St. Nicholas Church on Bersenevka is a Moscow Orthodox church built in the mid-17th century. The main altar of the temple is consecrated in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity, the chapels - in the name of St. Nicholas and St. Theodosius the Great Kinoviarch. It forms an architectural ensemble with the chambers of Averky Kirillov.
The place where it stands St. Nicholas Church on Bersenevka, has been occupied by church buildings since ancient times. So, in 1390, the St. Nicholas Monastery on the Swamp was listed in this area, there was a wooden church there, called in the chronicle of 1475 “The Church of St. Nicholas on Pesku, called Borisov” (which indicates that it belonged to a rich votnik), and in 1625 referred to as “ The Great Wonderworker Nicholas behind the Bersenya Lattice” (in 1504, Moscow, as part of the fight against fires and crime, was divided into sections, one of which was ruled by the noble boyar I. N. Bersen-Beklemishev).
In the 1650s, the sovereign gardener Averky Kirillov began building an estate on the site of the abolished St. Nicholas Monastery. In 1657, by his order, a stone church of the Holy Trinity was built with a chapel in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Architecturally, this temple belongs to a new type of Moscow temple of the mid-7th century, founded by the construction of the Trinity Church in Nikitniki. It was built as a pillarless quadrangle with a bell tower and a refectory adjacent to the north. The temple is richly decorated, “ornamented” - the northern refectory is adjoined by a porch with pillars-“little pods” and arches decorated with “weights”.
Main volume Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bersenevka completed with rows of kokoshniks with a keeled top; drums are also decorated with kokoshniks, also decorated with an arcature belt. The facades, window casings, columns and frieze are richly decorated. From the west there was a descent to the lower room of the temple, where the Kirillov family tomb was located. Later, a “red” porch with a walkway was added to the church on the eastern side, connecting the temple with the cross chamber of the Kirillov house. In 1694, the chapel built by the widow of Yakov Averkievich Irina in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was consecrated. Irina Simeonovna also built a bell tower on the embankment, which is a two-tier octagon on a quadrangle, and ordered a 200-pound bell made by master Ivan Motorin. In addition, five more bells were donated, weighing from 115 poods to 1 pood 35? lbs. This bell tower was dismantled in 1871 and a two-story building was built in its place.
In 1775, a refectory in the classicist style was added to the church from the west, which greatly distorted the original appearance of the church. The temple burned during the fire of 1812, after which it was restored and consecrated again. Instead of the burnt-out ancient refectory, a new one was built, in which two chapels were built - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Theodosius the Kinoviarch. In the 1820s, the old bell tower was demolished, but a new one appeared only in 1854.
In 1925, the Central State Restoration Workshops were located in the chambers of Averky Kirillov, and in 1930 St. Nicholas Church on Bersenevka was closed. In the 1930s, B. Ioffe, who planned the construction of an architectural ensemble in the constructivist style in this area, sought the demolition of the temple. In 1932, at the request of the restorers, the bell tower, which interfered with good lighting, was demolished, but the temple itself was abandoned. In 1958, the Museum Science Research Institute was located in the temple. Since 1992, prayer services to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker have been held every week in the conference room located in the church. Now the temple has been returned to believers, and there is a Sunday school and a library attached to it.
Many people are probably familiar with the red building on Bersenevskaya Embankment in Moscow. Next to it stands an elegant church. These are the chambers of the Duma clerk Averky Kirillov, one of the few surviving civil buildings of the 17th century in Moscow, and the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bersenevka in Verkhniye Sadovniki. Now they are lost next to the colossus of the House on the Embankment, and it is hard to believe that in the past these chambers were among the largest and most luxurious in Moscow.
I had the opportunity to visit here on an excursion and see those rooms that are not accessible to “the person on the street.”
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View of the chambers of Averky Kirillov from the Patriarch's Bridge. Behind them rises the bulk of the “House on the Embankment”
The main (northern) facade of the chambers of Averky Kirillov, mid-17th - early 18th century
History and architecture of the chambers of Averky Kirillov
The site where the chambers of Averky Kirillov now stand, in the 15th century, apparently belonged to the Beklemishev boyars. One of them, Ivan Nikitich Bersen-Beklemishev, a diplomat and statesman during the reign of Ivan III and Vasily III, was a supporter of “old times and grandfathers.” For open disagreement with Vasily III, in the winter of 1525 he was executed on the Moscow River.
The word "bersen" means "gooseberry". It is believed that it was in honor of Ivan Bersen-Beklemishev that the Bersenevskaya embankment got its name, where he blocked the street from “dashing people” by installing a bersenevsky lattice.
After his execution, ownership passed to the treasury. According to one of the Moscow legends, the next owner was Malyuta Skuratov. Indeed, until 1917, in guidebooks to Moscow, this house was often designated as the chambers of Malyuta Skuratov with the Skuratov-Belsky house church. Here Malyuta “dishonored his victims” and raged together with Vasyutka Gryazny, the royal jester and executioner. They say that somewhere here there is an underground passage to the other side of the Moscow River, to the Kolymazhny Dvor and the Chertory stream. It is difficult to say where is truth and where is fiction.
Then these lands were received as a gift by the “sovereign gardener” Kirill. In the place where the Vodootvodny Canal and the island are now located, he laid out a beautiful “sovereign garden”. And here at that time there was already a manor house, a church and a cemetery for parishioners with it.
The first documented owner of the estate is the “Moscow guest” (i.e. merchant) Averky Kirillov (1622-1682). He owned numerous shops in Moscow, lands with peasants, and salt mines in Solikamsk. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich attracted the talented merchant to the sovereign service, elevating him to the rank of “Duma clerk”, in charge of several orders. In fact, at that time he determined the entire economic policy of the Russian state.
In 1656-1657, Averky Kirillov, based on previously existing buildings of the 15th-17th centuries, built chambers and a church connected by a passage. In the literature one can often find the statement that the church was a “house” church, but in fact it was a parish church.
St. Nicholas Church on Bersenevka and the chambers of Averky Kirillov, connected by a passage. Reconstruction
Initially, the chambers were a rectangle stretched from east to west. On the white stone basement (“treasury”) there was a wooden superstructure. In the basement there are four rooms with transverse vestibules between them. As the cultural layer grew, the basement, which was once the first floor, went into the ground and now looks more like a semi-basement.
Canopy of the first floor (basement)
The living quarters were located in a wooden superstructure - in Rus' it was considered unhealthy to live in stone premises. Similar wooden buildings burned repeatedly and were then rebuilt again.
♦ Reconstructions of Russian residential buildings can be seen in the article
In the first quarter of the 17th century, the chambers were renovated. To increase the area of the room, the south-eastern white stone wall was dismantled down to the foundation and then a new one was built. As a result, the building acquired an asymmetrical L-shape.
In 1656-1657, two brick floors with vaulted rooms were erected above the “treasury”. The chambers were adjacent to external porches that led to the second floor.
In the north-western corner of the basement, an internal staircase leading to the second, main floor has been preserved.
The most elegant room in the house was the Cross Chamber, which is located in the southeast corner of the building. The windows of its eastern wall face the St. Nicholas Church. It served as a reception room.
Framing the door to the Cross Chamber: before and after restoration
In the center of the vault of the Cross Chamber, a carved white stone “castle” has been preserved - a foundation stone with an image of a cross and the date of construction. The inscription on it reads: “This holy and life-giving cross was written in the year 7165, the same year and this half was corrected”. The Calvary cross inside signifies the owner of the house’s commitment to the church reforms of Patriarch Nikon.
On April 20, 1665, the chamber of Averky Kirillov was visited by the Dutchman Nicolaas Witsen (1641-1717), politician, cartographer, entrepreneur and future burgomaster of Amsterdam. In his diary he left the following entry:
I visited Averky Stepanovich Kirillov, the first guest, who is considered one of the richest merchants. He lives in the most beautiful building; it is a large and beautiful stone chamber with a wooden top. In his courtyard he has his own church and bell tower, richly decorated, a beautiful courtyard and garden. The situation inside the house is no worse; the windows have German painted glass. In short, he has everything you need for a richly furnished home: beautiful chairs and tables, paintings, carpets, cabinets, silverware, etc. He treated us to various drinks, as well as cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, nuts and transparent apples, and all this was served on beautiful carved silver, very clean. There was no shortage of carved cups and cups. All his servants were dressed in the same dress, which was not customary even for the king himself.
At that time, above the third, stone floor, there was another wooden floor, which was surrounded by a walkway. There was also a “hanging garden” here. The brick facades of the building with white stone inserts and polychrome tiles were very elegant.
This is probably what the chambers of Averky Kirillov looked like in the second half of the 17th century
During the Streletsky revolt in 1682, Averky Kirillov, a supporter of the Naryshkins, was brutally murdered in the Kremlin. Kirillov’s mutilated body was dragged to Red Square, where a sign with the inscription was placed over the corpse “He took great bribes and taxes and committed all sorts of lies”. Averky Kirillov and his wife Evfimiya Evlampievna, who briefly survived him, were buried in the family crypt under the northern porch of the St. Nicholas Church.
The new owner of the house was his son, Yakov Kirillov, the Duma clerk. In the 1690s, an addition with a Red Porch was made to the east side of the building. It was decorated with jug-shaped pillars, giving the entire structure an elegant look.
On the wall of the eastern facade of the chambers you can see the built-up Red Porch
A similar extension, symmetrical to the east, appeared on the west side of the house.
Western façade of the chambers
The windows of some of the premises on the first floor, which previously faced the street, now face these new premises. At the same time, the passage between the house and the church was probably built.
The windows were framed by lush platbands. The floors were separated by interfloor traction. The house was crowned with an elaborate cornice. The outer walls were decorated with paintings, fragments of which were discovered on the southern façade.
After the death of Yakov Kirillov, ownership passed to the clerk of the Armory Chamber, the head of the Moscow magistrate A.F. Kurbatov, who married the widow of Ya.A. Kirillov. According to another version, Semyon Ivanovich Maslov became the new owner, and his coat of arms was preserved on the main facade.
In 1703-1711 the main house was rebuilt. Seven new stoves were built inside, decorated with Russian tiles from the early 18th century.
Jug, tiles and saber discovered during restoration work
A projection with a “tower” on the fourth floor was added to the middle part of the northern façade. Now the “teremok” rises above the building, but in the past it was part of the fourth, wooden floor. There is a version that its author is the Russian sculptor, painter and architect Ivan Petrovich Zarudny (1670?-1727), one of the creators of the famous Moscow.
Behind the tower, in the 20th century, the wooden vault that existed before was restored. A narrow staircase leads there. Next to it is a deep window.
Staircase to the wooden vault on the fourth floor and dormer window overlooking the roof
Room in the "teremka"
Window in the "teremka"
The entrance to the building was decorated with a richly decorated portal with a balcony above it (not preserved). There were once statues on pedestals in front of him. From the discovered fragments it can be judged that they could be similar to the apostles decorating the church in Dubrovitsy.
The third floor windows are framed by white stone frames with shells in tympanums. On the sides of the “teremka” there are volutes and bas-reliefs depicting flowers and fruits. All this gives the extension a pronounced character of Peter the Great's Baroque. If previously the main façade of the house was the southern one, now it becomes the northern one, facing the Moscow River.
"Teremok"
In 1746 or 1756 the chambers were transferred to the treasury. At various times, the Tavern office and warehouse, the Discharge-Senate Archive, the Moscow Treasury Chamber, and the Senate Courier Team were located here. The passage between the house and the church was dismantled.
By the middle of the 19th century, the chambers had become so dilapidated that it was decided to demolish them. However, thanks to the intervention of activists and the activities of the Imperial Moscow Archaeological Society, the building was preserved. By decree of Emperor Alexander II, the Moscow Archaeological Society became the new owner.
Chambers of Averky Kirillov in the possession of the Imperial Moscow Archaeological Society. The photo shows the bell tower of the St. Nicholas Church, demolished in 1932
Restoration work was carried out in 1870 and 1884. Later additions were dismantled. The largest room, the Cross Chamber, where the meeting room of the society was located, was painted “in the spirit of pre-Petrine times.” To highlight the restored areas, bricks with the following inscription were used: “Reproduced from ancient models by the Archaeological Society of 1881.”
Bricks (image reversed)
In 1923, the archaeological society was dissolved. In 1924, the Institute for the Study of Languages and Ethnic Cultures of the Eastern Peoples of the USSR was located on the ground floor. The second floor was transferred to the Central State Restoration Workshops, which were created and headed by the famous Soviet restorer and museum figure Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar (1871-1960). The Church of St. Nicholas on Bersenevka was also transferred to the management of the workshops.
Grabar headed the restoration workshops until 1930; two years later the workshops themselves were closed. The vacated building housed the servants of the “House on the Embankment” (Government House) built nearby. The tenants furnished the house in accordance with their own needs, without sparing the historical monument.
Lamp in the “teremka” from “House on the Embankment”
At the end of 1947, the chambers of Averky Kirillov were partially transferred to the Research Institute of Local History and Museum Work of the Committee for Cultural and Educational Institutions under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, which eventually received the entire building. The name of the organization eventually changed to the Institute of Cultural Studies.
In the 50-60s of the 20th century, large-scale restoration work was carried out in the chambers of Averky Kirillov. Unfortunately, over time, many unique decorative details were lost, and the work itself had to be completed in a hurry.
Modern staircase in ancient chambers
In 2014, the Institute of Cultural Studies was merged with the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage named after D.S. Likhachev. Now the chambers of Averky Kirillov are on a popular tourist route. Some of the premises are still occupied by an academic institute, while others periodically host exhibitions. However, the further fate of the chambers is unknown. According to some reports, they may leave the Russian Orthodox Church ().
Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bersenevka in Verkhniye Sadovniki
According to chronicles, in the 15th century, on the territory of Verkhniye Sadovniki, as this area was then called, there was a wooden church of St. Nicholas in Peski, built on the site of an older small patrimonial monastery. In 1566, the temple was rebuilt and became known as Nikola Bersenevsky. Around 1625, “according to the promise of parish and various outsiders,” a stone church was built, the main altar of which was consecrated in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity. However, in everyday life the temple was still called Nikolsky.
The existing stone church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bersenevka in Verkhniye Sadovniki was erected in 1656-1657, simultaneously with the chambers of Averky Kirillov. The main altar was consecrated in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity, the chapel - in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. In 1755, at the request of parishioners, a chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built on the left side of the refectory.
The church was heavily damaged by a fire in 1812, as a result of which the refectory collapsed. It was restored in 1817-1823 in the style of classicism.
The church building is a two-height pillarless quadrangle with a three-part lowered apse placed on a basement. The lateral divisions of the apses are crowned by two domes; in the past they housed chapels. The northern division is larger than the southern one and has a separate entrance from the gallery. A porch gallery and an elegant porch are attached to the northern façade. Under the porch was the tomb of the Kirillovs.
Eastern facade of the temple
The central head with a light drum is surrounded by four decorative heads, below which there are two rows of kokoshniks. The facades of the church are decorated with richly patterned profiled platbands, paired columns at the corners and tiles.
Colorful temple
The external design of the temple echoes the adjacent chambers of Averky Kirillov. Together with the previously existing passage between them, they formed a common front courtyard.
Detail of the northern façade of the temple
In 1694, along the border of the site along the bank of the Moscow River, a bell tower with a passage gate and the gate church of the Kazan Mother of God was built. Low buildings of the clergy and almshouses were built on both sides of it. In the 18th century they were renewed several times.
During the fire of 1812, the bell tower and the buildings nearby were damaged and after that gradually deteriorated until they were dismantled. In 1853-1854, a new bell tower was built to the west of the church, which was significantly damaged by the shock wave during the explosion of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on December 5, 1931 and was dismantled in 1932.
In 1871, a new building was built along the embankment, incorporating the remains of old buildings. Its windows are decorated with frames with simplified stylization of 17th-century forms. In the summer of 1941, St. Nicholas Church was converted into a storage facility for museum collections. The most valuable exhibits were hidden in the church basement. Now the church has been returned to believers, and services are regularly held there.
Chambers of Averky Kirillov and St. Nicholas Church on Bersenevka on the map
- Address: Moscow, Bersenevskaya embankment, 20
- Metro: Kropotkinskaya, exit to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, then cross the Moscow River through the Patriarchal Bridge; Novokuznetskaya, Tretyakovskaya, then towards Bersenevskaya embankment.
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Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bersenevka, in Verkhniye Sadovniki
Previously, on the site of the existing temple there was another one, built at the Nikolsky monastery in the swamp. In 1475, it was mentioned as the “Church of St. Nicholas on Pesku, called Borisov” (named after a wealthy patrimonial owner). And in 1625 - as “The Great Wonderworker Nicholas behind the Bersenev Lattice,” which meant behind the night outpost. And she was called Berseneva because Bersenya-Beklemishev (a famous diplomat and revered person) watched her.
On the site of the abolished monastery in the 1650s, the merchant and major statesman Averky Kirillov began to build an estate. There, by his order, the known to us was built Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bersenevka, in Verkhniye Sadovniki(in 1657). Only then did it receive the name of the Holy Trinity with the chapel of St. Nicholas.
The monastery is a pillarless quadrangle with a bell tower and a refectory, which is adjacent not from the west, as usual, but from the north. The entrance to it is arranged in the form of a porch, decorated with pillars-boxes and arches with “weights”. And on the western side there was a descent into the lower premises of the church.
The completion of the building was beautifully done - it turned out to be “fiery” due to the orderly rows of keel-shaped kokoshniks. The drums of the temple are also decorated with them. All of them, except the central one, are solid, relatively high and, in addition to the kokoshniks, are decorated with an arcature belt. However, the entire building abounds in decor in the style of Russian patterns, making it look elegant and almost fabulous.
At the same time, stone chambers were built, with which the temple was connected by a covered passage. Under the porch there is a tomb of the Kirillov family.
According to one version, to Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bersenevka, in Verkhniye Sadovniki the famous architect Mikhail Choglokov is related, according to another - Ivan Zarudny.
Averkiya Kirillova's daughter-in-law (and, unfortunately, widow) Irina added a chapel to the temple in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. In 1694, she erected a bell tower with a passage gate, in the second tier of which there was a gate in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. Nearby, on the embankment, Irina built and donated to the church chambers in which an almshouse and a clergy house were located.
In addition, the widow ordered 6 bells, one of which weighed 1200 pounds. And it was cast by the famous Ivan Motorin (the same one who would cast the Tsar Bell in the future).
Since Irina Kirillova had no heirs, after her death (in the middle of the 18th century) the house on Bersenevka became the property of the state. At first the Senate archives were located there, later the Senate couriers lived there. He himself became an ordinary parish priest.
In 1766-1768, the architect Yakovlev rebuilt the embankments of the chamber and renovated the bell tower. In 1775, the bell tower changed its appearance again, and a new refectory was added to the monastery - one-story, but more spacious. A good example of classicism, but too dissonant with the general style of the temple.
In 1812 Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bersenevka the fire engulfed. It was later restored and re-consecrated. Somewhere between 1815 and 1820, the old bell tower was demolished, a new one was built about 30 years later according to the design of N. Dmitriev - tiered, with a pointed, faceted tent.
It was closed in 1930. They planned to demolish it at the suggestion of the architect Boris Iofan, but they limited themselves to only the bell tower.
During these events, builders found ancient icons and the skeleton of a girl walled up in a niche in the basement under the church.
Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bersenevka, in Verkhniye Sadovniki somehow miraculously managed to avoid destruction, despite all attempts. Worship services there resumed in 1992.
This is the correct name for the temple, which everyone habitually calls “St. Nicholas on Bersenyovka.” It stands on the Bersenevskaya embankment of the Moscow River opposite and is part of the complex.
It is curious that the construction of the temple coincides in time with the construction - 1656-1657. It is obvious that the customer of the new stone church in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity was Averky Kirillov. This is probably why in many Soviet sources (for example, “Architectural Monuments of Moscow”) it is considered to be the house temple of the Kirillov family. Later sources indicate that there was a cemetery around the temple. From this the conclusion suggests itself that the church was not a house church, but a parish one. In addition, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bersenyovka, like many other churches in Moscow, was built on the site of an ancient wooden church from the late 14th century.
Church of St. Nicholas on Bersenyovka is so close to that at the end of the 17th century there was a covered passage connecting the temple with the chambers. It is logical that the noble Kirillov family considered it their home church. Averky himself and his wife are buried in the northern vestibule of the temple.
At the end of the 18th century, a new classicist refectory was added to the Church of St. Nicholas. It looks completely alien in comparison with the church, made in the traditional Russian patterned style of the mid-17th century.
Northern facade of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bersenyovka.Until 1932, the temple complex also included a bell tower.
An old photograph of the Church of St. Nicholas on Bersenyovka with a bell tower from N.A. Naidenov’s album. Photo from the site http://oldmos.ru/old/photo/view/20391It was demolished at the request of employees of restoration workshops; they cited the fact that the bell tower prevented proper lighting of the workshops. Currently, a temporary wooden belfry has been erected on the south side of the church.
B. Iofan, a Soviet architect, the author of the unrealized project of the Palace of Soviets on the site of the destroyed one, sought the demolition of the Church of St. Nicholas on Bersenyovka itself, but, thank God, they either did not have time to destroy it, or did not consider it necessary.
Since 1958, the temple housed the premises of the research institute of museology. Worship services resumed in 1992.
Most often we approach the temple from the embankment and immediately see the northern part of the church with an elegant porch. Let's raise our eyes up and admire the five-domed temple.
The central drum is beautifully decorated with a triple row of arcade.
The top row of the arcature is continuous, the two lower ones have breaks, this is the so-called dissected row of the arcature belt.
Arcatur (from German Arkatur, French arcature - a row of arches) - a series of decorative false arches on the facade of a building or on the walls of interior spaces. The main type is the blind arcature (blind arcade). Such an arcature consists of parts that are superimposed on the surface of the wall. The arcature can also be dissected and continuous. The latter can take the form of an arcature belt or frieze, complemented by columns on brackets. This version of the arcature solution was typical for the temple architecture of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality.
The quadrangle of the temple on the outside is decorated with two rows of kokoshniks. This is a pillarless temple, so there are no mosquitoes on it. The bottom row of kokoshniks is decorated with applied rhombuses and snakes. In the top row we will see twisted rollers, intercepted with strands, sockets.
The celebration of decoration continues on the northern wall. Three large windows are decorated with intricate finials.
Now let's look at an interesting porch. It adjoins a small gallery-porch.
The various architectural elements of the temple are distinguished by their bright colors. The painted details of the porch immediately attract attention. The outer keel-shaped ridge of the arch and the semi-columns on the sides, the hanging stone or “melon” are highlighted in pink, and the contour of the double arch is outlined. The arc above the entrance is highlighted in green, and the capitals of the semi-columns are highlighted in yellow. Below, on the bases and capitals of the jug-shaped pillars, there are splashes of blue paint.
It is interesting that in old black and white photographs the temple appears to be either monochrome (white) or two-color. (The lower pictures are taken from the site sobory.ru http://sobory.ru/photo/178223)
The barrel-shaped roof of the porch is unique and has no analogues in Moscow stone architecture. The barrel-shaped roof of the porch is clearly visible from some distance.
Because of the barrel-shaped covering, it was necessary to build a keel-shaped roof for the porch.
Inside, the remains of a painting are barely visible above the door.
The porch is adjacent to the gallery-porch. She is also very dressy. On the north side, the large arched windows of the gallery are framed by flies with tiles.
The tiles are well preserved.
The presence of double-headed eagles on the tiles testifies to the public service of the main investor of the temple, Averky Kirillov.
On the eastern wall of the gallery we see the same details as on the northern one.
On the left apse, the small window differs from the two neighboring ones - there is no bolster around it, and there is no triangular top, as on the central and right small windows. Most likely, these details have been lost.
Three large windows on the apses are elegantly framed by semi-columns with beads, which rest on brackets. Decorations in the form of jugs are placed in the center of the triangular finials.
To view the upper part of the eastern wall, it is better to step back a little.
We have already examined the rows of keel-shaped kokoshniks on the northern wall. Their top row here is much simpler compared to the front north side.
The upper part of the quadrangle along the entire perimeter is highlighted with a fancy cornice.
The eastern wall is divided by double semi-columns.
Let us once again pay attention to the five chapters. The heads of the church are seated on high drums. In the lower part they are decorated with keel-shaped kokoshniks. The central drum is light; it has narrow long windows cut into it. The four side drums are deaf. Their walls are decorated with a row of arcature-columnar belts.
The details of the east wall are mostly painted bright pink with small splashes of blue, green and yellow.
Let's pay attention to two small domes above the apses of the church. They were erected over two chapels in the name of St. Nicholas and St. Theodosius the Great.
The southern side of the quadrangle is also very elegant. The upper level windows are especially interesting here. Particularly intricate is the middle window, with a double frame on the sides, divided by a hanging stone, and a fancy triple finial.
The keel-shaped tops of the side windows repeat the shape of the zakomara.
A spacious classicist refectory was added to the western wall of the church in the first quarter of the 19th century (1823).
Refectory chamber of the Church of St. Nicholas on Bersenyovka. Northern façade.On its western wall there are saints depicted, their names written next to their faces.
On the left is St. Mark of Ephesus, on the right is St. Archbishop Gennady. On the left is St. Joseph of Volotsky, on the right is St. Maxim the Confessor.The external restoration of the refectory is not yet completed.
I was not able to enter the temple; it was closed in the middle of a weekday. The original decorations in the church have not been preserved. On the official website of the temple there are photographs of especially revered icons. http://bersenevka.info/sanctuary.shtml
Embankment Chambers
In addition to the church and the chambers themselves, the estate of Averky Kirillov included the so-called Embankment Building or Embankment Chambers. Initially, at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, a number of buildings for a clergy and an almshouse appeared on the border of the church site. After the fire of 1812 they were dismantled and combined into one knowledge. Since the building was lengthened, the passage arch in it is located asymmetrically.
At the heart of the Embankment Chambers is the bell tower of the church of 1690 with a passage arch and the gate church of the Kazan Mother of God. It was dismantled in the 18th century and a new one was built, which also has not survived.
From the river side, on the Embankment Chambers, you can see platbands repeating the forms of the 17th century. They have nothing to do with the original details of the 17th century; they are late stylizations in the spirit of Russian patterns.
Let's continue our acquaintance with Moscow churches of the 17th century:
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Literature:
“Architectural monuments of Moscow. Zamoskvorechye." M., “Art”, 1994
“Forty forties”, vol. 2 Compiled by P.G. Palamarchuk, M., 1994
I.L.Buseva-Davydova, M.V.Nashchokina, M.I.Astafieva-Dlugach “Moscow. Architectural Guide". M, Stroyizdat, 2001
P.V.Sytin “From the history of Moscow streets”, M., 1952
“Live in a house and the house will not collapse.” (A. Tarkovsky)
My favorite temple of all that exists is this “gingerbread house”, the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Bersenevka (Bersenevskaya embankment, 18).
According to many researchers, this is the oldest temple in Zamoskvorechye. Back in the 12th century, the St. Nicholas Monastery on the Swamp was located here, in which there was a wooden “Church of St. Nicholas on the Sand, called Borisov.”
The small wooden church was rebuilt in 1657. True, then it was called Trinity and only later received the name of St. Nicholas.
Finding this temple is quite difficult. You can only get into it from the embankment; it is not visible from the main roads of Moscow, except on the other side of the Moscow River in the area of the Patriarchal Bridge.
Initially, the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Beresenevka in Verkhniye Sadovniki was the house of a certain gardener of Emperor Kirillov. It was under his grandson Averky Kirillov that the current Church of St. Nicholas in Bersenevka, as well as luxurious chambers, was erected.
Averky Kirillov was killed during the Streltsy riot, and his body was buried in the vestibule of the temple. His wife was also buried here.
The temple building has remained virtually unchanged since 1657, despite the fact that the church was heavily damaged in the fire of 1812.
There is almost never anyone on the temple grounds. True, I was only there on weekends. There are many wooden buildings here, for example, a small bell tower.
Occasionally a minister comes out of the church, climbs the bell tower and rings the bell. The sound is quiet, but very bright.
What a strange place this is! There is complete silence here, it is fenced on both sides by the famous "House on the Embankment", across the river - the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the noisy Prechistenskaya Embankment, and the Red October factory props up behind it.
But here is a different world, a kind of oasis with fragrant flower beds and a rustic vegetable garden. Time stood still.
This is a rather unusual Orthodox church. It still maintains Old Believer traditions and uses individual elements of the pre-Nikonian rite.
Several Moscow legends are associated with this strange place. Whether this is true or not, I cannot say. They say that an underground passage led here directly from the Kremlin. Be that as it may, some secret passage was discovered by the boys. Perhaps he came out of this well or a shed nearby.
They also say that Metropolitan Philip was kept in custody here in one of the cells. The same one killed by the hand of Malyuta Skuratov. Well, in general, played by O. Yankovsky.
According to another legend, a banner from the time of Ivan IV, all strewn with precious stones, was kept here. It was believed that after every hundred killed, the king repented and fixed a sapphire on it. When the banner was carried out at the religious processions, the people tried to count the number of victims.
I really love this strange wall that seems to separate the temple from the chambers.
The church forms one architectural ensemble with the chambers of Averky Kirillov, and somehow it is no longer conceivable without them.
Now these chambers house the Research Institute of Culture. I don't know what they do, but sometimes someone comes in and out.
It seems that these ancient chambers are supported on the sides by some kind of stilts (although in fact these are drainage trays), and it seems that they are about to collapse, but this is impossible. At home, like people, they are alive as long as they have a soul.
Where the word “Bersenevka” came from is not entirely clear. The area could have received its name from the name of the boyar Berseni-Beklemishev, who was held in special esteem by Ivan III and carried out special orders for the tsar. According to another version, this is what gooseberries used to be called - “bersenya”. It was grown here in large quantities.
Fais se que dois adviegne que peut.
