On the historical Red Square of Yelets there is a bulk. Ascension Cathedral - the main building of the city, the center of its architectural composition. An outstanding monument of architecture of the last century was built in 1845 - 1889 according to the project of architect Konstantin Andreyevich Ton (1794 - 1881). The name of this great architect was defamed by official propaganda for many years.
On August 19, 2000, the reconstructed Cathedral of Christ the Savior was consecrated in Moscow. Russia regained its shrine - the largest Orthodox cathedral. It was savagely blown up in 1930.
The Cathedral of Christ the Savior was conceived and built in the last century as a monument to the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812. The building combined the functions of a temple and a museum, for which galleries were provided along the perimeter of the cathedral. On the walls of the temple were installed marble slabs with the dates of the battles, the names of the dead, the wounded, the awarded. Captured banners and keys to conquered cities were kept here. This act of vandalism, committed for political reasons, demanded a version that would "objectively" justify the destruction of a magnificent architectural monument. And such a version was invented. She cast a shadow on the name of Konstantin Andreevich Ton.
In the past decades, the architect of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the outstanding temple builder of the last century, the creator of the Russian-Byzantine style in architecture, have not been accused of anything in the past decades! And in eclecticism, and in the favor of the tsar, and in the pseudo-Russian style, and in the "official nationality." And only very recently attempts are being made to restore the good name of the largest Russian architect, who determined with his work a decisive turn in the development of Russian architecture, its radical transition to a fundamentally new direction.
The path of man to his creator God lies through the temple. The temple is the center of all the spiritual values of man. On August 22, 1845, the solemn bell-ringing of all seventeen Yelets churches announced the laying of the foundation stone of the largest church in Yelets - the Ascension Cathedral. Ascension Cathedral is the younger brother of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which has just been restored in Moscow. Both were built according to the design of the great temple builder in Russia, Konstantin Andreevich Ton. The huge building, the construction of which, according to the architect's estimate, required more than 10 million bricks alone, was supposed to be built in 6-7 years. But exactly 44 years have passed from the moment of the solemn divine service in honor of the founding of the temple to the celebration of its consecration, which took place on August 22, 24, 26, 1889.
But even for a long 44 years, the cathedral was never completely completed. The openwork porches provided by the project over the northern and southern entrances were not completed, the temple was left without a powerful bell tower, which was supposed to soar 10 arshins (7 meters) higher than the cross of the main dome, the wall painting was not completely completed.
The idea of building a new large cathedral originated among the residents of Yelsk a long time ago. Since 1815, the collection of donations began, the records of which were traditionally kept in a special "laced" (laced) book. It was a truly folk building. "Goodwill" donations have been collected for more than 75 years and not only in Yelets; but also in St. Petersburg, Moscow, at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, famous in Russia.
The first project of the Yelets huge cathedral in the classical style was developed in 1824 by the Kharkov architect Danilov. But he was rejected, and the residents of Elsk turned to the great Ton himself.
The Byzantine-style project appealed to the residents of the village. The size of the approved building significantly exceeded Danilov's proposals. K. A. Ton provided for the total length of the building at 132 arshins, including the refectory and the temple, respectively, 38 and 48 arshins (94, 27 and 34 meters). The height of the temple with a cross - 105 arshins (74 meters) - was more than one and a half times higher than the previously rejected project of the Kharkov architect.
The solemn divine service on the occasion of the laying of the cathedral was held on August 22, on the day of the coronation of the then reigning Nicholas I. Thus began the construction of the temple.
The design of the interior decoration of the cathedral was developed by the famous Moscow architect Alexander Stepanovich Kaminsky (1829 - 1897). The active creative life of Alexander Stepanovich Kaminsky, who helped K.A. Ton to build the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow and the Ascension Cathedral in Yelets. Student K.A. Tona Kaminsky was the main builder of the Yelets Cathedral. He had a greater influence on the appearance of Yelets during the construction of the church in the name of the Mother of God of Yelets according to his project. His architectural style is felt in many Yelets buildings of this period: the Zausailov tobacco factory, the Tsar's Chapel (1883), the new fence of the Znamensky Monastery (1879) and a number of other large buildings.
The Ascension Cathedral is a huge artistic exposition, only in the chrome part there are more than 220 wall paintings, paintings, icon paintings, most of which belong to the brush of the outstanding Russian Wanderers A. I. Korzukhin and K. V. Lebedev. The upper dome, sails, wall paintings above the iconostasis, the upper row of icons in the iconostasis itself and the central image - "The Crucifixion of Christ" belong to the brush of academician of painting Alexei Ivanovich Korzukhin (1835 - 1894). A recognized luminary of the everyday genre, an excellent portrait painter, an outstanding draftsman and engraver, possessing the gift of keen observation - this is how Aleksey Ivanovich Korzukhin was remembered by his contemporaries. His brush belongs to the famous painting in our cathedral - the Mother of God of Yelets. The intercessor of Rus', the Mother of God is depicted with raised hands. She, with the heavenly host, blocks the way to Rus' for the hordes of bloody Tamerlane.
The rest of the wall paintings and icons of the iconostasis were made by Korzukhin's student, also an academician of painting, Claudius Vasilievich Lebedev (1852 - 1916). For six years of work on the icons and painting of the Ascension Cathedral in Yelets, young Claudius Vasilievich became a mature master. He filled in the two lower tiers of the central one, painted icons for the left and right iconostasis, and painted the walls and pillars of the temple part of the cathedral. Thirty-five thousand rubles, received by the artist for his work, ensured the material independence of the painter.
The rich creative heritage of Academician Claudius Vasilievich Lebedev is the national treasure of the Russian people. It is highly appreciated by the public and art history science. Artistic works of the interior decoration of the Ascension Cathedral in Yelets, made by the famous artist, are an integral part of this heritage, which has not yet been fully studied and appreciated.
The Grand Duchess Evdokia, the wife of the Grand Warrior Prince, the faithful Dimitry Donskoy, also built a church in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin at her Kremlin chambers, in order to have such a church near her and be inseparable from him. A small white cupola with a golden dome of this miraculously preserved temple is still clearly visible from Mokhovaya Street against the backdrop of the Grand Kremlin Palace. A little later, Evdokia founded the Ascension Monastery in the Kremlin in memory of the victory sent down and of her husband. In this monastery, she was going to take the tonsure herself.
Saint Evdokia, one of the great women of Russia, was the daughter of Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Suzdal. Her father honored Russian antiquity: it was for him that the monk Lavrenty compiled the famous Laurentian Chronicle. The times were troubling. Rus' was tormented by internecine strife, relations with Moscow were restlessly developing: the Suzdal prince sought a great reign for himself, but after the Moscow Grand Duke Dimitri Ioannovich provided him with military assistance in specific strife, their reconciliation took place. This peace was to be consolidated by some significant event - evidence of reconciliation and a pledge of peace in the future. And then the Suzdal prince married his daughter Evdokia to the Grand Duke Dimitri Ioannovich. The bride was only 13 years old, the groom was in his eighteenth year. The wedding took place on January 18/31, 1367, on the feast of Saints Athanasius and Cyril, Patriarchs of Alexandria. In memory of this, the Grand Duke ordered that a wooden church in the name of Saints Athanasius and Cyril be erected at the Spassky Gates (then still Frolovsky) of the Kremlin.
This marriage became one of the happiest in the history of Russia. However, there were not so many days of peaceful happiness and peace for the spouses: troubles followed one after another: the invasions of Mamai, Tokhtamysh and the Lithuanian prince Olgerd, the Horde captivity of Vasily's son, pestilence and internecine strife.
In August 1380, Evdokia accompanied her beloved husband to the Battle of Kulikovo. Praying incessantly, she looked in tears after the army from the window of her tower, which stood at the Spassky Gate, asking God to grant her the happiness of seeing her husband again. From the window of the same tower, she looked at the road, waiting for her husband with victory. Fate gave them nine more years of life: the right-believing Prince Dimitry Donskoy passed away to the Lord on May 19, 1389. The Church celebrates his memorial day on May 19/June 1.
The inconsolable Evdokia was left a widow. It was then that she decided to go to the monastery, because nothing else connected her with the world. It remained only to fulfill the covenant of her husband - to raise children and rule with them until they come of age. So Evdokia fell to bear the burden of power, and her reign had another terrible test. In the formidable year of 1395, Tamerlane marched on Moscow. And then Evdokia ordered the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God to be transferred to Moscow, and she herself met her with the people on the Kuchkov field, where the Sretensky Monastery was later founded. Muscovites remembered the Grand Duchess as a kind and compassionate woman: she helped the poor, rebuilt their houses after a fire, buried the poor, gave money.
Then she founded the Ascension Monastery in the Kremlin, intending to take tonsure in it. Wanting to devote the rest of her life to God and withdraw from the world, Evdokia secretly prepared herself for this fate, spending the nights in prayer and fasting. Carefully hiding her preparations, she dressed in magnificent expensive clothes so that the thinness of her emaciated body would not be noticeable, she always appeared in public cheerful, and no one could discern her deep sorrow. The Grand Duchess began to be condemned for a too pleasurable life after the death of her husband, and even the children were suspicious of their mother until she revealed the truth to them, ordering them to keep it in the strictest confidence. No one knew about the secret intention of Evdokia until the time came for him to be fulfilled.
A temple has risen
There is no reliable information about the exact date of the founding of the Ascension Monastery. Under the Ascension Monastery, Evdokia gave her Kremlin halls: it was founded on the place where, according to legend, the Grand Duchess escorted her husband to Kulikovo Field and where she met him with victory. By the time of the tonsure of its founder, the monastery was already sufficiently equipped and ready to receive the holy nun. There was a wooden cathedral in honor of the Ascension of the Lord, and cells were built in the former grand ducal chambers given to the monastery.Shortly before her death, Evdokia received a vision of the Archangel Michael. It was said that when she saw the bright angel, she suddenly fell into muteness. Others said that by this time she had already lost her speech from a serious illness. Archangel Michael, who announced to Evdokia about his imminent death, ordered her to write his image. When the miraculous vision ended, Evdokia showed by signs that the image of the Archangel Michael should be painted and three times rejected the painted icons as unreliable, until they brought such an image in which she recognized the messenger who had appeared - and speech returned to her, which was considered proof of the truth of the image.
Another legend says that the Grand Duchess did not recognize Archangel Michael in the messenger, and after the vision she ordered to write the image of an angel. Three times they brought her a painted icon, she bowed to the image, but asked to write a new one, because the depicted angel did not look like the one who appeared to her. And then the icon painter painted the canonical image of the Archangel Michael. When he was shown to Princess Evdokia, she immediately recognized the one who appeared to her, and regained the ability to speak. She first placed this icon in the church in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin at her Kremlin chambers, and then donated it to the Archangel Cathedral, where she still stands as a temple icon in the iconostasis to the right of the royal doors. In front of this image, they prayed to the holy archangel for the health and healing of the sick, according to the ancient custom, placing candles as large as the height of the sick.
After a miraculous vision, the Grand Duchess retired to a monastery. When she was walking from her palace to the Ascension Monastery, on the way she met a blind man who had seen Evdokia in a dream the day before, saying that tomorrow he would receive healing from her. With this, he approached the Grand Duchess: “You promised me healing. It's time to fulfill the promise." Evdokia, without stopping, lowered her sleeve. The blind man grabbed it, put it to his eyes and received his sight. And many more people were healed on the way of the Grand Duchess to the monastery.
In the monastery, she took monastic vows under the name of Euphrosyne and a few days later she ordered the stone Ascension Cathedral to be laid in place of the wooden one. Having lived in monasticism for only a few weeks, on July 7/20, 1407, Saint Eudoxia peacefully reposed in the Lord. In front of the eyes of the Muscovites who crowded in the Kremlin to honor the memory of their beloved ruler, a candle lit up by her coffin by itself. Then, healings were performed more than once at the tomb and candles miraculously lit up. The holy nun Euphrosyne began to be revered as the patroness of Moscow. The Church honors her memory on May 17/30 and July 7/20.
The construction of the stone Ascension Cathedral was continued by St. Eudoxia's daughter-in-law, Grand Duchess Sofia Vitovtovna, who became the wife of Vasily I. The monastery often burned in Moscow fires, and in the middle of the 15th century the cathedral was still unfinished. In 1467, the widow of Vasily II, Grand Duchess Maria Yaroslavna, who decided after the death of her husband to take tonsure in the Ascension Monastery, ordered the famous master Vasily Yermolin to dismantle the old cathedral to the ground and build a new one in its place. However, an experienced architect preserved the ancient building, only re-laying the charred vaults and covering the walls with new brick. This restoration of the Ascension Cathedral is considered by some historians to be the very first in Rus'.
The restored Ascension Cathedral stood for a relatively long time. Only in 1518, Grand Duke Vasily III ordered his beloved Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin to build a new cathedral on the site of the old one, so the Ascension Cathedral was built by the same architect who built the Archangel Cathedral. Under Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, the Ascension Cathedral was rebuilt as an exact architectural copy (“replica”) of the Archangel Cathedral. This is how Boris Godunov, whose sister, Irina, was the wife of Fyodor Ioannovich, strengthened his position at court. Boyar Godunov tried in every way to emphasize his kinship with the royal family, and since the Archangel Cathedral was a tomb for kings, and Voznesensky was for queens, the royal brother-in-law ordered the construction of a female tomb as a copy of the sovereign, equal to her in status.
The decoration of the Ascension Cathedral has not been preserved. The only thing left of it is the iconostasis, which after the revolution was transferred to the Kremlin Cathedral in the name of the Twelve Apostles. This explains the strange fact that the temple image in the iconostasis of the cathedral in the name of the Twelve Apostles is dedicated to the Ascension of Christ, and not to his disciples. The magnificent baroque iconostasis that has survived to this day was completed rather late - at the very end of the 17th century and in the style of its era. Decorated with Flemish "flaming" carvings, it symbolically represented the Garden of Eden. Skillfully carved chiseled fruits and flowers symbolized eternal flowering and paradise abundance, and the vine was a symbol of Christ himself. To the left of the Royal Doors is the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God, the patroness of the Romanov dynasty. In March 1613, nun Martha blessed her son, Mikhail Romanov, with the Feodorovskiy icon to reign. The images of the upper row of the iconostasis, copied from the illustrations of the Dutch Bible, are dedicated to the Passion of Christ.
The shrine of the Ascension Cathedral was the ancient image of the Mother of God "Hodegetria" ("Guide"). According to legend, Princess Evdokia herself saved him from the fire during the invasion of Tokhtamysh in 1382. Exactly one hundred years later, this icon burned down, and then the famous icon painter Dionysius wrote a new image of the Mother of God on the burnt board. On great holidays, this icon was carried out to meet the tsar and the patriarch, and they kissed it at the gates of the monastery. (In our time, the image is stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery).
In the 1730s, two chapels were built in the Ascension Cathedral, and both of them were in memory of royal persons. The first, Uspensky chapel, was founded by the brother of Empress Praskovya Feodorovna, who was the wife of Ivan Alekseevich, co-ruler of Peter I. Another chapel in the name of the Joy of All Who Sorrow icon was built by Empress Anna Ioannovna in memory of her own sister Praskovya Ivanovna, daughter of Ivan Alekseevich and Praskovya Feodorovna. Already in 1737, the monastery burned down in a great fire, and the Empress ordered to restore it. Since then, the monastery has had a special celebration of the icon of the Mother of God "The Burning Bush", revered as a protector from fiery disaster. This celebration took place on the first Sunday after the Sunday of All Saints.
By the time of the revolution, there were three churches in the Ascension Monastery: the Ascension Cathedral, the church in the name of St. Michael Malein with a chapel in the name of Theodore of Perga, and the church in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine. It is believed that the wooden St. Michael's Church was founded by the nun Martha herself, the mother of the first Romanov, who at the end of her life settled in the Ascension Monastery: this church was consecrated in the name of the heavenly patron Mikhail Fedorovich, and the chapel - in the name of the heavenly patron of his father, Patriarch Filaret, who wore name Fedor. Therefore, on the temple icon, the holy warrior was depicted in bishop's clothes. In 1634, the famous architect Bazhen Ogurtsov built a stone church on the site of a wooden one, and another relic of Moscow was transferred to it - a sculptural image of St. George the Victorious, executed by Vasily Yermolin. Previously, it stood at the Spassky Gate.
On the site of the ancient church in the name of Saints Athanasius and Cyril, which Dimitry Donskoy ordered to be erected in memory of the day of his wedding, a church was erected in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine, revered patroness of women in childbirth and children. The first throne in the monastery in the name of St. Catherine was consecrated in 1586, but an independent stone church appeared a hundred years later. So Princess Ekaterina Alekseevna, daughter of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, fulfilled her and her father's vow after the miracle shown to her family by the holy great martyr. When the first wife of the tsar, Maria Miloslavskaya, was expecting the birth of a new child, and the sovereign was hunting near Moscow, not going far from home, St. Catherine appeared to him in a dream and announced the birth of his daughter. The newborn was named Catherine, the sovereign appointed the Kremlin Catherine Church at the Terem Palace for the wedding of princesses, and his daughter later erected a temple in the Ascension Convent in the name of her heavenly guardian.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the church was so dilapidated that it was decided to demolish it. The well-known architect I. Egotov drafted a new temple. However, in 1808, Emperor Alexander I personally ordered that the new Catherine's Church be built by the Italian architect Carl Rossi, who worked hard in St. Petersburg. What was the reason for such a decision of the emperor, who did not like this architect? The talent and authority of this master were so great that the sovereign entrusted him with the construction of the temple, consecrated in the name of the heavenly patroness of his beloved sister, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna. The tsar's wish was fulfilled: Karl Rossi drafted the Catherine's Church in a Gothic style unusual for Moscow. The temple was consecrated only in 1817, and decorated with donations from the emperor.
All Russian sovereigns did not forget the Ascension Monastery and brought gifts to it - after all, their mothers, wives, sisters, daughters rested within its walls ...
Eternal peace
The Ascension Monastery was a burial place for women of the royal family. According to legend, Princess Evdokia herself wanted it to be so. Previously, the spouses and daughters of the Grand Dukes were buried in the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor. There is another version: at first no one thought of turning the monastery into a tomb, but first Evdokia herself was buried in the Ascension Cathedral, then her daughter-in-law Sofya Vitovtovna, and then the idea arose to bury crowned women here, because the cramped Spassky Cathedral was much less suitable for this than Ascension Monastery.
The women's tomb was in many ways similar to the sovereign's in the Archangel Cathedral. Firstly, the status of the buried: in both tombs, not only rulers were buried, but also related princes and princesses, many of whom ended their lives in disgrace. Secondly, there was a similarity in the order of the tombs. In the temple-tomb, the most honorable place of burial was the altar part. It was followed by the south side, turned towards the Holy Land. The north side was considered the least honorable in the tomb. They were buried in one or another part of the cathedral, depending on the status of the deceased. In the Archangel Cathedral, the most honorable place in the altar was given to the tombs of Ivan the Terrible and his sons.
And since there could not be female tombs in the altar part, the southern wall became the most honorable place in the tomb of the Ascension Monastery. Here, in a silver reliquary, the relics of St. Evdokia rested. Next to her was buried the wife of the deposed Tsar Vasily Shuisky, Maria (in monasticism Elena), who ended her life in the Ivanovo Monastery on Kulishki. This mysterious burial remained inexplicable for a long time, until scientists came to the conclusion that the Shuisky family descended from the father of Evdokia, Prince Dmitry of Suzdal. That is why the former queen was given the most honorable place after the founder of the monastery.
Anastasia Romanova, the first and beloved wife of Ivan the Terrible, his mother Elena Glinskaya, Evdokia Streshneva, the second wife of Mikhail Fedorovich, the wives of Alexei Mikhailovich, Maria Miloslavskaya and Natalia Naryshkina, the mother of Peter I, who asked her son to be released from prison before her death, were also buried near the southern wall. captives and forgive debtors government debts. The Byzantine princess Sophia Palaiologos, the second wife of Grand Duke Ivan III, was also buried here. And the wife of Fyodor Ioannovich, Tsaritsa Irina, turned out to be the only one of the Godunov family, whose burial place remained inside the Kremlin walls. Her brother, as you know, was carried out with blasphemy from the Archangel Cathedral on the orders of False Dmitry I and buried in the Moscow Varsonofevsky Monastery, where only the poor and the homeless were buried. Only Vasily Shuisky ordered him to be buried in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
The disgraced princesses were buried near the northern wall of the Ascension Cathedral. One of them, Elena Voloshanka, wife of Ivan the Young - the eldest son of Ivan III from his first wife: she incurred the wrath of her father-in-law by being convicted of adherence to heresy. Euphrosyne Staritskaya and Princess Evdokia, mother and wife of Prince Vladimir Andreevich, who was a cousin of Ivan the Terrible, are also buried here. Recall that this was a boyar nominee-pretender for the throne of Moscow, and Grozny did not tolerate such rivalry and hated the staritsa rulers. Their graves were located on the aisle, without tombstones, so that they were trampled underfoot. The tsar subjected the burial of Vladimir Staritsky himself in the Archangel Cathedral to a similar fate: having buried him in the least honorable part of the cathedral, Grozny forbade writing an epitaph on his tomb.
Near the northern wall of the Ascension Cathedral, the noblewoman Ulyana, the mother of Anastasia Romanova, the first wife of Ivan the Terrible, was also buried. After the death of the first Russian tsarina, she took the tonsure in this monastery with the name Anastasia in memory of her beloved daughter, whom she survived for 17 years. The mother-in-law of the Terrible belonged to the boyar family and therefore rested in a less honorable part of the tomb. The last to be buried here was Praskovya Ivanovna, the sister of Empress Anna Ioannovna, who died in 1731.
Before military campaigns or wanderings on a pilgrimage, the sovereigns went not only to the Archangel Cathedral, but also to the Ascension Monastery - to bow to the ashes of their mothers. Sovereigns also came here during Great Lent, and on Easter they laid red eggs on the tombs - a symbol of the Resurrection of Christ.
royal monastery
The remarkable history of the ancient monastery was closely connected with the life of the Kremlin, and with the fate of Moscow and Russia. Almost a hundred years after its foundation, the monastery was overshadowed by a great miracle that entered the annals and traditions of Russian history. In 1521, the Crimean Khan Mehmet Giray marched on Moscow. The city began to prepare for the siege, and Muscovites sent prayers for salvation. Rostov Archbishop John shut himself up in the Cathedral of the Assumption for prayer, and near the cathedral at its gates, the Holy Fool Basil the Blessed also prayed. Suddenly, he heard a great noise, and saw how the doors of the temple opened, and a voice came from the Vladimir icon: “For the sins of people, I will leave this city with the Russian miracle workers by command of my Son.” And the saint saw how the Vladimir icon immediately left its place, and the temple was filled with fire. And a revelation was given to the saint that the Lord would have mercy on Moscow only through the prayers of His Most Pure Mother.
At the same time, another revelation was revealed to a blind nun of the Ascension Monastery. During the conciliar prayer, she miraculously saw how the Saints of Moscow Peter, Alexy, Jonah and Leonty of Rostov come out of the Spassky Gates to the sound of bells and carry with them the miraculous Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. And St. Sergius of Radonezh and Varlaam Khutynsky come to meet them from Ilyinka and ask them not to leave the city. Together they performed a prayer in front of the Vladimir icon and returned with it to the Kremlin. At that very hour the enemy retreated from Moscow. After the vision, the nun received her sight and, having lived in her cell for two more years, she departed to the Lord. And the Spassky Gate, according to legend, since then began to be revered as saints.
The Ascension Monastery was under the patronage of Russian rulers and was considered royal: its abbesses could enter the grand duchesses and queens without a report. Many of his nuns themselves belonged to the royal family. It was here that the nun Martha spent the rest of her life - in the world Maria Nagaya, the last wife of Ivan the Terrible and the mother of the faithful Tsarevich Dimitri. From Uglich she was brought here by False Dmitry I, so that in front of all the people she would “recognize” her own son in him, and placed her in the monastery with royal honors. The nun recognized the impostor as her son, then publicly renounced him and repented. As a former queen, she was nevertheless buried in the Kremlin tomb. In the Ascension Monastery, False Dmitry imprisoned the daughter of Boris Godunov, Princess Xenia.
After the victory over the Time of Troubles in 1613, another nun Martha, the mother of the first Romanov, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, settled in the Ascension Monastery. A Russian coat of arms was erected over her cell, which meant that the mother of the ruling sovereign lives here. She spent 18 years here at rest, embroidering temple shrouds, veils and vestments for priests. Evdokia Lopukhina, the first wife of Peter the Great, also lived here for several years. After her grandson Peter II ascended the Russian throne in 1727, the disgraced empress was transferred with royal honors to the Ascension Convent from the Shlisselburg Fortress. However, three years later, Peter II died of smallpox. There were rumors that the throne was offered to Evdokia, but she refused it and ended her days in the Novodevichy Convent, where she was laid to rest.
According to ancient tradition, the betrothed sovereign's brides stayed in the Ascension Convent until the wedding. Elena Voloshanka, the daughter of the Moldavian ruler Stefan, lived here before her wedding. But most of all I remember Marina Mniszek, the bride of False Dmitry I, who impressed Muscovites from the first minutes of her appearance in the Kremlin. The people crowded around the Kremlin walls, wanting to see their future ruler. When the carriage of the sovereign's bride stopped at the gates of the Ascension Monastery, Polish musicians from her retinue burst out a national song, horrifying the eyewitnesses. In front of all the people, Maria Nagaya came out to meet her and assigned a part of her private quarters to the future "daughter-in-law". Everyone thought that Mnishek would be preparing to accept the Orthodox faith before the wedding. However, the proud Polish woman did not like the stay in the monastery, and she announced this to the groom. A Polish cook immediately appeared in the monastery, followed by dancers and musicians, who did their best to amuse the "royal bride", and then, as a sign of special tenderness, a chest with jewelry was sent from the treasury. Muscovites hated Marina Mnishek from those first days of her stay in the Russian capital.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the nun Irina Mstislavskaya settled in the Ascension Monastery. Her ambitious brother Fyodor Mstislavsky, the future head of the Seven Boyars, set out to divorce Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich from Irina Godunova and captivate him with his sister. Then many close boyars were attracted by the idea of persuading Fyodor Ioannovich, who did not have a son-heir, to follow the example of his ancestor Vasily III: send his “barren” wife to a monastery, and marry himself a second time, and offered him Irina Mstislavskaya as a bride. The tsar flatly refused to cheat on his wife, and the Mstislavskys incurred the indescribable wrath of Godunov. Irina was tonsured a nun at the Ascension Monastery, where she died in 1639. With the death of the nun, the Mstislavsky family ended, for her brother Fyodor never had children.
The Ascension Monastery remained the abode of the highest status. It was richer than all the women's monasteries, only Novodevichy was equal to it, where the royal wives and daughters also monastics. Novodevichy, consecrated in honor of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, was nicknamed so to distinguish it from the old Kremlin monastery for the august nuns. Sometimes legends call Alekseevsky or Zachatievsky monasteries “Starodevichy”, but this is not so: their nuns did not have such an origin.
On the patronal feast, the patriarch always served in the Ascension Convent, and, according to custom, the nuns were sent holiday pies, fish and honey from the palace. The inhabitants sewed clothes for members of the royal house, were engaged in needlework for palace use, embroidered napkins or towels, wove lace, and even prepared their favorite dishes for queens and princesses. There was also a school for noble girls, where they were taught literacy, etiquette, needlework and church singing. The “decorated willow”, which was made by the nuns of the Ascension Convent, was especially famous in Moscow. These were bunches of willow, decorated with decorative flower garlands, fruits and figurines made of wax. Muscovites celebrated Palm Sunday with such bouquets, and a trip to the Ascension Monastery for willows was a real holiday for children. The tradition of wax willow lasted for a century and survived the invasion of Napoleon.
The Ascension Monastery survived the French invasion, and the abbess managed to take the sacristy to Vologda. French soldiers broke into the monastery and completely plundered everything that was left in it. In the cathedral, straw was piled for horses and barrels of wine were placed, and a bakery was set up in the Catherine's Church. There was little destruction compared to other temples. The priest of the Ascension Monastery, Ivan Yakovlev, even managed to hide the relics of St. Tsarevich Demetrius in the monastery cathedral. He found them lying next to the reliquary in the desecrated Archangel Cathedral and, wrapping them in a shroud, secretly brought them to the Ascension Monastery.
And the legend says that schismatics stole the relics of the blessed prince from the Archangel Cathedral, taking advantage of the opportunity when the Kremlin and its churches were occupied by the enemy and no one cared about the fate of the shrines. And as if on the way, the schismatic, secretly carrying out the relics, met with a priest from the Ascension Monastery. He took away her precious burden, although he was badly beaten, and hid it in the Ascension Cathedral behind the iconostasis. It was said that he died from beatings, but before his death he managed to tell another priest where he hid the holy relics of the prince. And after the victory, they were again laid to rest in the Archangel Cathedral.
In 1907, the 500th anniversary of the repose of its reverend founder was celebrated at the Ascension Convent. After the festive divine service, a religious procession set off from the monastery to Red Square, in which Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, the founder of the Moscow Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, also marched. She presented a golden lamp and flower garlands to the tomb of St. Euphrosyne. It was one of the last celebrations in the life of the Ascension Monastery.
Last hour
The Ascension Monastery suffered greatly during the November battles for the Kremlin: the walls and domes of its churches were destroyed by shells. Bishop Nestor of Kamchatka, who visited the Kremlin the day after it was shelled, saw a murdered cadet on the floor of the Catherine's Church and served lithium at his body. In March 1918, the Bolshevik government moved to Moscow and settled in the Kremlin. Soon the nuns were ordered to leave the monastery: its last nuns, together with the abbess, found temporary shelter at the hospital in Lefortovo. They managed to secretly, under robes, take out the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, utensils and jewelry from the monastery and hide them in the courtyard of the Lavra, but the Bolsheviks conducted a search there and sent the confiscated valuables to the Armory. And in the Gothic church in the name of St. Catherine, they even arranged a gym.
The last hour of the Ascension Monastery struck in 1929. He died along with the Miracle Monastery, when they cleared the territory for the construction of the Military School. VTsIK. The director of the Lenin Library, V.I. Nevsky, later shot by the Bolsheviks. Scientists managed to achieve the transfer of white-stone coffins from the tomb to the basement of the Archangel Cathedral, where they remain to this day. According to legend, when the sarcophagus of St. Eudoxia was raised, it split. And when they opened the coffin of Martha Sobakina, the third wife of Ivan the Terrible, to everyone's amazement they saw a completely preserved body, as if the queen was sleeping. The scientists “had an idea” that she was poisoned, and the poison contributed to such a good preservation of the remains, but as soon as the air touched the body, it instantly crumbled to dust, so it was not possible to study it.
In the same 1929, the Ascension Monastery was blown up. Experts say that it was then that dynamite was used for the first time to destroy temples. All his churches perished, including Catherine's, which remained the only surviving creation of Karl Rossi in Moscow. On the site of the monastery, the architect I. Rerberg built a bulky building, clumsily stylized as Kremlin classicism, so that it would be in harmony with the neighboring Senate and Arsenal. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR then worked in this building.
In the 1990s, work began on the study of the tombs of the Grand Duchesses and Queens. Now scientists have reliably established that Anastasia Romanova and Elena Glinskaya were indeed poisoned, as popular rumor claimed: a large amount of mercury was found in their remains. It was possible to restore the sculptural portrait of Sophia Paleolog from the skull, which disproved another legend - about the illegitimacy of Ivan the Terrible, since his father Vasily III, the son of Sophia Paleolog, was allegedly barren. The legend was so widespread that even some scholars adhered to this version. When comparing the portraits of the grandmother and grandson, not only similar features were found, but also a special Mediterranean anthropological type was revealed, which was the case with the Greek Sophia Paleolog and Ivan the Terrible. The king could only inherit this type from his grandmother.
And most importantly, they managed to find the relics of St. Euphrosyne of Moscow (Grand Duchess Evdokia). On July 7/20, 2000, on the day of her memory, the Divine Liturgy was served in the Archangel Cathedral, and then for the first time the relics of the saint were taken to the cathedral for public veneration. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, litias are now served at the tombs of the Grand Duchesses.
The Ascension Convent in the Kremlin was founded by Grand Duchess Evdokia, wife of Prince Dmitry Donskoy, in the 14th century. This monastery is in third place in terms of age among the monasteries of Moscow. It was built in memory of the Battle of Kulikovo. The Ascension Monastery in Moscow also became one of the first convents for women.
For more than 20 years, Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy and Princess Evdokia lived in love and harmony, and after the death of her husband, in 1389, the princess decided to enter a monastery. The only thing that stopped Evdokia from fulfilling her decision was her husband's covenant to raise children to adulthood. The widowed princess faced a difficult test. In 1395, the troops of Tamerlane marched on Moscow, and the princess ordered that the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God be transferred to Moscow. Together with the inhabitants of Moscow, Evdokia met the icon on the Kuchkov field, later the Sretensky Monastery was founded on this place. The ruler was well known among the people: she helped the needy, rebuilt residential buildings after a fire, sometimes beggars were buried at her expense.
Having begun the construction of the Ascension Monastery in the Kremlin, the princess was going to devote the rest of her days to God. Evdokia kept a strict fast, and spent her nights in prayer, secretly preparing for her tonsure. So that others would not know anything about her plans, the princess wore magnificent outfits in public, hiding her thinness, she was cheerful and cheerful. Such behavior often caused not only misunderstanding, but also condemnation - after all, not much time had passed after the death of her husband. As soon as she revealed her secret to her children, she took from them the word to keep it.
The exact date of the founding of the Ascension Convent in Moscow has not been established. According to legend, the monastery appeared at the place where the princess escorted her husband to the Battle of Kulikovo, and met him with victory, for the construction of the monastery, Evdokia gave part of her chambers. By the time Princess Evdokia was ready to take tonsure, the monastery had already been equipped: the cells were located in the former princely chambers, the Cathedral of the Ascension of the Lord was built. The last years before the tonsure, the princess was seriously ill. There is a legend that at that time the Archangel Michael appeared to her, after which Evdokia miraculously recovered, and then retired to the monastery.
Another legend says that on the way to the Ascension Convent, the princess met a blind man, to whom Evdokia appeared in a dream the day before and promised healing. With this request, the blind man turned to Evdokia, and she gave him a sleeve without stopping. The blind man put it to his eyes and immediately regained his sight, like many ailments encountered on the path of the princess.
Princess Evdokia was tonsured under the name of Euphrosyne, and in the very first days of her monastic life she ordered the construction of a stone Ascension Cathedral to replace the wooden one. The monastic life of the nun Euphrosyne did not last long. A few weeks after her tonsure, in July 1407, Saint Eudoxia died. It is said that a candle kindled by itself at her coffin, and all those present witnessed this miracle. Saint Euphrosyne began to be revered as the patroness of Moscow, and the church celebrates her day on May 17/30 and July 7/20.
Since Evdokia failed to complete the construction of the Ascension Cathedral, it was continued by the daughter-in-law of the princess - Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna, who married Vasily I. The Ascension Monastery often suffered from fires, so by the middle of the 15th century the cathedral was never completed. In 1467, Princess Maria Yaroslavna, the widow of Prince Vasily II, ordered the unfinished cathedral to be dismantled to the ground. And in its place, start building a new one. This work was entrusted to the talented and famous master Vasily Yermolin, who preserved the ancient building only by rebuilding the charred vaults and covering the walls with new brick. We can say that this was the first restoration in Rus'.
After that, the Ascension Cathedral stood for quite a long time. Only in 1518, Grand Duke Vasily III ordered his favorite architect Aleviz Fryazin to replace the old cathedral with a new one. Under Fyodor Ioannovich, the Ascension Cathedral was rebuilt again, as an exact copy of the Archangel Cathedral. This was done not just like that, but with a certain meaning. The fact is that the sister of the boyar Boris Godunov, Irina, was the wife of Fyodor Ioannovich, and Godunov wanted in every possible way to demonstrate his closeness to the royal family. The Archangel Cathedral was the tomb of the kings, and the Voznesensky - of the queens, so the king's brother-in-law ordered to build a female tomb with a copy of the sovereign.
The interior decoration of the Ascension Cathedral has not survived to this day, only the iconostasis has survived, which after the revolution of 1917 was transferred to the Kremlin Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles. The iconostasis was made in the Baroque style at the end of the 17th century, decorated with flemish carvings symbolizing the Garden of Eden. The carving of amazing finesse represents fruits and flowers, which mean paradise abundance, and the vine is a symbol of Christ. Among the shrines of the Ascension Cathedral was the ancient image of Our Lady Hodegetria (Guide). It is believed that Princess Evdokia herself saved him from the fire during the Tokhtamysh invasion in 1382. Now this icon is in the State Tretyakov Gallery.
In the 30s of the 18th century, the Assumption Cathedral was equipped with a chapel and a chapel in the name of the Joy of All Who Sorrow icon.
By the beginning of the 20th century, there were three temples in the Ascension Monastery: the Ascension Cathedral, the Church of St. Michael Malein and the Church in honor of the Great Martyr Catherine, which was built in the 17th century on the site of the ancient church of Saints Athanasius and Cyril (in honor of the marriage of Dmitry Donskoy and Evdokia).
The history of Catherine's Church is quite interesting. By the 19th century, it was so dilapidated that they wanted to demolish it, and the then popular architect Yegotov even drafted a new temple. But in 1808, Emperor Alexander I ordered that the new Catherine Church be built by the Italian architect Carl Rossi, who had not previously enjoyed the favor of the emperor, and worked in St. Petersburg. But the talent and universal recognition of this architect were so great that it was he who was chosen by the emperor for the construction of a temple in honor of the heavenly patroness of his sister Ekaterina Pavlovna. Karl Rossi created the cathedral, completely uncharacteristic for Moscow - in the Gothic style. The new church was consecrated in 1817. The interior decoration was made with funds provided by the emperor. It should be noted that throughout the entire period of its existence, the monastery was generously presented, it was among the richest and most respected monasteries in Moscow.
Recall that the Ascension Monastery also served as a burial place for women of the royal family. Perhaps Princess Evdokia herself bequeathed that this be done, because before her the daughters and wives of the Grand Dukes were buried in the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor. And, perhaps, after Evdokia and her daughter-in-law Sophia were buried in the Ascension Cathedral, in view of the crampedness of the Spassky Cathedral, it was decided to bury crowned women in this place. Here also found the last shelter related to the great princes of the specific rulers. Depending on the lifetime status of the deceased, he was buried in one place or another in the cathedral. The most honorable part is the altar, then the south side followed, which was turned towards the Holy Land, the north side was considered the least honorable.
The women's tomb was in many ways similar to the sovereign's in the Archangel Cathedral. Firstly, the status of the buried: in both tombs, not only rulers were buried, but also related princes and princesses, many of whom ended their lives in disgrace. Secondly, there was a similarity in the order of the tombs. In the temple-tomb, the most honorable place of burial was the altar part. It was followed by the south side, turned towards the Holy Land. The north side was considered the least honorable in the tomb. They were buried in one or another part of the cathedral, depending on the status of the deceased. In the Archangel Cathedral, the most honorable place in the altar was given to the tombs of Ivan the Terrible and his sons. But there was a rule that women were not buried in the altar, so for women the most honorable was the south side of the temple. It was near this wall that the relics of St. Evdokia rested in a silver reliquary, Maria Shuiskaya (the wife of the deposed Tsar Vasily Shuisky), who, according to historians, began her family from Father Evdokia, and Anastasia Romanova, the first and most beloved wife of Ivan the Terrible, were buried here and other famous women.
Disgraced princesses who fell into disfavor through their own fault, or through the fault of their husbands and fathers, were buried at the northern wall of the cathedral. These burials include the grave of Efrosinya Staritskaya from the Staritsky family, who competed with Ivan the Terrible for the Russian throne. As you know, Ivan the Terrible hated the Staritskys so much that they were ordered to be buried in the aisles and without tombstones, so that those passing by trampled on the graves with their feet.
Before important military campaigns, long journeys, before going on a pilgrimage, the Grand Dukes worshiped the ashes of their fathers in the Archangel Cathedral, and mothers in the Ascension Cathedral. On major church holidays it was also customary to visit these cathedrals.
Being under the patronage of the rulers, the Ascension Monastery was considered royal and its abbesses had the privilege of entering the grand duchesses and queens without a report. And some of the nuns themselves belonged to the royal family. Here Maria Nagaya (nun Martha) spent the rest of her days - the last wife of Ivan the Terrible and the mother of Tsarevich Dimitri. The mother of the first tsar of the Romanov family, Martha, was also a nun of the Ascension Monastery; here, the daughter of Boris Godunov, Princess Xenia, was imprisoned by False Dmitry.
According to the tradition established in ancient times, the sovereign's brides after their betrothal were in the Ascension Monastery before the wedding. Marina Mnishek, the wife of False Dmitry I, also lived here for some time. The nuns of the Ascension Monastery sewed clothes for members of the royal family, embroidered napkins and towels for the royal household, wove lace, and sometimes cooked the favorite dishes of the queens. In addition, at the monastery there was a school for girls from noble families, in which they were taught literacy, etiquette, and church singing. The nuns of the Ascension Monastery were also famous for making “decorated willow” - decorative willow branches with wax decorations, fruits, figurines and garlands.
During the Napoleonic invasion, the abbess of the Ascension Monastery managed to take the sacristy to Vologda, so the most important values escaped desecration and looting. Despite. That the monastery was occupied by French soldiers, it was better preserved than other Moscow monasteries and was almost not damaged. The monastery priest Ivan Yakovlev even managed to hide the relics of the holy Tsarevich Dimitri here, which he found in the desecrated Archangel Cathedral.
In 1907, the Ascension Monastery celebrated the 500th anniversary of the death of its reverend founder. And after 1917, the fate of the monastery changed dramatically. In November 1917, during the battles for the Kremlin, many walls and domes of its churches were destroyed. In March, the new Bolshevik government moved into the Kremlin, and the nuns were ordered to leave the monastery. Inokini and the abbess temporarily stopped at the Lefortovo hospital. Leaving the monastery, they managed to secretly take out the icon of the Mother of God under the clothes of Kazansuk, as well as some valuables, hiding them in the Lavra courtyard. However, the authorities carried out a search, found the treasures and sent them to the Kremlin Armory. A gym was equipped in the church of St. Catherine.
In 1929, the Ascension Monastery was destroyed along with Chudov. On this territory, it was decided to build a military school. VTsIK. Despite the active intercession of the director of the Lenin Library V.I. Nevsky, the monasteries were destroyed, and Nevsky himself was later shot. The few that scientists managed to save were white-stone coffins, which were transferred to the Archangel Cathedral. According to the stories, when the coffin of Marfa Sobakina (the third wife of Ivan the Terrible) was opened, they saw a completely preserved body, which crumbled to dust, as soon as the air touched it. It is believed that the state of the remains is due to the fact that the queen was poisoned by some kind of poison. The Ascension Monastery was completely blown up - not even St. Andrew's Church remained - the only creation of Rossi in Moscow.
In the 1990s of the 20th century, scientists began to study the preserved tombs with the remains transported from the Ascension Monastery. The result of this research activity was a number of interesting discoveries, some of which radically changed the view of history. For example, it was found that Anastasia Romanova and Elena Glinskaya were poisoned - mercury was found in large quantities in their remains. In addition, data were found confirming the legitimacy of the birth of Ivan the Terrible, which was subject to doubt. But the most important event was the discovery of the relics of the Grand Duchess Evdokia, St. Euphrosyne of Moscow.
Historical reference:
14th century - the Ascension Convent was founded in the Kremlin
July 1407 - the founder of the Ascension Monastery, St. Eudokia, died
1467 - Princess Maria Yaroslavna, widow of Prince Vasily II, ordered the renovation of the Ascension Cathedral
1518 - Grand Duke Vasily III ordered the architect Aleviz Fryazin to replace the old cathedral with a new one
1817 - Karl Rossi built a new Catherine's Cathedral on the territory of the monastery
1929 - Ascension Monastery was blown up
1990 - scientists began to study the preserved tombs with the remains transported from the Ascension Monastery
The Kremlin Ascension Monastery was one of the first convents in Moscow. Only two Moscow monasteries - Zachatievsky and Rozhdestvensky - were a little older than him, but they were also founded in the same XIV century: the Nativity monastery on the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin was founded by the mother of Prince Vladimir Serpukhovsky, the hero of the Kulikovo battle, in memory of the glorious and great victory won by Russians on the Kulikovo field.
The Grand Duchess Evdokia, the wife of the Grand Warrior Prince, the faithful Dimitry Donskoy, also built a church in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin at her Kremlin chambers, in order to have such a church near her and be inseparable from him. A small white cupola with a golden dome of this miraculously preserved temple is still clearly visible from Mokhovaya Street against the backdrop of the Grand Kremlin Palace. A little later, Evdokia founded the Ascension Monastery in the Kremlin in memory of the victory sent down and of her husband. In this monastery, she was going to take the tonsure herself.
Saint Evdokia, one of the great women of Russia, was the daughter of Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Suzdal. Her father honored Russian antiquity: it was for him that the monk Lavrenty compiled the famous Laurentian Chronicle. The times were troubling. Rus' was tormented by internecine strife, relations with Moscow were restlessly developing: the Suzdal prince sought a great reign for himself, but after the Moscow Grand Duke Dimitri Ioannovich provided him with military assistance in specific strife, their reconciliation took place. This peace was to be consolidated by some significant event - a testament to reconciliation and a pledge of peace in the future. And then the Suzdal prince married his daughter Evdokia to the Grand Duke Dimitri Ioannovich. The bride was only 13 years old, the groom was in his eighteenth year. The wedding took place on January 18/31, 1367, on the feast of Saints Athanasius and Cyril, Patriarchs of Alexandria. In memory of this, the Grand Duke ordered that a wooden church in the name of Saints Athanasius and Cyril be erected at the Spassky Gates (then still Frolovsky) of the Kremlin.
Portrait of Evdokia. Reconstruction by S. Nikitin
This marriage became one of the happiest in the history of Russia. However, there were not so many days of peaceful happiness and peace for the spouses: troubles followed one after another: the invasions of Mamai, Tokhtamysh and the Lithuanian prince Olgerd, the Horde captivity of Vasily's son, pestilence and internecine strife.
In August 1380, Evdokia accompanied her beloved husband to the Battle of Kulikovo. Praying incessantly, she looked in tears after the army from the window of her tower, which stood at the Spassky Gate, asking God to grant her the happiness of seeing her husband again. From the window of the same tower, she looked at the road, waiting for her husband with victory. Fate gave them nine more years of life: the right-believing Prince Dimitry Donskoy passed away to the Lord on May 19, 1389. The Church celebrates his memorial day on May 19/June 1.
The inconsolable Evdokia was left a widow. It was then that she decided to go to the monastery, because nothing else connected her with the world. It remained only to fulfill the covenant of her husband - to raise children and rule with them until they come of age. So Evdokia fell to bear the burden of power, and her reign had another terrible test. In the formidable year of 1395, Tamerlane marched on Moscow. And then Evdokia ordered the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God to be transferred to Moscow, and she herself met her with the people on the Kuchkov field, where the Sretensky Monastery was later founded. Muscovites remembered the Grand Duchess as a kind and compassionate woman: she helped the poor, rebuilt their houses after a fire, buried the poor, gave money.
Then she founded the Ascension Monastery in the Kremlin, intending to take tonsure in it. Wanting to devote the rest of her life to God and withdraw from the world, Evdokia secretly prepared herself for this fate, spending the nights in prayer and fasting. Carefully hiding her preparations, she dressed in magnificent expensive clothes so that the thinness of her emaciated body would not be noticeable, she always appeared in public cheerful, and no one could discern her deep sorrow. The Grand Duchess began to be condemned for a too pleasurable life after the death of her husband, and even the children were suspicious of their mother until she revealed the truth to them, ordering them to keep it in the strictest confidence. No one knew about the secret intention of Evdokia until the time came for him to be fulfilled.
There is no reliable information about the exact date of the founding of the Ascension Monastery. Under the Ascension Monastery, Evdokia gave her Kremlin halls: it was founded on the place where, according to legend, the Grand Duchess escorted her husband to Kulikovo Field and where she met him with victory. By the time of the tonsure of its founder, the monastery was already sufficiently equipped and ready to receive the holy nun. There was a wooden cathedral in honor of the Ascension of the Lord, and cells were built in the former grand ducal chambers given to the monastery.
F. Ya. Alekseev. Spassky Gate and Ascension Monastery in the Kremlin. 1800s
Shortly before her death, Evdokia received a vision of the Archangel Michael. It was said that when she saw the bright angel, she suddenly fell into muteness. Others said that by this time she had already lost her speech from a serious illness. Archangel Michael, who announced to Evdokia about his imminent death, ordered her to write his image. When the miraculous vision ended, Evdokia showed by signs that the image of the Archangel Michael should be painted and three times rejected the painted icons as unreliable, until they brought such an image in which she recognized the messenger who had appeared - and speech returned to her, which was considered proof of the truth of the image.
Another legend says that the Grand Duchess did not recognize Archangel Michael in the messenger, and after the vision she ordered to write the image of an angel. Three times they brought her a painted icon, she bowed to the image, but asked to write a new one, because the depicted angel did not look like the one who appeared to her. And then the icon painter painted the canonical image of the Archangel Michael. When he was shown to Princess Evdokia, she immediately recognized the one who appeared to her, and regained the ability to speak. She first placed this icon in the church in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin at her Kremlin chambers, and then donated it to the Archangel Cathedral, where she still stands as a temple icon in the iconostasis to the right of the royal doors. In front of this image, they prayed to the holy archangel for the health and healing of the sick, according to the ancient custom, placing candles as large as the height of the sick.
After a miraculous vision, the Grand Duchess retired to a monastery. When she was walking from her palace to the Ascension Monastery, on the way she met a blind man who had seen Evdokia in a dream the day before, saying that tomorrow he would receive healing from her. With this, he approached the Grand Duchess: “You promised me healing. It's time to fulfill the promise." Evdokia, without stopping, lowered her sleeve. The blind man grabbed it, put it to his eyes and received his sight. And many more people were healed on the way of the Grand Duchess to the monastery.
In the monastery, she took monastic vows under the name of Euphrosyne and a few days later she ordered the stone Ascension Cathedral to be laid in place of the wooden one. Having lived in monasticism for only a few weeks, on July 7/20, 1407, Saint Eudoxia peacefully reposed in the Lord. In front of the eyes of the Muscovites who crowded in the Kremlin to honor the memory of their beloved ruler, a candle lit up by her coffin by itself. Then, healings were performed more than once at the tomb and candles miraculously lit up. The holy nun Euphrosyne began to be revered as the patroness of Moscow. The Church honors her memory on May 17/30 and July 7/20.
Ascension Cathedral (1588). Drawing from the beginning of the 19th century.
The construction of the stone Ascension Cathedral was continued by St. Eudoxia's daughter-in-law, Grand Duchess Sofia Vitovtovna, who became the wife of Vasily I. The monastery often burned in Moscow fires, and in the middle of the 15th century the cathedral was still unfinished. In 1467, the widow of Vasily II, Grand Duchess Maria Yaroslavna, who decided after the death of her husband to take tonsure in the Ascension Monastery, ordered the famous master Vasily Yermolin to dismantle the old cathedral to the ground and build a new one in its place. However, an experienced architect preserved the ancient building, only re-laying the charred vaults and covering the walls with new brick. This restoration of the Ascension Cathedral is considered by some historians to be the very first in Rus'.
The restored Ascension Cathedral stood for a relatively long time. Only in 1518, Grand Duke Vasily III ordered his beloved Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin to build a new cathedral on the site of the old one, so the Ascension Cathedral was built by the same architect who built the Archangel Cathedral. Under Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, the Ascension Cathedral was rebuilt as an exact architectural copy (“replica”) of the Archangel Cathedral. This is how Boris Godunov, whose sister, Irina, was the wife of Fyodor Ioannovich, strengthened his position at court. Boyar Godunov tried in every way to emphasize his kinship with the royal family, and since the Archangel Cathedral was a tomb for kings, and Voznesensky was for queens, the royal brother-in-law ordered the construction of a female tomb as a copy of the sovereign, equal to her in status.
The decoration of the Ascension Cathedral has not been preserved. The only thing left of it is the iconostasis, which after the revolution was transferred to the Kremlin Cathedral in the name of the Twelve Apostles. This explains the strange fact that the temple image in the iconostasis of the cathedral in the name of the Twelve Apostles is dedicated to the Ascension of Christ, and not to his disciples. The magnificent baroque iconostasis that has survived to this day was completed rather late - at the very end of the 17th century and in the style of its era. Decorated with Flemish "flaming" carvings, it symbolically represented the Garden of Eden. Skillfully carved chiseled fruits and flowers symbolized eternal flowering and paradise abundance, and the vine was a symbol of Christ himself. To the left of the Royal Doors is the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God, the patroness of the Romanov dynasty. In March 1613, nun Martha blessed her son, Mikhail Romanov, with the Feodorovskiy icon to reign. The images of the upper row of the iconostasis, copied from the illustrations of the Dutch Bible, are dedicated to the Passion of Christ.
Iconostasis of the Ascension Cathedral transferred to the Church of the Twelve Apostles
The shrine of the Ascension Cathedral was the ancient image of the Mother of God "Hodegetria" ("Guide"). According to legend, Princess Evdokia herself saved him from the fire during the invasion of Tokhtamysh in 1382. Exactly one hundred years later, this icon burned down, and then the famous icon painter Dionysius wrote a new image of the Mother of God on the burnt board. On great holidays, this icon was carried out to meet the tsar and the patriarch, and they kissed it at the gates of the monastery. (In our time, the image is stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery).
In the 1730s, two chapels were built in the Ascension Cathedral, and both of them were in memory of royal persons. The first, Uspensky chapel, was founded by the brother of Empress Praskovya Feodorovna, who was the wife of Ivan Alekseevich, co-ruler of Peter I. Another chapel in the name of the Joy of All Who Sorrow icon was built by Empress Anna Ioannovna in memory of her own sister Praskovya Ivanovna, daughter of Ivan Alekseevich and Praskovya Feodorovna. Already in 1737, the monastery burned down in a great fire, and the Empress ordered to restore it. Since then, the monastery has had a special celebration of the icon of the Mother of God "The Burning Bush", revered as a protector from fiery disaster. This celebration took place on the first Sunday after the Sunday of All Saints.
By the time of the revolution, there were three churches in the Ascension Monastery: the Ascension Cathedral, the church in the name of St. Michael Malein with a chapel in the name of Theodore of Perga, and the church in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine. It is believed that the wooden St. Michael's Church was founded by the nun Martha herself, the mother of the first Romanov, who settled in the Ascension monastery at the end of her life: this church was consecrated in the name of the heavenly patron Mikhail Fedorovich, and the chapel - in the name of the heavenly patron of his father, Patriarch Filaret, who wore name Fedor. Therefore, on the temple icon, the holy warrior was depicted in bishop's clothes. In 1634, the famous architect Bazhen Ogurtsov built a stone church on the site of a wooden one, and another relic of Moscow was transferred to it - a sculptural image of St. George the Victorious, executed by Vasily Yermolin. Previously, it stood at the Spassky Gate.
View in the courtyard of the Ascension Monastery. On the left the church of St. Mikhail Malein
On the site of the ancient church in the name of Saints Athanasius and Cyril, which Dimitry Donskoy ordered to be erected in memory of the day of his wedding, a church was erected in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine, revered patroness of women in childbirth and children. The first throne in the monastery in the name of St. Catherine was consecrated in 1586, but an independent stone church appeared a hundred years later. So Princess Ekaterina Alekseevna, daughter of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, fulfilled her and her father's vow after the miracle shown to her family by the holy great martyr. When the first wife of the tsar, Maria Miloslavskaya, was expecting the birth of a new child, and the sovereign was hunting near Moscow, not going far from home, St. Catherine appeared to him in a dream and announced the birth of his daughter. The newborn was named Catherine, the sovereign appointed the Kremlin Catherine Church at the Terem Palace for the wedding of princesses, and his daughter later erected a temple in the Ascension Convent in the name of her heavenly guardian.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the church was so dilapidated that it was decided to demolish it. The well-known architect I. Egotov drafted a new temple. However, in 1808, Emperor Alexander I personally ordered that the new Catherine's Church be built by the Italian architect Carl Rossi, who worked hard in St. Petersburg. What was the reason for such a decision of the emperor, who did not like this architect? The talent and authority of this master were so great that the sovereign entrusted him with the construction of the temple, consecrated in the name of the heavenly patroness of his beloved sister, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna. The tsar's wish was fulfilled: Karl Rossi drafted the Catherine's Church in a Gothic style unusual for Moscow. The temple was consecrated only in 1817, and decorated with donations from the emperor.
Ascension Monastery in the Moscow Kremlin. Catherine's Church. On the right is the church of Mikhail Malein
All Russian sovereigns did not forget the Ascension Monastery and brought gifts to it - after all, their mothers, wives, sisters, daughters rested within its walls ...
The Ascension Monastery was a burial place for women of the royal family. According to legend, Princess Evdokia herself wanted it to be so. Previously, the spouses and daughters of the Grand Dukes were buried in the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor. There is another version: at first no one thought of turning the monastery into a tomb, but first Evdokia herself was buried in the Ascension Cathedral, then her daughter-in-law Sofya Vitovtovna, and then the idea arose to bury crowned women here, because the cramped Spassky Cathedral was much less suitable for this than Ascension Monastery.
The women's tomb was in many ways similar to the sovereign's in the Archangel Cathedral. Firstly, the status of the buried: in both tombs, not only rulers were buried, but also related princes and princesses, many of whom ended their lives in disgrace. Secondly, there was a similarity in the order of the tombs. In the temple-tomb, the most honorable place of burial was the altar part. It was followed by the south side, turned towards the Holy Land. The north side was considered the least honorable in the tomb. They were buried in one or another part of the cathedral, depending on the status of the deceased. In the Archangel Cathedral, the most honorable place in the altar was given to the tombs of Ivan the Terrible and his sons.
And since there could not be female tombs in the altar part, the southern wall became the most honorable place in the tomb of the Ascension Monastery. Here, in a silver reliquary, the relics of St. Evdokia rested. Next to her was buried the wife of the deposed Tsar Vasily Shuisky, Maria (in monasticism Elena), who ended her life in the Ivanovo Monastery on Kulishki. This mysterious burial remained inexplicable for a long time, until scientists came to the conclusion that the Shuisky family descended from the father of Evdokia, Prince Dmitry of Suzdal. That is why the former queen was given the most honorable place after the founder of the monastery.
Anastasia Romanova, the first and beloved wife of Ivan the Terrible, his mother Elena Glinskaya, Evdokia Streshneva, the second wife of Mikhail Fedorovich, the wives of Alexei Mikhailovich, Maria Miloslavskaya and Natalia Naryshkina, the mother of Peter I, who asked her son to be released from prison before her death, were also buried near the southern wall. captives and forgive debtors government debts. The Byzantine princess Sophia Palaiologos, the second wife of Grand Duke Ivan III, was also buried here. And the wife of Fyodor Ioannovich, Tsaritsa Irina, turned out to be the only one of the Godunov family, whose burial place remained inside the Kremlin walls. Her brother, as you know, was carried out with blasphemy from the Archangel Cathedral on the orders of False Dmitry I and buried in the Moscow Varsonofevsky Monastery, where only the poor and the homeless were buried. Only Vasily Shuisky ordered him to be buried in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
The disgraced princesses were buried near the northern wall of the Ascension Cathedral. One of them, Elena Voloshanka, the wife of Ivan the Young - the eldest son of Ivan III from his first wife: she incurred the wrath of her father-in-law by being convicted of adherence to heresy. Euphrosyne Staritskaya and Princess Evdokia, mother and wife of Prince Vladimir Andreevich, who was a cousin of Ivan the Terrible, are also buried here. Recall that this was a boyar nominee-pretender for the throne of Moscow, and Grozny did not tolerate such rivalry and hated the staritsa rulers. Their graves were located on the aisle, without tombstones, so that they were trampled underfoot. The tsar subjected the burial of Vladimir Staritsky himself in the Archangel Cathedral to a similar fate: having buried him in the least honorable part of the cathedral, Grozny forbade writing an epitaph on his tomb.
Near the northern wall of the Ascension Cathedral, the noblewoman Ulyana, the mother of Anastasia Romanova, the first wife of Ivan the Terrible, was also buried. After the death of the first Russian tsarina, she took the tonsure in this monastery with the name Anastasia in memory of her beloved daughter, whom she survived for 17 years. The mother-in-law of the Terrible belonged to the boyar family and therefore rested in a less honorable part of the tomb. The last to be buried here was Praskovya Ivanovna, the sister of Empress Anna Ioannovna, who died in 1731.
Before military campaigns or wanderings on a pilgrimage, the sovereigns went not only to the Archangel Cathedral, but also to the Ascension Monastery - to bow to the ashes of their mothers. Sovereigns also came here during Great Lent, and on Easter they laid red eggs on the tombs - a symbol of the Resurrection of Christ.
Interior of the Church of St. Catherine of the Ascension Monastery
The remarkable history of the ancient monastery was closely connected with the life of the Kremlin, and with the fate of Moscow and Russia. Almost a hundred years after its foundation, the monastery was overshadowed by a great miracle that entered the annals and traditions of Russian history. In 1521, the Crimean Khan Mehmet Giray marched on Moscow. The city began to prepare for the siege, and Muscovites sent prayers for salvation. Rostov Archbishop John shut himself up in the Cathedral of the Assumption for prayer, and near the cathedral at its gates, the Holy Fool Basil the Blessed also prayed. Suddenly, he heard a great noise, and saw how the doors of the temple opened, and a voice came from the Vladimir icon: “For the sins of people, I will leave this city with the Russian miracle workers by command of my Son.” And the saint saw how the Vladimir icon immediately left its place, and the temple was filled with fire. And a revelation was given to the saint that the Lord would have mercy on Moscow only through the prayers of His Most Pure Mother.
At the same time, another revelation was revealed to a blind nun of the Ascension Monastery. During the conciliar prayer, she miraculously saw how the Saints of Moscow Peter, Alexy, Jonah and Leonty of Rostov come out of the Spassky Gates to the sound of bells and carry with them the miraculous Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. And St. Sergius of Radonezh and Varlaam Khutynsky come to meet them from Ilyinka and ask them not to leave the city. Together they performed a prayer in front of the Vladimir icon and returned with it to the Kremlin. At that very hour the enemy retreated from Moscow. After the vision, the nun received her sight and, having lived in her cell for two more years, she departed to the Lord. And the Spassky Gate, according to legend, since then began to be revered as saints.
Ascension Monastery. On the right in the foreground, the Ascension Cathedral is visible, behind it is the Catherine's Church, on the left is the Church of St. Mikhail Malein. Photo from the end of the 19th century.
The Ascension Monastery was under the patronage of Russian rulers and was considered royal: its abbesses could enter the grand duchesses and queens without a report. Many of his nuns themselves belonged to the royal family. It was here that the nun Martha spent the rest of her life - in the world Maria Nagaya, the last wife of Ivan the Terrible and the mother of the faithful Tsarevich Dimitri. From Uglich she was brought here by False Dmitry I, so that in front of all the people she would “recognize” her own son in him, and placed her in the monastery with royal honors. The nun recognized the impostor as her son, then publicly renounced him and repented. As a former queen, she was nevertheless buried in the Kremlin tomb. In the Ascension Monastery, False Dmitry imprisoned the daughter of Boris Godunov, Princess Xenia.
After the victory over the Time of Troubles in 1613, another nun Martha, the mother of the first Romanov, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, settled in the Ascension Monastery. A Russian coat of arms was erected over her cell, which meant that the mother of the ruling sovereign lives here. She spent 18 years here at rest, embroidering temple shrouds, veils and vestments for priests. Evdokia Lopukhina, the first wife of Peter the Great, also lived here for several years. After her grandson Peter II ascended the Russian throne in 1727, the disgraced empress was transferred with royal honors to the Ascension Convent from the Shlisselburg Fortress. However, three years later, Peter II died of smallpox. There were rumors that the throne was offered to Evdokia, but she refused it and ended her days in the Novodevichy Convent, where she was laid to rest.
According to ancient tradition, the betrothed sovereign's brides stayed in the Ascension Convent until the wedding. Elena Voloshanka, the daughter of the Moldavian ruler Stefan, lived here before her wedding. But most of all I remember Marina Mniszek, the bride of False Dmitry I, who impressed Muscovites from the first minutes of her appearance in the Kremlin. The people crowded around the Kremlin walls, wanting to see their future ruler. When the carriage of the sovereign's bride stopped at the gates of the Ascension Monastery, Polish musicians from her retinue burst out a national song, horrifying the eyewitnesses. In front of all the people, Maria Nagaya came out to meet her and assigned a part of her private quarters to the future "daughter-in-law". Everyone thought that Mnishek would be preparing to accept the Orthodox faith before the wedding. However, the proud Polish woman did not like the stay in the monastery, and she announced this to the groom. A Polish cook immediately appeared in the monastery, followed by dancers and musicians, who did their best to amuse the "royal bride", and then, as a sign of special tenderness, a chest with jewelry was sent from the treasury. Muscovites hated Marina Mnishek from those first days of her stay in the Russian capital.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the nun Irina Mstislavskaya settled in the Ascension Monastery. Her ambitious brother Fyodor Mstislavsky, the future head of the Seven Boyars, set out to divorce Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich from Irina Godunova and captivate him with his sister. Then many close boyars were attracted by the idea of persuading Fyodor Ioannovich, who did not have a son-heir, to follow the example of his ancestor Vasily III: send his “barren” wife to a monastery, and marry himself a second time, and offered him Irina Mstislavskaya as a bride. The tsar flatly refused to cheat on his wife, and the Mstislavskys incurred the indescribable wrath of Godunov. Irina was tonsured a nun at the Ascension Monastery, where she died in 1639. With the death of the nun, the Mstislavsky family ended, for her brother Fyodor never had children.
The Ascension Monastery remained the abode of the highest status. It was richer than all the women's monasteries, only Novodevichy was equal to it, where the royal wives and daughters also monastics. Novodevichy, consecrated in honor of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, was nicknamed so to distinguish it from the old Kremlin monastery for the august nuns. Sometimes legends call Alekseevsky or Zachatievsky monasteries “Starodevichy”, but this is not so: their nuns did not have such an origin.
On the patronal feast, the patriarch always served in the Ascension Convent, and, according to custom, the nuns were sent holiday pies, fish and honey from the palace. The inhabitants sewed clothes for members of the royal house, were engaged in needlework for palace use, embroidered napkins or towels, wove lace, and even prepared their favorite dishes for queens and princesses. There was also a school for noble girls, where they were taught literacy, etiquette, needlework and church singing. The “decorated willow”, which was made by the nuns of the Ascension Convent, was especially famous in Moscow. These were bunches of willow, decorated with decorative flower garlands, fruits and figurines made of wax. Muscovites celebrated Palm Sunday with such bouquets, and a trip to the Ascension Monastery for willows was a real holiday for children. The tradition of wax willow lasted for a century and survived the invasion of Napoleon.
The Ascension Monastery survived the French invasion, and the abbess managed to take the sacristy to Vologda. French soldiers broke into the monastery and completely plundered everything that was left in it. In the cathedral, straw was piled for horses and barrels of wine were placed, and a bakery was set up in the Catherine's Church. There was little destruction compared to other temples. The priest of the Ascension Monastery, Ivan Yakovlev, even managed to hide the relics of St. Tsarevich Demetrius in the monastery cathedral. He found them lying next to the reliquary in the desecrated Archangel Cathedral and, wrapping them in a shroud, secretly brought them to the Ascension Monastery.
And the legend says that schismatics stole the relics of the blessed prince from the Archangel Cathedral, taking advantage of the opportunity when the Kremlin and its churches were occupied by the enemy and no one cared about the fate of the shrines. And as if on the way, the schismatic, secretly carrying out the relics, met with a priest from the Ascension Monastery. He took away her precious burden, although he was badly beaten, and hid it in the Ascension Cathedral behind the iconostasis. It was said that he died from beatings, but before his death he managed to tell another priest where he hid the holy relics of the prince. And after the victory, they were again laid to rest in the Archangel Cathedral.
In 1907, the 500th anniversary of the repose of its reverend founder was celebrated at the Ascension Convent. After the festive divine service, a religious procession set off from the monastery to Red Square, in which Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, the founder of the Moscow Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, also marched. She presented a golden lamp and flower garlands to the tomb of St. Euphrosyne. It was one of the last celebrations in the life of the Ascension Monastery.
The Ascension Monastery suffered greatly during the November battles for the Kremlin: the walls and domes of its churches were destroyed by shells. Bishop Nestor of Kamchatka, who visited the Kremlin the day after it was shelled, saw a murdered cadet on the floor of the Catherine's Church and served lithium at his body. In March 1918, the Bolshevik government moved to Moscow and settled in the Kremlin. Soon the nuns were ordered to leave the monastery: its last nuns, together with the abbess, found temporary shelter at the hospital in Lefortovo. They managed to secretly, under robes, take out the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, utensils and jewelry from the monastery and hide them in the courtyard of the Lavra, but the Bolsheviks conducted a search there and sent the confiscated valuables to the Armory. And in the Gothic church in the name of St. Catherine, they even arranged a gym.
The last hour of the Ascension Monastery struck in 1929. He died along with the Miracle Monastery, when they cleared the territory for the construction of the Military School. VTsIK. The director of the Lenin Library, V.I. Nevsky, later shot by the Bolsheviks. Scientists managed to achieve the transfer of white-stone coffins from the tomb to the basement of the Archangel Cathedral, where they remain to this day. According to legend, when the sarcophagus of St. Eudoxia was raised, it split. And when they opened the coffin of Martha Sobakina, the third wife of Ivan the Terrible, to everyone's amazement they saw a completely preserved body, as if the queen was sleeping. The scientists “had an idea” that she was poisoned, and the poison contributed to such a good preservation of the remains, but as soon as the air touched the body, it instantly crumbled to dust, so it was not possible to study it.
Transfer of the remains of the Grand Duchesses and Empresses before the destruction of the Ascension Monastery. 1929
In the same 1929, the Ascension Monastery was blown up. Experts say that it was then that dynamite was used for the first time to destroy temples. All his churches perished, including Catherine's, which remained the only surviving creation of Karl Rossi in Moscow. On the site of the monastery, the architect I. Rerberg built a bulky building, clumsily stylized as Kremlin classicism, so that it would be in harmony with the neighboring Senate and Arsenal. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR then worked in this building.
In the 1990s, work began on the study of the tombs of the Grand Duchesses and Queens. Now scientists have reliably established that Anastasia Romanova and Elena Glinskaya were indeed poisoned, as popular rumor claimed: a large amount of mercury was found in their remains. It was possible to restore the sculptural portrait of Sophia Paleolog from the skull, which disproved another legend - about the illegitimacy of Ivan the Terrible, since his father Vasily III, the son of Sophia Paleolog, was allegedly barren. The legend was so widespread that even some scholars adhered to this version. When comparing the portraits of the grandmother and grandson, not only similar features were found, but also a special Mediterranean anthropological type was revealed, which was the case with the Greek Sophia Paleolog and Ivan the Terrible. The king could only inherit this type from his grandmother.
And most importantly, they managed to find the relics of St. Euphrosyne of Moscow (Grand Duchess Evdokia). On July 7/20, 2000, on the day of her memory, the Divine Liturgy was served in the Archangel Cathedral, and then for the first time the relics of the saint were taken to the cathedral for public veneration. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, litias are now served at the tombs of the Grand Duchesses.
The article is posted on an Orthodox resource, and therefore its tone is appropriate. But it doesn't change the essence.
21.06.2013 8428
The Ascension Cathedral in the city of Yelets is one of the largest Orthodox churches in Russia, the pride and decoration not only of the city, but of the entire Lipetsk and Yelets diocese. It was built "in Yelets" - on a grand scale! At the beginning of the XX century. Aleksei Konstantinovich Voskresensky, the author of a book on the history and culture of Yelets, wrote: “If a visitor enters the temple, he will stop amazed at its threshold: the enormous size of the temple and its wonderful magnificence will tell him that it would be more fitting for this temple to occupy one of the most prominent places among the churches of the capitals of the Russian Empire, rather than being among a populous, but still provincial county town.
The cathedral was built according to the project of the famous Russian architect Konstantin Andreevich Ton in the Russian-Byzantine style. The creation of K.A. Tone personified in architecture the state idea that dominated at that time and united Russia “Autocracy. Orthodoxy. Nationality." and emphasized the connection of Russian culture and statehood with Orthodox Byzantium.
The three-dimensional and compositional construction of the cathedral is traditional: from the eastern part, three semicircles of altars adjoin the huge cube of the five-domed summer temple, covered with a four-pitched roof and placed on a high white stone basement; from the west - a one-story refectory with two aisles to the height of the first tier of the cathedral. The composition is completed from the west by the lower tier of the unfinished bell tower, which serves as a vestibule. The vertical of the bell tower with a canopy porch above the northern and southern porches remained unfinished (according to the project, the bell tower dominating in the development of the city should have had 4 more tiers, and its height would have been 115 ars, or 82 m). The temple has three naves and four pillars. Four cruciform temple pillars carry a central octagonal dome cut along the edges by high windows with semicircular endings. In the upper part of the head there is a cornice decorated with a belt of square widths. The lower part of the domes and the upper belt of the temple cube are decorated with a belt of keeled kokoshniks. The central dome is crowned with an onion top with a gilded cross on a cross ball. Small cupolas at the corners of the quadrangle repeat the main one in a reduced form. The cube of the temple is divided by an interfloor belt in the form of a simplified entablature, torn in the center of a three-part facade, divided by built-in three-quarter and semi-columns of a simplified Tuscan-Doric order. The corners of the temple are also fixed with three-quarter columns. In the upper tier of the temple, each of the strands is cut through by large windows, in the middle part - double, with arched lintels and decorated with architraves with columns along the edges and baroque endings - ochels in the form of cartouches. The architectural design of the refectory, covered by two slopes, is similar to that of the temple.
All design elements of the Ascension Cathedral - kokoshniks at the bases of the drums of the domes and the completion of the volume of the temple, the bulbs of the domes, the porch-canopy, bunches of semi-columns, lush frames of the architraves - have direct analogues in the architecture of Rus'. Nevertheless, the classical upbringing of the author is felt in the excessive correctness of all the proportions of the building, which is why the architectural decoration of the temple creates the effect of decoration.
The Ascension Cathedral perfectly "holds" the development of the central part of Yelets, collects it together with the scattered verticals of the city's temples into one whole. The cathedral is valuable both as the most important element of the town-planning structure of Yelets, and as an example of the high building culture of Russia in the middle of the 19th century.
During the years of Soviet stagnation, the cathedral suffered less than other temples, retaining its beauty and grandeur. Today, the panorama of Yelets and its spiritual life cannot be imagined without the cathedral church of the Ascension of the Lord, which, like the city, has an interesting history.
The Voznesensky parish, which at the beginning of its history was not a cathedral, most likely arose in the 1680s, since the temple in the name of the Ascension of Christ is not yet listed in the census book of V. Sukhotin in 1678, but was first mentioned in the scribe and boundary book of Tikhon Kamynin 1691-1693. In 1745, the Ascension Church was damaged by fire, after which it was "renewed and decorated."
By renewal, apparently, the construction in the next 1746 of a new stone church in the name of the Ascension of Christ is meant, as indicated by the historian of the Oryol diocese G.M. Pyasetsky, referring to the unpreserved statements of the temple for 1783. At that time, the Church of the Ascension "had" scribe land in three areas - 90 acres on the Don River, 40 acres in common ownership with the city Assumption Church near the city of Yelets and a plot of land in common ownership with the Yelets coachmen, who did not allow the clergy to use the land, as a result of which in 1789 the controversial case was considered in the Upper Zemstvo Court. In the parish near the Ascension Church during the specified period, according to confessional records, there were 126 households.
Fragment of the plan of the city of Yelets ca. 1795 1 - Ascension Cathedral Church, 2 - Assumption Church, 3 - Resurrection "old" Cathedral, 4 - Vvedenskaya Church, 5 - chapel on the grave of the Yelchans who died in 1395 during the invasion of Tamerlane
By 1760, the Church of the Ascension of Christ was already considered ancient, and the refectory church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was then extremely "dilapidated and with crevices in the walls." At the same time, at the request of the merchant Semyon Epifanevich Kalashnikov, by a decree from the Voronezh Ecclesiastical Consistory of June 13, 1760, it was allowed to build a new, larger church with aisles of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Demetrius of Rostov, as well as a new stone bell tower. A decree from the Voronezh Spiritual Consistory, with the blessing of His Grace Cyril, for the construction was issued on June 13, 1760, and the laying of a new refectory church with a bell tower was made by Archpriest Athanasius Kozmin of Yelets on June 11 of the same year. Soon the construction was completed, and in 1772, due to the "crowding" of the Resurrection Cathedral, the status of the cathedral church of Yelets was transferred to the Ascension Church.
The location, size and layout of the Ascension Church can be judged by its depiction on the Yelets plan of 1809, where even before the construction of the new cathedral, the site of the proposed construction and the old Ascension Church are shown.
In 1804, in the church, in addition to the main altar in honor of the Ascension of the Lord, there were warm chapels “St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Dimitry of Rostov and the Mother of God of Smolensk" - on the second floor of the refectory.
There is a legend that in ancient times there was a cemetery and a temple in the name of Sts. Kirik and Julita. I.I. wrote about this. Uklein and E.I. Nazarov, who referred to the memoirs of the old-timer I.I. Isaev. In 1967, under the rectorship of Archimandrite Isaac (Vinogradov), in memory of this temple, “zealots of the native Yelets antiquity” even built a kiot with the icon of the holy martyrs, which is now on the right side of the cathedral refectory. However, none of the documents of the 17th or 18th century known today church of sts. Kirik and Julita are not mentioned.
Reconstruction of the Red Square of Yelets at the beginning. 19th century Silhouettes highlight the Ascension Cathedral and the Assumption Church, on the site of which the construction of a new cathedral was supposed. Rice. A.V. Novoseltseva
Being at the beginning of the XIX century. As the main temple of the rapidly developing Yelets, the Ascension Church no longer corresponded to the “blooming state of the city” and did not satisfy the purpose of the cathedral church. Therefore, the issue of building a new stone cathedral church was raised in 1800, and then, at the initiative of the church head Fyodor Safronovich Popov, fundraising began for “a new cathedral church that was vast in size and beautiful in architecture.” Immediately after the decision to build a new cathedral was made, ktitor F.S. Popov began to prepare stone for construction. In 1815, the headman Vasily Stepanovich Petrov asked the diocesan authorities to collect a corded book, which His Grace Dositheus, Bishop Orlovsky, issued to collect donations for the construction of the cathedral. Until 1821, only 10,000 rubles were collected.
The first project of the new cathedral church of Yelets was developed in 1824 in the style of "Italian architecture". . In terms of the plan, the temple was supposed to have dimensions of 104x39 m, but things did not go beyond the approval of the project by Bishop Gabriel of Oryol. Meanwhile, the collection of money for the construction, although slowly, continued.
In 1841, the Kharkiv architect Dailov completed a new project in the "Byzantine and partly Italian taste", which was presented to the Oryol bishop on February 26 of the same year. On March 16, the project was approved by the Oryol provincial construction commission, after which it was sent to the Synod. On June 11, 1841, the Holy Synod listened to the “report of His Grace Evlampiy, Bishop of Orlovsky, received on June 2, 1841, who requested permission to build in the city of Yelets instead of a dilapidated and incapable new stone cathedral.” At the same time, the drawings approved by the Orel Provincial Construction Commission were considered and transferred to the next authority - the Commission for Projects and Estimates of the Main Directorate of Communications and Public Buildings. There, on August 25, 1841, the new project of the Yelets Cathedral received the following assessment: “The size of the onago, according to the attached scale, is enormous, in no way inconsistent with the number of parishioners of 814 souls, of which only half can be considered by regular visitors to the cathedral.” According to the project, the dimensions of the cathedral were to be: “the length of the church itself ... is 31, the width is 11 and 16 sazhens, and the height with the head is 22 sazhens. The length and width of the bell tower is 10, and the height is 32 fathoms; doors with a height of 8.5, a width of 3 arshins. What dimensions, in comparison with other churches and with the space needed for real need, are so huge that it must be assumed that the scale is not applied to these drawings. Moreover, the methods for construction ... do not represent the possibility of making such a huge undertaking. Thus, the commission doubted the correctness of the scale attached to the drawings and the possibility of building such a large temple in Yelets, although, as history has shown, in reality the building of the cathedral was built even larger. The commission expressed doubts about the possibility of raising the funds necessary for the construction and, as an example, cited a church built in St. Petersburg with a length of 25 bell tower and a width of 12 sazhens, which took almost half a million rubles in banknotes. The estimate for the construction of the cathedral church of Yelets according to the proposed project was 564,256 rubles.
It would seem that the second failure with the project should have cooled the construction ardor of the Yelsk residents. However, it is not for nothing that there are legends about the grip and assertiveness of Yelets merchants. Apparently, their desire to build a new cathedral in their native city, and not just any, but in such a way that the provincial cities would become envious, backed up, as they say now, with “financial opportunities”, was so great that the issue was nevertheless resolved in the best for Yelets sense.
On September 29, 1841, Chief Prosecutor and Knight Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Protasov, at a meeting of the Synod, proposed to return the unapproved project and complete a new one with an estimate attached to it. As a result, the commission rejected the project of the Kharkov architect Danilov and recommended “when redesigning the project ... by the highest command, exactly observe the ancient Byzantine style, taking into account the drawings published to this end by the architect Ton.”
In the meantime, in 1841, the merchant Ivan Gerasimovich Petrov (1798-1862) was elected to the cathedral. The new cathedral warden went to Moscow in May 1842 to ask K.A. Ton - the architect of the Court of His Imperial Majesty - to complete the design of the cathedral church for Yelets. History has not preserved the details of their conversation, but, apparently, the arguments of the Yelsk residents, who decided to distract the famous architect, who was treated kindly by the orders of the imperial court and the nobility of the capital, from his affairs, were weighty ... Soon the question of the place where the cathedral church was built and the architectural project was resolved. By June 23, 1843 K.A. Ton developed a project for the cathedral, and on June 27 this year it was presented to the Holy Synod.
As expected, the project was approved in all instances and approved by the highest authority on November 25, 1843. At the same time, Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich ordered "the architect Konstantin Ton to be declared royal favor for the beauty of this project."
According to the project of K. Ton, the total length of the cathedral building was 132 arshins, including the bell tower 19 arshins, the refectory and temple 38 and 48 arshins, respectively, the main altar - 14 arshins. The height of the temple with the cross - 105 arshins (74 m) - was more than one and a half times the height of the temple according to the previously rejected project. The height of the bell tower with the cross was to be 115 arshins. According to the estimate drawn up at the same time, the construction of the temple in a rough draft without finishing was 210,521 rubles. 44.5 kop. The full estimate assumed costs in the amount of 564,256 rubles. banknotes, and the construction of the cathedral according to the plan was to be completed in 7 years. Bricks for construction were required 10,430,000 pieces.
The Synod, returning on December 31, 1843 to Bishop Evlampiy of Oryol the estimate and the highest approved project, recommended “due to the enormity and importance of the proposed work” to create “a construction committee of trustworthy clerics; the most honorable citizens and an experienced architect”, to provide the committee with instructions and cord books. In addition to the headman, the rector of the Yelets Trinity Monastery, Archimandrite Flavian and the dean of the city, the archpriest of the cathedral Peter Malishevsky, as well as eminent Yelets merchants were appointed to the created committee.
In 1844, the Yelchans petitioned for the establishment of the position of the builder of the cathedral with two assistants instead of the established committee, since it was more convenient for conducting practical work. And on December 10, 1844, the Yelets city society “due to the permission received from the higher authorities to build the cathedral church in the city of Yelets” elected the second guild merchant Ivan Gerasimovich Petrov from Yelets. As assistants - the third guild of the merchant Ivan Larionovich Popov and the merchant's son Ivan Ivanovich Uklein.
By the beginning of construction, only 30 thousand rubles were available, plus an income of 50 dess. land located south of the city - beyond the river. Luchok, while the total estimate was almost 20 times more. In April-July 1844, another 35 thousand rubles were collected.
In March 1845, the builder I.G. Petrov received in Orel a plan, a facade and an estimate for the construction of the cathedral, and at the same time 2 corded books for recording donations. He was the first to sign up for the book and donated 2,000 rubles. banknotes Ivan Gerasimovich himself. His assistant I.L. Popov also donated 2000 rubles for the construction, other donors for three days - 6415 rubles, and the merchant M.I. Lavrov - 10,000 rubles.
The contractor for the stone work on the construction of the cathedral was a former state peasant from the village. Good Bogoslovskaya volost, Vladimir province, Lipetsk merchant of the third guild Faddey Markelovich Shilov. The agreement was concluded on March 17, 1845 with full publicity. The conditions were negotiated in the presence of parishioners, citizens of Yelets from the 60 best houses. Shilov contracted “to build this cathedral church according to the design of the plan and facade approved by the Highest, now presented to him, under the supervision of the architect, by his working people from the material delivered to him from the builder and his assistants, in accordance with all the rules of strength and purity. Start his work this year, after opening the spring in this order:
1st. To dig holes and ditches under the butt measure in depth and width at the direction of the architect to him, Shilov, with his working people, for which, according to the contract, he will receive 76 and 3/4 kopecks. silver for every cubic fathom and roll away from the ditches to the side.
2nd. To fill it with a large wagon stone of five inches thickness or more or less, the price for work from a cubic sazhen is 3 rubles. 14 kop. silver.
3rd. On the plinth, hew stones with good craftsmanship and put the plinth itself in place as it should be in height according to the location and according to the project and purpose of the architect, and if necessary, then make exits with vaults and exit doors under the altars, the price per cubic meter. sazhen 10 rub. silver.
4th. He, Shilov, should make brickwork from the basement to the upper cornice along the vaults in a real church and the same height of the bell tower and the meal up 15 sazhens: for each thousand bricks of state measures or Moscow format put into the case, he, Shilov, will receive 1 ruble . 71 kop. silver.
5th. From this upper building above the 15 sazhens stated above, lay bricks, such as: the vaults of a real temple with five domes and a bell tower up until the end and completion of the entire masonry, without deviating from the project in any way, with all precautions for strength, to get him, Shilova, also, with each thousand bricks laid to him, 3 rubles. silver.
6th. Where on the facade it will be necessary to use white stone, then for the lining of this and the situation, he will receive 28 rubles in place. 1/2 kop. silver.
7th. If something is done by him incorrectly and rework is required, then he will produce it without imposing any special fee for it.
8th. The materials needed in the construction of the church, such as: at the request of his scaffolding, scaffolding, gangs, stiles, scrapers, shovels and crowbars, the builder is obliged to deliver Shilov.
9th. The scaffolding and scaffolding will be arranged for the contractor by his working people, and if, at the end of the work, the builder decides to dismantle them, as he should, then he will do all this without money.
10th. For this construction, he, Shilov, is obliged to have and put at least forty master masons, and when necessary, double their number without delay.
11th. To receive money for his work, Shilov, from the builder and his assistants in this order: when writing this contract, a deposit of 285 r. 71 kop. silver, and then, after the success of the building and at the end of each year of construction, from the amount that he actually earns, receive only three parts, and leave the fourth annually to provide for the church, adding these parts from one year to another until the end of the entire contracted building of the church and bell towers. At the end of the work of the church and the bell tower in proper serviceability of his craftsmanship, when everything turns out to be safe, then you will receive these fourth parts of the money in full in two years.
12th. Bude, he, Shilov, without completing the construction of the church, by the will of God will die, in which case his son-in-law of the Vladimir district, the village of Dobrinsky, the state peasant Avraam Grigoriev son Petrov, who owes the remaining money in providing the church should on the same basis to receive. This contract was approved and reviewed by the civil head Sergei Dmitrievich Rusanov, as a well-wisher zealous for this construction of this temple.
To provide the construction site with water, another contractor, Moscow mechanic Nikolai Skatkin, proposed to arrange a horse-drawn water-lifting machine. Water was supposed to be taken from the springs on the banks of the river. Pines. The productivity of the machine was to be 1000 buckets per hour.
On April 24, 1845, the dismantling of the foundations of the Assumption Church, which had previously stood next to the Ascension Church, “an ancient church that has long since ceased to exist”, was dismantled at the beginning of the 19th century. The new cathedral was supposed to occupy part of the territory of the Ancient Assumption Church. Then they dismantled the bell tower of the old Ascension Church and two aisles of the refectory. Over the next 9 days, the construction site was fully prepared, and earth was poured from the side of the slope, as a result of which the stone chapel on the mass grave of the Yelchans was filled up to half the height, stone steps and a forged canopy were made to descend to it.
On May 15, 1845, the construction of a new Yelets cathedral church began under the supervision of the famous architect Ivan Iosifovich Valpredi, who lived in Voronezh. He marked out the foundations, linking the center line of the cathedral with the axis of Orlovskaya Street.
The solemn laying of the first stone under the apse of the main altar took place on June 29, 1845. At the same time, the military governor of the city of Orel and the civil governor of Orel, Major General Prince P.I. Trubetskoy, who had to deal with the protest of the city architect I.I. Pomerantsev, who did not agree with the “moving” of the cathedral up Orlovskaya Street. The fact is that the builder decided to lay the cathedral a little to the west, since the clergy of the old Ascension Church asked to save the temple part that fell under the construction site in order to continue church services in it during the construction of the new cathedral. In addition, on a slope 37 arshins from the altars of the new temple, “underground trenches opened in different directions, which existed in antiquity and served, probably, as secret passages for the inhabitants of the city of Yelets to the Sosna River during the Mongol invasion, as it was known here and according to legend.” The opened “dungeons” were, most likely, the remains of old cellars on the site of ancient buildings that died in a fire in 1769. Pyasetsky calls them not an underground passage or a hiding place, but “pantry exits in which state-owned various dilapidated military tools have long been placed,” then there are cellars. Later, some of the military supplies stored in the dungeons - "garlic" and "bombs" migrated to the cellars of the Ascension Cathedral built. This kind of cellars of buildings of the XVII - the first half of the XVIII century. with the remains of agricultural products stored in them were discovered in 2005 on Oktyabrskaya Street, not far from Red Square.
At the same time, Governor Trubetskoy “personally examined the place where it was planned to build a cathedral church, and found that on the occasion of the underground exits that once existed near the place where this church was built, it was necessary to start building the church in some deviation from the pits formed there ... deviation from the mentioned the pits brought the building closer to the place of the street.
As a result, Trubetskoy did not heed Pomerantsev's arguments and took responsibility for the violation of the general plan. The laying of the cathedral in a new place took place to the west of the previously proposed place. A memorial copper plaque was laid at its base, which read: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. At the foundation of the Yelets Ascension Cathedral. During the reign of Emperor Nicholas I. In the presence of the Military Governor of the city of Orel, Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Trubetskoy. June 29th, 1845."
Earthworks were carried out quickly, in May-July 1845. In total, 452 cubic fathoms of soil (about four thousand cubic meters) were excavated. In addition to the dungeons on Red Square around the place where two ancient churches stood, ancient burials were unearthed: services are buried in two large graves ... "
However, the architect Valpredi intervened in the process of laying the foundation, who doubted the ability of the contractor to conduct such a large construction project, since Faddey Markelovich Shilov organized the foundations in the old fashioned way. A rubble stone was thrown into the trench and filled with lime mortar. For such a huge building as the Ascension Cathedral was designed, a clearly more durable foundation was required. Valpredi stopped work, ordered all the rubble to be thrown out of the trenches and the walls of the foundations to be erected from hewn “cart” stone. Shilov was removed from further work. Soon he concluded a new contract - this time with the brethren of the Yelets Monastery for the construction of a stone Trinity Cathedral, and although the building was much smaller than the Ascension Cathedral, it collapsed after the construction of the vaults. After that, Faddey Markelovich Shilov died suddenly. And on the construction of the Ascension Cathedral, his place was taken by Makar Andreevich Platonov, a peasant in the Vladimir province. He turned out to be an honest man, an experienced and skilled craftsman. Together with their son Grigory Makarovich, they laid the cathedral for 28 years, completing it with the installation of domes in 1873.
25 thousand pieces of “large cart stone” were laid in the foundation of the cathedral, including from the dismantled foundations of the Assumption and the refectory of the Ascension Church. In total, 50 thousand large stones were laid in the foundation of the cathedral to the ground level.
The ceremonial laying of the cathedral according to the church rank by His Eminence Smaragd, Archbishop of Orlovsky, took place on August 22, 1845 - on the anniversary of the coronation of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich.
At 9 o'clock in the morning the bell announced the beginning of the celebration. At 10 o’clock, with a solemn chime in 17 churches of Yelets, a procession of the clergy with icons to the Church of the Intercession began, where the liturgy was officiated by His Eminence Smaragd, Archbishop Orlovsky, with the archimandrites of the monasteries: Eletsky - Flavian and Zadonsky - Ilarius, the cathedral archpriest and other clergy. After the prayer service, the procession moved to the construction site of the cathedral.
His Eminence Smaragd put a small silver reliquary containing the holy relics into a large cast-iron board with gilded letters and covered them with small tiles. The inscription on the iron plate read: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. At this place, the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord was personally erected, at the foundation of the Cathedral Church, built by the Christ-loving city of Yelets citizens, in the name of the Ascension of Christ the Savior, in the reign of the Most Pious Sovereign Emperor Nicholas 1, His Grace Smaragd, Archbishop of Orel and Sevsky, in the administration of the Oryol province of Governor Peter Ivanovich Trubetskoy, under the Governor of the city of Yelets Georgy Alexandrov Kholodovich, under the Yelets city head Sergiy Dimitriev Rusanov, under the builder of this temple Ivan Gerasimov Petrov, in the presence of a large assembly of the people. In the summer of August 1845, on the 22nd day, in memory of the holy martyr Agathonikos and others like him and the solemn remembrance of the Coronation of His Imperial Majesty. But the one who does this is a good deed, and let him do it for his glory and for the salvation of all Orthodox Christians. The board with the inscription was placed on a stone with a recess in the form of a bowl, in which many different coins were placed.
Then Archbishop Smaragd erected crosses in the places of the five thrones that had to be. At the end of the service, a dinner was held in the Zheludkovs' house for one and a half hundred people, after which there was a collection of donations for the construction of the cathedral. Donated by: S.D. Rusanov - 3,500 rubles, Ya.A. Taldykin - at the age of ten, 175 rubles each, I.G. Petrov - in one year 1000 rubles, I.L. Popov - at the age of eight, 1000 rubles each, P.A. Taldykin - at the age of 10, 105 rubles each, and others, as much as they could - 1,834 rubles. 5 kop. ace. On this day, 623 rubles were put into mugs and plates. 13 kop. ass.
By October 15, 1846, on a rubble base, a plinth was laid out on 2/3 “of wild stone with the proper trim and reinforced with iron brackets. The stones had a length of 1-2 or more arshins and a width and height commensurate with this. In the basement, pillars were arranged for the vault of arches ... up to a million bricks were prepared.
Already in the first year, nine hundred thousand bricks were purchased from various manufacturers for the needs of the construction site. Almost 250,000 bricks and battens, obtained from the dismantling of the bell tower and the refectory of the old Ascension Church, also went into action.
