Church of Simeon the Stylite, “on Povarskaya” (Vvedenskaya Church; Mother of God Church; Simeonskaya Church; Semyonovskaya Church). Church of Simeon the Stylite. Description, history, photo Church of Simeon the Stylite on Povarskaya

The first mention of the church standing on the site of the current temple of Simeon the Stylite on Povarskaya, 5 in Moscow dates back to 1624.

Two chapels were built in the church in honor of saints Simeon the Stylite and St. Nicholas (in 1759 the chapel in his name was reconsecrated in the name of Dmitry of Rostov).

Due to its close location to Povarskaya Sloboda, the main parishioners of the Temple of Simeon the Stylite were commoners from the staff of the Sytny Dvor: cooks, connectors, bakers, table makers.

Photo 1. Temple of Simeon the Stylite on Povarskaya in Moscow

The name of the temple is associated with the name of Boris Godunov. It is believed that he got married on the feast of the veneration of Simeon the Stylite, and therefore ordered the erection of several churches in honor of the saint.

The wooden church became stone under Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich. In 1676, at his order, money was allocated from the treasury, and after 3 years the construction was completed.

The year 1812 became a black page in the history of the temple. The church was plundered by Napoleonic soldiers and was also badly damaged by a terrible fire of that time. The church was restored only in 1818.

By the beginning of the 19th century, Povarskaya Sloboda was no longer inhabited by commoners, but by the Moscow nobility. This was also reflected in the composition of the Temple parishioners. The church became a favorite wedding venue for wealthy Muscovites.

History of the Church of Simeon the Stylite on Povarskaya Street

In 1801, the wedding of Count Nikolai Sheremetev and the serf actress Praskovya Zhemchugova took place here. Celebrations for this occasion continued in their recently purchased house on Vozdvizhenka.

The walls of the temple also remember the wedding of the writer S. Aksakov with O. Zaplatina, and the religious figure K. Pobedonostsev with E. Engelhardt.

In the last years of his life, N.V. Gogol was a parishioner of the Temple of Simeon the Stylite. It was the priest of this parish who gave communion to the writer on his deathbed.

The Church of Simeon the Stylite on Povarskaya Street had a difficult fate during the years of Soviet Power. Although it remained operational until 1941, it had already begun to be thoroughly destroyed. The fence was demolished and some of the domes were dismantled. The ministers of this parish also suffered from repression.

In 1966, due to the reconstruction of Kalininsky Prospekt, the church building was almost demolished. Only thanks to Leonid Antropov, who lay down in the excavator bucket, was it possible to defend the church.

In 1991, the Temple was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and already in 1992, services began here again.

Temple of Simeon the Stylite is located at the address: Moscow, Povarskaya, 5 (Arbatskaya metro station)

Temple of Simeon the Stylite on Povarskaya June 25th, 2012

In Moscow, at the intersection of Povarskaya and Novy Arbat streets, there is the Temple of Simeon the Stylite on Povarskaya, which miraculously survived after Kalinin Avenue was laid along it (now Novy Arbat). Currently, the temple is an architectural monument of federal significance, and it was built approximately in 1676-1679 by order of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich in the Russian pattern style.


A wooden church stood on this site already in 1625. According to one version, it was consecrated on the day of the crowning of Boris Godunov, since this day fell on the feast of Simeon the Stylite.


The stone church was built in 1676 by order of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich (according to other versions - in 1679) in the Russian patterned style, with five domes, a refectory, a bell tower and two chapels, each with a separate apse and dome.


The main altar of the temple is Vvedensky, and the chapels are in the name of Simeon the Stylite and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the latter in 1759 was reconsecrated in the name of Demetrius of Rostov.

White stone tombstones from the 17th-18th centuries have been preserved within the walls of the building.

On the church site there was a wooden house in which the actor P.S. Mochalov lived in 1819 - mid-1820s.

A parishioner of the Church of Simeon the Stylite on Povarskaya in the last years of his life was N.V. Gogol, who then lived in the Tolstoy house on Nikitsky Boulevard.


I was able to find only two pre-revolutionary photos of the temple, but in them you can clearly see what it looked like before its “restoration” in the 20th century. The earliest photograph dates back to 1881:

You can clearly see the bell tower of the temple in the photograph from the turn of the 19th-20th centuries - the ugly 25-story panel building that will appear after the formation of New Arbat Street is not visible behind it.

After the revolution, the church was closed and in 1930 it was actually scrapped. Miraculously surviving, dilapidated, it survived until the construction of the Kalininsky Prospekt highway, and they were going to demolish it so that it would not introduce architectural dissonance with the high-rise buildings being erected, but through the efforts of the public they managed to defend it. This is what the temple looked like in the first half of the 1960s:

By 1966, the building was almost completely destroyed. View from Povarskaya Street to the no longer existing and not yet reconstructed bell tower of the temple in 1965:

When designing Kalinin Avenue (New Arbat), they decided to leave the temple. The building has been restored. They restored the original shape of the roof, even decorated the tops with openwork crosses, which were almost immediately cut off by order of the higher authorities with an autogenous gun. The restored temple in 1969 from the New Arbat side:

The surrounding old houses were destroyed, and the temple now stands among the high-rise buildings of New Arbat on a small green island of lawn.

Another photograph from 1969 - the temple was completely lost against the backdrop of built apartment buildings, so how it survived at all without fitting into the new scale of the newly formed avenue is very surprising.

The frame from the 1970 film “Belorussky Station” clearly shows the temple and the beginning of Povarskaya Street (then it was Vorovskogo Street), as well as the gray building of a high-rise residential building, which has now become the background for modern photographs of the temple.

In 1968, the temple building was given to the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation, and it housed an exhibition hall of small animals and birds. Soon the small building was completely saturated with the smell of manure. The interiors of the temple were completely destroyed. The photo from 1973 shows that this exhibition is taking place in the temple:

But this is how local residents and their children had fun in the winter in 1976 - it is impossible to see this in this place in our time.

1982 - it is clearly visible that the temple is located on the corner of Povarskaya and Novy Arbat streets - nothing else has changed here until now:

I really like the photograph I found from 1984 - the photo itself is of good quality and the temple is clearly visible:

1987-1988 - a photo of the temple again against the background of a gray high-rise building:

In 1989, it is clear that the temple underwent minor restoration work:

By the 1990s, the temple hosted painting and folk art exhibitions. A small part of the temple in 1991:

In 1990, crosses were again placed on the heads of the temple (by order of the deputy chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee, Matrosov).

In 1992, the Temple of Simeon the Stylite was again transferred to the church and re-painted by artists. It turned out that the temple icon of St. Simeon the Stylite, which was kept by the parishioners, had survived from the previous decoration.

The temple is also known for the fact that famous people of their time were married here: in 1801, the secret wedding of Count N.P. Sheremetev and actress P.I. Zhemchugova-Kovalyova took place here; in 1816, the writer S.T. Aksakov and O.S. Zaplatina were married; in 1918, the future wife of Mikhail Bulgakov, E.S. Nuremberg, was married here with her first husband, Yu.M. Neyolov; in 2005, Nikolai Karachentsov and his wife Lyudmila Porgina were married in the church (the sacrament took place on the 30th anniversary of their wedding).


The Temple of Simeon the Stylite is located on Povarskaya at the address: Povarskaya Street, no. 5. The nearest metro station is Arbatskaya.
When writing this article, in addition to my own photographs, photographs of old Moscow from the website were used

The Church of Simeon the Stylite was built in 1676, and according to other sources, in 1679, and is one of the examples of a Moscow parish church of the 17th century in the “patterned” style, which has come down to us almost unchanged. The temple has a typical layout for its time: the adjacent quadrangle, refectory and bell tower are built along the same line from east to west. The quadrangle of the temple is covered with a closed vault and crowned with five domes on solid drums, and is continued from the east by a three-part apse. On both sides of the refectory there are two aisles, each with its own dome and apse. From the north, emphasizing the connection of the temple with Povarskaya Street, a porch with a gable roof on massive pillars adjoins the quadrangle. The building was erected from large bricks on a white stone plinth.

Subsequently, the temple underwent minor reconstructions. The refectory was slightly extended towards the west. In a photograph from the end of the 19th century from Naydenov’s album, you can see that the roof of the temple was subjected to a simplification typical of many Moscow churches of the 17th century: the completion of the quadrangle with tiers of kokoshniks was replaced by a hipped roof, and the aisles were brought under a high gable roof, common with the refectory, reaching the tier of the bell tower. During the restoration of the 1960s, the original completions were restored.

The main altar of the temple was consecrated in honor of the Feast of the Entry. The church is called the Temple of Simeon the Stylite after one of the chapels (the second chapel, St. Nicholas, was reconsecrated in the name of Demetrius of Rostov around 1759). The dedication to Simeon the Stylite has been preserved from an older temple that stood on this site and was first mentioned in 1625. It is assumed that the original temple was built in connection with the crowning of Boris Godunov, which took place on the day of the celebration of Simeon the Stylite. It is likely that the ancient temple was erected on the instructions of Boris Godunov himself.

The wedding of N.P. Sheremetev with P.I. Zhemchugova-Kovaleva (in 1801), S.T. Aksakov with O.S. Zaplatina (in 1816) took place in the temple. The priest of this temple in 1852 gave communion to N.V. Gogol, who lived nearby, before his death. A very brief mention of the temple can be found in the seventh chapter of Eugene Onegin: “In Moscow, lives with Simeon.”

During Soviet times, the temple was closed (no later than 1940), was supposed to be scrapped, and stood in ruins. During the construction of New Arbat, the church was restored with maximum restoration of the appearance of the 17th century. There were even crosses installed on the domes, but they were soon removed by order of the authorities. The location of the temple turned out to be very advantageous: at the very beginning of New Arbat, on a small hill, the slopes of which are covered with lawn, it is clearly visible from the wide avenue. Almost immediately after the restoration, in 1968, the temple became the exhibition hall of the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation. It hosted exhibitions of small animals, birds, and aquarium fish.

Returned to believers in 1992, services were resumed. The temple icon of Simeon the Stylite, preserved by the parishioners, was returned to its place in the temple.

The Temple of St. Simeon the Stylite was first mentioned in the archives from 1624-1625. The building was built on the site of an ancient, most likely wooden temple that had stood here since the time of Boris Godunov. On the temple icon of St. Simeon the Stylite (unfortunately, not preserved) there was an inscription - “year 7132” (1624 according to modern chronology). The modern stone building was built in 1676-1679 at the expense of the treasury, by the Tsar and Grand Duke Fyodor Alekseevich. In archival documents, the temple is first mentioned as the Church of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary (along the main altar), which is “behind the Arbat Gate in Povarskaya Street.” The temple also had chapels in the name of St. Simeon the Stylite and St. Nicholas (since 1715), who in 1759 was reconsecrated in the name of St. Demetrius of Rostov. In the future, the temple is referred to as the temple of St. Simeon the Stylite on Dekhtyarev's garden, on Arbat, at the Arbat Gate or on Povarskaya. The land plot under the church property and the clergy's property occupied quite a significant area at the intersection of Bolshaya Molchanovka and Povarskaya streets. The temple belongs to the so-called “fiery” churches that were built in Moscow from the middle of the 16th century (for example, the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi, the Sign at the Petrovsky Gate, the Entry of the Virgin Mary into the Temple in Sadovniki). During the 17th-18th centuries, the building was rebuilt and updated more than once. In 1735, through the care of Prince I.A. Golitsyn, in memory of his deceased parents, the chapel of St. Nicholas was restored and re-consecrated, in 1738 the throne, altar and bridge were renewed, and in 1798 the altar. When the French entered Moscow in September 1812 and began plundering the city, they did not spare the churches. The temple of Simeon the Stylite did not escape a deplorable fate. According to the Moscow Consistory, it, like many other churches in the capital, was burned during a fire. The clergy, led by rector Stefan Nikitich Popov, and the parishioners, with zeal and love, began to restore the burnt and desecrated shrine. The archives preserved the “Case of the consecration of the Church of Simeon the Stylite on Povarskaya” from 1812. By 1818, the clergy's property, which had also been burned during the fire, was completely restored. What the Church of St. Simeon the Stylite on Povarskaya looked like by the end of the 19th century can be found out from the metric of 1887-1891. In 1917, the Bolsheviks began to close and destroy churches. From 1934 to 1938, services of “renovationists” were held in the temple building. In 1938 the temple was closed. According to one version, the closure of the temple was due to the fact that the daughter of F.I. Chaliapin ordered her father's funeral service here. In September 1938, the Krasnopresnensky District Council issued a resolution on the transfer of the “former church building” to Raipromtrest. Subsequently, the temple building was used for a variety of purposes. For example, the temple was occupied by the “Medinstrument” workshop, and since 1968 the exhibition hall of the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation was located in the temple building. As a result of numerous reconstructions during the Soviet era and the use of the temple for other purposes, the building had largely lost its artistic value and was in poor technical condition. By the time of the restoration of 1965-1966, all the drums and domes of the main volume and aisles were demolished, the bell tier, the bell tower tent and the apse of the northern aisle were dismantled, the floor of the refectory was cut down and the ceiling of the refectory was hemmed, the roofing was lost, and the floors and interior decoration were destroyed. The temple was restored in 1965-1966, when the Moscow authorities decided to lay a wide avenue on the site of the cozy Arbat alleys and the famous Dog Square, which was supposed to personify the new, socialist Moscow. The temple, which allegedly interfered with the construction of a new avenue, was planned to be demolished several times. Finally, a decision was made to restore the temple. Not the least role in preserving the Temple of Simeon the Stylite as a historical monument was played by the architect-restorer L.I. Antropov, friend and ally of the outstanding figure of Russian culture P.D. Baranovsky, who saved and brought back to life many architectural monuments of the past. V.A. Desyatnikov, who worked with L.I. Antropov in the Scientific and Methodological Council for the Protection of Monuments, says in his book “With the Cross and Without the Cross”: “When a powerful excavator arrived to destroy an ancient structure disfigured by perestroika, Leonid Ivanovich climbed into an excavator bucket and did not give the opportunity to work until G.V. Alferova and P.D. Baranovsky brought an order from the USSR Ministry of Culture to place the monument under state protection.” Restoration work was carried out in 1965-1966 by the Central Scientific Research Center of the USSR Ministry of Culture. The author of the restoration project was O.D. Savitskaya. The project involved the restoration of the monument using a holistic restoration method based on field survey data, the additional use of analogies and archival photographs of the monument. As a result of the work done, extensions and elements of later transformations that distorted the appearance of the building were dismantled, the cultural layer was removed to the level of the 17th century, and the area around the church was paved. The vaulted ceilings of the refectory, two tiers of kokoshniks and the main volume of the temple were restored to their original form. The shape of the domes, the height of the drums and the tent of the bell tower were restored on the basis of archival photographs using the photo method. The original shapes of window and door openings and their decorative frames were also restored. The temple was restored and restored. All that remained was to erect the surviving crosses on the domes, but this was not done. Since 1968, the temple has been occupied by the Exhibition Hall of the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation. By this time, the paintings in the temple were practically destroyed, only walled-in white stone slabs from the 17th-18th centuries remained in the northern and southern walls. The temple was placed under state protection (protection document No. 268). It became a favorite fragment of compositions on the theme “Old and New Moscow”. In 1990, the openwork gilded crosses, which had lain in the basement for a quarter of a century, were finally re-erected onto the domes. And in 1991, it was decided to return the temple to believers. In 1992, a minor consecration of the temple took place and services began. But the building returned to the Church was in the most deplorable condition. Bare walls outside and inside, destroyed thrones... But churches do not die, and gradually, through the efforts of Father Superior Sergius Nikitin and parishioners, the temple began to come to life. And finally, a sign appeared on the door of the temple: “The temple is open.”

http://simeon-stolpnik.narod.ru/index/0-19

This majestic temple, located on the northern slope of Tagansky Hill, is visible only directly from Nikoloyamskaya Street. And whoever sees it, walking along this, frankly speaking, little-busy street, will be amazed by its size and unusual architecture. Everyone, of course, is surprised by the high rotunda with several tiers of large windows that do not fit well into the architectural style of the temple. So I decided to figure out what was the matter?

I entered the gate and went up to the entrance, which is located around the corner from the mosaic image of St. Simeon the Stylite.

Here is the entrance to the temple.

Going inside, I discovered a rich interior decoration and no hint of the volume of the high dome of the rotunda.

I went out and decided to walk around the church. Here's the view from the south. It became clear that the entrance to the high part was tightly closed.

On the opposite side - similarly.

So I left unsalted and plunged into the vastness of the Internet to study the issue. And this is what I found out. The Church of Simeon the Stylite beyond the Yauza was first mentioned in 1600, when Boris Godunov ordered a temple to be erected here in honor of the saint, on whose day he was married (as was the case with the Church of Simeon the Stylite on Povarskaya). It was probably a wooden temple, later replaced by a stone one - at least in 1657 the temple was already listed as stone.In the 17th century, the settlement around the temple received the nickname Semenovskaya - after the name of the parish. Initially it was a Yamskaya settlement, but over time all the coachmen moved from here beyond the Zemlyanoy Val, and their place was taken by merchants. Gradually a merchant community developed here. The parishioners of the Church of Simeon the Stylite decided to rebuild and renovate the dilapidated building at their own expense. In 1731, the main volume of the old temple was dismantled and a new one was built. In 1792, with the funds of S.P. Vasiliev and I.R. Batashev, construction of the temple began, with major changes, which has survived to this day. Batashev was the owner of mining and metallurgical plants. Simultaneously with the construction of the church, he was also building his new city estate here. Part of the estate is adjacent directly to the temple. Many consider the high rotunda to be part of the Batashev estate.


It is not possible to establish exactly who owns the temple project. There is an assumption that this is one of the Kazakovs - Matvey Fedorovich or Rodion Rodionovich. The construction of the temple was not easy. In 1798, the dome of the almost completed building collapsed, damaging the walls. By 1812, construction was completed and the temple was ready for consecration, which this time was prevented by the French who captured Moscow. During the great Moscow fire, the temple was looted and the new iconostasis burned down. As a result, the consecration of the new Church of Simeon the Stylite took place only in 1813. In 1847, a new iconostasis was made according to the design of the architect Chichagov, and a little later, in 1851, smaller iconostases according to his own design were installed in the aisles. In 1863, the parish of the Simeon Church acquired a new large bell weighing 418 pounds (6847 kg). To accommodate it, a new three-tier bell tower had to be built. The bell tower, partly replicating the main volume of the temple in its decor, was built according to Kozlovsky’s design. In 1898, the architect N.V. Rozov was involved in the reconstruction of the church. As a result, by the end of the 19th century the temple looked like this.

The huge building of the temple in the classicist style looked majestic on Tagansky Hill and could be seen from afar. The main volume of the temple is centric, with a high rotunda placed on a quadrangle with porticoes. The quadrangle is quite proportional to the rotunda, but now the latter visually looks higher than originally, due to the three tiers of windows cut into it during Soviet times. Previously, the rotunda had high windows with semicircular endings, they were framed by paired pilasters. The dome has round windows called lucarnes, and the main volume is crowned by a very thin drum with a tiny head.

At the end of the 1920s, there was a threat of closure of the Simeon Church. Its then rector, Archpriest Nikolai Benevolensky, transferred the miraculous temple image of St. Simeon the Stylite and the especially revered icon of St. Demetrius of Rostov with a particle of relics (18th century) to the neighboring Church of the Intercession, located on the opposite side of Nikoloyamskaya Street. And after the closure of the Simeon Church in 1929, he himself went to serve there. In Soviet times, the temple building was transferred to the Moscow Institute for Advanced Training of Engineering and Technical Workers of the Moscow City Executive Committee. Until the 1990s, the temple remained under the jurisdiction of the Moscow City Executive Committee. The building was completely redesigned and made seven-story, with 3 rows of windows in the rotunda. The bell tower was broken down to the first tier. The temple building gradually deteriorated and eventually acquired a deplorable appearance by the end of the last century.

In 1995, after restoration, services resumed, and a Sunday school was opened at the church. There are icon painting and restoration workshops and a publishing house. The interior of the temple has been restored in recent years. Services are conducted in the refectory part of the temple, since floors still remain in the rotunda. Therefore, the majestic rotunda continues to amaze passers-by with its many small windows, which do not correspond to the plans of the Moscow architects who built the temple.

Let's hope that the time will come when the Temple will take on its natural appearance.