Temple of the Ascension. Cathedral of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist. Walk through the gallery

On the banks of the Moscow River in the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve there is a miracle of medieval architecture: the Church of the Ascension of the Lord.

The temple took 4 years to build. From 1528 to 1532. As rumor says, it was erected in honor of the birth of the son of Vasily III, Ivan the Terrible. But this is rather fiction, given that Ivan the Terrible was born in 1530, because it would have been problematic to complete a project of such scale in two years. Most likely, Vasily started the construction back in 1528, as a tribute to God, so that God would send him a long-awaited heir. After all, for a long time the tsar and his wife remained a childless couple, which was a big problem during the times of autocracy and continuity of power.

In September 1532, its consecration took place, the entire royal family took part in this ceremony - Grand Duke Vasily III himself, his young wife Elena Glinskaya and baby Ioan.

Who built the temple

The name of the talented architect who built the temple has not yet been established. It can be assumed that the architect was an Italian. Most historians believe that the church was built by the then little-known architect Petro Annibale. In Russia he had many names - Petrok Maloy, Pyotr Fryazin. And Vasily III’s invitation to Moscow in 1528 makes this version the most convincing. It was the surname Fryazin that convinced many that this was a certain Pskov architect who built many masterpieces of architecture in the Mother See. It's actually a nickname. All Italians in Rus' were called this way.

Characteristics of style and construction features

The building is simply a collection of several architectural styles. There are pilasters with capitals in the style of the Early Renaissance, and Gothic vimpergs, and classic Russian kokoshniks. Understand, what architectural style did the architect adhere to is difficult.

Among the elements of the Renaissance are the following:

order;
portals with straight architrave ceilings of openings;
drawing of Gothic vampires.

The height of the temple tower is as much as 62 meters. By the standards of those times, this was an impressive figure. The building was the tallest Orthodox building. And due to the flying architectonics, it feels like the building is floating above the ground.

The building has no internal supports, as well as the usual altar apse. It is installed on a basement surrounded by a walkway, and although the thickness of the walls is from 2 to 4 meters, from the outside the church looks very light. On the eastern side, the stone throne survived. The legs are made in the shape of lion paws, and the armrests are decorated with intricate arabesques. From here, Moscow rulers admired the immense expanse opening beyond the Moscow River.

The interior space of the building is not large, because it was the prince’s home temple. Only members of the sovereign's family and the closest, trusted servants could pray here.

The temple was built as a summer temple, unheated. There has never been a stove or any heating here. This is how he remains to this day. The Temple of the Ascension is considered the first tented temple made of stone. In addition, the church had the function of a watchtower. In the thickness of one of the walls there is a narrow staircase leading up directly to the tent. There is a special observation deck used for signaling. If a watchman stationed there saw suspicious movements or movements of troops, then a fire would immediately light up. At night it was a bright flame. During the day, the signal was given by smoke.

Gradually, with the loss of the village of Kolomenskoye of the official status of the current royal residence, the temple lost its “house” status and became a parish. It was a summer church, where services were held from Easter to the Intercession. And in Soviet times, concerts of sacred and classical music were held here, if it was interesting from a historical point of view. Now the temple has come to life: services are held here.

At the bottom of the temple there is a composition dedicated to the history and restoration of the church. From the street, the visitor enters the western tent. This room arose in the 17th century, when the space between the supporting pillars of the bypass gallery was filled with bricks. Here you can get acquainted with some of the design features of the temple and the materials used in its construction, as well as old photographs.

The next room is the church basement or sub-church. The thickness of the walls here reaches five meters. Usually they kept the most valuable things. Perhaps the treasury of Ivan the Terrible was once located there.

The internal volume of the temple is open to 42 meters, so that a feeling of ascension is created inside. The decoration of that time has not been preserved, only the form of the galleries has its original appearance. One can only guess what everything looked like here back in 1532, but according to historians, the situation was colorful and rich. And this is not surprising, because the temple was a house of worship for the royal family.

The most interesting thing is that, according to legend, somewhere in the temple there is the great library of Ivan the Terrible, which he inherited from his Byzantine grandmother.

Changes after repairs and restorations

During its existence the following changes were made to the building:

This is only a small part of the renovation work. Over the course of its history, the building has undergone significant transformations.

Since 1994, the site has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and is protected by this organization. This indicates that even the world cultural community highly values this architectural structure.

The Church of the Ascension is an undeniable masterpiece of world architecture. Even after centuries, it never ceases to amaze with its perfect harmony and wonderful energy that permeates everything around.

The monument of ancient Russian architecture, erected in the 16th century, became the first tented church in Russia.

The exact date of foundation of the building has not been established, but it is known that its consecration took place in September 1532 during the reign of the Grand Duke of All Rus' Vasily III. Some historians believe that the temple was founded in honor of his son, the future ruler Ivan IV the Terrible, born two years before this event (for Vasily III, who had crossed the fifty-year mark, the birth of an heir was an extremely important and happy event).

Church of the Ascension - brief description

The Church of the Ascension was built according to the design of the Italian architect Ivan Fryazin (Pietro Antonio Solari), who was working in Russia at that time. The site for the construction was chosen near the place where there was a healing spring, about which there are many legends.

According to one legend, St. George the Victorious (the most revered saint and great martyr in Christianity) chased a snake along the bottom of a ravine on a horse, and everywhere he galloped, springs appeared that healed diseases. The location of the temple is considered holy.

Architecture

The Church of the Ascension was one of the tallest buildings in the Moscow principality, its height is more than 60 meters and for a long time it served as a watchtower. The temple, located in the south of Moscow, was a good observation point on the southern border of the principality, from where danger most often threatened, primarily from Tatar-Mongol raids.

The Church of the Ascension is made in the form of a white stone tower with a high hipped roof, which was an innovation of that time. The tent has clear edges and is decorated with “diamond rustication” - finishing in the form of polyhedrons.

A smooth transition from one tier to another is made by rows of triple kokoshniks. The entrances to the temple are decorated with pointed elements - wimpergs.

The temple is surrounded by a two-tiered gallery with three amazing staircase-arches that fit perfectly into the surrounding area.

Currently, under the western porch there is an entrance to the basement, where an exhibition telling about the history of the temple is displayed. Here you will see photographs and documents, as well as interesting artifacts found by archaeologists.

In the basement of the temple, historians tried to find the famous library of Ivan the Terrible. It was he who was the last owner of valuable books and documents, the search for which has been going on for several centuries to no avail.

Here, in March 1917, the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God was found, located in the Church of Our Lady of Kazan in Kolomenskoye. Her list is now kept in the basement of the temple.

Interior decoration

The Church of the Ascension was a home summer church for the princely family and therefore its internal space is relatively small - about 100 square meters. meters. Thanks to the predominance of white color and the skillful placement of windows, the inside of the temple is very light and spacious.

Strict decorative decoration emphasizes the grandeur and harmony of the temple. Each element of the decor speaks of Peter Fryazin’s desire to show the lightness and upward aspiration of the structure, symbolizing the ascension of Christ into heaven.

The original painting, as well as the iconostasis of the first third of the 16th century, have not survived. The iconostasis that you will see was recreated in the 17th century from surviving ancient icons.

The temple was closed after the revolution. In 2000 it was re-consecrated. The reconstruction and reconstruction of the building was completed in 2007.

The Church of the Ascension of the Lord is the oldest architectural monument and a masterpiece of world architecture. In Russian architecture, perhaps, there is no more perfect structure in its forms and proportions.

Opening hours of museums in the Church of the Ascension - summer 2019

During the summer (from April 1 to September 30)
- Every day, except Monday and Friday, from 10:00 to 18:00
- Fridays from 11:00 to 19:00
- Monday - day off
During the winter period (from October 1 to March 31)
- From Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00
- Monday - day off

Ticket prices for the exhibition in the main volume of the Church of the Ascension - summer 2019

For adults - 150 rub.

Ticket prices for the exhibition “Secrets of the Church of the Ascension” in the basement - summer 2019

For adults - 100 rubles.
For schoolchildren and pensioners - 50 rubles.
For full-time students of state universities of the Russian Federation - free
For children under 6 years old inclusive - free

Admission is free for all categories of visitors on June 14, July 19, August 16, September 13, October 18, November 15 and December 13 (Moscow Museum Week).

The Church of the Ascension of the Lord in Kolomenskoye is an Orthodox church located in Kolomenskoye, which was previously a village and the residence of Russian princes, and today is part of the city limits of Moscow.

The Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye is a masterpiece of Russian and world architecture, perhaps the first tented church in Russia.

Story

According to legend, this church was decided to be built by the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III, who for a long time did not have a son to whom he could pass the throne. Already in adulthood, Vasily III became the father of the future Russian Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. In honor of the baptism of the long-awaited heir, the Grand Duke ordered the construction of a church in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow.

The Church of the Ascension is also classified as a memorial church - built in honor of some event. The tradition of memorial churches in Rus' appeared in the 16th century.

Architecture Features

In the first half of the 16th century, Russian rulers invited Italian architects to build original churches and cathedrals, such as, for example, the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, the Rurik family tomb, the Archangel Cathedral and the walls of the Moscow Kremlin.

The architect of the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye was Peter Francis Anibale, an architect from Italy, who became famous in Rus' as Petrok Maly or Peter Fryazin. The Ascension Cathedral in Kolomenskoye was built in 1528-1532.

The unusual church amazes not only modern visitors to the museum-reserve; it was also unusual for people who lived in the 16th century. On the high bank of the Moscow River, a 62-meter white stone pillar rises on a powerful base of galleries. The main mood of the church is set by triple kokoshniks, reminiscent of flames, and a tent, the top of which is crowned with a golden cross. The slender silhouette of the Ascension Church in Kolomenskoye, directed towards the sky, also sends the imagination to images of defensive towers.

With its appearance, the temple speaks of a biblical event - the Ascension of Jesus Christ to God the Father.

The composition of the Temple of the Ascension is as follows: on the quadrangle, the lower base, an octagon, an octagonal pillar, topped with a tent, was erected. The tent in this case is a pyramid of several sides, externally reminiscent of fabric camping tents.

The main material of the building is brick; there are white stone elements. Due to their original appearance, the skyward tented churches are also called “Russian Gothic”, although the appearance of the Church of the Ascension also contains later elements. Previously, not a single stone temple in Rus' was decorated with a tent; only vaults and domes were used.

It is widely believed that the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye is the first Russian temple in the tent style. Historians have proven that the first tented church in Russia was built of wood near the Kremlin in honor of the birth of Ivan the Terrible, but has not survived to this day.

The interior of the Church of the Ascension of the Lord has not been preserved in its original form. The interior space is relatively small, since the church was used only by the princely family during their stay in their residence in Kolomenskoye. The Church of the Ascension is very light thanks to the skillful and proportional combination of architectural techniques and materials. The modern iconostasis was reconstructed according to the model of the iconostases of the 16th century and later periods.

Current state

Over the long period of its existence, the church was practically not rebuilt, which is why the Church of the Ascension of the Lord in Kolomenskoye was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the complex of buildings of the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve. The modern appearance of the temple does not fully correspond to the original appearance.

The first consecration of the Church of the Ascension of the Lord took place in Kolomenskoye in 1532, and the second consecration in 2000.

At the beginning of the 21st century, a significant restoration of the temple was carried out, but the wooden structures of the ceilings above the galleries were completely destroyed, the cracks in the walls were not carefully studied and repaired. The current condition of the church is of concern due to its location on a coastline prone to landslides.

Worship in the temple

Divine services are held not in the Church of the Ascension of the Lord in Kolomenskoye, but in the attached Church of St. George the Victorious on Sundays and some holidays.

Temple exposition

After the completion of the restoration, in the basement of the Church of the Ascension of the Lord in Kolomenskoye there is a permanent exhibition “Secrets of the Church of the Ascension”. The basement itself is also of interest; some of its details are not entirely clear to researchers. It was in Kolomenskoye, in the basement of the Church of the Ascension, that they tried to look for the mysteriously disappeared library of Ivan the Terrible. Also in 1917, in the basement of the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, an ancient miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Sovereign” was miraculously discovered, which today is kept in the Church of the Icon of the Kazan Mother of God.

The exhibition, located here in the basement premises, presents rare materials from the collections of the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve. In addition to photographs documenting the state of the Ascension Church in different periods, fragments of chronicles, a list of the “Sovereign” icon of the Mother of God, measurement drawings and projects of architects of past centuries are exhibited. Visitors can watch a film about the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye.

In the 20th century, archaeological excavations were carried out in Kolomenskoye, which revealed a large number of carved white stone decorative details of the Church of the Ascension and other artifacts testifying to the life of Russian people in ancient times.

How to get there

First, you need to get to the Kolomenskoye estate, its official address is Andropov Avenue, 39.

Follow the Zamoskvoretskaya (green) line to the Kolomenskaya station, then walk for about 15-20 minutes along residential buildings to the entrance to the museum-reserve. Next, follow the signs for the reserve, heading towards the bank of the Moscow River, where you will see the Church of the Ascension. Near the temple there is St. George's Church with a bell tower and the Vodovzvodnaya Tower.

You can also enter the museum-reserve from the other side, where the palace of Alexei Mikhailovich is located. Head to the Kashirskaya metro station on the green Zamoskvoretskaya line or the turquoise Kakhovskaya line. From the metro you need to walk about 300 meters to the entrance to the museum, and then follow the signs to the Temple of the Ascension.

Use ground transport to get to the Kolomenskaya stop near the metro.

It is convenient to get to Andropov Avenue by car; there are a large number of parking spaces near the Kolomenskoye estate. Be careful, there are often traffic jams on this road.

For comfortable trips around Moscow, use the taxi services Uber, Yandex taxi, Gett Taxi, Maxim and others.

Church of the Ascension of the Lord in Kolomenskoye

Panorama of the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye

According to the status of the diocese - cathedral, Bishop's Compound. Consecrated in 1838, 3 altars: the Ascension of the Lord (main), the Epiphany, St. Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk. The stone temple was built in 1749-1760. on the site of the one that burned down on April 27, 1747. wooden Ascension Church. In 1826-1836 at the expense of merchants I.F. Tatarintsev and F.N. Bobrov's temple was rebuilt according to the design of the architect I.F. Lvov in the style of late classicism.

The main altar of the cathedral gave the name to the cathedral itself. The southern aisle is dedicated to the Epiphany (or Baptism) of the Lord, and the northern aisle is dedicated to St. Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk. It was built later (1831). It is known that the Tver merchant I.D. designed it. Podsypanin donated 5,000 rubles. In order for the northern facade of the church to be organically included in the development of the “solid facade” of the former Millionnaya Street, it was given a distinctly ceremonial character. The main entrance is equipped with a podium with steps. According to Lvov's design, the staircase was to be decorated with statues.

The temple was closed in the 1930s. and was used as a warehouse. A special commission for the confiscation of church valuables confiscated precious church utensils and icons from the cathedral. In 1936, the building was transferred to the regional museum of local lore, and from 1972-73. it was used as an exhibition hall.

In 1993, the church was returned to the diocese and became a cathedral. Restoration work was carried out in the 1970s and 1990s. On January 7, 1993, on the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, the first service was held in the cathedral, and in July 1994 the procession with the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God from the Nativity of Christ Monastery to the Cathedral of the Ascension of the Lord was resumed. Nowadays in the cathedral there are the newly painted Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God and the “Fat Mountain” icon of the Mother of God, especially revered in Tver, painted anew in 1994, since the ancient icons were lost. Among the shrines, the relics of St. are especially revered in the cathedral. svm. Archbishop Thaddeus of Tver, killed on December 31, 1937.

At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. at the intersection of Millionnaya (Sovetskaya) street and Ilyinsky lane (Tverskaya pr.) there were residential buildings built in the 1760s. The two-story house on the right originally belonged to the clergy of the Voznesenskaya, “on Prospect” church. It was built when the stone temple already existed. The construction of the Church of the Ascension began in 1749 with the construction of the Epiphany chapel. In 1751 it was completed and consecrated. By 1761, construction of the main part of the temple complex - the Church of the Ascension of the Lord - was completed. A refectory adjoined the temple from the west, and a bell tower from the north. The church was badly damaged in a fire in 1763, but was restored by 1768.

In 1805, the bell tower was dismantled because it “obstructed both the church itself and the light in it, and besides, due to the cramped space, the bell ringing could not be heard in the parish.” A new bell tower was installed on the western side. At the beginning of the 19th century, parishioners of the Ascension Church decided to replace it with a larger building. The old building was dismantled, and on April 30, 1826, construction of a new temple began. The author of the project was the provincial architect Ivan Fedorovich Lvov. The consecration of the temple took place in 1833 with a “stunted” old bell tower, and only in 1902-1903. the third tier of ringing appeared.

At the beginning of the 20th century, in the house of the clergy of the Church of the Ascension there was a Blinov store, where hunting accessories, musical instruments and household goods were traded. The house opposite in 1803-1804. The city authorities purchased it for the City Duma and Magistrate. When in the 1860s. The city police were transferred here, and a high wooden tower was erected above the building. At the very beginning of our century (around 1907), the tower was dismantled. At the same time, a private secondary school was opened on the third floor of the house, and the first floor housed Petronelli Osipovna Ozerova’s store, which sold Singer sewing machines.

Both the church clergy house and the city Duma building were lost in Soviet times during the expansion of Cooperative (formerly Ilyinsky) Lane and its transformation into Tverskoy Avenue.

http://history-tver.ru/7-31.htm

The Cathedral of the Ascension of the Lord is located in the Central administrative district of Tver, at the intersection of Tverskoy Prospect and st. Soviet.

The history of the cathedral goes back centuries. It is known that until 1612, near the present church there was a wooden one with the same name. Nearby there was also a wooden church in the name of the Epiphany of the Lord. These were small parish cathedrals (warm and cold). Both were burned during the Polish-Lithuanian intervention. In 1624, the Church of the Ascension was rebuilt, and in 1709, two churches stood here again - the Ascension and the Epiphany. But in 1725, the Epiphany Church burned down and was never rebuilt. Later, a wooden church in the name of the Ascension of the Lord with the throne of the Epiphany was built on this site. But this temple did not last long. It burned to the ground during a huge fire. After some time, the parishioners asked for permission to build a new church on this site, already made of stone, with the same name and the same chapel. A deed of temple deed was given. In 1751, the chapel of the Epiphany was completed by the builders “with clean images and all church vestments removed” and consecrated.

Construction of the cathedral itself continued for almost another 9 years, and in 1760 the main chapel was consecrated. But this cathedral did not last long. On May 19, 1763, a devastating fire occurred in Tver. The newly built church also burned down. But the parishioners were able to quickly restore the chapel of the Epiphany, which was consecrated in September. Worship services have resumed there. The cathedral itself took a long time to be restored. Finally, in 1768, the interior decoration was restored. The temple was completely built and consecrated. In 1805, a new bell tower was erected near the cathedral.

Time passed. Extensive stone construction was carried out in the center of Tver. Such wonderful masters as K. Rossi, N. Legrand and I. Lvov worked in the city. The cathedral, located in the center of the city, with its already unfashionable “baroque” decoration, ceased to satisfy the illustrious owners and parishioners. The question arose about its restructuring. In 1818, parishioners and priests asked permission to dismantle the cathedral and in its place to build a new, more spacious one, with the chapels of Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk and the Epiphany. The petition was accompanied by a design for the church, signed by the provincial architect N. Legrand. But there were no funds for this work. They decided to expand the cathedral by constructing a new chapel. In 1831, the chapel of Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk was completed and consecrated. In 1833, on the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, the entire temple was consecrated with a new gilded iconostasis and walls covered with paintings. And only in 1836 the chapel of the Epiphany of the Lord was consecrated.

The cathedral became a true decoration of the city. During construction, white stone was widely used, from which the columns, cornices, base, steps of the temple and bell tower were made. The cathedral was painted ocher, the decorative details were whitewashed. Painting was used both inside and outside. With the help of painting in the portico, a unique imitation of volumetric reliefs using the grisaille technique was created. The dome and crosses on the cathedral and bell tower were gilded. The roof and dome were covered with tinned iron. Wrought iron was widely used to make bars on windows and doors. The window frames and doors were tinted to resemble stained oak.

Everything about the structure was thought out to the smallest detail. The cathedral looked majestic. Unfortunately, it is impossible to completely trace the chronology of the reconstruction - the archival fund of the temple has not completely survived. These are mostly minor repair alterations.

After the revolution in 1922, utensils and icons were confiscated from the Ascension Cathedral by the commission for the confiscation of church valuables. And in 1935 the temple was closed. Since 1936, the building housed an exposition of the regional museum of local lore. In the fall of 1941, Divine services were temporarily resumed. In 1972, the building was transferred to the exhibition hall of the Regional Industrial Exhibition. At the same time, its significant reconstruction was carried out: interfloor ceilings were made, the heating system was replaced, and a ramp was added on the eastern side.

In 1991, at the request of believers, work began on transferring the cathedral to the Church. On January 7, 1993, the first service took place in the church.

http://vosnesenie.ru/about/history/

The ingenious Church of the Ascension in the village of Kolomenskoye is one of the few surviving monuments from the era of Ivan the Terrible in Moscow. And in the urban planning model of the medieval “Third Rome,” Kolomenskoye was a symbol of the very Mount of Olives on which the Ascension of the Lord took place.

"For the sovereign"

According to legend, the history of the village of Kolomenskoye began in 1237, during the time of Batu’s invasion. Legend has it that at that time the inhabitants of the town of Kolomna fled from the terrible khan from their devastated city closer to Moscow and allegedly even wanted to take refuge within the walls of the Kremlin, but it was already occupied by Muscovites. And then the refugees set up the settlement of Kolomninskoye on the southern outskirts of the Mother See, on the high bank of the Moscow River, named in memory of their destroyed city. Then it began to be called simply Kolomenskoye.

Indeed, the name of the village of Kolomenskoye comes from the name of the city of Kolomna. But the origin of the name of the city itself, both legends and numerous versions of scientists, explain differently. Most likely, this is a hydronym for the Kolomenka River. Or it came from the word “quarry”, where building stone was then mined. Or from the word “well”, meaning a dungeon where prisoners languished in the stocks. Or even from the noble Italian family Colonna: supposedly its representative, Charles Colonna, fleeing the persecution of the Pope, begged land from the Russian sovereign, founded an entire city on it and named it after himself. It is usually believed that the name Kolomna is based on the Finno-Ugric word “kolm”, meaning burial ground or cemetery, or the Slavic word “kolomen”, that is, “neighborhood”, “surroundings” (“about”), which was quite suitable for Kolomna near Moscow, and for Kolomenskoye.

The village of Kolomenskoye was first mentioned in 1339 in the spiritual letter (will) of Prince Ivan Kalita, which he drew up before his next trip to the Horde (no one knew then what the prince would return with or whether he would return). At that time, Kolomenskoye was already listed as “the sovereign’s”, that is, it was listed as the patrimonial possession of the Moscow princes. It was truly a paradise with water meadows and picturesque surroundings, where the Grand Duke’s and then the Tsar’s summer residence was located for several centuries. In the same 14th century, the first wooden princely palace was built with a facade facing the Moscow River.

Prince Dimitry Donskoy stopped in Kolomenskoye to rest with his army, returning from the Battle of Kulikovo: here jubilant Muscovites greeted him with honor, bread and salt, “honey and sables.” According to legend, he then founded a thanksgiving wooden church here in the name of St. George the Victorious, the patron saint of the princely family and the Russian army, near which the soldiers who died on the return journey and were wounded on the Kulikovo Field were buried. According to another version, this church was founded in honor of the joyful meeting of the victorious prince.

The village of Kolomenskoye itself was then still insignificant. Ivan III especially fell in love with this place and established a permanent residence in it. And only since the reign of Vasily III, who loved to “live” here and played an exceptional role in the fate of Kolomenskoye, has the village experienced the beginning of its heyday. The most august residents of Kolomenskoye became the customers of its churches. The peculiarity of Kolomenskoye is that its monuments cannot be considered separately. Only together they form the historical phenomenon of Kolomenskoye, which contains many mysteries and secrets, capturing the most fateful and dramatic events of Russian history.

"And all the beauty under heaven"

It is believed that after the wooden St. George Church, the first stone church appeared here - in honor of the Beheading of John the Baptist, in Dyakovo - on a high hill, separated from the rest of Kolomenskoye by a deep ravine. (It is interesting that in this place in the 19th century the oldest archaeological culture in Moscow, the Dyakovo archaeological culture, a primitive settlement from the Stone Age, was discovered.)

The delightful Church of the Baptist, dating back to the 16th century and revered as the architectural predecessor of the Church of the Intercession on the Moat on Red Square, holds many mysteries. According to traditional opinion, it was founded by Vasily III in 1529 as a prayer and votive temple for the birth of an heir, whom the Grand Duke had been waiting for more than 20 years and for the sake of which he decided to take an unprecedented step at that time - an official divorce from his first wife, Solomonia Saburova. She was forcibly tonsured in the Moscow Nativity Monastery, and she, according to legend, cursed her ex-husband, his new marriage, and all his offspring for this. But in Vasily III’s second marriage to Elena Glinskaya, there were no children for several years. In the winter of 1528/1529, the grand ducal couple traveled to monasteries with a prayer for the granting of an heir, but the couple did not receive what they asked for until they turned in prayer to the Monk Paphnutius of Borovsky.

Grand Duke Vasily III began building prayer churches to St. John the Baptist long before the birth of his son. Their dedication was associated with the namesake of Ivan Kalita, the ancestor of the Moscow Grand Dukes: thus Vasily III prayed for the gift of an heir, whom he promised to name John in honor of his great ancestor. After the birth of a son in 1530, who was actually named John, churches of St. John the Baptist were built in honor of his name day.

It is traditionally believed that in 1529, Vasily III, in commemoration of prayer for his son, built the multi-altar Church of the Baptist in Kolomenskoye. The main altar is dedicated to John the Baptist, which symbolized the sovereign’s desire to have an heir, the namesake Ivan Kalita. The prayer for conception was expressed in the dedication of one of the chapels to righteous Anna, the mother of the Most Holy Theotokos. Another chapel is dedicated to the Apostle Thomas, who at first did not believe in the Resurrection of Christ, which symbolized the awareness of the sovereign, who had no offspring, of the sinfulness of unbelief and doubt. The dedication of another chapel to Metropolitan Peter, the patron saint of the Kalita family, marked a prayer for the sending of a miracle. The next altar was consecrated in honor of Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine the Great and his mother Elena, which symbolized a prayer to the heavenly patroness Elena Glinskaya.

On August 25, 1530 (Old Art.), on the eve of the memory of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, the long-awaited heir, the future first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible, was born. In honor of the birth of his son, Vasily III ordered the construction of several Baptist churches in Moscow the following year, 1531, including the famous Ioannovsky Monastery on Kulishki. The main one of these thanksgiving churches was the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye, consecrated in 1532.

However, the mysteries of the Forerunner Temple are just beginning. This is undoubtedly a memorial church, that is, erected to commemorate some event, but what - now historians doubt the definite answer. Modern versions of scientists are divided into the above-mentioned early one - the temple was built as a prayer to Vasily III for the birth of an heir, and the later one - the temple was built by Ivan the Terrible himself, who loved Kolomenskoye no less than his father, and was dedicated to his heavenly patron. It could have appeared in memory of the wedding of Ivan Vasilyevich to the throne in 1547, although in honor of this event the Petroverigsky Church on Maroseyka was built in Moscow (the wedding took place on the Feast of the Adoration of the Chains of the Apostle Peter), from which now only the name of Petroverigsky Lane remains. Among other reasons for the construction of the Baptist Church in Kolomenskoye, they include the capture of Kazan in 1552, and a prayer for the granting of an heir - Tsarevich John Ioannovich, and thanksgiving for his birth, and even repentance for his murder. Another ancient legend says that the Forerunner Church was built by the same architects Barma and Postnik who erected the Cathedral of the Intercession on the Moat, which not only refutes the famous legend about the blinding of the masters, but also gives it a different meaning: when the king asked whether they could build a temple better, they answered that they could - and built a new miracle in Kolomenskoye. (If only the Church of the Baptist was actually built in the 1550s.)

But still, most scientists are inclined to the traditional version about the temporary priority of the Baptist Church over the Ascension Church and that it became the predecessor of the Intercession Cathedral, a kind of architectural experiment, where for the first time several side churches were united around the central temple. If the supporters of the later version are right, then the Church of the Baptist was the home church of the family of Ivan the Terrible, whose birth was so gratefully commemorated by the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye.

The same debates are ongoing about the reason for the construction of the Church of the Ascension. Others believe that it could have been built by Vasily III not as a thanksgiving, but as a votive temple (if the Church of the Baptist was built later). Others even believe that the Ascension Church had nothing to do with the birth of the heir, but was built by Vasily III in gratitude for the victory over the Crimean prince Islam-Girey, won in 1528. The majority is inclined to the generally accepted version that the Ascension Church is a thanksgiving church, erected after the birth of the future tsar, which was accompanied by signs that greatly frightened Muscovites - a thunderstorm with lightning and even an earthquake.

The second line of dispute is the name of the architect of the Ascension Church. Some call him “unknown,” but undoubtedly a Russian master. Others - and the majority of them - consider him the architect of the Italian architect Petrok Maly, who built the fortress wall of Kitai-gorod in Moscow and the palace of Vasily III in Kolomenskoye in the same 1530s. Previously, the Kolomna Church of the Ascension was mistakenly attributed to Aleviz Novy, who built the Archangel Cathedral in the Kremlin. The architectural elements and technique of the Ascension Church indicate that its author was familiar with Italian architecture. After all, at that time the “great construction projects” of the Italians in Moscow were still going on, where they were nicknamed “Fryazins”: not accustomed to Russian frosts, they complained in their own language: “Fre! fre!” - "Cold". Petrok the Small, despite his masterpieces, was unlucky in Russia. From the “great rebellion and statelessness” that began after the death of Elena Glinskaya in 1538, he fled to Livonia, he was sent to Dorpat to be tried by the local bishop, who decided to hand over the fugitive to the Moscow prince. What fate befell him in the future is unknown. After all, he knew many secrets of the Moscow fortresses, which the Russian sovereigns did not want to divulge.

To understand the symbolic and architectural phenomenon of the Ascension Church of Kolomensky, one should turn to the canons of the urban planning model of medieval Moscow, which conceived itself as the “Third Rome”, and the only heir of Byzantium, and God’s chosen power, called upon to preserve the Orthodox Church, and the center of world Orthodoxy. Medieval Moscow reproduced in its urban planning the symbols of the main Christian civilizations - Jerusalem, Constantinople, Rome, of which it felt itself to be the successor, and the image of the City of God from the Revelation of John the Theologian. Moscow was meaningfully arranged as an architectural and urban planning icon of the City of God - Heavenly Jerusalem - and was likened to the image of the Holy Land, associated with the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In this urban planning model of the “Third Rome”, Grand Duke Kolomenskoye was given a special role - to symbolize the Jerusalem Mount of Olives, on which the Ascension of the Lord took place. The largest Orthodox researcher of medieval Moscow, M.P. Kudryavtsev, noted that in Moscow, unlike Jerusalem, this urban planning axis developed not to the East, but to the south - from the Kremlin to Kolomenskoye through Zamoskvorechye, which in turn was an image of the Garden of Gethsemane. And the very architecture of the snow-white, slender, crystal-faceted Kolomna Church, soaring into the sky on the high bank of the Moscow River, symbolized the Ascension of the Lord.

In accordance with the Russian eschatological idea, the Kolomna Church of the Ascension was also a symbol of the Second Coming of Christ, which is expected there, on the Mount of Olives, where His Ascension took place. Moscow, which set itself up as the “Third Rome,” seemed to be preparing the way for the Lord. And so it turned out that in Kolomenskoye - the symbolic Mount of Olives of Moscow - it was the Ascension Church that was built, as in Jerusalem. There is a version that the temple in Kolomenskoye is located at the same distance from the Kremlin “a day’s journey” as the Mount of Olives is from Jerusalem. In medieval times, the expectation of the imminent end of the world was natural, and it could be expected precisely in the “Third Rome” as the last and only stronghold of world Orthodoxy after Russia realized its messianic idea. According to Moscow legend, a symbolic place was even prepared for the Lord in the eastern part of the Ascension Church.

Moreover, before the final construction of Ivan the Great under Boris Godunov, it was the Ascension Church in Kolomenskoye that was the tallest building in Moscow: its height was more than 60 meters . The construction of such a symbolic temple in the Grand Ducal Kolomenskoye emphasized the role of the Moscow sovereigns and the entire Russian state as a stronghold and defense of the Orthodox Church according to the ideology of the “Third Rome”. The enormous height of the temple also determined the freedom of the internal space, which created a feeling of free ascension and eyes and souls directed to the sky.

“That church is wonderful in its height and beauty and luminosity, such has never been seen before in Rus',” an ancient chronicler wrote about it. The purpose of the Ascension Church to symbolize God's chosenness of Russia and the Russian idea corresponded to the new ingenious architecture of the temple, like an arrow rushing to heaven: a tent placed at the base of the temple instead of the traditional cross-domed churches that came to us from Byzantium. This was the first stone tented temple in Rus'. It expressed, firstly, the identity of Russia as an independent Orthodox civilization and, secondly, the very symbolic idea of the tent. If in cross-domed churches the Orthodox cross is the basis of the layout, the internal pillars mean the support (pillars) of the Church (that’s why images of saints were painted on them), and the traditional five-domed structure symbolizes the Lord Jesus Christ surrounded by the four evangelist apostles, then in a tented church the meaning is revealed otherwise. Since ancient times, since Old Testament times, the tent canopy has symbolized the holiness of the place over which it was erected. In the Christian tradition, a tent canopy as an image of Divine grace was erected over a sacred place, symbolizing its God-preservation and the grace of God descending on it. In tent-roofed church architecture, a canopy was erected both over the temple - the house of God and its altar, and over those praying in it, and in the Kolomna Ascension Church - also over the members of the grand ducal family, and especially over the heir born through fervent prayers.

Most importantly, the tented temple in Kolomenskoye was associated with the dedication of this temple near Moscow to the Lord and His Ascension and His blessed canopy, which He spread over Russia and Moscow, which conceived itself as the “Third Rome” and “New Jerusalem”. This is how the canopy in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the main Christian temple in the universe, was symbolically interpreted in Russian architecture. The single-domed roofed temple symbolizes Christ as the Head of the Church, and the pillar-shaped tented temple seemed to itself become a pillar of the Church and faith. The tent of the Church of the Ascension, original and free, truly ascends into the sky, towards eternity, lifting the souls of those praying to God.

Some find in the tented church a negative feature of a break with tradition and even “the aspiration upward of a lonely, proud soul.” Others, on the contrary, see in it Russian prayer in stone - a new understanding of completely traditional ideas without any break with them. Sometimes the Ascension Church is compared to a powerful tree, rooted in the ground with strong roots, symbolizing the heavenly “tree of life” and the tree of the grand ducal family. After all, it was the Grand Duke’s order that gave birth to a new architectural form of the tent-temple, which Patriarch Nikon later fought against as a non-canonical phenomenon. And if the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye was the first of the Russian stone hipped churches, then the last one preserved in Moscow, built in the hipped style before the decree of Patriarch Nikon in 1648, is the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki on Malaya Dmitrovka. Nikon, having banned tented churches, ordered a return to the Byzantine cross-domed church and demonstrated the required model in the Cathedral of the 12 Apostles in the Kremlin, built in his patriarchal residence. And from then on, tents were erected for a long time only over bell towers, and only at the end of the 17th century a new era began in the history of Moscow tent churches - the Naryshkin Baroque.

Researchers also argue about the sources of the tent-roofed architecture of the Ascension Church. Some unconditionally consider the tent to be a purely national style, born from wooden Russian architecture, but others see in it Italian, Polotsk, and even Tatar origins. This explanation is also interesting: as the Moscow population increased, temples were required that could accommodate more people, and internal pillars interfered with this, so the architects tried to do without them, erecting the first pillarless temples, where the roof rests directly on the walls, such as a church Saint Tryphon in Naprudny.

The Church of the Ascension, which became the summer church of the Grand Dukes, was intended only for members of the august family (which is why its internal dimensions are relatively small) and was connected by a covered passage to the palace. It also had an important defensive significance - a watchtower from which watchmen received “telegraph” fire signals about danger from the Moscow region. With the help of torches or lit birch bark they were transferred further - to the Simonov Monastery and to the bell tower of Ivan the Great. After all, it was from the south that the greatest danger to the borders of Moscow was then threatened - Tatar raids.

In the same 16th century, a separate bell tower appeared, which became the belfry of the Ascension Church. In its lower tier, the throne was consecrated in the name of St. George the Victorious. According to legend, it was built on the site of the wooden St. George Church, which was erected by Dmitry Donskoy. There is a version that the construction of this bell tower also began under Vasily III in honor of the birth and namesake of his second son, Yuri (baptized George), born in October 1533. The slender, swift, high bell tower seemed to echo the architecture of the Ascension Church.

The truly wonderful Ascension Church was consecrated by Bishop Vassian (Toporkov) of Kolomna, the nephew of St. Joseph of Volotsky, who was especially close to the court of the Grand Duke, who confessed and administered unction to Vasily III on his deathbed and to whom Ivan the Terrible later turned for advice on how to govern the state. After the consecration, Vasily III generously donated the temple with precious vessels and icons in rich vestments, and arranged a feast in Kolomenskoye, which lasted three days. But the time of the death of the Grand Duke was not far off. After his death in December 1533, Kolomenskoye was left to wait for a new owner - Ivan the Terrible himself.

Ivan the Terrible loved Kolomenskoye. According to legend, he built a huge “pleasure” palace here and spent a long time enjoying the beautiful view from the gallery of the Ascension Church. Here, in Kolomenskoye, he assembled regiments before the campaign against Kazan, here he was informed about the capture of Astrakhan, here he loved to hunt. For a long time there were legends about treasures with countless treasures, which the formidable king allegedly took from the conquered Novgorod and hid them in the dungeons under the Ascension Church. And most importantly, perhaps it was in Kolomenskoye that his legendary library was kept. There was a legend that Ivan the Terrible imposed a curse: whoever gets close to his “Liberia” will go blind.

Miracles of Kolomna

The beginning of the “rebellious age” was as difficult for Kolomensky as for all of Russia. In the summer of 1605, the troops of False Dmitry I were stationed here. Just a year later he was killed by the rebel Muscovites. The impostor was first buried in the Poor Houses at the Pokrovskaya Zastava (now Taganskaya Street), but then his body was dug up and burned in the village of Kotly, which was located a mile from Kolomenskoye. And in 1606, the rebel Ivan Bolotnikov camped here, who, in the wake of unrest, led another impostor, “Tsarevich Peter,” supposedly the son of Tsar Theodore Ioannovich, to Moscow. From Kolomenskoye he set out on a campaign to Moscow, but government troops fought at the very walls of the capital and drove Bolotnikov back to Kolomenskoye, where he suffered a siege by “fiery cannonballs” and went to Kaluga.

After his accession, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov immediately ordered the construction of a new palace church in Kolomenskoye in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, who saved Rus' from unrest. It was built only under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, in 1653, and the consecration was timed to coincide with a memorable date: under the cross of the temple it was inscribed that it was erected in honor of the 100th anniversary of the capture of Kazan. It was under the “Quiet” Tsar that Kolomenskoye experienced its heyday: the famous wooden palace, a fabulous tower, was erected here, called the eighth wonder of the world by Simeon of Polotsk, who wrote: “Its beauty can be equaled / to Solomon’s beautiful palace.”

Sometimes it is even compared to the Palace of Knossos on the island of Crete. It had 270 rooms and three thousand mica windows, the painting of the choir was supervised by Simon Ushakov himself, and at the gate stood wooden lions covered with skins, rolling their eyes and roaring menacingly with the help of a skillful internal mechanism. Two more such lions stood on the sides of the royal throne and roared loudly as the ambassadors approached it. The palace was connected by a covered passage to the newly built Kazan house church, which had its own hierarchy of worshipers: the retinue prayed in the refectory, and those closest to them prayed in the temple in front of the iconostasis. With the liquidation of the palace in the 18th century, the Kazan Church became the parish church of the village of Kolomenskoye, and services under its arches were interrupted only in 1941–1942.

Here, in Kolomenskoye, Alexey Mikhailovich dealt with the participants of the Copper Riot in July 1662, when a crowd of thousands of Muscovites moved here demanding the extradition of the traitor boyars who had started a disastrous reform, which made money devalued. But the rebels were met by rifle regiments that arrived in time. There was also a special “petition pillar” on which petitions to the king were placed at a strictly allotted time, although other scientists believe that it was a pillar for a sundial, and petitions were placed to the king on a separate table specially set for that purpose. But it is known for sure that it was from here, from this royal residence, that the expression “Kolomenskaya Verst” came, as they jokingly call a tall, thin, lanky man. The fact is that when the royal road from Moscow to Kolomenskoye, magnificent for those times, was laid, new, huge mileposts of a hitherto unprecedented height were placed on it, and they were remembered by the people.

The very picturesque panorama of Kolomenskoye, natural and man-made, was designed to impress both foreign ambassadors and loyal subjects with the majesty of the royal residence, to symbolize the power, glory and idea of the great sovereigns of the Orthodox “Third Rome” - the Russian state.

According to legend, it was in Kolomenskoye that Peter I was born, which is why the poet A.I. Sumarokov pompously called Kolomenskoye “Russian Bethlehem” in his verses:

The greatness of Russia has shone in you;
The baby you matured in swaddling clothes,
Europe saw on the city walls,
And the ocean gave him water under the area,
The peoples of all the earth trembled from him.

However, there are several such “legendary” places associated with the birth of Peter the Great in Moscow - this is also the Kremlin, and Petrovsko-Razumovskoye, which allegedly received its name because of the birth of Tsarevich Peter Alekseevich there... Most historians are of the opinion, that this sovereign was born in the Kremlin, and spent his childhood in Kolomenskoye. He and his brother were brought here from the raging Moscow during the Streltsy riot of 1682, here under a huge shady oak tree he learned to read and write from Nikita Zotov. Here young Peter lived after a quarrel with Princess Sophia, conducted his maneuvers, sailed for the first time on small boats along the river to the Kremlin and the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery, even in stormy weather, and assembled amusing regiments. He honored the tradition of Russian sovereigns and, returning victorious after the capture of Azov and the Battle of Poltava, stopped in Kolomenskoye before the ceremonial entrance to Moscow, as Dimitri Donskoy once did. The last time Peter visited Kolomenskoye was during the coronation of Catherine I. But his daughter, the future autocrat Elizaveta Petrovna, was actually born in Kolomenskoye. For the rest of her life she remembered the wonderful fruits from the Kolomna gardens, so she often ordered them to be delivered to her in St. Petersburg. To keep the berries fresh, they were generously sprinkled with grain.

The emperors did not immediately abandon the “grandfather’s” Kolomensky. At first, Catherine II fell in love with this “royal village of Moscow” very much, even ordered the miracle palace of Alexei Mikhailovich to be dismantled and built a new Catherine Palace with four floors, in which she wrote her famous order for the deputies of the Legislative Commission. Here she lived with her grandchildren Alexander and Konstantin. According to legend, they once secretly staged a duel in the deep ravine of Kolomenskoye. The future Emperor Alexander Pavlovich, like his great ancestor, also learned to read and write here, only under the cedar tree - this is how, according to tradition, the royal children were taught in the summer in the open air. Then Catherine II got bored, as she put it, “climbing mountains like a goat,” and during one such walk in Kolomenskoye, the empress set her sights on the neighboring estate of Black Mud, which then belonged to Prince Kantemir. Catherine bought Black Mud and renamed it Tsaritsyno. And her palace in Kolomenskoye was occupied by the French in 1812 and destroyed. The eminent architect Evgraf Tyurin built a new Alexander Palace, which was abolished due to disrepair at the end of the 19th century, and the royal residence here was never restored.

Kolomenskoye was also famous for its wonderful springs. An ancient legend says that along the bottom of a ravine in Kolomenskoye, St. George the Victorious was chasing a serpent on horseback. The horse's hooves hit the ground and springs with clean water miraculously opened under them, healing eye and kidney diseases and especially infertility in women. They say that one of Grozny’s wives was healed here... And since then, women have prayed in Kolomenskoye for the gift of offspring. One such spring next to the Church of the Ascension is called “Kadochka”: in the log house above it there used to be a wooden tub, from which Muscovites collected healing water in buckets - and there was enough for everyone.

Kolomenskoye suffered the main blow after the capital was moved to St. Petersburg. Over time, Kolomensky’s life changed: the oblivion of the old Moscow residence by the emperors had an effect. The spirit of pre-revolutionary capitalism did not escape him either, when magnificent orchards began to be rented out, the land was prepared for cutting into summer cottages, and the territory of the estate was given over to folk festivals and entertaining bear fights.

And only the Church of the Ascension remained a place of pilgrimage, continuing to amaze those who saw it. Composer Hector Berlioz recalled that the shock experienced by the Church of the Ascension overshadowed the impressions of the Milan and Strasbourg cathedrals. “Nothing struck me more in life than the monument of ancient Russian architecture in Kolomenskoye... Here the beauty of the whole appeared before me. Everything inside me trembled. This was a mysterious silence, a harmony of the beauty of completed forms... I saw an aspiration upward, and I stood stunned for a long time.”

Something great, wonderful, long-awaited was about to happen under the arches of this temple. History has indeed prepared the highest mission for this church, and the miracle of God dawned on Kolomenskoye. Here they greeted the coming revolution with the miraculous appearance of the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God, which happened on that terrible day for Russia, March 2/15, 1917, when the sovereign abdicated the throne. The first spiritual rebuff to the dark times of Russian history was given right here, in the Kolomna Church of the Ascension.

The history of the phenomenon is well known: in February 1917, on the eve of the tragic events, peasant woman Evdokia Adrianova from a village neighboring Kolomenskoye had two wonderful dreams. In the first, she stood on the mountain and heard a voice saying: “The village of Kolomenskoye, a large, black icon, take it and make it red, then pray and ask for it.” The God-fearing peasant woman became timid and began to ask for an explanation of the unknown dream. A few days later she had a second dream: she saw a white church, entered and saw a Majestic Woman sitting in it, in whom she recognized with her heart the Most Holy Theotokos, although she did not see Her face. Having compared the two dreams and received communion, she went to Kolomenskoye and saw the very white church that she had dreamed about. The priest of the Church of the Ascension, Father Nikolai Likhachev, after listening to her, went with her in search of the image, but they found it only when they decided to go down to the basement and look at the icons stored there. When they discovered the largest icon, blackened with dust, and carefully washed it, the Sovereign image of the Mother of God was revealed, signifying that power in Russia had passed into the hands of the Queen of Heaven Herself.

There were several months left before the reign of the God-fighting Bolsheviks; news of the miraculous appearance of the icon spread throughout Russia. Crowds of pilgrims flocked to Kolomenskoye to venerate the miraculous image, from which the first healings began, then the icon was brought to the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery to Saint Elizabeth Feodorovna. Then she was taken to other churches, and only on Sundays did she stay in Kolomenskoye.

There is a version that this image previously belonged to the Ascension Convent in the Moscow Kremlin - Starodevichy. Before Napoleon’s invasion, everything valuable was hidden from the Kremlin, sent for evacuation, and they decided to hide the Sovereign Icon in Kolomenskoye, where by God’s Providence it remained until 1917. After the revolution and the closure of the Ascension Church, the icon was transferred to the neighboring St. George Church, and after its closure - to the storerooms of the State Historical Museum. Only on July 27, 1990, the Sovereign Icon returned to Kolomenskoye, to the Kazan Church that was then in operation. Thousands of people in the pouring rain were waiting for the shrine in Kolomenskoye... And when the icon arrived, the sun shone and in its rays the image returned to the temple. Tradition linked the return of the miraculous image with liberation from militant atheism and the salvation of Russia from theomachism. The very next year, the USSR ended its existence along with the fall of the power of the CPSU.

A joyful milestone in the history of the truly God-protected Kolomensky was the appointment of Pyotr Dmitrievich Baranovsky as director of the museum organized here, who became its real creator. In the first years of the revolution, the collective farm “Garden Giant” was already located on the territory of Kolomenskoye. All churches, except Kazan, closed in the 1920s. Baranovsky had to save not only Kolomenskoye, but also old Russia. He traveled around the country and collected the most valuable monuments, protecting them from destruction, took all the most valuable things from churches destined for demolition, and the staff of the Kolomna Museum then consisted of four people, including a watchman. This is how rescued monuments of wooden Russian architecture of the 17th century ended up here: a meadery from the village of Preobrazhenskoye, a gate tower from the Nikolo-Karelian Monastery, and even the house of Peter I from Arkhangelsk. According to the recollections of museum employees, Baranovsky himself more than once climbed a rope to the dome of the Church of the Ascension, and once fell and fell to the ground, but “rested.”

Baranovsky also opposed the active search for the “Liberia” of Ivan the Terrible. These searches intensified after the revolution, and archaeological searchers had government permission to do so. The mysterious library was then searched for everywhere it could supposedly be - in the Kremlin, and in Alexandrova Sloboda, and near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and in Kolomenskoye... Here excavations were carried out under the Ascension and Predtechenskaya churches: these dungeons were declared a search area because , they say, only deep underground could the library be reliably hidden from fires. Baranovsky, who was distinguished by his strong and sharp character, in turn turned to the authorities with a demand to ban the search by government decision, because the required excavation work threatened the most valuable architectural monuments and was in itself unsuccessful.

Now the Ascension Church is jointly owned by the Kolomna Museum and the Patriarchal Metochion, founded here in 1994. Two years after the creation of the courtyard, the Ascension Church was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.