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The first stone building of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin was founded on August 4, 1326 by the first Moscow Metropolitan, Saint Peter and Prince John Kalita. According to excavations, the new cathedral - the first stone church in Moscow - was built on the site of a previously existing wooden church. The impetus for the construction was the acquisition by Moscow of the status of the capital city.

At the end of the XV century. Grand Duke Ivan III, who united all the Russian principalities under the rule of Moscow, began the creation of his new residence with the reconstruction of the Assumption Cathedral. The temple was dismantled in 1472 to the very foundation, while the relics of St. Peter. The Pskov masters Krivtsov and Myshkin erected a new cathedral, but it collapsed. Then Ivan III invited the architect Aristotle Fioravanti from Italy, under whose leadership the building was built (1475-1479), which still adorns the Moscow Kremlin. Fioravanti was instructed to take the Vladimir Assumption Cathedral as a model - thereby emphasizing the continuity of Moscow in relation to one of the ancient centers of Holy Russia.

In August 1479, Metropolitan Gerontius consecrated the church. The relics of St. Peter, which were in the church of St. John the Theologian during construction, were transferred to the cathedral.

The Assumption Cathedral is a six-pillared, five-domed, five-apse temple. It was built of white stone combined with brick: vaults, drums, the eastern wall above the altar apses, eastern square pillars hidden by the altar barrier; the rest - round - the pillars are also made of brick, but lined with white stone.

The initial paintings of the cathedral were made in the period from 1481 to 1515. The icon painter Dionysius took part in the painting. In 1642-1643. The cathedral was repainted by a group of 150 artists led by the tsarist painters Ivan and Boris Paisein and Sidor Pospeev, but fragments of the original murals have also been preserved, which are the oldest example of fresco painting that has come down to us on the territory of the Kremlin. The iconostasis was created in 1653 by order of Patriarch Nikon. Collection of icons of the XI-XVII centuries. in the Assumption Cathedral is one of the richest in the world. Most of them were written in Moscow for the cathedrals of the XIV and XV centuries, others were brought to Moscow from ancient cities during the period of gathering Russian lands.

ancient monument applied arts in the cathedral - its southern doors (brought to Moscow from the Suzdal cathedral, date back to the beginning of the 15th century); 20 images on biblical themes are written on them in gold on black lacquer.

Since 1326, when St. Peter, and until 1700 the cathedral served as the tomb of the Primates of the Russian Church - metropolitans and patriarchs. In total, the cathedral has 19 tombs located along the walls of the cathedral.

In 1547, the wedding of Ivan IV took place here for the first time. In the cathedral building Zemsky Sobor 1613, in which Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was elected tsar. After the transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg, the cathedral continued to be the place of the coronation of all Russian emperors starting with Peter II.

During Patriotic War 1812 Assumption Cathedral was plundered by Napoleonic troops.

The cathedral received minor damage during the shelling of the Kremlin in November 1917 and next year has been completely restored. In 1918, the Moscow Metropolitan Tikhon was appointed Patriarch here. In the same year, the Assumption Cathedral was closed due to the placement of the government of the RSFSR in the Kremlin. The last service was held here on Easter 1918.

In 1922 the Assumption Cathedral was turned into a museum. Thanks to constant restoration work, by the mid-50s of the twentieth century. almost all the icons and murals were discovered from under later recordings, and since 1954 the Assumption Cathedral has been open to visitors. Restoration work continued, which required the temporary closure of the cathedral, and the exposition was finally completed in 1995.

Divine services in the cathedral were resumed in 1990. Divine services are held on major church holidays, admission is by invitation cards only.

For inspection, the cathedral is available to everyone every day, except Thursday, from 10.00 to 17.00.

Thrones

The main throne is consecrated in honor of the Dormition Holy Mother of God, aisles - in honor of the martyr. Demetrius of Thessalonica, Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos, Sts. top app. Peter and Paul.

Shrines of the temple

double sided icon Mother of God"Hodegetria" and "Saint George", "Savior the Fiery Eye", "Trinity", two lists Vladimir icon The Mother of God, the temple image "Assumption", "The Queen Appears", "The Apostles Peter and Paul", "Metropolitan Peter in Life", etc. The relics of Saints Peter, Jonah, Philip and Hermogenes, the staff of Saint Peter.

The country: Russia Town: Moscow The address: 101000, Moscow, Kremlin, Cathedral Square Website:

The Assumption Cathedral was erected in 1475-1479 by the Italian architect Aristotle Fioravanti on the site of two older temples.

All stages of the construction of the main temple of the state are reflected in the annals with great completeness. As a model, the Italian architect was asked to take the Assumption Cathedral in the city of Vladimir - a five-domed cross-domed church of the 12th century. Fulfilling the order, Aristotle Fioravanti repeated in his construction the most essential features of the famous model, but at the same time he managed to creatively combine them with the Renaissance understanding of architectural space.

The Moscow Assumption Cathedral is a huge six-pillared building with five apses and five domes. It stands on a high powerful plinth, a significant part of which is now hidden under an embankment. Cathedral Square. The building is covered with a system of arches and cross vaults, resting at the same level on pillars and internal blades. The cathedral was built from well-hewn blocks of white stone with backfill inside the masonry. Vaults, drums, pillars and the altar barrier are made of brick.

The plan of the cathedral is 12 identical squares, four in each nave. This determined the main typological feature of the temple, about which the annals say: “Lay the church in an oblong, tiled manner.” The uniform arrangement of pillars dividing the space into identical cells is perhaps its main characteristic. The absence of a choir and the leveling of the central space under the dome reinforce the impression of the vastness, “hall” of the interior. The diameter of the central drum is 3 meters larger than the corner drums. Its thin, two-brick walls are placed on the outer perimeters of the pillars. All vertical divisions of the facade are the same in width and main facade, overlooking the Cathedral Square of the Kremlin, has four divisions of the same size, completed by semicircular zakomaras of equal height.

The use of five low and flat apses with a three-nave plan was also new in the composition of the Assumption Cathedral, as a result of which the altar part is poorly revealed from the outside and is hidden behind a corner buttress from the Cathedral Square. The building does not have a crowning cornice, and the facades are divided by an arched belt.

In the Assumption Cathedral there is no direct repetition of any details and techniques characteristic of architecture Italian Renaissance. Fioravanti created a work close to him in spirit with its compositional clarity, rigor and laconicism of architectural forms. At the same time, the traditional features of ancient Russian religious architecture received their further development in new historical conditions.

For four centuries, the cathedral was the main temple of Russia: grand dukes were appointed here, and appanages swore allegiance to them, crowned the kingdom, crowned emperors. In the Assumption Cathedral, bishops, metropolitans and patriarchs were elevated to the rank, state acts were announced, prayer services were served before military campaigns and in honor of victories.

Today, the cathedral, which preserves the tomb of the heads of the Russian church, ancient murals, a unique collection of icons, is one of the most visited museums of the Moscow Kremlin. Since 1990, divine services have resumed in the cathedral.

Two ancient churches - the predecessor of the Assumption Cathedral

Back in 1327, during the reign of Ivan Kalita and Metropolitan Peter, the first white-stone church of the Assumption of the Mother of God was built on the site of the Assumption Cathedral. According to the researchers, it was a single-domed four-pillar temple with three apses, three vestibules and three aisles. The aisle of Demetrius of Thessalonica was probably the original one and was located near the southern altar wall. The second chapel, called "Adoration of the chains of the Apostle Peter", was built in 1329. The third one was founded by Metropolitan Jonah in 1459 and is dedicated to the “Praise of the Mother of God” holiday in gratitude for the deliverance of Russia from the invasion of the Tatar Khan Sedi-Akhmet. The cathedral stood for almost one hundred and forty-five years and was inextricably linked with the life of Moscow. In the cathedral, grand dukes were crowned, metropolitans were appointed, and the main state acts were proclaimed. In it, a solemn prayer service marked the triumphal return of Dmitry Donskoy and the Russian army from the Kulikov field.

By the end of the 15th century, the dilapidated and cramped cathedral no longer corresponded to the increased importance of Moscow, the capital of the state. In 1472, with the construction of the new Assumption Cathedral, a radical restructuring of the Kremlin began. The construction was headed by Moscow masters Krivtsov and Myshkin. By May 1474, the building, built on the model of the Assumption Cathedral in the city of Vladimir, had risen to the level of vaults, but suddenly collapsed. The reason for this was the earthquake, the poor quality of the solution, miscalculations in the construction of walls and vaults.

After that, the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III decided to invite Italian architects known throughout Europe to implement his grandiose plan to rebuild the Moscow Kremlin. On March 26, 1475, Aristotle Fioravanti arrived in Moscow and led the construction of the main temple of the Russian state.

Stages of construction of the main temple of the state

Aristotle Fioravanti first dismantled the cathedral of 1472-1474. For the demolition of the walls, special wall-beating machines were made. To facilitate dismantling, the remains of the walls were overlaid with logs and set on fire. Burnt limestone lost its strength and began to crumble. The speed of the clearing struck the Muscovites: “even if they did it for three years, they ruined it in one week or less.” The observant author of the chronicle also noted that Aristotle ordered to dig deeper into the foundation ditches, and he even hammered oak piles into the ditches, covered them with stone and filled them with lime. Such a foundation was to become a reliable basis for a grandiose temple.

Already in the first summer, Fioravanti brought a new building out of the ground and laid four round pillars inside the temple, and two square ones in the altar. In September, Aristotle was sent to Vladimir to study a sample - the Assumption Cathedral of the 12th century. In all likelihood, he saw something close: after all, Romanesque masters stood at the origins of the architecture of the Vladimir land, whose artels were built both in the West and in Russia.

Carefully following the progress of the construction of a new temple, the chronicle notes both thick lime, and mixed construction technique, and the fact that the vaults of the church were laid out in one brick, and iron ties instead of oak beams. The chronicler did not miss the fact that the foreign architect did everything “in a circle and in a rule”, that is, he checked the correctness of the built parts of the building with a compass and a ruler. In 1479, construction was completed, and the new temple was solemnly consecrated.

Even under Ivan Kalita, on the spot where a wooden church stood in the 12th century.

For 100 years, the cathedral fell into disrepair, and in 1472, under Ivan III, it was decided to build a new Assumption Cathedral. At first it was built by Russian architects, but after 2 years the almost completed temple collapsed. It was said that the lime was not gluten, and the white stone was not durable. Then, on the advice of the wife of Ivan III, the Byzantine princess Sofia Paleolog, the Italian architect Fiorovanti was invited.

First of all, he went to take measurements from the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, as he was not familiar with traditional Russian architecture and the cross-domed system, when the entire space of the temple is a cross with a dome in the center. Upon returning, the architect immediately began construction. And after 4 years, on August 12, 1479, the Assumption Cathedral was consecrated.

Fiorovanti used many architectural innovations: the foundation was deepened, oak piles were driven into the ground, brick walls were lined with white stone blocks on the outside, and the apses were “hidden” behind pylons.

What is what in the church

The Assumption Cathedral turned out to be unusual: outwardly it looks like a Russian church, but it is structurally built differently - like a Russian pie with Italian filling. Inside, this difference is immediately noticeable: instead of the usual square pillars, round pillars divide the space into 12 identical squares. And the height of the arches of 40 meters makes the temple look like a front hall.

Appearance The temple impressed the Muscovites: it seemed huge, but it looked "like a single stone." All his lines were clear, and the mosquitoes seemed to be drawn with a compass.

By decree of Mikhail Fedorovich, an artel of 150 icon painters painted the Assumption Cathedral, creating 250 plot compositions and more than 2,000 individual figures. And the iconostasis was created in 1653 on the initiative of Patriarch Nikon. In its 69 icons, the entire history of mankind is illustrated in accordance with the Bible.

The last time the domes of the cathedral were gilded under Ivan IV, using a technology that is no longer used. This is gilding at low tide, or mercury, in which gold is combined in an alloy with mercury. When heated, mercury evaporates, and gold is fixed on the surface and acquires a warm hue. But master gilders died after several years of working with mercury.

In the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, metropolitans and patriarchs were ordained and buried, Orthodox Christians were baptized and excommunicated, including the writer Leo Tolstoy.

Guide to Architectural Styles

Here Ivan III tore up the khan's charter, putting an end to the Horde yoke. Also, in the Assumption Cathedral, since 1498, the ceremony of the wedding to the kingdom took place, and before that, “they were crowned to the kingdom” in the Assumption Cathedral of Vladimir.

This magnificent ceremonial, as it were, confirmed the deification of the person who ascended the throne. Its main element was the Monomakh's hat, which was brought as a symbol of wisdom and power to every Russian tsar up to Peter I (in 1721 he already took the imperial title).

And the first imperial coronation in Russia and the first coronation of a woman (Catherine I) took place on May 7, 1724, also in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. During the coronation, they used a crown, a scepter, an orb, a mantle, an imperial chain, a sword, a banner, a seal and a shield. Many of these attributes were made especially for the ceremony.

In 1812, the French turned the Assumption Cathedral into a stable. They robbed and destroyed everything they could get, tore apart the iconostasis, removed the salaries and took out of the temple about 300 kg of gold. Silver was recaptured, and after the end of the war, the central chandelier of the church was cast from it.

In Soviet times, services in the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin were banned, but in 1990 they were returned to the Orthodox Church. Now the Assumption Cathedral is a museum, and services are held on patronal feasts. At the same time, each time before the service, the cathedral is consecrated anew.

Kremlin: mini-guide to the territory

In the museum of the Assumption Cathedral you can see, for example, the wooden Tsar's place, or the throne of Monomakh. It was made in 1551 for Ivan IV. Probably, Novgorod carvers created this miracle, since the throne is richly decorated with intricate carvings. And 12 bas-reliefs on the walls of the Tsarskoe place illustrate the "Legend of the Princes of Vladimir", which tells about the bringing to Russia of royal regalia - Monomakh's hat, barm (ceremonial mantle) and other items. Hence the second name of the throne. And the tent canopy of the Tsar's Place is shaped like a Monomakh's hat.

And along the walls of the Assumption Cathedral are the tombs of Russian metropolitans and patriarchs. The temple began to serve as a tomb since 1326, when Metropolitan Peter was buried in it. There are 19 burials in the cathedral.

They say that...... by order of Ivan III, Aristotle Fiorovanti built a hiding place in the central dome of the Assumption Cathedral. After the construction of the temple and the Kremlin dungeons was completed, the architect disappeared. According to the official version, robbers attacked him. And according to popular legend, Ivan III demanded that Fiorovanti reveal the secret of obtaining the philosopher's stone, but he refused. The enraged king ordered the architect to be immured in one of the dungeons, and then Fiorovanti cursed his entire family. That same night, lightning struck the recently rebuilt Assumption Cathedral. The temple was on fire. The fire was put out with difficulty, but disasters followed one after another. Then Ivan III ordered to open the dungeon where the architect was walled up, but he was not there - only a broken chain and the ring of King Solomon. Since then, the ghost of the great architect has been wandering around.
... the Byzantine emperors in the 12th century gave the Monomakh's cap to Vladimir Monomakh as the heir and successor of the empire - hence the name. But in fact, Ivan Kalita brought the hat from the Golden Horde, and it was listed in the wills as a “golden hat”. Now the regalia is stored in, and it is not difficult to notice an oriental carpet ornament on it. The cross and sable trim were added simultaneously with the creation of the legend of the Monomakh's hat. At the same time, consisting of gold, pearls and precious stones The hat is also of great value. In 1812, when the French plundered the treasuries of the Kremlin, a local clerk hid it at the risk of his life, and the regalia was preserved.
... the emergence of the expression "Filkin's letter" is associated with the Assumption Cathedral and Metropolitan Philip Kolychev.
At the age of 13, Philip went to the Solovetsky Monastery and later became its hegumen. He enjoyed the glory of a righteous man, and in 1566 Ivan IV decided to make him Metropolitan of Moscow. Philip demanded to cancel the oprichnina. The tsar was angry at first, but then set a condition: he would listen to the metropolitan's advice on state affairs, but he would not get into the oprichnina and into the royal household. Philip accepted the metropolitanate.
For several months, the executions and outrages of the guardsmen ceased, then everything went on as before again. Philip tried to stop lawlessness, interceded for the disgraced, and the king began to avoid meetings with the metropolitan.
Then Philip began to send letters to Ivan IV, in which he asked to come to his senses. The tsar humiliatingly called them "Filkin's letters" and destroyed them.
And one day, on Sunday, during mass, the tsar appeared in the Assumption Cathedral, accompanied by guardsmen and boyars. The visitors were dressed in clownish, supposedly monastic clothes. Ivan IV went up to Philip and stopped near him, waiting for a blessing. But the metropolitan said that in this attire he would not recognize the king.
The angry ruler left the cathedral and ordered an investigation into the evil intentions of the metropolitan. Under torture, the monks of the Solovetsky Monastery slandered their former hegumen. After that, Philip during the service in the Assumption Cathedral was surrounded by guardsmen. They announced the deprivation of dignity, tore off Philip's metropolitan vestments, drove him out of the church with brooms, threw him into firewood and took him to a dungeon in the Epiphany Monastery. Then he was taken to the prison of the distant Tver Otroch Monastery. A year later, Ivan IV sent Malyuta Skuratov there, and the tsar's guardsman strangled Philip with his own hands.
Later, Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich ordered that the saint be buried in the Solovetsky Monastery. And in 1648, Philip was canonized as a saint, as it was discovered that his relics healed the sick.
In 1652, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ordered the relics of St. Philip to be transported to Moscow. They were placed in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, and at the place of their meeting outside Moscow they installed oak cross with a commemorative inscription. The area around was subsequently called the "Krestovskaya outpost". The cross itself stood until 1929, after which it was transferred to the nearby Church of the Sign in Pereyaslavskaya Sloboda. There he is still. And the old name of the area was preserved in the names of Krestovsky Lane and Krestovsky Market.

• A remarkable cultural and historical monument, a symbol of ancient Russian architecture.
• Beautiful frescoes of the 17th-17th centuries, good example Orthodox monumental art.
• Very valuable icons of the XIII-XIV centuries.
• The relics of the Moscow Patriarchs - Saints Jonah, Philip II, Hermogenes and Peter.

The frescoes that cover the walls of the cathedral clearly and in detail depict scenes from the Old and New Testaments, as well as saints revered in Russia. The main works on the painting of the walls and the five-tiered iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral date back to the middle of the 17th century. The restoration of these murals was carried out in the 70-80s of the XX century. It is worth paying attention to the interesting artistic technique: the surface of the columns is divided by the artist into tiers lower than those located on the walls. Thus, the space of the temple seems less spacious, but higher, directed upwards. In addition, there are several in the Assumption Cathedral: "Savior of the Golden Hair" (XIII century) and "Savior of the Bright Eye" (XIV century).

And, of course, you should look at the Assumption Cathedral as a part of the Kremlin and the city: it not only organizes the space of the Cathedral Square, but also in many ways forms the famous Kremlin panorama, which has long become a hallmark of Moscow.

(Russian Dormition Cathedral; English Dormition Cathedral)

Opening hours: every day from 10.00 - 17.00, day off - Thursday.

The Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin is one of the greatest shrines in all of Russia. For several centuries, this temple was the spiritual and political center of the country: grand dukes were appointed here, crowned kings, emperors were crowned, state acts were announced, bishops, metropolitans and patriarchs were elevated to the rank. This is the oldest fully preserved building in Moscow.

The first stone cathedral, on the site of the current one, was built at the beginning of the XIV century, during the reign of Ivan I. On August 4, 1326, on the site of the former wooden church, the white stone Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was laid, in fulfillment of the wishes of the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia - Peter, shortly before that he moved to Moscow. In the northern part of the cathedral, Peter himself made a tomb for himself.

In the summer of 1471, “Metropolitan Philip began to think diligently about the construction of a new stone cathedral church in Moscow, for the old one, from antiquity and from many fires, already threatened with destruction, its vaults were already reinforced, supported by thick trees. The construction of a new cathedral, huge for that time, was entrusted to Russian architects Krivtsov and Myshkin. Philip ordered the construction of a new cathedral on the model of the Vladimir Assumption Cathedral, but larger than it. The masters quite accurately repeated the shape of the Vladimir Cathedral, it was supposed to have five naves, five domes and choirs. The length of the cathedral, with the required addition of 1.5 sazhens, was approximately 40 m, width - 34 m and height - about 35 m. When the walls of the new cathedral rose to the height of human growth, niches were made in them, and the relics of Moscow saints - Peter, Cyprian, Photius and Jonah. On August 20, 1479, Metropolitan Gerontius consecrated the temple. The relics of the saint, which were at the time of construction in the church of St. John the Theologian, were transferred to the cathedral.

The cathedral often suffered from fires. Already in 1493 the cathedral was twice lit by lightning. And at the end of the 15th century, Grand Duke Ivan III, who united all Russian principalities under the rule of Moscow, began the creation of a new residence with the reconstruction of the Assumption Cathedral. Semyon Tolbuzin, for a decent amount for that time of 10 rubles a month, persuaded the Bolognese master Aristotle Fioravanti to come to Moscow. Fioravanti arrived in Moscow in April 1475 and immediately upon arrival set to work. It must be said that in the Russian chronicles a very detailed description construction of the Assumption Cathedral. So, it is reported that the Italian master ordered “to dig the ditches again”, deeper than the Russian masters, he hammered oak piles into them. In the annals there is also a mention that Aristotle used “wheels” (blocks) during the construction, as a result of which “the stone is not carried upwards, but it is clinging and pulling up, and small wheels are clinging to the top, the carpenters call them a vekshoy, a hedgehog to them in the hut to drag the earth, and it is wonderful to see. Here, in 1498, Ivan III crowned Dmitry's grandson (son of Ivan Ivanovich Molodoy and Elena Voloshanka) Grand Duke, bypassing his eldest son Vasily, from Sophia Paleolog. Although later, at the very beginning of the 16th century, Ivan III removed Dmitry from political life, bowing in favor of Basil, however, developed in 1498, according to the Byzantine model, the magnificent coronation ritual continued to exist, and later formed the basis for the coronation of Ivan IV, in 1547, with the royal crown.

The first land contributions to the Assumption Cathedral date back to the end of the 15th century, when its lands began to separate from the lands of the metropolitan see. In 1486, on the eve of his death, Prince Mikhail Andreevich of Vereya gave “to the Most Pure Cathedral Church in Moscow, to the archpriest and priest, in the Yeroslavsky district, his village of Tatarenki in Zaechkovo with everything that the ancients drew to that village for their soul, after their stomach ". Interestingly, this contribution was conditional - it was stipulated that if the Grand Duke needed this village, he could take it for himself, giving the archpriest and priests of the Assumption Cathedral 60 rubles for it. In addition to direct land contributions, money was also donated to the cathedral, with the condition of buying land on them.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the growth of the estates of the Assumption Cathedral continued, and in the 1630s the size reached its maximum. The land holdings of the cathedral were endowed with significant benefits. The first letter of commendation was given back in 1575 by Ivan the Terrible. Boris Godunov, in 1598, gave a new letter of commendation.

In 1605, the rebellious Muscovites, who came out on the side of the impostor False Dmitry I, defeated the courts of the Godunovs, many boyars, nobles and clerks, broke into the Assumption Cathedral "with weapons and a drecolium", as Patriarch Job later recalled, interrupted the service and "extracted it from the altar, in the church and on the square, carrying shame with many shames. False Dmitry I, having entered Moscow, was married in the Assumption Cathedral to the kingdom, on July 21, 1605, by Patriarch Ignatius, who replaced Job, who was sent into exile.

After the election in 1606, on Red Square, of Vasily Shuisky by his supporters as tsar, he went to the Assumption Cathedral, where he gave a "cross-kissing note" that under him there would be no violations of feudal legality committed under Grozny and Godunov. Another noisy church performance was organized in the Assumption Cathedral in connection with the protracted siege of Kaluga, where Bolotnikov took refuge after the retreat from Moscow, with the remnants of his army. The outcome of the struggle was still unclear, and in the Assumption Cathedral, in the presence of the tsar, Patriarch Hermogenes, the royal court, and Moscow residents, the former Patriarch Job, specially brought from Staritsa, freed the Muscovites from their previous oaths, including “Tsar Dmitry”, under whose slogan the development of insurrection. The cathedral suffered during the ruin of Moscow Polish troops and a large detachment of German mercenaries in 1611-1612.

In 1624, the vaults of the cathedral, which threatened to fall, were dismantled “to a single brick” and rebuilt, taking into account the deformations formed in the upper tier according to the changed pattern (“flipped” configuration), with their reinforcement with cohesive iron and with the introduction of additional girth arches.

Since the 17th century, the composition of the clergy of the cathedral has been precisely known. So, in 1627, the clergy were: archpriest, protodeacon, two keykeepers, 5 priests, 5 deacons and 2 sexton. (For comparison: the clergy of the Archangel Cathedral consisted of 14 priests, the Annunciation - of 11). Candles and church wine were issued from the patriarchal state order. Moreover, until 1675, candle stubs went to the benefit of the clergy, but after that they began to be given back to the patriarchal state order, where they were melted into candles.

In 1642-1644, the cathedral was painted anew, but fragments of the original paintings have been preserved, which are the oldest extant example of fresco painting in the Kremlin. In addition, mica doors with copper bars were arranged in the cathedral. At the end of the work, most of the people who took part in them received generous gifts from the king in cloth, sables, silver goblets and ladles. In the 1660s, the painting of the outer walls was renewed: above the altars, above the northern and western doors. Due to the uneven settlement of the foundations throughout the 17th century, the western wall of the cathedral was in disrepair. For emergency reasons, the cathedral was connected at the level of five arches with additional connections.

In the 17th century (and probably earlier), the courtyards of the Assumption Cathedral were located in the Kremlin near the Tainitsky Gates. The land on which the courtyards of the Bogoroditsky clergy were located belonged to the Assumption Cathedral, but the buildings themselves, the courtyards, were private property, belonged to those who lived there. Since 1654, the courtyards of the Assumption Cathedral were "whitewashed" (exempted from taxes), but at the beginning of the 18th century, Peter I, despite his letter of commendation, charged "bath" money from the courtyards, in the amount of 1 ruble from each bath.

In 1721, instead of a single patriarch, a college of spiritual dignitaries was placed at the head of the Russian church. The immediate management of the Assumption Cathedral and its clergy belonged to the Moscow Synodal Office, the beginning of which, as an independent institution, was laid by the decree of Peter I of January 19, 1722. On May 24, 1721, the Synod issued a decree that “in Moscow, to the cathedral and noble parish churches,” to ordain students of the Moscow “Slaveno-Latin dialect schools” as priests and deacons. From a clergyman who wanted to become a protodeacon of the Assumption Cathedral, in addition, "loudness" was required. In order to elect a completely worthy protodeacon, distinguished by "loudness", a competition was sometimes arranged between several candidates in the church of the twelve apostles.

The fire that began in Moscow on September 2, 1812, on the very day the French entered Moscow, and lasted until September 8, destroyed almost three-quarters of Moscow's buildings. The Kremlin survived the fire, although the danger of catching fire was so great that Napoleon, who settled in it, with his guards, had to leave it for a while. The shrines of the Moscow saints - Peter, Jonah and Philip were covered with silver boards. All this was stolen, only the shrine of the holy Metropolitan Jonah and part of the robes on the icons located on the third tier of the iconostasis remained. right side. In addition to plundering the cathedral, the French also desecrated it. So, they arranged a horn in the middle of the cathedral, in which they melted the robes from the icons and burned the sacred brocade vestments. All the frescoes of the cathedral, which were produced at the end of the 18th century, were spoiled by soot from the fires, with the help of which the enemy heated the cathedral, which did not yet have ovens, and flying from the hearth to the ash from burnt brocade vestments. How great the devastation of the cathedral was can be seen from the fact that 192,135 rubles 54 kopecks were spent on its renewal.

The cathedral was restored and re-consecrated on August 30, 1813, by Bishop Augustin of Dmitrovsky (Vinogradsky). On February 2, 1818, new staffs were established for the Assumption Cathedral, according to which the clergy and church ministers began to receive the following content: protopresbyter - 2000 rubles, sakellarii 950 rubles each, four presbyters 850 rubles each, protodeacon 1000 rubles, 4 deacons each 750 rubles, psalmists and sextons 150 rubles each. In 1822, Emperor Alexander I granted some ministers an additional allowance: sacellaria "as guardians of the Lord's Robe and the shrine of the cathedral in general" and two presbyters assigned to the relics of St.

The first warden of the Assumption Cathedral on January 29, 1817, was the Moscow, 2nd guild, merchant Sergei Fedorovich Boldyrev. The duties of the elders included managing the church economy of the cathedral together with the sakellarii, under the supreme supervision of the protopresbyter.

The coronation of Nicholas II on May 14, 1896 was the last coronation in the Assumption Cathedral.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, the Assumption Cathedral was restored. New slopes, in order to less damage the painting of the walls, were made not of stone, but of alabaster on a wire mesh. According to the remains found, the ridges of the windows of the second tier were restored, and by analogy, the windows of the absides. The rollers of the windows of snare drums have also been restored, but here, due to the small thickness of the walls, the masonry was not turned over, but the profile was made only of plaster. A lot of controversy was caused by the issue of coverings of the cathedral. The locks of the vaults were opened in the form of large stone slabs with a recess in the middle for the installation of a cross, and at a distance of about 3 arshins from the top, iron ears were found in the masonry, for stretch marks to it. Others objected that there must have been wooden cranes, since in the annals there are references to fires that began with chapters. On August 15, 1917, on the patronal feast, the All-Russian Local Council of the Orthodox Russian Church opened here, and in October it decided to restore the patriarchate in the Russian Church.

A new era in the life of the monument began with the revolutionary events in the Kremlin that took place on November 2, 1917. The Assumption Cathedral, like some other Kremlin buildings, was damaged by shelling: the central, southwestern and southeastern domes were damaged. On November 20, 1918, the cathedral was examined by the architect of the Moscow Palace Administration, academician I.V. Rylsky, and the restoration estimates were drawn up by the architect V. Markovnikov. One of explanatory notes relating to the restoration work in the Kremlin, reports that "almost everything was corrected by the works of 1917-1918, and now it is already difficult to catch that the Kremlin was shelled."

The Assumption Cathedral was closed for access and worship in March 1918, after the government of the RSFSR moved to the Kremlin. The last, before the closing of the temple, the service was performed on Easter 1918 - April 22 (May 5); the divine service, which served as the initial basis for P. D. Korin’s painting Departing Russia, was led by the vicar of the Moscow diocese, Bishop Trifon (Turkestanov) of Dmitrov.

After the October Revolution, the Assumption Cathedral was turned into a museum. Thanks to constant restoration work, almost all icons and murals were uncovered from under later records. In the period of the late 10s - early 20s of the XX century, restorations and disclosures of many ancient icons were made.

During the 1930-1940s, from the Assumption Cathedral and other monuments of the Kremlin, primarily abolished, the issuance of items, mainly from precious and non-ferrous metals, continued to the State Fund, Rudmetalltorg, Antiques (in 1930 alone, 1219 items were handed over ). The condition of the cathedral deteriorated sharply, the roof was leaking, and there was no money for repairs, in winter and spring the walls were covered with thick frost, ice growths formed on the floor, which made it necessary to close the cathedral for visitors to access. All this led to a significant deterioration in the state of monumental and easel painting. Only in 1946 did systematic work begin to strengthen the icons and frescoes in the cathedral. An examination of the murals in the interior of the cathedral showed that a hole in the central drum (1917) was not plastered, some of the murals were cleared and re-recorded in 1914-1917 (northern nave). In the south nave, the domes and vaults were completed, while the painting on the wall and pillars was only cleared away. The commission decided to carry out only conservation work, in which the entire surface of the wall painting was strengthened, washed and brought into an exposition form. At the same time, the question was raised about the need to restore heating and electric lighting in the cathedral, which was done only in 1949-1950.

In 1954, after a long break, excursions were organized to the newly restored Assumption (guide N.V. Gordeev) and Annunciation (guide E.I. Sergeeva) cathedrals, and from June 20, 1955, the Kremlin opens for free access to visitors. In February 1960, it was transferred to the Ministry of Culture of the USSR.

In the 70s, a comprehensive study of the monument began on the basis of a program approved by the Academic Council of the Kremlin Museums back in September 1964. It included clarifying technical condition enclosing structures of the building, its foundations, vaults, girder arches and ties, as well as the reasons causing high humidity and salinity of the masonry, which causes damage and destruction of the murals in the cathedral. During 1974-1976, foundation grouting was carried out along the perimeter of the building and at the eastern pylons to prevent it from settling. New system air conditioning ensured the maintenance of stable temperature and humidity parameters in the cathedral, necessary to create optimal conditions for the preservation of monuments in its interior.

The Assumption Cathedral today is a majestic and monumental, powerful proportions, three-aisled five-domed church. The surface of the walls is only emphasized by narrow slit-like windows and a small arched frieze. Chronicles noted that the building looks "like a single stone." Contemporaries are amazed at the majesty and height, lordship and space of the cathedral.

The facades of the cathedral are divided by blades into equal parts: the north and south - into four, the west and east - into three. Top row the windows are strongly raised and partially capture the zakomar field. The most critical elements of the building are girder arches, vaults and drums made of brick (white stone cornices). The size of the Fioravanti brick is (28x16x7 cm). The walls and vaults above the western porch are made of another, larger brick (30x14.5x8 cm, as well as 22x11x5 cm). Perhaps they were added later. All vertical articulations of the façade are the same in width, and the main façade, overlooking the Cathedral Square of the Kremlin, has four articulations of the same size, completed by semicircular zakomaras of equal height.

The lower light of the Assumption Cathedral now consists of ten windows of the quadrangle and seven windows of the altar semicircles. New in the composition of the Assumption Cathedral was also the use of five low and flat apses with a three-nave plan, as a result of which the altar part is poorly revealed from the outside, and from the side of Cathedral Square is hidden behind a corner buttress.

The architecture and murals of the temple create an image of the cosmos, where the vaults symbolize the sky carried by the pillars of the cathedral. As a rule, images of martyrs are placed on the pillars, who, with their lives and martyrdom support the Church just as the pillars carry the vault. The vaults of the Assumption Cathedral are of particular interest - twelve equal parts were covered: five - with drums, seven - with cross vaults. In the architecture of grand ducal Moscow, cross vaults were used by Aristotle, apparently for the first time, although pre-Mongol Russia knew them. Both the middle and corner drums in the cathedral are located above cells of the same size and set at the same height, with the eastern drums separated by an iconostasis. The reception is taken from the composition of the cross-domed church. The diameter of the central drum, about a meter, exceeds the diameter of the hole on which the head rises. Despite all the problems, the building was built in such a way that it is dominated by a sense of the integrity of the internal space, not partitioned off, but only architecturally dissected, widely spaced with slender round pillars.

For the painting of the altar church were involved the best masters. On the altar barrier, the oldest frescoes of the Moscow Kremlin have been preserved - images of ascetic monks, executed in 1481 by the artel of the great icon painter Dionysius. Modern look The cathedral is defined by murals of 1642-1643 (a group of 150 artists worked on them, led by the tsarist painters - Ivan and Boris Paiseins and Sidor Pospeev), and a grandiose iconostasis of 1653, created at the initiative of Patriarch Nikon. The collection of icons of the XI-XVII centuries, in the Assumption Cathedral, is one of the richest in the world. Most of them were written in Moscow for the cathedrals of the XIV and XV centuries, others were brought to Moscow from ancient cities, during the period of gathering Russian lands. Particularly interesting is the huge composition " Last Judgment”, placed on the western wall of the cathedral.

The royal prayer place - Monomakh's throne, was created in 1551 for the first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Its performers were probably Novgorod carvers. Here are various motifs and techniques of carving, once widespread in Russia. The building is square in plan, with columns of complex shape, balusters, valances, crowned with an intricate tent, with numerous kokoshniks, rosettes and vases. In twelve bas-reliefs, on the walls, the "Legend of the Princes of Vladimir" is illustrated, which tells about the importation, to Russia, of royal regalia - Monomakh's hats, barm (ceremonial mantle) and other items.

From 1326, when St. Peter was buried in the temple, and until 1700, the cathedral served as the burial place of the Primates of the Russian Church - metropolitans and patriarchs. In total, the cathedral has 19 tombs located along the walls of the cathedral. The relics of the Moscow wonderworkers Peter, Jonah, Philip and Hermogenes rest in wooden reliquaries decorated with metal plates - reliquaries.Today, the cathedral, which preserves the tomb of the heads of the Russian church, ancient murals, a unique collection of icons, is one of the most visited museums in the Moscow Kremlin. Since 1990, divine services have resumed in the cathedral.