologian, on the initiative of the parishioners, with the direct participation of Simeon of Polotsk, the first private Orthodox school in Moscow was opened. The school was funded by the parishioners. A significant event in the life of the parish and the city after 1678 was the construction at the temple of one of the first almshouses in Moscow, in which "one hundred beggars were kept to commemorate the royal parents."

The double-height, elongated from north to south quarter of the church was crowned with five domes, placed on rows of kokoshniks. From the east, a three-part lowered altar (not preserved) adjoined it, from the west, a one-story refectory and a hipped bell tower were added at the same time, which completed the composition (replacing the existing one). In the external appearance of the building, through the patterned architectural and decorative design, which was previously supplemented by coloring (fragmentarily survived 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 keeled kokoshniks at its end read like zakomara, despite the deep profiling and powerful crepe entablature separating them from the walls.

This was also facilitated by the five domes 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 a recent restoration). The chetverik is covered with a closed vault bearing a central dome of light; 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, deaf domes rest on these vaults. From above, the quadrangle is decorated with a belt of kokoshniks, elements of which are also used in decorating drums and framing 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 to the St. Nicholas aisle. 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 Nikolsky chapel, perceived from the outside and inside largely independently, consists of a double-height quadrangle, elongated along the transverse axis, crowned with one dome on a two-tiered octagonal drum and a lowered three-part apse and a refectory.

It was completed in 1694, which corresponds to the existing facade processing in the "Moscow Baroque" style (large windows with broken pediments of architraves are especially characteristic). Upon completion of work in 1694, the Nikolsky chapel was consecrated by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Adrian.

Studies have shown that an earlier volume is hidden inside the quadrangle. On the northern facade, the surviving part of the masonry of the most ancient core with fragments of the portal that previously existed here (where the western window of the lower tier is now) is uncovered. Presumably (according to the features of the decor), the earliest dating of the temple known in the literature - 1620 - is associated with this ancient building.

The three-tier, overweight 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 bell tower of the 17th century. The lower tier, opened with arches, together with the “tents” formed by the completion, constituted a kind of porch of the church, in the northern part of which there is an entrance to the bell tower (the staircase goes 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 conditions of the low-rise buildings surrounding the church, the bell tower was effectively perceived from Bolshaya Bronnaya Street, which ran along the walls of the White City, and from the parallel Bolshoy Palashevsky Lane. At present, the church is surrounded on all sides by late high-rise buildings, and Bogoslovsky lane is almost completely built up, on the red line of which its western facade is placed.

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 - Mitrofaniya of Voronezh. During these years, repair work was also carried out, after which, in 1842, the consecration of the entire church was performed by St. Philaret of Moscow. In 1870, the new chapel was abolished, and the throne of Mitrofan of Voronezh was transferred by Bishop of Mozhaisk, His Eminence Ignatius (Rozhdestvensky), Vicar of the Moscow Diocese, from the middle of the church to the right apse of the John the Theologian Altar.

In 1876-1879, a new baroque iconostasis was installed in the temple, the walls of the temple were painted with oil paints, wind heating was installed and the floors were re-arranged, and window sills were made of "Podolsky marble". At the end of the 19th century, a new metal fence was built around the temple, the entrance to the temple was decorated with a cast-iron umbrella on cast columns.

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

The interior of the temple was distinguished by 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 miraculous Icon of the Mother of God "Tenderness" was in the temple. In the main iconostasis of the temple, in the local row, the Icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk painted in the middle of the 17th century attracted attention. Later, in 1836, she was dressed in a good salary, as well as an icon of John the Theologian by the royal icon painters in the salary of the 1810s.

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

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

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

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

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

Since 1973, restoration work began on the bell tower, which were quickly completed. Then there was a break, but even until the 90s, no significant changes, except for some emergency work, were made. In addition, the restoration work itself often led to devastating consequences. For example, a pit opened for many years, dug to study the state 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 the work, periodically asking for their transfer, since they were carried out partially at the expense of the theater, for 2 years they could not pay for the development of project documentation. Due to funding problems, 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 emergency condition. The first divine service in the Nikolsky Limit was held in 1992, by 1995 the theater workshop was completely vacated from the building. The restoration of the temple was funded by Incobank and donations from organizations and parishioners. On May 21, 1991, the temple was consecrated by Patriarch Alexy.

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

In 1997, restoration work was 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. John the Theologian on historical foundations and interior design of the temple, which was crowned with the establishment of the magnificent 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. Fekhner. For the excellent performance of the iconostases, these creative teams were awarded two awards: a certificate of honor from His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' and the first place in the annual competition held by the Moscow Government for the best restoration, reconstruction of architectural monuments and other objects of the historical and urban environment of Moscow. In 1998, the main restoration work on the temple was completed.

Work began on the improvement of the territory of the temple, the construction of a new forged fence on a white stone plinth.

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

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

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

Currently, the church has a parish library, a Sunday group for children, a Sunday lecture hall for adults, which offers the audience of the lecture hall cycles of lectures on "Biblical Archaeology", "History of the Russian Orthodox Church", "History of Church Art"; and an elective in Greek. Education 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, quests for lovers of the history and architecture of Moscow.
Since 2010, the parish has taken care of two social facilities: the Ophthalmological Clinical Hospital in Mamonovsky Lane and the State Budgetary Institution of Presnensky CSO, with which open-ended 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 armorers, who were here at that time - gunsmiths who made weapons and armor. Later, the name "bronnik" remained only with those craftsmen who made only armor: helmets, chain mail, shells. The Slobozhans were rich, and in 1652 a new, large and beautiful stone church was erected by "the diligence of the parish people", 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 Bronny 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 it was a matter of honor for them to settle on it. On the left side of Malaya Bronnaya Street stood the former Hirsch houses with cheap apartments for rent rented by students (house No. 13 has been preserved). On Bolshaya Bronnaya and Kozikha there were also two houses of the Chebyshev householders - "Chebyshev fortress" or "Chebyshi" - with student apartments, as they would now say, like dormitories.

Four people lived in each room, sometimes having only two pairs of boots and a dress for four. In clothes, they took turns going to lectures at the university: two of them were sitting on Mokhovaya and recording lectures, two were waiting for them in the room and preparing a modest dinner, and the next day they changed. Instead of tea, by the way, very useful for students, they often drank cheap chicory - according to memoirs, one round stick was enough for four for 10 days.

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

Is in the capital Moscow
One noisy quarter -
He is called Kozikha the Big.
From dawn to dawn
Just light up the lights
A string of students stagger,
And Ivan the Theologian
Looking at them without words
Smiling from his bell tower

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

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" wore long hair, a wide-brimmed hat pulled over their eyes, a plaid on their shoulders and glasses, which gave them seriousness and a solid scholarly appearance. The new university charter of 1884 abolished professorial autonomy, doubled tuition fees, and introduced compulsory student uniforms: uniforms, frock coats, coats with coat of arms 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 (according to the new style), on the feast of St. John the Theologian, Marina Tsvetaeva was born in Moscow, who lived all her childhood not far from this church in Trekhprudny Lane.

red brush
The rowan lit up.
Falling leaves
I was born.
Hundreds argued
Bells
The day was Saturday
John the Theologian.
To me to this day
I want to gnaw
hot 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 rolled down his face when they tore off the vestments and banged the icons right on the floor. carried out noisy anti-religious propaganda to the weeping of old women and the hooting of the crowd, having fun with an unprecedented spectacle. The church, as you know, is a superstructure, and it was destroyed along with the former basis. "

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

In the early 70s, a 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, then builders. It was said that once M.A. Suslov, the main ideologist of the Communist Party, who lived near the church on Bolshaya Bronnaya Street, was walking near the house and drew attention to the dilapidated church, which was being restored for a long time and could not finish the work. There was one call 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 "hung" again.

Back in the 90s, the church building frightened with its gaping cracks through 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 state of the temple was hopeless, although since 1992 worship was resumed in it.

Church of St. John the Theologian, "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 New Square near Lubyanka, directly opposite the Polytechnic Museum. The onion dome and the cross on it have not been preserved, and on the pediment the inscription "1825" - the time of its laying. The name "Under the Elm" comes from a huge elm that once grew in front of the altar back in the time of Catherine the Great. Until 1934, the wall of Kitay-gorod passed next to the temple, and this was also imprinted in the name.

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

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