Trinity Church in Nikitniki description. Russia: Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Nikitniki. "The Sovereign's Complimentary Iconographer Put His Hand"

Sometimes, very rarely, my husband and I manage to take a walk together (that is, without our lovely children). And on such walks, my observation of the surrounding worlds, of course, increases. And so our choice fell on the Church of the Holy Trinity in Nikitniki (Nikitnikov per., d. 3). Well, while we were going there, by some miracle, we were brought to the street. Varvarka. It is a pity that the time was later and it was not possible to get inside all the churches. Except one...

As soon as we got out of the Kitay-Gorod metro station, a heavy downpour began and we hurried to take refuge in the Church of All Saints in Kulishki. What a miracle it is: it is raining like a wall outside, and you are on the porch of the church (this in itself is symbolic). And you look and understand that at a crossroads: to the right, a warm light from candles, a flickering, trembling twilight, and from the iconostasis, merciful faces come out at you, the smell of wax and incense, and as a contrast, you look to the left: a wall of cold, fresh rain, its drumming on a metal roof (as if on purpose, to enhance sensations).

We entered the depths of the church. There was the sacrament of confession and the relics of Nicholas the Wonderworker were on display. I remember my great embarrassment and timidity .. after all, I did not go to pray here, but to look and perceive. And so I felt embarrassed ... I bought candles and lit them, read a prayer. It became easier ... Then I sat down on a bench, opposite the iconostasis and began to look ... My husband said: "Until you perceive the rain will not end ...", and I thought: "This sky is crying ..." (I don’t know why ...). I will write about the Church of All Saints in Kulishki in the next post. Now let's talk about another temple.

Church of the Holy Trinity in Nikitniki

(Church of the Icon Mother of God Georgian on Varvarka). (Nikitnikov per., 3).

Since 1654, the main shrine of the temple has been a list (copy) of the Georgian Icon of the Mother of God, made in honor of the deliverance of the capital from pestilence (plague epidemic). For this reason, the temple in everyday life was called the Church of the Georgian Mother of God. To the 250th anniversary of this event, a special chapel was dedicated in the basement of the Georgian Mother of God. From here came the old name of Nikitnikov Lane - "Georgian", which was changed to the current one in 1926. About the icon According to legend, the icon is of Georgian origin and was taken to Persia during the conquest of the country by Shah Abbas in 1622. One Persian merchant offered it to the clerk of the merchant Yegor Lytkin, Stefan Lazarev, who was then on business in Persia. Stefan happily bought the miraculous image of the Virgin in 1625 and kept it for some time. At this time, the Yaroslavl merchant Yegor Lytkin saw this icon in a night dream and it was revealed to him that it was with his clerk Lazarev, and at the same time he received an order to send the Georgian icon to the Krasnogorsk monastery founded in 1603 on Pinega in the Archangelsk diocese. Lytkin forgot about this revelation for some time. But when Stephen returned to his homeland in 1629 and showed him the icon, the merchant immediately remembered the vision. He immediately went with the Georgian icon to the Dvinsk chapels to the Montenegrin monastery, where he fulfilled the previously seen omen. The Montenegrin monastery was named because it was built on a mountainous, gloomy-looking, surrounded dense forests area known as the Black Mountain. This monastery received the name "Krasnogorsk Monastery" only later. After the appearance of the icon in the Krasnogorsk monastery, numerous miracles were attributed to it. In 1654, the Georgian icon was brought to Moscow to be renovated and a new setting made. That year there was an epidemic of the plague in the city, and a number of healings are associated with the brought image. So, in gratitude for the healing of his son, silversmith Gavriil Evdokimov ordered a copy of the Georgian icon for the Church of the Holy Trinity in Nikitniki, which is attributed to the brush of Simon Ushakov. Due to reports of miracles in 1658, by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon, the icon was set to be celebrated on August 22, the day it appeared in the monastery. In 1698, by decree, it was ordered to annually bring the Georgian icon to Arkhangelsk "for the sake of consecrating the city and Christ-loving peoples, demanding God's and Her Mother of God mercy." In addition to Arkhangelsk, the image was worn in Vologda, Veliky Ustyug, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Moscow and Siberia. In 1707, the isographer of the Armory, Kirill Ulanov, made an exact dimensional list of the Georgian icon ( color photo). An inscription is placed on its lower field: this holy image of the Mother of God was written with the measure and mark of what is in the Montenegrin monastery, called Georgian. There are 4 reliquaries in the icon. Other lists were made from the icon, some of which were considered miraculous. In 1920-1922, after the closing of the Krasnogorsk monastery, the icon disappears, and then in 1946, after the opening of the monastery, it reappears in it. Archangel Bishop Leonty (Smirnov) reported to the Moscow Patriarchate in 1946 that the Georgian icon had taken part in the religious procession in Arkhangelsk. After that, the fate of the icon remains unknown. The icon belongs to the Hodegetria type and is close to the Peribleptus rendition. The iconography of the Georgian icon has analogues among other Georgian icon-painting monuments of the 10th-16th centuries and was especially widespread in Kakheti. The Virgin Mary is depicted slightly turned and tilted towards the Divine Infant Christ sitting on her left hand. The head of Jesus is slightly thrown back, a scroll is in his left hand, and the right is folded in a blessing gesture. A feature of the image of Jesus Christ is the right leg, turned with the bare sole outward.

Georgian Icon of the Mother of God
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The exact measured list of the icon, 1707, Ulanov
Church history
Church of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity in Nikitniki - an elegant example of Moscow ornamentation (an architectural style that was formed in the 17th century on the territory of Moscow Russia, characterized by intricate forms, an abundance of decor, complexity of composition and picturesque silhouette) mid-seventeenth century, built by Yaroslavl merchants in Kitay-gorod. The architecture of the temple is a significant milestone in the history of Russian architecture; the temple served as a model for many Moscow churches of the second half of the 17th century.

Back in the 16th century, a wooden church in the name of the holy martyr Nikita stood on this site. In the 1620s, it burned down and by order of the Yaroslavl merchant Grigory Nikitnikov, who lived nearby, in 1631-1653 a new stone church was built in the name of the Holy Trinity. Sources mention construction work in 1631-34 and 1653. As to which of these dates should coincide with the construction of the church, historians do not have a common opinion.

Although the customer was a merchant from Yaroslavl, architectural solution The church has nothing to do with the huge four-pillar churches of the Yaroslavl school. On a high basement there is a pillarless quadruple, covered with a closed vault. The church is crowned with five purely decorative cupolas (of which only the central one is illuminated), resting on two tiers of kokoshniks.

On the northern and southern sides, side chapels adjoin it with similar hills of kokoshniks and one cupola.

In the western part of the temple there is a porch with a gallery, to which, on the north side, a grandly decorated, high tent of the bell tower adjoins, and on the south, a porch placed on the carriageway of the alley, also decorated with a small tent.

Porch, 20011 photo by A. M. Chebotar

Porch vault, photo 2011, Chebotar A. M.

Eastern weight of the porch, 2011, photo Chebotar A. M.

Western gallery, 2011, photo Chebotar A. M.

The southern aisle of the temple was dedicated to Nikita the Martyr, and the revered icon of this saint from the burnt church was transferred to it. It served as the tomb of the initiator of the construction and members of his family. At the beginning of the 20th century, the northern facade, where there was a porch symmetrical to the southern one, was distorted by extensions.

Southern aisle of Nikita the Martyr 2008 photo Chebotar A. M.

Each of the façades of this ornate Moscow church differs from the other in appearance and decoration details, which gives it a harmonic variety so valued in the art of Russian architecture of the 17th century. On the red background of the walls, carved platbands of asymmetric windows, numerous pilasters, columns, carved belts and medallions, towels, icon cases, blotches of green tiles stand out with bright whiteness. And initially, the carving of the temple (in particular, the platbands) was completely covered with red paint and gold on a blue background.

Various cashiers.

analogy to this decorative solutions can be found in the Terem Palace; it is possible that this is the work of one artel.

According to P. A. Rappoport, "the picturesque asymmetric composition of the church, combined with its extreme saturation with decorative elements, made the monument a kind of model for Moscow churches of the subsequent period." Late Moscow architecture will be characterized by intricately decorated architraves, arches with hanging weights, and extensive use of glazed tiles.

1971

1982

1982-1986

1984

View from the southwest and the southern part of the church, 1955

View from the east, 1995

The temple has almost completely preserved the original interior with murals reproducing Dutch engravings of the Bible by P. Borcht of 1643.

The multi-figured, dynamic painting was made in 1652-53 by the best masters of the Armory - Iosif Vladimirov (the icon "The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles" is one of the few icons exactly associated with his name), Simon Ushakov and others. Their authorship also belongs to the icons of the local row of iconostases of the main temple and the southern aisle.

In 1920 the temple was closed for worship and in 1934 transferred to the State Historical Museum. In 1923-41. the Museum of Simon Ushakov operated here, since 1963 - the Museum of Old Russian Painting. In 1991, it was decided to return the church to believers, now services are held in the basement of the church.

My sensations.

It was not possible to get inside, but it was possible to go around. And the first thing that catches the eye is that "the poor fellow is squeezed" from all sides and "taken prisoner by Soviet monsters."

If we abstract from the environment, then there is a feeling of a joyful, cheerful, chaotic (not ordered) take-off up to the sky. It's like the flight of a swift or a swallow before the rain (the bird flies "torn", catching up with insects). The gaze from the most stable lower tier, with its rhythm of rectangles and squares (although there is also a rhythm of triangles above the windows, hinting at us to rise upwards), slides higher, and then it gets easier and easier, playful and intricate. Patterns lure you in, saying, "Look here and there...

Zaryadye is one of the largest corners of Moscow, located in the southern part of Kitay-Gorod. This place got its name because it is located behind the shopping arcade.

We will start our journey from the Kitai-Gorod metro station, and our path will mainly lie along Varvarka. Varvarka is one of the oldest streets in Moscow and the main street of Kitay-gorod. In 1380, the holy noble prince Dimitry Donskoy entered the capital along it after the victory at the Kulikovo field. Now it is one of the most original streets in the center of Moscow. From the side of the Moscow River, it consists entirely of ancient buildings. Nowadays, on the day of the celebration of the memory of the Slovenian teachers Cyril and Methodius, the procession, heading from the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin to Slavyanskaya Square, to the monument to these saints. In former times, at the end of Varvarka there were the Varvarsky Gates, on which the Bogolyubskaya Icon of the Mother of God was installed.

Before walking along Varvarka, let's go to Nikitnikov Lane. At the corner of Varvarka is the building of the former church of John the Baptist. It now has an institution, and the church was built by Filaret Nikitich Romanov in memory of his dedication to the patriarchs on June 24, 1619. In the 18th century. the church was renovated, and a chapel was made in it in honor of the Hieromartyrs Clement, Pope of Rome, and Archbishop Peter of Alexandria in memory of the accession to the throne of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, which fell on the feast day of these saints in 1742. There was also a chapel of the Bogolyubskaya Icon of the Mother of God - this the miraculous icon was placed on the Barbarian Gate.

We turn into Nikitnikov Lane, and the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Nikitniki opens up to us. No matter how many times you have been here, you always look in amazement at this creation, the eye runs from bottom to top along the passages, platbands, cornices to kokoshniks. This beauty was created in honor of the Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity. Approaching the temple, you admire it, and the words of the prayer arise by themselves: Holy Trinity, have mercy on us, and the “Trinity” of St. Andrei Rublev rises before your eyes, and you feel the smell of birch and dry grass, with which the floor of the temple is strewn on a holiday. Initially, this place was the Church of the Great Martyr Nikita. In 1626 there was a fire here, the church, apparently, burned down, but the icon of the Great Martyr Nikita was saved. In the 1630s Yaroslavl merchant Grigory (George) Nikitnikov, who settled nearby, built a stone church in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity with a chapel of Nikita the Great Martyr.

The aisles in this temple are dedicated to St. Nicholas, the Apostle John the Theologian, the Georgian Icon of the Mother of God. Georgian icon of the Mother of God in the 17th century. from Georgia through Persia came to Russia and became famous for miracles. In 1654, during the world plague, the icon was brought to Moscow, and the copy of the miraculous icon was placed in the Trinity Church in Nikitniki. It cannot be said that the royal icon painter Simon Ushakov contributed a lot to the decoration of the temple. He painted several icons for the iconostasis, one of them is the famous “Planting the Tree of the Russian State”, which deserves special consideration. The temple has wonderful paintings.

The middle and second half of the 17th century were marked by major achievements in various fields of culture. In the visual arts, there is a struggle between two contradictory trends: a progressive one, associated with new phenomena in Russian artistic culture, which tried to go beyond the narrow ecclesiastical worldview, and an obsolete, conservative one, which fought against everything new and mainly against aspirations for secular forms in painting. Realistic searches in painting are the driving force further development Russian fine arts of the 17th century. The framework of ecclesiastical-feudal art with its narrowly dogmatic themes becomes too narrow, not satisfying either artists or customers. The rethinking of the human personality is formed under the influence of democratic strata, primarily the broad circles of the townspeople, and is reflected in literature and in painting. It is significant that the writers and artists of the 17th century began to depict in their works real person- his contemporary, ideas about which were based on keen observations of life.

The process of "secularization" also begins in architecture. The architects of the 17th century, when building churches, started from the usual forms of civil mansion and chamber architecture, from folk wooden buildings. This inspired skilful builders and talented stone carvers, who were closely connected with the people and with the artisanal urban environment.

New forms of architecture and painting were born in a sharp struggle with the theological foundations of the church-feudal worldview, in a struggle that testified to the crisis of the religious-symbolic tradition in art and the emergence of a new life direction in it.

In arts and crafts - in painting, in stone and wood carving - artists borrow images of plant and animal motifs directly from life. They skillfully fit them into the plane of the wall, into the architraves, the portal, or into the decorations on the bindings of iron doors. In this world of brightly colored flowers with flexible stems, colorful plumage of birds, reality and a fairy tale are intricately intertwined, realistic tendencies are more and more insistently making their way. The shifts that took place in the art of the 17th century should have contributed to the emergence of new fresco ensembles, and they are indeed being created in the township churches. Cheerful, colorful paintings on the themes of gospel legends appear on the walls of churches, the actions of which are transferred to the atmosphere of Russian life in the 17th century. One of these temples was the Church of the Trinity. Fascinating genre scenes are poured into her painting in a wide stream, the space for which was given by the plots of parables abundantly presented here.

The old asceticism disappears. Life itself poured into church painting with all its specificity: events, scenes, furnishings, costumes, household items, with human experiences and sorrows. The artists working in the Trinity Church faced a difficult task - to find a way to place a complex composition of biblical and gospel stories on the walls and vaults of a small temple. Solving this problem with great artistic tact, the masters did not overload the compositions with multi-figured scenes and decorative variegation. Rhythmically calm system of pictorial tiers, evenly encircling the walls, a clear chronological sequence in the placement of plots, large-scale correspondence of the depicted figures and the distance separating them from the viewer - all this taken together created a new pictorial multi-episode system of painting, harmoniously combined with the solution of the internal space of the church. The innovations in the painting of the Trinity Church did not go unnoticed. The outstanding Moscow model has caused numerous imitations. In the second half of the 17th century, similar cycles of frescoes adorned the churches of the Volga cities, built on the settlements by order of wealthy merchants or at the expense of small merchants and artisans. These monumental ensembles of the end of the 17th century, destroying the church tradition that has developed over the centuries, are new aesthetic values. The appeal to the surrounding reality and the introduction of direct observations of nature and life into traditional church painting paved the way for Russian art of the 18th century. Trinity Church in Nikitniki stands on a high hill. The slender, elongated proportions of its central part, crowned with five domes, placed on a high basement, create a harmonious, integral architectural image.

In 1634, when the monument was completed, the area of ​​Kitay-gorod was just beginning to be built up with boyar and merchant estates and courtyards; wooden houses. The majestic temple dominated the whole uroch. At that time, it was like modern high-rise buildings. bright coloring brick walls Trinity Church, dissected by elegant decorative trim of white carved stone and colored glazed tiles, white German iron covering, golden crosses on green tiled cupolas10 - all taken together created an irresistible impression. The architectural masses of the building are compactly arranged, which is obviously due to the harmonious ratio of the external volume and internal space. Contributes to this and the fusion of all the constituent parts of the temple, surrounded on both sides by a gallery.

The plan and composition of the church is based on a quadrangle, which is adjoined by aisles on both sides, an altar, a refectory, a bell tower, a gallery and a porch. The principle of uniting all these parts of the temple goes back to the type of peasant wooden buildings, the basis of which was always a cage with a vestibule attached to it, smaller cages and a porch. This composition is still largely connected with the architecture of the XVI- early XVII century and is a kind of completion of its development on Moscow soil. A similar compositional technique can be seen in the monument of the XVI century - the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior in the village of Ostrov on the Moscow River. Here, on the sides of the main pillar, symmetrical aisles are attached, united by a covered gallery.

Each aisle has its own entrance and exit to the gallery. At the end of the 16th century and in the 17th century, this technique was further developed. It should be noted that in the tent covering of the Ostrovskaya Church there is already a gradual transition from the smooth surface of the walls to the tent - in the form of several rows of kokoshniks. An example of a complete expression of a symmetrical composition with two aisles on the sides is the Church of the Transfiguration in the village of Vyazemy (late 16th century) in the Godunov estate near Moscow and the Church of the Intercession in Rubtsovo (1619 - 1626). The latter is close in type to the posad temples ( old cathedral Donskoy Monastery and the Church of St. Nicholas the Appeared on the Arbat). However, unlike the five-domed church in the village of Vyazemy, there is only one dome of light here. The foregoing shows the organic connection of the church in Nikitniki with the township churches of the 16th-early 17th centuries. The architectural tradition of the previous architecture was reflected in the composition of the Trinity Church: two chapels on the sides of the main quarter, a gallery on a high basement, three rows of kokoshniks “in a dash”. However, at the same time, the architect managed to find a completely different solution for the external volume and internal space: he arranged the aisles on the sides of the main quadrangle asymmetrically. The northern large aisle receives a refectory. The miniature southern aisle has neither a refectory nor a gallery.

So, unlike the Church of the Transfiguration in the village of Vyazemy. where the gallery goes around the quadrangle from three sides, in the Church of the Trinity the gallery is preserved only on two sides - from the western and northern (the latter, dismantled in the 18th-19th centuries, has not yet been restored). There are three aisles in the Church of the Trinity: the northern - Nikolsky, the southern - Nikitsky and John the Theologian under the hipped bell tower. Thus, for the first time in the architecture of the 17th century, the bell tower is included in a single ensemble with the church, with which it communicates with a staircase located at the northern end of the western gallery. A new constructive technique that determined the features of the layout of the building is the overlapping of the main quadrangle with a closed vault (with one light dome and four blind domes), in which inside the church there is a two-height room of the hall type, free from pillars, designed for the convenience of viewing the paintings decorating the walls. This technique was transferred from civil architecture.

In solving the external volume of the building, the architects managed to find the correct proportional relationship between the main quadruple, the bell tower, rushing upwards, and the lower parts of the building somewhat spreading horizontally on a heavy white stone basement (chapels, gallery, hipped porch). A distinctive feature of the composition of the Trinity Church is that it changes its pictorial and artistic appearance when perceived from different points of view. From the northwestern (from the side of the present Ipatiev lane) and from the southeastern (from Nogin Square) the church is drawn as a single slender silhouette, directed upwards, making it look like a fairy-tale castle. It is perceived completely differently from the western side - from here the whole building literally spreads out, and all its components appear before the viewer: a quadrangle, a horizontally stretched western gallery, flanked by a bell tower emphasizing the height of the church and an entrance hipped porch. This bizarre variability of the silhouette is explained by a bold violation of symmetry in the composition, which was developed in the 16th century and in which the perception of the monument turned out to be the same from all sides.

In the church in Nikitniki an important role is played by elegant external decoration. To attract the attention of passers-by, the southern wall facing the street is richly decorated with paired columns and a complex entablature crowning the walls with a wide multi-fragmented cornice, given in a continuous change of protrusions and depressions, colored tiles and white stone carvings, saturated with complex patterns, creating a bizarre play of chiaroscuro. This lush decorative trim the southern wall acquired the significance of a kind of signboard of the commercial and industrial "firm" of Nikitnikov. From the side of the courtyard, the processing of window trims and the apse of the chapel under the bell tower is still closely connected with Moscow architecture of the 16th century (the Church of Tryphon in Naprudnaya, etc.). A remarkable decorative effect is produced on the southern wall by two white-stone carved architraves. The predominant ornamental motif in their volume-planar carving on a notched background is succulent stems with pomegranate flowers and buds. Birds are intricately inscribed in the floral ornament. (During the clearing of window trims, remnants of coloring were found: on the background - green-blue, on the ornament - red and traces of gilding.) These two main large windows, located side by side, amaze with a bold violation of symmetry. They are different in their artistic form and composition. One is rectangular, the other is five-bladed, slotted. The vertical lines of the architraves and the paired semi-columns that divide the walls somewhat weaken the significance of the horizontal multi-fragmented cornices that cut the line of the walls. The vertical tendency of the growing forms of the architraves is emphasized by the upper line of the trenches with skew-shaped kokoshniks and a white-stone kiot placed between them, the high pointed end of which forms a direct transition to the covering along the kokoshniks.

With the general balance of the white stone decor, the endless variety of forms of architraves with rollers, kokoshniks and colored tiles is striking, in which it is almost impossible to find two repeating motifs. The intricacy of the decorative decoration of the facade was enriched by a new kokoshnik-shaped two-blade roof top over the refectory, restored during the restoration of the southern wall in 1966-1967 by the architect G.P. Belov. The magnificent decor gave the church the character of an elegant civil structure. Its "secular" features also enhanced the uneven arrangement of windows and the difference in their sizes, associated with the purpose of the interior.

The apses of the church are not symmetrical and corresponded to the division of the building into aisles. On the southern “front” wall, with the help of rows of windows, wall ledges and multi-fragmented cornices, a clear floor division is outlined, emphasized by paired semi-columns on double pedestals in the upper part and a completely different division by wide pilasters of the lower floor wall. This only emerging floor division of the walls in the Trinity Church leads to the appearance of tiered church buildings in the second half of the 17th century. The rich decorative decoration of the southern wall with white stone carvings, decorations with colored glazed tiles placed at the corner in the form of rhombuses - all taken together, as it were, prepares the viewer for the perception of even more magnificent interior decoration churches. The large windows of the south wall, which give an abundance of light, contribute to the visual expansion of the interior space. Carved white-stone portals in the central interior deserve special attention, as if emphasizing new trends in the solution of architectural space - the unification of individual parts of the building.

Here again a free creative technique is allowed - all three portals are different in their forms. The northern one has a rectangular entrance, richly decorated with a continuous ornamental pattern, the basis of which is the weaving of stems and leaves with lush rosettes of pomegranate flowers and fruits (3D carving on a notched background).

The portal ends with a half of a lush rosette of a giant pomegranate flower with juicy petals wrapped at the ends. The southern portal is cut in the form of a steep five-blade arch with rectangular sides, as if supporting a strongly protruding multi-fragmented cornice. The same floral ornament on a notched background, in the corners the five-lobed casing is decorated with miniature images of parrots, traces of blue and red paint have been preserved on their tuft and plumage. It is possible that the torn MULTIPROMISE platband was previously crowned with a giant pomegranate fruit, similar to the pomegranate of the platband on the right window on the south wall. If the northern and southern portals are elongated, directed upwards, then the western portal is stretched in breadth. Low semicircular, it is entirely decorated with a carved white stone relief ornament of intertwining stems and multi-petal flowers of a wide variety of non-repeating patterns. High quality white-stone carving, the proximity of its technique to the carving of a wooden iconostasis and to the carved ornament on the canopy of 1657 of the Church of Elijah the Prophet in Yaroslavl give reason to assume that it is the creation of Moscow and Yaroslavl masters, who widely deployed their artistic talent here, in the Church of the Trinity.

The hipped entrance porch with a creeping vault, with two-bladed arches with an overhang and carved white stone weights, is strongly pushed forward, towards the street, as if inviting everyone passing by to come in and admire.

Carved ornamented white stone weights are the leading motif of the decoration of the church, which is an organic part of the entire architectural composition.

An intricate hanging weight is also built into the vault of the main building of the church. It represents four birds with spread wings connected by their backs. At the lower end of the weight there is a thick iron ring painted with cinnabar, which served to hang a small chandelier, which illuminated the upper tiers of the icons of the main iconostasis. On the inner edges of the tented porch, there are remains of a painting depicting a painting of the Last Judgment. In the 17th century, the painting from the entrance porch was a continuous mite along the creeping vault of the stairs and filled the walls and vault of the western gallery. Unfortunately, no traces of ancient painting and plastering could be found here, all the remnants of it were knocked down during renovation in the middle of the 19th century.

Above, in the lock of the arch of the entrance porch, there is a thin, elegant carved white stone a socket, apparently intended for a hanging lantern that illuminated the scenes of the Last Judgment depicted here. A perspective semi-circular portal with massive iron doors and bars leads inside the church from the western gallery. Wrought iron rectangular gratings, made up of intersecting strips, were built specifically to protect paired white-stone painted columns located on the sides of the entrance portal.

The flat surfaces of the strips on the gratings are entirely covered with a simple incised ornament in the form of a meandering stem, with curls and leaves extending from it. At the places where the stripes cross, there are eight-petalled figured plaques, decorated with small incised ornaments. Iron double doors with a semicircular top are decorated even more elegantly and whimsically. Their skeleton consists of solid iron vertical and horizontal strips, breaking the door panel into uniform squares. Judging by the remnants of painting, these squares were originally painted with flowers. At the intersection of the stripes there are decorations in the form of round through slotted iron plaques lined with scarlet cloth and mica. The door strips are embossed with images of lions, horses, unicorns and wild boars, various kinds birds, sometimes on branches and in crowns. The rich composition of the feathered world is not always amenable to definition. Often animals and birds are combined into heraldic compositions included in a floral ornament. The undoubted existence of the samples used by the masters is evidenced by one of the birds in the crown, wholly borrowed from the miniatures for the obverse Apocalypse (according to a manuscript of the early 17th century).

Icon painters, who possessed sketches and drawings from icons and from books, which they carefully kept and passed down from generation to generation, could supply blacksmith masters with similar drawings. Among the decorations on the doors, various images of the fabulous Syrian bird of paradise stand out. With wide-open eyes, the birds, as it were, vigilantly peer into the face of everyone entering the temple. On the horizontal stripes in the heraldic composition there are images of fabulous mermaids with outstretched arms and steeply curled tails, peacocks, skates, unicorns, lions, etc. The figurative motifs of these animals and birds are inexhaustible. Here you can feel a lively perception of reality, and the fantastic world of fairy tales, and religious prejudices. However, it would be wrong to assume that the craftsmen who worked on the decoration front door, could forget about her church appointment. Among the images on the door, birds of the Sirin and peacocks, which the church considered a symbol of the Christian soul and paradise, predominate.

NP Sychev believes that in the composition of the painting of the northern niche in the church of Boris and Gleb of 1152 in Kideksha, peacocks point to the “paradise” environment in which the depicted saints reside. This allows us to say that the creation of a picture of paradise was at the heart of the ideological concept of decorating the door. But in the naive creative imagination of the craftsmen from the people, the idea of ​​a Christian paradise was intertwined with fantastic images of the fairy-tale world. The images of the “mermaid-beregini”, winged griffins, horses and other birds and animals date back to pagan beliefs. Mermaids, according to pagan beliefs, prayed for rain. Winged griffins and other animals guarded life from evil spirits. The pagan symbols included in the images on the carved doors of the Church of the Trinity testify to the vitality in the folk art of the 17th century of these non-canonical images, closely associated with folklore.

What is what in the church

Therefore, the origin of the name "Nikitniki" can be interpreted in two ways: either from the ancient church, or from the name of the owner of the estate. But be that as it may, the church burned down in another Moscow fire. The goods stored in the estate were also damaged. Then, in 1628-1634, Grigory Nikitnikov built a new stone church at his own expense. It has come down to us unchanged.

By the way, Nikitnikov's desires were very prosaic: caches were set up in the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity for storing valuables, and in the basement there was a warehouse.

The temple in the style of Russian patterning turned out to be elegant, so its features were copied during the construction of many other Moscow churches. For example, here for the first time the entrance to the church was decorated with a hipped porch. And the well-preserved frescoes in the Trinity Church in Nikitniki were made by Simon Ushakov.

In 1904, one chapel of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, in the basement, was consecrated in the name of the icon of the Georgian Mother of God, therefore the church is sometimes called the Church of the Georgian Mother of God.

Mini guide to Kitay-Gorod

The image of the Georgian icon was considered miraculous: it was credited with the miracle of delivering Moscow from pestilence in 1654. This was a copy of an icon that Shah Abbas of Persia, who conquered Georgia in 1622, sold to Russian merchants. The original of the icon is in the Krasnogorsk Monastery on Pinega.

An encyclopedia of marvelous patterns is called by art historians the Church of St. Life-Giving Trinity in Nikitniki, built and decorated in the 1630-60s. several generations of the Nikitnikov merchant family. Inside, it is painted by the best masters of the Armory: Yakov Kazanets, Simon Ushakov, Osip Vladimirov and Gavrila Kondratyev. I talk in detail about the history and external decoration of the temple on. But getting inside to see its magnificent interiors is now very difficult. AT Soviet time The Museum of Architecture and Painting of the 17th century worked in the church building. (branch of GIM). But since 2007, it has been wholly owned by the Moscow Patriarchate, and since 2012 it has also fallen into the regime zone of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. The parish admits citizens to the upper church either on the main church holidays, or in groups by prior arrangement for a fee. The FSO passes to the temple through the checkpoint according to the laws known to her alone. It is possible to organize a guaranteed visit to the Trinity Church in such conditions only virtually.

Currently, the temple has 5 aisles:

St. Life-Giving Trinity	vmch. Nikita Voina	St. Nicholas the Wonderworker	app. John the Evangelist	Georgian Icon of the Mother of God

The church porch in the form of a hipped locker on massive pillars with hanging white stone weights and a staircase on a creeping arch lead to the western gallery.

Passing through the gallery, we enter the refectory of the main temple through a promising semi-circular portal with massive iron doors and wrought iron bars. The doors are dominated by images of the bird Sirin and the peacock - church symbols of the Christian soul and paradise. But there are also pagan symbols. Those. the doors represent paradise, depicted by folk craftsmen as a fairy-tale world.

In the left corner of the refectory there is a low door leading to the dark refectory of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. In the Nikolsky aisle, the “Savior Not Made by Hands” by S.F. Ushakov (1658).

And straight wide and low semicircular carved white stone portal leads to main temple. Above it is Ushakov's image of the Savior "The Great Bishop" (1657).

On the floor of the hall are slabs of marble-like limestone. Two silver-plated copper chandeliers hang from the ceiling, over which eagles with outstretched wings soar (a royal contribution to the temple).

In the hall there are 2 wooden open polygonal arbors with lifting benches inside. Their carved valances with cherubs support chiseled posts. The lower part is decorated with semi-columns, and the base is a platform with two steps. These are portable choirs that served as places for honored visitors.

The double-height space of the hall is completely covered with a picturesque carpet. Walls, closed vault, and even window slopes, like a huge illustrated book, Biblical and Gospel stories and parables are presented in rows in strict sequence. But the frescoes on religious themes are painted as cheerful, colorful everyday paintings.

Under the vaults, 2 rows of golosniks are laid in the walls (the vaults of the apses are completely filled with them) - burnt pots, located with holes to the inner surface of the wall. They are needed to suppress the echo or reflection of the sound, and not to amplify it.

The main decoration of the temple is an ancient carved 5-tier iconostasis with very durable gilding. It is completed by a row of smooth kokoshniks with eight-pointed crosses, alternating with gilded cherubs. In the upper tiers of the iconostasis: the forefathers, the prophetic, the festive and the Deesis (deisus) icons of "Stroganov's writing". The icons of the local row were painted by the leading masters of the Armory. On the left of royal doors“The Annunciation with an Akathist” (12 stamps illustrating songs glorifying the Mother of God) 1659 by Yakov Kazanets, Simon Ushakov and Gavrila Kondratiev. Only faces are written on it by the young "signner" Ushakov. The composition, obviously, was invented by Kazanets. On the right is the penultimate icon - "The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles" with the Mother of God in the center of the composition by Osip Vladimirov. The famous Ushakov Icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir, painted for this church, was donated to the Tretyakov Gallery (“Planting the Tree of the Russian State”). The iconostasis has a copy of it. Above the local row, he also wrote a combination of tempera and oil paints 9 round medallions with shoulder images of teachers of the Ecumenical Church.

In the left wall of the hall in the middle, a high carved white stone rectangular portal leads to the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. And to the right of the iconostasis is a high white-stone five-bladed arch - the entrance to the chapel of the military martyr. Nikita Warrior.

The parquet of the 17th century is well preserved in its pre-altar room. from thick pine logs. The ancestral row of the miniature 5-tier iconostasis is slightly inclined due to the low vault. The festive tier is unusually filled with icons of church holidays “Colored Triodion” (the period from Easter to Spirit Day): “Healing of the paralyzed”, “Midlife”, “Conversation with the Samaritan woman”, etc. One of the icons - “Healing of the Blind” - was written by Osip Vladimirov with violation of the canon on the model of the Dutch engraving. In the local row there is a revered ancient icon of the Great Martyr. Nikita the Warrior with 14 hagiographic hallmarks.

Here, the family character of the chapel is confirmed by the patronal icon “Our Lady of the Blessed Sky”, painted before 1648, with the kneeling Sts. And on a group portrait of people in secular clothes without halos, according to researchers, the entire Nikitnikov family is depicted.

For the first time in Moscow architecture, the hipped bell tower of this church was placed above the northwestern corner of the gallery, connected to the church with a staircase and placed in its basement a chapel ap. John the Theologian.

Its walls are painted with scenes from the Apocalypse in a peculiar interpretation.

The cellars under the church initially served as warehouses for merchant goods. But in 1904 they built a lower church with a chapel in the name of the Georgian Icon of the Mother of God. It now predominantly holds worship services.

And photographs from the collection of I.F. Barshchevsky and a guidebook published by the temple; works by artists Olga Dremina and Dmitry Suzyumov.

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Until the 15th century the place was not built up and was called "Glinishchi" because of the clay soil. It was mastered in the 16th century, when Kitay-gorod was intensively built up. 16th century - wooden church vmch. Nikita on Glinishchi. 17th century - a rich merchant from Yaroslavl Grigory Nikitnikov settled in the parish of the church. In 1614 he was granted to the Moscow merchants. So, you can specify two reasons why the area was called "Nikitniki" at that time. In 1628-1634. at the expense of the merchant Nikitnikov, a stone church was built on the site of a burnt wooden one. Placed on a high basement (lower floor), the church was visible from afar. The main quadrangle with paired columns and a slide of graceful kokoshniks is crowned with five chapters on high drums, decorated with columns and an arched belt.

Two aisles - northern St. Nicholas and the southern martyr. Nikitas are also decorated with slides of kokoshniks. The church has an elegant hipped bell tower and a tent over the porch. In 1653 the church was expanded. In 1641, according to the documents, it was listed as the Church of the Trinity in Glinishchi. In 1900, Emperor Nicholas II visited the temple and the temple was renovated at his direction. In 1904, one of the chapels (in the basement) was consecrated in the name of the icon of the Georgian Mother of God, so the church is often called the Church of the Georgian Mother of God. The icon of the Georgian Mother of God (1654) was considered miraculous. He was credited with the miracle of ridding Moscow of the pestilence in 1654. This was a list of the icon that the Persian Shah Abbas, who conquered Georgia in 1622, sold to Russian merchants. The original is in the Krasnogorsk Monastery on Pinega.

In 1917 the temple was damaged during the fighting. In 1920 the temple was closed. In 1924-1930. In the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, extensive restoration work was carried out. In 1934 the temple building was transferred to the State Historical Museum. The opening of the original paintings was carried out in 1935-1940. In 1968 the museum was opened to visitors.

In 1991, the Moscow authorities decided to return the temple to believers and resume worship, but the temple was not returned to the church. In con. 1990s divine services were resumed in the basement of the temple. The order to evict the museum and transfer the church building to the parish was signed only in December 2006.

Church of the Life-Giving Trinity and the Georgian Mother of God in Nikitniki with chapels of St. Nicholas, John the Theologian and the Great Martyr. Nikita walls, roof, except that in one place the rafters were burned, the iconostases and holy icons are intact, some utensils were robbed, and some were intact. After the consecration of the Nikolaevsky and Bogoslovsky aisles, a divine service is held. Parish yards 3, burned.

Priest Nikolai Matveev, his own stone house was burned; deacon Nikolai Matveev and sexton Alexander Dmitriev - the stone tents of the church clerks were burned.

Skvortsov N.A. "Materials for the history of the churches of the Moscow diocese in the era of the war of 1812". Issue 1. Moscow, Russian Press. Sadovo-Triumfalnaya, 1911

The Church of the Georgian Mother of God is located in Gruzinsky Lane, near the Varvara Gates; otherwise called "The Trinity in Nikitniki". Initially, a wooden one was built in the 16th century. and was called "Great Martyr Nikita, on Glinischi".

The current one was built on the site of the former one in 1628 by the Yaroslavl guest Grigory Leontyevich Nikitnikov with the main throne of St. Trinity and with the southern aisle of St. Nikita.

In 1653, on the occasion of a pestilence in Moscow, an image of the Georgian Mother of God was brought to the church from the Krasnogorsk monastery of the Archangel diocese, which 28 years earlier had been exchanged with the Persians in Georgia by the brother of the temple builder Stepan Nikitnikov. To miraculous icon such a large number of pilgrims flocked that it was necessary to expand the church, which is why the northern chapel was built, consecrated in the name of John the Theologian.

Some renewal of the church was around 1700, when the current window bars were installed in the refectory, and then in 1845, when the crosses on the domes were replaced, the cupola was removed from the porch and the windows of the main altar were cut. In 1904, the throne of the Georgian Mother of God was arranged in the basement. The temple is very remarkable both for the special elegance of construction and careful decoration in all parts, and because the antiquity in it, both outside and inside, has been preserved quite well.

The rows of kokoshniks “in a dash” that move forward on the vaults constitute an original feature of this five-domed pillarless church. The porch with a hipped roof is the first example of this kind of church entrances. The bell tower is not located on the axis of the entire building, as was established only from the second half of the 17th century, but at the northwestern corner of the church. Inside, a multi-tiered iconostasis with images by Simon Ushakov has been preserved. Above the upper tier are images of cherubs, as it was in the Assumption Cathedral before the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and as it is still preserved in the Trinity Cathedral of the Sergius Lavra. Mural painting of the middle of the XVII century. The kliros of a special form and stone carvings at the entrances to the aisles and the main part of the church are remarkable. The aisle of Nikita the Martyr has the same ancient iconostases and murals as the main church.

"Index of churches and chapels of Kitay-gorod". Moscow, "Russian Printing", B. Sadovaya, d. No. 14, 1916