Detailed history of the temple

SPARROW HILLS

The territory of the village of Vorobyovo and its surroundings has long been called the Vorobyovy Gory, and they got their name from the village. Vorobyovy Gory is one of the Moscow "seven hills". They represent a steep cliff of the Teplostan Upland, formed by the erosion of the Moscow River. They are located on the right river bank, opposite the Luzhnikovskaya bend.

Aivazovsky. View of Moscow from the Sparrow Hills. (1849)

Vorobyovy Gory stretches from the mouth of the Setun River to the Andreevsky Bridge of the Circular Railway. The Sparrow Hills rise 130-135 m above the Moscow River. The Teplostanskaya Upland (the high right bank) is the highest point in Moscow - 253 meters above sea level. With its northern spurs, the hill steeply descends to the Moscow River, forming the Sparrow Hills. The slope facing the river is dissected by a network of deep ravines. Small rivers ran down the ravines to the Moscow River, which now flow underground in man-made channels - pipes. These are the Chura with its tributaries, the Krovyanka and the Kotlovka. The Chertanovka River flows along the eastern slope. It originates in the highest part of the hill - between Teply Stan and the Uzkoe sanatorium.

Sparrow Hills is one of the most beautiful places in Moscow. The high right bank of the Moscow River has always attracted visitors with its dense forest, complex terrain and wonderful views of the river.

The beauty of the Sparrow Hills was noted even by Tsar Peter I, who was incapable of deep lyrical feelings, and advised artists to paint Moscow from them. Peter I brought the artist Cornelius de Bruy to the Sparrow Hills and showed him where it was best to paint Moscow from.

Is it a coincidence that this Moscow area was loved by many Russian writers who loved to visit the Sparrow Hills and mentioned them on the pages of their novels, stories, and poems? There is no coincidence here: it is from the Sparrow Hills that the widest and most picturesque panorama of the capital opens - writers, just like you and me, could not imagine Moscow without this very area, the Sparrow Hills. We find the name Sparrow Hills on the pages of the works, letters and diaries of N. M. Karamzin, M. Yu. Lermontov, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, A. M. Gorky, A. A. Blok and others.

The Sparrow Hills never cease to be admired and sung. A.P. Chekhov spoke about the Sparrow Hills: “Whoever wants to know Russia should look at Moscow from here.” A. Blok, comparing the panorama of Moscow with the panorama of Montmartre, said: “Paris from Montmartre is not like Moscow from Sparrow Hills.” Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Rubinstein, Bryullov, Savrasov, Kustodiev, Tchaikovsky and many others admired Moscow from the Sparrow Hills.

Connoisseurs of the capital's literary places are right when they draw readers' attention to the fact that writers of different schools and trends, who turned to the image of Moscow, were united in one thing: Sparrow Hills invariably set them in a poetic mood, and significant, bright events that determined the fate of heroes, sometimes were connected precisely with this place in Moscow.

How can one not recall “The Summer of the Lord” by Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev, when Vanechka and Gorkin go to the Sparrow Hills before Trinity to look for birch trees. And from above Gorkin shows the boy Moscow and its churches: “...And below us, behind the meadow... white and red... like a bell tower with patterns, with curls, huh?! This is a nunnery. How Moscow is ours!..”

VILLAGE OF VOROBYEV AND VOROBYEVSKY PALACE

The history of the village of Vorobyova goes back many centuries. It is spoken of in ancient chronicles - first as the patrimony of the famous boyar Kuchka, the first boyar who lived in Moscow, and then as the “sovereign estate”.

Historians have differing opinions about the origin of its name. The first suggest that from ancient times this place was covered with dense gardens in which countless flocks of sparrows nested. The latter believe that Vorobyov was the name of one of the first owners of the village. So, some sources say that the name of the village of Vorobyovo goes back to the boyar family of the Vorobyovos, known in the middle of the 14th century.

And still others claim that the Grand Duchess bought the village for herself from a certain priest nicknamed Sparrow. From here the origin of the toponym becomes clear: the village, like many others, was named after its owner. The nickname Sparrow, most likely, was associated with the person’s appearance (this could be the name for a medium-sized, short person) or some noticeable traits of his character and behavior.

One way or another, in the will of Grand Duchess Sophia Vitovtovna (1451), in which it is mentioned for the first time, it is said: “And from the Moscow villages I give him (grandson Yuri - Ed.) my purchase of the village of Popovskoye Vorobievo and with Semyonovsky and with the villages.”

Sophia, the daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas and the wife of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily I (1390-1425) son of Dmitry Donskoy, was an extraordinary woman: during the early childhood of her son, Vasily II, Sofya Vitovtovna successfully ruled the principality, actively participated in the fight against appanage princes, and led the defense Moscow from the Tatars.

Shortly before her death, in 1453, the princess bequeathed both villages to her beloved grandson Yuri, the appanage prince of Dmitrov. Yuri died in September 1472. In his will, he ordered the villages and villages that belonged to him to be given to his brothers, and “the village of Semenovskoye and Vorobyovskoye with villages” went to Ivan III.

From the moment of its acquisition by Princess Sophia, the village of Vorobyovo became a palace - a grand ducal, and then a royal summer residence. Here was the grand ducal court, at which, no later than 1549, the Vorobyovskaya settlement appeared, which received various benefits from the sovereign. Already in those distant times there was a church here. In the village of Vorobyovo, the entire area became known as Vorobyovy Kruchi, later Vorobyovy Gory.

Ivan III bequeathed the village to his son in 1504. Ivan the Terrible's father, Grand Duke Vasily III, fell in love with this beautiful place. He, like his successors, spent the summer with his family in the palace in the village of Vorobyovo. In 1521, during the invasion of Makhmet-Girey, he hid here, near the wooden palace he had built, in a haystack and remained unharmed, and although the Tatars came here, plundered the palace and palace cellars, they did not find the Grand Duke. Here, on the picturesque high bank of the Moscow River, Vasily III built a wooden palace on a stone foundation.

“Large colorfully painted gates led into the estate, fenced with high fences. The mansions themselves were a vast structure, covered with planks, with numerous turrets; the passages were surrounded by railings made of turned balusters, numerous windows had glass and mica windows inserted into carved jambs. Inside the building there were tiled stoves, on the walls covered with red cloth, “in gilded and azure frames” hung paintings and images, “written in picturesque writing.” A church was built nearby, furnished with exceptional luxury. Around the choir were crowded household services: baths, glaciers, cellars, granaries, cattle and stable yards, a green birch grove that replaced the park; there was also a pond-cage in which sturgeon, sterlet and other fish were kept. Deer walked freely in the grove, swans swam along the river. The estate had arable land, orchards, hayfields, and mills. This entire farm was serviced by numerous courtyard people.”

Twelve years after his rescue, Vasily was returning from a hunt near Volokolamsk, where he became so ill that he was embarrassed to enter the capital, and stopped in Vorobyovo, his village. There he lived for two days, suffering severely. The November River has not yet become strong. Hoping to cross to his capital, the prince ordered to build a bridge “under Vorobyov against the Maiden Monastery.” They drove the piles and paved them. When the horses of the grand duke's cart stepped on the pavement, the building broke off. The cart was dragged away, the tugs were cut off, and the Grand Duke was saved. Vasily had to cross the Moscow River higher - by Dorogomilovsky ferry. He entered the Kremlin through the Borovitsky Gate, and the next day, December 3, 1533, he died. His son, heir John, was not even 4 years old at the time.

And when Ivan Vasilyevich turned 17 years old, he retired to his father’s shelter during a terrible summer fire in Moscow in 1547. The fire broke out during a strong storm on June 21. The Kremlin was also engulfed in flames. The Assumption Cathedral caught fire, iconostases in other churches burned, and fire destroyed the Armory.

During the disaster, Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich (the future Tsar Ivan the Terrible), together with his household and boyars, took refuge in the village of Vorobyovo. In the Vorobyovsky Palace, Ivan the Terrible experienced the first terrible days of his reign - only six months passed after his coronation to the Russian throne. The burning city was deserted, and the rebel people rushed here, to the royal palace, but were met with cannons. This event marked the beginning of the reign of the first Russian Tsar. Near the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, from where a terrifying view of the burning Moscow opened, a significant conversation took place between the young prince and the famous archpriest Sylvester, his confessor, rector of the Annunciation Cathedral. Historical documents say this: “...with an inspired word, Sylvester announced to him that God’s judgment was about to break out over the head of the frivolous, malicious king, that the Almighty had already shown His anger towards him by burning Moscow. Having opened the Holy Scriptures, Sylvester pointed out to him the rules given for the guidance of kings, and John humbled himself, he was shocked by the words of the priest, and a great change took place in his heart...”

There is a well-known case when Tsar John IV Vasilyevich, once during the liturgy, thought about building a new palace on the Sparrow Hills. Blessed Basil stood in the corner and watched him. After the liturgy, he told the king: “I saw where you truly were: not in the holy temple, but in another place.”—“I was nowhere, only in the holy temple,”— answered the king. But the blessed one said to him: “Your words are not true, king. I saw how you walked with your thoughts along the Sparrow Hills and built a palace.” From then on, the king began to fear and honor the saint even more.

Old wooden Palace on Sparrow Hills. XVII century

In the 17th century, Vorobyovo was on a par with such famous royal estates as Kolomenskoye and Preobrazhenskoye. According to the description of 1646, on the Sparrow Hills there was a royal palace, 11 courtyards of “state businessmen,” 10 peasant huts and two gardeners’ houses.

Tsar Boris Fedorovich Godunov also loved Vorobyov and lived for a long time in the Vorobyov Palace. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the father of Peter the Great, often came and lived in the summer with his family on the Sparrow Hills.

On the Sparrow Hills there was the courtyard of Patriarch Nikon. I.E. Zabelin writes in the book “History of Moscow”: “Nikon founded the courtyard on April 30, 1657 in the village of Krasnoye, as the village of Vorobyovo was then called, and Alexei Mikhailovich himself, who arrived on Vorobyovy Gory specifically for this purpose, was present at the foundation ceremony.

In the mid-1670s, there were 22 peasant households in the village. In 1681, construction began in Vorobyovo of a new royal palace and two churches - St. Sergius of Radonezh and the icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Source”.

However, Vorobyov was not destined to become a ceremonial imperial residence. As a child, Peter I often visited Vorobyovo, and as emperor, although he came here, he still preferred Preobrazhenskoye to him, and gave the Vorobyovo palace to his younger sister Natalya. Despite this, it is known that he ordered a birch grove to be planted behind the palace, and it was on the Sparrow Hills that Peter’s favorite pastime, cannon shooting, was born. Captain Stepan Sommer, a gunsmith, built a small fortress with cannons, with which Peter the Great celebrated his birthday in 1684.

The situation did not change in the 18th century - neither Elizaveta Petrovna nor Catherine II favored Vorobyovo. Although under Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, in 1752, a birch grove with a regular layout was planted in front of the palace on the upper terrace of the Moskvoretsky bank, and under Empress Catherine II, the wooden floors of the palace were rebuilt in 1779, but the palace fell into complete disrepair and was dismantled, and a new palace was placed on its foundation, the so-called Prechistensky wooden palace (it was originally built on Volkhonka for the arrival of Empress Catherine II by M.F. Kazakov, then it was moved to Vorobyovy Gory). The windows of the palace overlooked the Moscow River. But this palace also fell into disrepair by the end of the 18th century and was therefore completely razed in the 19th century.

Vorobyovy Gory has long been famous for its clean, fine-grained white sand. In this regard, in the 17th century. State-owned glass and mirror factories were built here, which were initially under the jurisdiction of the Posolsky, then the Siberian, and transferred to the 18th century. into private hands. For example, the mirror factory of Ost Heinrich Brockhausen is famous.

By 1907, Vorobyovo received the status of a Moscow suburb with a population of just over two thousand people. Half of the population consisted of newcomers looking for work in the surrounding factories.

Vorobyovo officially became part of Moscow in 1922, although until the 1950s it retained the features of its former way of life. Today, only the Church of the Holy Trinity reminds of the ancient village of Vorobyovo.

Vorobyovo Highway received its name in the 19th century as leading from the Kaluga outpost through the Vorobyovy Gory to the village of Vorobyovo. In 1886, a horse-drawn horse began to run along the highway from the Kaluga outpost to Vorobyovy Gory, and in 1903 - a steam train, which was soon replaced by a tram. In 1903, the Vorobyovsky reservoir of the Moskvoretsky water pipeline was built on Vorobyovskoye Highway. At the beginning of the 20th century, small one- or two-story dachas were built along the highway, and in the 1930s. - scientific institutes. In 1938, the tram was replaced by a trolleybus.

In 1956, in connection with the redevelopment of the territory near the new building of Moscow State University, the village of Vorobyovo was demolished, the highway was widened and extended to Berezhkovskaya embankment, including Bolshaya Vorobyovskaya Street. A wide boulevard was laid between the traffic lanes.

In the 1950s Dachas of top party leaders appear on the highway behind high fences. In 1981, a significant part of Vorobyovskoye Highway was renamed Kosygina Street, who lived here in a separate mansion (8 Kosygina Street); there is evidence that he prayed in the Church of the Holy Trinity. Nowadays the historical name - Vorobyovskoe Highway - is retained only for a small section of the highway from Berezhskovskaya Embankment to the beginning of Mosfilmovskaya Street.

VOROBEVY GORY - DEFENSE FRONTIER

Vorobyovy Gory was of great importance in ancient times as a defensive line on the outskirts of Moscow. Even under Ivan the Terrible, 3,000 archers were settled in Vorobyova Sloboda to protect the city from the Tatars from the south. Since that time, the archers have noticeably pushed back the rest of the suburban courtyards. And in 1591, under Tsar Theodore Ioannovich, the Tatar khan Kazy Girey II approached Vorobyov, but, frightened by the Moscow militia, turned back. The “Biography of Fyodor Ivanovich” says: “The godless king (meaning Khan Kazy Girey - ed.) that day in the evening came to the royal village, called Vorobyovo. Vorobyovo is near the reigning city, like three miles [three miles], and there are great mountains there, very high; From there the accursed king saw the beauty and majesty of the entire reigning city and the great stone walls and gold-covered and beautifully decorated divine churches and the royal great venerable double- and triple-blooded chambers, moreover, hearing the great cracking thunder and the indescribable sound that came from the great one in the city and from the monastery [monasteries] of cannon fire. Seeing the revered king of the pious opposing militia, he was greatly afraid, and a great horror attacked and soon returned with all his evil army and fled with great fear, lower from the path into the night, wanting to honor little ... "

During the Time of Troubles, fierce battles took place near Vorobyov, but the village was not burned. On August 24, 1612, the main battle of the Russian militia took place with Hetman Khodkevich, who, abandoning all his forces, tried to break into the Kremlin to help his own. Victory was brought by Minin’s bold, saving move: having taken four hundred soldiers from Pozharsky, he crossed with them across the Moscow River at the Crimean Bridge and unexpectedly struck the enemy in the flank. Falling into panic, the hetman's soldiers fled, abandoning their banners and the entire baggage train.

The pursuit did not work out - the militia did not have enough strength, but the enemy also had no strength left. Khodkevich stood for a day on the Sparrow Hills, became convinced of the impossibility of a new battle and left Moscow, promising the besieged to follow a new army. He failed to lift the siege or push back the militias from the Kremlin. Khodkiewicz's mission failed.

The Sparrow Hills left a notable milestone in Russian history during the Patriotic War of 1812. After the Battle of Borodino (August 26), M.I. Kutuzov first intended to give the French a decisive battle near the very walls of Moscow. He sent General L.L. Bennigsen to find the best position, who proposed positioning the Russian army between the villages of Fili and Vorobyovo. On the eve of the famous council in Fili, M.I. Kutuzov and P.I. Bagration, inspecting the positions, arrived in Vorobyovo and prayed in the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, which had been built here by that time (in 1811). According to legend, this area has been associated with the Kutuzov family since ancient times. The village of Golenishchevo, neighboring Vorobyov, with another, also Trinity, church in the area of ​​​​modern Mosfilmovskaya Street, became part of their ancient boyar family from the 15th century - the Moscow Metropolitan Jonah healed the boyar Vasily Kutuzov there, and this miracle was depicted in one of the marks of the local icon of the saint in Trinity-Golenischevsky Church. That is why the descendants of the healed boyar began to be called Golenishchev-Kutuzov.As you know, from the Sparrow Hills there is a magnificent view of Moscow, and everyone who has been to the mountains admired this view. Napoleon also admired Moscow from here. From the Sparrow Hills, Napoleon, retreating, looked at the burning Moscow and kept waiting for the explosion of the Novodevichy Convent, without which he did not want to leave the city. For eight days, by order of Napoleon, the sacrilegious desecration of Moscow continued. But God had mercy on the newly consecrated Church of the Life-Giving Trinity: in the documents of 1812 it is not listed among those damaged. Consequently, both the iconostasis and the holy icons remained intact, the lamps and chandeliers, church utensils and the sacristy were preserved. The service in the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity did not stop even during the enemy invasion: wanting to arouse a more favorable attitude towards himself among the population, Napoleon ordered that services not be interfered with in churches not affected by the fire. According to contemporaries, the suffering Muscovites had tears in their eyes when they heard the gospel. Among these churches was the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity. The French did not touch the temple, but many temples were desecrated and looted.

In the October days of 1917, Vorobyovy Gory was the most important revolutionary base: having knocked out the whites from here, the Red Guards installed heavy artillery here and on November 1 began shelling the Kremlin. In 1924, Vorobyovy Gory was renamed Leninsky Gory.

Project of the Palace of Soviets on Sparrow Hills

The Trinity Church, remote from the center, miraculously survived during Soviet times - although the Bolsheviks paid attention to the Sparrow Hills (somewhere here was the dacha of Lunacharsky himself, and then Khrushchev) and attached great importance to the urban planning plans of the new, socialist Moscow. It was none other than L.B. who proposed renaming the Sparrow Hills to Lenin Hills. Krasin in February 1924, after Lenin's death. He also gave the idea to erect a giant monument to the leader and build a palace in his name. These plans of Krasin later formed the basis for the idea of ​​the Palace of Soviets, for which, by the way, Vorobyovy Gory was also proposed at one time.

Trinity Church not only escaped socialist destruction, but was not even closed during Soviet times, so its ancient interior has been preserved. Moreover, after the famous Bolshevik ban on bell ringing throughout Moscow, it was in the Vorobyov Trinity Church that the bells continued to ring. And Orthodox Muscovites secretly went “to the Lenin Mountains” to listen to the blessed ringing on this miraculously remaining reserved island of old Moscow. Once again, the church survived the construction of a high-rise building at Moscow State University in the late 1940s and early 1950s—and such construction usually spared no one or anything.

TEMPLE OF CHRIST THE SAVIOR ON SPARROW MOUNTAINS

Moscow architects have long been eyeing the Sparrow Hills as a successful construction and observation site, where “the entire glorious city will see any majestic structure.” It was here that in 1755 it was planned to build the first university building, but after the “majestic refusal” of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the university was erected on Red Square.

And only Alexander Vitberg managed to obtain from Emperor Alexander I the right to erect a majestic monumental structure on Vorobyovka. On the Sparrow Hills it was planned to build a new, huge, three-light, temple-monument of Christ the Savior on the occasion of the victory in the War of 1812 over Napoleon. The temple was supposed to descend in terraces from the top of the Sparrow Hills to the river. Moscow. It assumed the functions of the second center of the capital after the Kremlin.

Architect A.L. Vitberg, whose project was approved by the sovereign, proposed building a temple between the Smolensk and Kaluga roads, on the Sparrow Hills, which Alexander I poetically called the “crown of Moscow.” Since ancient times, in Rus' there has been a custom to commemorate outstanding state events by building monasteries and churches. Thus, after the capture of Smolensk (1524) the Novodevichy Convent was founded with a majestic cathedral in honor of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, after the conquest of the Kazan Khanate (1552) - St. Basil's Cathedral (Pokrovsky Cathedral), in honor of the final victory over the Tatars and the overthrow of the Tatar yoke (1591) - Donskoy Monastery in honor of the Don Icon of the Mother of God.

The foundation ceremony of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior - exceptionally beautiful and solemn - took place on October 12, 1817, five years after the French arrived from Moscow, and was accompanied by an unprecedented spiritual upsurge. Only those participating in the ceremony “were more than 30 archpriests, about 300 priests, and about 200 deacons... two choirs of singers - court and synodal... in the best and richest vestments.”

They began to build, but during the excavation work it was discovered that the mountain slopes were crumbling and sliding, and in 1827 construction was stopped. He was moved to Prechistenka. But for a long time, a modest cross stood on a steep slope.

TEMPLES OF THE VILLAGE OF VOROBIEV

In the XVII-XVIII centuries. In the village of Vorobyovo there were four churches: three palace ones - in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “The Life-Giving Source”, “St. Sergius in the Garden” and the summer linen church of the Resurrection of Christ, as well as the parish one - the Life-Giving Trinity. All these temples were listed in the palace department of the Moscow district.

Old Moscow. View of Moscow from Sparrow Hills

The first mention in historical documents of a wooden church at the royal palace in the village of Vorbyevo dates back to the 16th century, when Tsar Vasily III built a palace and a church “furnished with exceptional luxury” was built next to it. It is not known for certain what the name of the church was then; most likely it was a temple in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Source”. Later, wooden palace temples replaced each other and were rebuilt when they fell into disrepair. So, in 1681 in Vorobyovo, simultaneously with the new royal palace, a new wooden church of the “Life-Giving Source” was built, as well as a wooden church of “St. Sergius in the Garden”. For one of them, in the name of St. Sergius in the palace garden, June 1681. The iconostasis was painted by the talented painter Karp Zolotorev. In July and August, another five-domed one was painted in honor of the “Life-Giving Source” icon of the Mother of God. These churches were connected to the palace by wooden pavements.

In 1699, the church of “Reverend Sergius the Wonderworker, in the garden” of the village of Vorobyov was given a salary from the Order of the Great Palace “For the priest 50 rubles, for the sexton 12 rubles. 13 alt. 5 days, rye 6 days, oats too; sexton 5 rubles, rye five chetyi, oats the same: malt a ruble, rye 2 chety without half an octet, oats the same, for wheat malt a chety without a quarter, total money 68 rubles. 18 alt. 5 days, 12 rye, 6 tetrak, oats too, 12 wheat minus tetrak. Selazh Vorobyov Church of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Life-Giving Spring priest 50 rubles, sexton 12 rubles. 13 alt. 2 den., rye 6 chetya, oats too, sexton 6 rub. 6 alt. floor - 6 money, rye 5 cheese, oats too, total money 68 rubles. 20 alt. half-6 money, rye 11 cheese, oats too.”

According to the “Routine Marking Book” of 1700, the temple of “St. Sergius in the Garden” received a ruba (assistance from the treasury): to the rector - “50 rubles, sexton - 12 rubles, 13 altyns and 5 money, as well as rye, wheat, oats.”

There were priests at the palace churches: Prokofy Adrianov 1710-1720, Evsebiy Fedorov 1710 and Semyon Kirilov 1720.

In 1734, “in relation to the Main Palace Chancellery, the Synodal Treasury Order issued a decree on the consecration of the newly built church in the palace in the name of the Life-Giving Source.” In 1753 the church was moved closer to the village, and the church of St. Sergius was dismantled. In 1765, the Church of the Life-Giving Spring turned out to be already dilapidated, especially the roof. In 1768, according to the determination of the Main Palace Chancellery, the Church of the Life-Giving Spring in the village of Vorobyovo, next to the palace, was ordered to be repaired. In the altar, the floor and translations had to be changed, as a result of which it was necessary to remove the throne from its place, since it turned out to be dilapidated, then it and the srachita were made again. After everything was corrected, the archpriest of the Krutitsa Assumption Cathedral, Father Nazariy Vasiliev, was ordered to consecrate the church.

In 1768, the College of Economy gave the priest 15 rubles, rye and oats 10 quarters each, the sexton 4 rubles, rye and oats 6 quarters each; sexton 2 r. 50 k., rye and oats 5 quarters each; and in 1788 the palace clergyman was given a salary of 95 rubles. The priest of the palace church at that time was Father Andrei Sergeev. In 1795, the local church of the “Life-Giving Source” at the Vorobyovsky Palace still existed, the priest was Yakov Ilyin, the sexton Andrei Yakovlev, and the sexton Matvey Alekseev. In the revision tale of 1811, the church is called abolished, still existing, outside, without a parish; the priest Yakov Ilyin moved from her to the parish Vorobyovskaya church in 1802, the sexton Andrei Yakovlev to the Verkhospassky Cathedral in 1797, and the sexton Matvey Alekseev to the Rzhevskaya, on Povarskaya, church in 1803. Later, there is no mention of the palace Sparrow Church in the documents of the Kolomna Consistory.

In Vorobyovo, near the palace, there was also the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, a summer linen church, consecrated on June 22, 1675, by decree of the great sovereign, Metropolitan Michael, Belogradsky and Oboyansky, “and with him the archimandrites and abbots, and the archpriests, and the clergymen of the Cathedral Church of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos, and the choristers of Metropolitan Michael sang at the consecration.”

WOODEN TEMPLE OF ST. TRINITY

The wooden Trinity Church on Sparrow Hills has existed since ancient times. And when Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna bought the village in the 15th century, the temple already existed. This is evidenced by the fact that Vorobyovo is called a village and, moreover, a priest’s village. Since then, when the wooden temple rotted and became unusable, a new one was built in its place. This continued from century to century until the stone temple was built.

According to the parish books of the Patriarchal Treasury Order of 1628, the Wooden Trinity Church in the village of Vorobyovo was written among the “residential” Moscow churches - “beyond the Wooden City” as follows: “Church of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity, in the village of Vorobyovo, tribute 18 altyn 4 money, and on the 28th day of September, in the current year 7136, priest Titus paid that money, in 7140 (1632) - to the Trinity Church to the previous tribute in a new way tribute 2 altyn 5 money was added to the salary.”

The temple was wooden and small: in the “Rule Book of Donations to Cathedrals, Churches and Monasteries of Annual Cloths and Prayer and Memorial Money” of 1681, it is not listed among the stone ones. An entry from the “Estimates of Tsar Feodor Alekseevich of the year 7181 from the creation of the world” (1680) reads: “In the village of Vorobyov, Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, priest and prosvira one ruble 32 altyn.” This indicates a small parish, since donations to the clergy of other, much larger parishes amounted, according to the same lists, to 20, 30 and even 50 rubles.

Until 1690, the Trinity Church was built in the Prechistensky Forty of Moscow, and from 1691. it was already written in the Zagorodskaya Tithe. In 1691, under the article about the Trinity Church it was noted: “currently in the year 7199 (1691), October 9, by decree of the Patriarch, according to the note on the extract of Andrei Denisovich Vladykin, the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in the Moscow district, in the village of Vorobyovo, which was previously written with the Moscow churches outside the Zemlyanoy town of Prechistensky forty , and from it, according to the new salary, a tribute of ruble 5 altyn 5 money, a hryvnia arrival, was ordered to be written in the Zagorodskaya tithe of the Moscow district with churches and this money from this year to have according to that new salary and the eternal memory of that church to receive the Zagorodskaya tithe from the priest's elder " For 1712-1740, church tribute was paid 1 ruble 19 altyn.

The priests at the parish Trinity Church were: otitis(1628-1632), Fr. Konon Ananyin(1639-1645), Father Peter(1646-1656), Father Jacob(1657-1673), Fr. Thomas(1675-1680), O.Feofan(1681-1685), Father Ivan Vasiliev(1710-1720), Father Peter Ilyin(1730); sexton Nikifor Nikitin, Mallow Domna Kondratyeva(1710) In 1715, Andrei Gavrilov was appointed to the place of deacon Sacral Deacon Matvey Danilov.

By 1720, the next wooden temple was already very dilapidated, and therefore it was decided to ask for blessings to build a new temple. In the notebook of the Synodal Treasury Order of printing duties collected from decrees on the construction of churches, for 1720, it states: “On the 6th day of April, the decree on the construction of the church was sealed, according to the petition of the great sovereign of the palace village of Vorobyov, the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, priest Ivan Vasilyev and the parishioners, they were ordered to build a wooden church in that village of Vorobyov, instead of the dilapidated church, on the same church site the name of the Life-Giving Trinity, and in the region of the Venerable Alexei the man of God, two hryvnia taxes were taken.” Here, for the first time, the limit of the Monk Alexei, the man of God, is mentioned in the Trinity Church.

In 1727, the new wooden Trinity Church was already built and ready for consecration, and priest Peter Ilyin “beats with his forehead” asking for blessings for consecration. Consecrated the same year.

Since the middle of the 18th century, priests have repeatedly reported the dilapidation of this temple and asked for blessings to build a new church.

On June 4, 1750, there was an order to inspect the church. It said “...by the decision of this cantor, and upon the repose of the village of Kolomenskoye, the official hut and the manager of the commissioner Ivan Dolgov, by decree, among other things, was ordered in the village of Vorobyovo to inspect and describe the church of the Life-Giving Trinity with the chapel and on the altar and on the refectory and the circle of that church, the porch and in the church floor... »

And on September 13, 1750, the manager, Commissioner Dolgov, reported to the Palace Cantor “The Church of the Life-Giving Trinity shown was inspected, and upon inspection it appeared that the church was all in complete disrepair and was not fit for repair, but must be built again in its place. And in that village there is a long-standing former brick mirror factory, which stands idle and is not used in any government building and is wasted in vain from standing idlely in the rain. And he does not demand that this office, instead of this dilapidated wooden church, be built again, albeit a small stone one, having dismantled the said mirror factory, but that it will be necessary, in addition, to release bricks from the palace brick factory.” But such reports were refused. And on March 23, 1752, a decree from Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was sent from St. Petersburg “...to fix it with repairs, and even then for a small amount...leaving the construction again now, for lack of a monetary treasury, will be left until the decree...”

And the same answers have been heard for several years. The issue of dismantling the dilapidated wooden parish Trinity Church and building a new wooden or stone one in its place was constantly discussed, but to no avail.

June 10, 1752 manager of affairs “... it was announced... that the church shown in the village of Vorobyovo, due to its complete disrepair, cannot be repaired in any way, and it is very dangerous to serve in it due to its dilapidation, since the corners have collapsed and the wall is hanging out, but it must be built again.”

Due to the dilapidation of the Trinity Church, in 1753 the Church of the “Life-Giving Source” was moved closer to the village so that the villagers could be spiritually nourished there.

June 19, 1756 to St. Petersburg to the main palace chancellery “... a report was sent, only the decree on it was not received, but last April 10 (day) 1755 of the said church, the priest Nazariy Ioannov asked in a denunciation that the mentioned church with a chapel be built again... the village of Vorobyov, the peasants at the meeting announced that due to their absolute poverty there was no way to build those churches "

Parishioners were repeatedly ordered to build a new church “at their own cost.” But this was impossible because, as parishioners wrote about themselves in particular on October 15, 1765 “...the Prikhotsky people named 31 people...they cannot build again due to poverty and lack of property and they are not able to maintain them with repairs and utensils...”, and in 1768 reported that “...among them the people of the Khotsk region are mostly weak peasants, from whom the selection for the construction of that church cannot be carried out quickly...” the document was signed by the peasants “Vorbyeva village, and 4 villages of Derevlevoy, Belyaeva, Ramenki village and Semenovskoye village.”

Father Nazarius constantly wrote petitions asking to somehow solve the problem, but no solution was forthcoming until 1757, when the temple simply collapsed. This is how the desperate priest describes it “On April 11th, 1757... the church collapsed from dilapidation, and they could hardly even take the holy images out, and before this, he repeatedly announced the construction of a new one in place of that dilapidated church...”.

And on May 12, 1757, Father Nazari sent “a report to St. Petersburg to the main palace office... the divine service is being corrected in the territory of Alexy the man of God...”

In 1760 it was reported “... the border is now dilapidated and during rain there is a leak in many places; and this church was built by the contributor to the Novodevichy Convent, servant Alexei Golovkin, 38 years ago...”

Father Nazariy did not wait for the construction of the new church and on March 9, 1765, the new rector, priest Nikifor Vasiliev “... by petition he showed that the said church ... has now become extremely dilapidated so that it has completely fallen apart, and for the priestly service only one chapel of the Venerable Alexius the Man of God and a meal with him remained intact, and due to the indecency of one chapel, moreover, and due to the suppression, now the priesthood is being corrected according to need. And now he is a priest with a desire to build it... to build the church again, and instead of the current chapel of St. Alexis... to build the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, but to build all of it from his own and from the parish people who live at this church, the cost is lacking, he asked that To collect money for this building from willing donors both in Moscow and in other cities and places, give a lacing book.”

On December 17, 1768, the parish church of the Life-Giving Trinity, in the village of Vorobyovo, was sealed due to disrepair, and the utensils from it were taken to the palace church of the “Life-Giving Source”. It was announced to the parishioners that before the construction of the new Trinity Church they should go to the palace church to listen to the praise of God and correct the needs. The service and services in the palace church were performed by priest Andrei Sergeev. The last rector of the wooden Trinity Church was the already mentioned Father Nikifor Vasiliev. By the end of the 1790s, the temple was dismantled by order of Catherine the Great.

STONE TEMPLE OF ST. TRINITY

The current brick church with a white stone plinth was built in 1811. as stated in the documents “...through the diligence of parishioners and willing donors...”. It was placed on one of the upper terraces of the Sparrow Hills to the north-west of the palace, in the center of the village, opposite the single-row peasant buildings. Despite its small size and modest architecture, the church plays a prominent role in the panorama of the Sparrow Hills and is clearly visible from the Luzhniki Stadium.

The first rector of the stone temple was father Yakov Ilyin, which in 1802 was transferred to the Church of the Holy Trinity from the temple in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Spring”. Father Jacob served in the temple until 1812.

The stone temple was erected near the previous wooden one. In 1811, on the site of the altar of the old temple, a white stone monument topped with a cross was erected, which has survived to this day. The monument is located five to six meters from the current main altar of the temple. Over time, however, the inscription made on it has been erased (traces of letters appear here and there), but the bas-relief depicting the trumpeting Archangel is quite clearly visible.

Until 1818, the temple was listed among the churches of the Moscow district, and from March 30, 1818 in Zamoskvoretsky Soroka in Moscow.

The current stone church was built in rough form by 1811. and first the throne of St. Nicholas was consecrated. The throne of the Holy Trinity was consecrated on September 22, 1818. Petition No. 1607 dated September 9, 1818 from the priest Father Peter Matveev (Diakonov - ed.) and the elder of the Vorobyovsky peasant Grigory Ivanov to the Archbishop of Moscow and Kolomna Augustine has been preserved. The petition states: “With the blessing of Your Eminence, instead of a wooden one, a stone church was built on Vorobyovy Gory in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity and with a chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which chapel has already been consecrated. But the real Trinity has hitherto only been corrected and prepared for this. Now it has been corrected and is ready for consecration. For this sake, Your Eminence! We most humbly ask you to mercifully command this Trinity Church by your archpastoral resolution to provide a holy antimension, and by his authority to the Dean of Kazan, that at the Kaluga Gate, Archpriest John Grigoriev should consecrate September 9, 1818, to this petition of the Trinity that on the Sparrow Hills Priest Peter Matveev had a hand. The church elder, peasant Grigory Ivanov, had a hand in this petition.” The archbishop's resolution reads: “to allow the temple to be consecrated to the alternate and to issue the holy antimension.”

On September 23, 1818, the dean of Nikolokhlynovsky archpriest Ioann Ioannov sends a report “In fulfillment of His Imperial Majesty’s decree from this consistory dated September 16 under No. 4932, Zamoskvoretsky forty, the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, which is on the Sparrow Hills, was consecrated by me on the same September 22nd on the newly consecrated antimension...”

I would also like to provide information about the chapel of St. Sergius. Petition No. 752 dated May 7, 1820 has been preserved, like the previous petition of the priest Father Peter Matveev, but this time to Metropolitan Seraphim of Moscow and Kolomna. It says: “In the aforementioned Trinity Church, during its construction, there were appointed to be two borders on the sides of the meal, of which on the right one is sanctified in the name. Nicholas has already been consecrated and exists, but on the left there is nothing yet except one empty space; then now, out of his zeal, the Moscow merchant Sergei Ilyin, son of Azbukin, set out on the left opposite Nikolaevsky to make an iconostasis for the limit of the saint of God Sergius, to which iconostasis he told me the plan, and we ask permission to begin the work; but I dare not dare to undertake such a zealous feat of Azbukin’s without the blessing of Your Eminence.”

The Metropolitan's resolution says “...if there is any doubt, God will bless you to build the iconostasis according to the attached plan and façade.”

Attached to the petition was a certificate from the Moscow Theological Consistory stating that “According to the reports of the past 1819 about churches, clergy and other things, it is shown: in Zamoskvoretsky Soroka the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, which on the Sparrow Hills, a newly built stone one with a chapel, sanctifies. Nicholas the Wonderworker is supplied with church utensils. With her there will be a priest, a deacon, a sexton and a sexton. There are 113 parish yards, with 354 male and 392 female showers.”

Rev. chapel Sergius Abbot of Radonezh was consecrated around 1823, since in 1822 it is said about him that he was “settled”. This is mentioned in a very interesting document called “Gazette of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, which is on the Sparrow Hills, located in Moscow in Zamoskvoretsky Soroka,” written on January 7, 1822, it says that the stone church was “built with the diligence of parishioners and willing donors. The building is made of stone, but there are no stoves in it yet, the iconostases are not gilded and unpainted, and the outside is not common and without side porches, and without a fence. There are two thrones, and the third is being built... in the name of St. Sergius. The utensils are mediocre. The clergy with it has long been one priest, deacon, sexton and sexton... There are 120 parish yards with sacred, ecclesiastical and ministerial houses, in them there are 377 males, 443 female souls. Moreover, in the parish there are various owners of 16 brick factories, where many working people live in the summer.

There is a specified proportion of thirty-three dessiatines of land at this church, it is all unframed, and there is no plan for it, and only a certain part of it and the estate are indicated on the general philistine plan. On which church land there have long been two brick factories...”

The first factory was owned “and the clay was chosen” by the Moscow merchant wife Aksinya Andreevna Nechaeva, and the other was owned by the Moscow merchant Mikhail Artamonovich Shkarin.

“The houses of the priests and church ministers are their own, on church land, except for one deacon’s house, which the deacon, according to his news, has not yet had time to build, for the place to build the house, there is a small amount of estate land. The maintenance of the clergy and ministers comes from the church land, and the brick factories standing on it, and from the parish needs...”

According to the metric of 1887, the temple is described as follows: “It was built at the expense of parishioners - peasants of the Specific Department of the village of Vorobyov, the village of Semenovsky and the village of Rykin. The masters are unknown. It is included in the city of Moscow, and is located on the Sparrow Hills. On the highest place.

The church is not old and no additions have been made. In the form of a scalene cross, one-story. With one semicircle without any edges. The height is 9 fathoms, the length is 13 fathoms and the height is 6 fathoms. There are no deviations of the altar from the eastern direction. The church was built entirely of brick.

The wall is made of solid masonry without cement. The brick is heavy, but not more than 18 pounds and fired with the marks B. and K. And the walls are preserved in their original form. There are no passages in the walls. Iron connections. The outer walls are smooth without decorations and without belts.

The church has a two-slope hipped roof made of sheet iron painted with green copper. The lantern on the vaults is through, with 6 bays, without any decorations, above it... unbroken... smooth (without any) painted on the plaster to resemble red brick.

On the church, one round dome is covered with sheet iron and painted with copper. Iron crosses are covered with tinplate, 8-pointed, and have chains.

The windows are wide above the plinth in the altar, there are three and in the pre-altariums there are two in...indistinct...lights. There are no windows under the roof itself. Windows with straight lintels...unbreakable...are on the inside. The bars in the windows...are made of tetrahedral iron rods with transverse...not broken... There are no old shutters and window sills and there is no colored tile lining at the bottom of the window sills.” There are “three doors, on the western side in the warm temple and on the northern and southern sides in the cold, double-leaf wooden doors upholstered with sheet iron, completely painted with copper without any painting or decoration. The hinges on the doors are ordinary iron.

The inside of the church is arranged in the form of a square chamber. The altar is separated by a wooden partition with three bays for the royal doors. southern and northern. There are two aisles. The western vestibule is designed in the form of a chamber; there are no special chapels. The vestibule is separated from the temple by a stone wall with one span.

The vaults are semicircular, supported on two tetrahedral pillars, forming three arches, in the south there is an altar, the middle one leads to the cold temple, in the north there is a second altar. The two tetrahedral pillars are all smooth, not uneven... there are no gratings or benches for seating around them.

The floor in all parts of the temple is flaky. Bream without division. The vault...unbreakable...The altar has three windows. The platform of the altar with the pulpit and soleia is elevated by three steps. There have been no changes since the founding of the temple.

The throne is wooden, covered with an ordinary wooden board and placed level with the floor. Its width is 1 ½ arshins, its length and height are also 1 ½ arshins, and it is not covered with any sheets. There is no canopy over the throne.

The mountain place is located in an open place without a canopy. There are no images of saints in the window recesses.

The altar was built in the same room as the throne in an open place, wooden, 1 ½ arshins high, 1 ¼ arshins wide.

The iconostasis of the device is new with wooden carved columns, except for the columns and gilded frames. Four tiers. The royal doors are double-leaf, carved with patterns without columns. The shape of the tops of the royal doors is semicircular.

The solea is made of stone, made of slabs, higher than the temple platform, like the pulpit, by three steps, without a lattice. The pulpit is semicircular made of white stone without a canopy. The choirs are adjacent to the very walls of the temple. There are no special decorations.

The bell tower was built simultaneously with the temple, four-sided square at the expense of the parishioners, made of 18-pound burnt brick. No images.

Six bells: 1st in 156 pounds 32 pounds signature: this bell was cast in Moscow in the factory of Major Anna Petrovna (Ed. - Venkovich). Hear my voice, O Lord, by Thy mercy and by Thy destiny live me. February 5, 1843 to the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on the Sparrow Hills with the goodwill of the contributors to this temple under the church elder Ivan Mikhailovich Baranov with priest Afanasy Skvortsov and deacon Nikolai Dobronravov. The remaining bells are without inscriptions.

The church walls were painted with picturesque writing in 1833, and in 1868 the walls of the temple were again painted with oil paint and again painted with historical paintings.

There are three icons of the old Russian script: the Don Mother of God, the Three-Handed Mother and the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. There are no inscriptions on them. It is unknown who gave them as a gift, there is no name of the artist or the year of writing, in wooden gilded frames everything is behind glass, which indicates their further preservation.

The Donskaya icons of the Mother of God and the saint of God St. Nicholas are preserved in their original form.

Priest of the Moscow Trinity Church on the Sparrow Hills Peter Petrovich Sokolov.” Studied at the Moscow Theological Seminary. He has been priest for 45 years for the 21st year.” Metrics dated “February 5, 1887.” In 1874, Archpriest I. Blagoveshchensky, in a book about Moscow churches, reported that “The Trinity Church on Vorobyovy Gory, built in 1811, has three chapels - the Holy Trinity, St. Nicholas and St. Sergius. There are 114 courtyards, 506 male showers, 600 female showers.”

The number of parishioners in the village of Vorobyovo increased with the growth of the village itself.

Only the bell tower has survived intact to this day, while the church itself was remodeled. Repairs were carried out in 1858-1861, in 1898, in 1900. Nowadays there are frescoes on the outer walls of the temple.

The porch in front of the entrance on the western façade of the bell tower and extensions on its sides appeared during renovations of the building in 1858-61 and 1898. The church area is surrounded by a brick fence of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. with metal grille.

During the Soviet years, through the diligence of the church council, clergy and parishioners, much was done to maintain the internal and external splendor of the temple. External repairs were carried out in 1964, 1968 and 1971, and internal repairs were carried out in 1952-1953 and 1971-1972. The old wall paintings were cleaned and washed, and new ones were made - on themes from the Lives of the saints, in particular St. Nicholas and the Wonderworker, St. Sergius of Radonezh. The iconostases were partially gilded and painted, some icons were corrected and restored.

Now the temple on Vorobyovy Gory has, as before, three chapels - in honor of the Holy Trinity, St. Nicholas and the Wonderworker, and St. Sergius. There is also a side altar of St. Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow, which is located in the altar of St. Nicholas. His story is interesting. In 1937, when the atheists closed the Trinity Church in Golenishchev, the antimins of the aisles of Metropolitan. Jonah and torment. Agapius were transferred to the nearest active church - Trinity in Vorobyovo, here an altar attached to the main one was subsequently consecrated in the name of St. Jonah.

ARCHITECTURE OF THE TRINITY TEMPLE

The Trinity Church was built according to the design of the architect A. L. Vitberg, the author of the project for the temple-monument of Christ the Savior on the Sparrow Hills.

The building, built in the style of late classicism, belongs to the type of parish church characteristic of the Moscow region with a traditional three-part longitudinal-axial composition. The quadrangle of the temple, which carries a domed rotunda with the help of sails, completed with a blank cylindrical drum, is decorated on the south and north with four-column porticoes of the Tuscan order. The semicircular apse is lengthened due to small projections. The two-pillar square refectory with two side-chapels has rounded corners, loosened from the outside, imparting some plasticity to the volume. The facades of the refectory are divided by pilasters.

The two-tier bell tower with a middle half-tier is similar in volumetric composition and decor to the bell tower of the VMC Church. Barbarians on Varvarka in Moscow (1796-1804). Their common features - a semicircular projection of the first tier for a spiral staircase, a bell tier with arched openings, corner pilasters and triangular pediments, square panels with medallions and other details - allow us to speak of direct borrowing. The lower tier of the bell tower is adjoined by a western porch and a rounded southern extension (sacristy) built in 1898, as well as a later baptismal one to the north. Three carved iconostases with gilded details have been preserved in the interior. The four-tiered iconostasis of the temple, with a distinctly stepped composition, may be original, but later it was updated: classic in structure and main elements, it is eclectic in details. The iconostases of the refectory are designed in the form of two-tier walls. The iconostasis of the southern aisle dates back to the first half of the 19th century. and is designed in the style of classicism. The iconostasis in the northern aisle (second half of the 19th century) is typical of the eclectic period. Oil wall paintings (late 19th - early 20th centuries) combine subject compositions with plant-geometric patterns in the Russian “style”.

Thanks to the skillful application of the laws of proportion, the tall, large dome appears light, almost airy, and harmonizes perfectly with the main volume of the temple. Seemingly low on the outside, inside it is spacious, full of air and light. The sun's rays, pouring in streams of light through the large windows under the dome, sparkle on the gilding and silver of icons, carved iconostases, and highlight images of the faces of saints. The soul is filled with a reverent feeling of closeness to God.

SANCTUARY

Centuries rustled over the Sparrow Hills, over the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity. The temple had to endure many trials, and therefore locally revered shrines are kept here with special care. There are few of them, but they are very dear to parishioners as evidence of the eternal strength and strength of the Holy Orthodox Church.

In the temple there are icons of the 17th, 18th, 19th centuries - “Saints Gury, Samon and Aviv”, “Saints Cosmas and Damian”, “The Burning Bush”, “Kazan” icon of the Mother of God, a four-part icon - with images of the Nativity of Christ, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary , Nativity of John the Baptist and Nativity of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, “Quench my sorrows” - in front of the iconostasis of the chapel of St. Sergius. All iconostases of the church are beautifully decorated with icons depicting the Twelve Feasts and the Apostles. To the right of the iconostasis in front of the altar of the Holy Trinity - icon “The Savior Not Made by Hands” from the school of Simon Ushakov, and on the left is The Donskaya Icon of the Mother of God is a revered copy of the miraculous icon painted by Theophan the Greek. From the very icon with which the Russian army won victory on the day of the Battle of Kulikovo on September 8, 1380.

The revered icon is the icon of the Mother of God - “Blessed Heaven”, which stands to the left of the iconostasis of the altar of the Holy Trinity. The Blessed Virgin carefully hugs the Child Jesus to Her. Her eyes, filled with sadness, already see how much torment Her Beloved Son, who deigned to suffer for people, will have to endure on earth.

Not so long ago, through the efforts of the rector, Father Sergius Suzdaltsev, a reliquary with particles of the relics of saints was installed next to the icon “Blessed Heaven”: St. Mitrofan of Voronezh, Righteous Alexy (Mechev) and Blessed Matrona of Moscow, as well as their icons. In the church, near the main altar, on both sides there are two icons of newly glorified saints, on the left: St. Andrei Rublev, St. Innocent, St. right John of Kronstadt and others, and on the right: the royal passion-bearers Tsar Nicholas, Queen Alexandra and their children. And also on the western side of the main part of the temple there is an icon of the holy martyr Andrei Resurrection.

In the temple there is an icon depicting St. Spyridon of Trimythous. In the middle of the last century, it was painted by the famous icon painter monk Gregory (Krug). According to his will, at the end of the 60s she was transported to Russia. The icon has been in the Church of the Holy Trinity for about 40 years. Only recently, experts discovered that this unique icon belongs to the brush of the monk Gregory (Krug). With the permission of the rector of the temple, in 2005 it was presented for an exhibition at the Moscow Union of Artists, and then returned.

Through the diligence of the father rector and benefactors, the facade was painted and mosaic icons were installed, two on the bell tower - “The Savior Not Made by Hands” and “The Sign” and another one in the narthex - holy. Vmch. and healed. Panteleimon.

FEDOR PETROVICH GAAZ

Fedor Petrovich Gaaz

A doctor of German origin, philanthropist, known as the “holy doctor” - F.P. Haaz (1780-1853) worked near the Trinity Church, who in the first half of the 19th century. was the chief physician of Moscow prison hospitals. He was one of the most curious personalities of his time. The motto of his entire life was his favorite phrase - “hurry to do good.” He took care of the prisoners of the transit prison on Vorobyovy Gory, built from former barracks for workers building the Witberg Cathedral of Christ the Savior. In 1832, through his efforts and with the funds he collected, a hospital with 120 beds was built for prisoners on Vorobyovy Gory, which came under his direct supervision.

Historians attribute the completion of the construction of the Trinity Church on Sparrow Hills to F. P. Haaz, who took such care of the prisoners of the transit prison. He wanted sick prisoners to be somehow assigned to this church, to have the opportunity to attend services and be cared for by its priests. To confirm this, in the biography of the priest of the Trinity Church Afanasy Skvortsov, we read “by order of the Moscow Trustee Committee on prisons in the established prison hospital and the barracks of the transit castle on Vorobyovy Gory, he admonished both sick and healthy prisoners with confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. In the same place, by decree of the Moscow Spiritual Consistory, he was appointed to edify prisoners in the duties of faith and morality with the correction of prayers and when sending prisoners to sing prayers with the blessing of water, the position lasted until May 28, 1844.”

The doctor’s spirit of enlightened tolerance was such that it gave rise to reproaching him for “betrayal of Catholicism.” Thus, Professor Ferdinand Reis, a doctor and chemist, a convinced Lutheran-evangelist, made fun of Fyodor Petrovich, saying that “Dr. Haass is a bad Catholic, because he visits Orthodox churches more often than Catholic churches, and he even started building an Orthodox church on Sparrow Hills, is friends with Russian priests, sings along with the church choir and distributes Russian prayer books.” It must be said that thanks to F.P. Haas, a house church also appeared in the transit prison, which he built for the convenience of spiritual care for prisoners.

The petition of Prince Alexei Grigorievich Shcherbatov (chairman of the Moscow Trustee Society for Prisons, and from April 14, 1844, Moscow Governor General) for the consecration of the temple dated December 19, 1843, has been preserved. The petition says “...the house church at the Peresylny Castle on the Sparrow Hills, in the name of the Mother of God, the “Recovery of the Lost” has been completed... the priest will, in addition to serving at the church, fulfill spiritual needs in the Peresylny Castle and in the hospital attached to it - hitherto carried out by the clergy of the Trinity Church in the village of Vorobyovo, and, moreover, the spiritual edification of the prisoners.” The temple was consecrated on December 23, 1843.

An outstanding lawyer of that time, A.F. Koni, emphasized: “The example of the touching philanthropist Haas, who devoted himself entirely to helping prisoners, consoling them and caring for them, evokes a deeply sympathetic attitude.” The doctor went every week to the transit prison on Vorobyovy Gory to examine and see off the next batch. And he invariably brought with him a basket of food supplies for the women. Listening to reproaches for the “stupid pampering of criminals,” he answered: “Everyone will give a piece of bread and a penny, but no one will give candy and an orange, which give pleasure.”

To the question asked to Fyodor Petrovich: why he, a German, a Catholic, does not return from Russia to his fellow believers and fellow tribesmen, Dr. Haaz replied: “Yes, I am a German, but first of all I am a Christian. And, therefore, for me “there is no Greek, there is no Jew...” Why do I live here? Because I love, really love, many people here, I love Moscow, I love Russia, and because living here is my duty to all the unfortunate people in hospitals and prisons.” Haaz achieved lightening of the shackles, covering the rings on the hands and feet with leather or cloth. He demanded their complete abolition. But the authorities only agreed to free the decrepit and crippled from shackles. At his insistence, they stopped shaving hair from half of the prisoner's head. He personally cared for the patients and obtained permission to have female staff. For the first time in world practice, he established a library here, then a school for the children of prisoners and homeless people. These initiatives gradually spread throughout Russia.

Haaz's popularity was incredible. He was known and loved both in high society and at the very bottom. His friendship with the Metropolitan of Moscow is known. Filaret (Drozdov). All Haaz’s biographers recall the famous episode of the dialogue about Christ with Metropolitan Philaret. During a discussion about different responsibilities before the law, Haaz’s intercession was unexpectedly interrupted by the bishop’s words that if the court subjects a criminal to punishment, then it means that the defendant was guilty, and there are no innocent people convicted: “Haaz jumped up and raised his hands to the ceiling. “Lord, what are you saying?! You have forgotten about Christ." There is a heavy, frightened silence around. Haaz stopped short, sat down and lowered his head into his hands. Filaret looked at him, narrowing his already narrow eyes, then bowed his head. “No, Fyodor Petrovich, it’s not like that. I have not forgotten Christ. But when I now uttered hasty words, Christ forgot about me.”

And here’s another episode from the doctor’s life... On a blizzard winter evening, Haaz went to visit a patient. There were no passers-by. Suddenly three people came out of the alley, wrapped in rags.

Well, take off your fur coat and hat, and live up. And come on... If you make a peep, we’ll crush you.

Shall I give you my fur coat? Fine. I see you are all poorly dressed. And I'll give you the money. But I ask for one favor. I am doctor. I hasten to see the patient. I won’t get to him without a fur coat. Let's go together. At the gate I will take off my fur coat.

One of them laughed angrily and waved his baton, but the other, older one, held him back, came close, and peered:

Brothers! Yes, this is Fyodor Petrovich! Father, my dear, who would dare to offend you? Forgive me, for Christ's sake. Let's go, father, we'll see you off. We won't take anything from you...

In his declining years, according to A.I. Herzen, he was a truly original eccentric. “An old, thin, waxen old man in a black tailcoat, short trousers, black silk stockings and shoes with buckles, seemed to come out of some drama of the 18th century.”

When Haaz became seriously ill and the prisoners began to ask the prison priest Orlov to serve a prayer service for his health, he hurried to the metropolitan to ask permission; a prayer service for the health of a non-Christian was not provided for by any rules. Filaret, without listening to the priest’s explanation, exclaimed: “God blessed us to pray for all the living, and I bless you! When do you hope to be at Fyodor Petrovich's with the prosphora? Go with God. And I’ll go to him.” After the doctor died, Orthodox people prayed for the repose of the soul of God's servant Theodore.

F.P. Haaz spent his entire fortune on charitable activities, and when he died on August 29, 1853, it turned out that he did not even have funds left for a funeral. The 73-year-old “prison doctor” was buried at the state “police expense”, like a beggar. But all of Moscow came out to see him off... On the tombstone of the Vvedensky cemetery, only three words of his spiritual testament to his descendants burn in gold: “Hurry to do good!”

SHMELEVS

It is interesting that the ancestors of the famous Russian writer I. S. Shmelev are associated with the Trinity Church. The Shmelevs appeared on the Vorobyovy Gory around 1814 in the village of Semenovskoye (located next to the village of Vorobyovo). This was connected with the entrepreneurial activity of the head of the family - the construction of a brick factory. Moscow was being rebuilt after the fire of 1812, and brick production was undoubtedly a profitable business, and Vorobyovo was an extremely convenient place for building a brick factory.

The Clearing Gazette for 1819 states “At the said Trinity Church, there have long been two brick factories on the church land. One is owned by the Moscow merchant Ivan Ivanov, son Shmelev, under a contract with a payment of two hundred rubles a year, and now, after his death, described to the treasury, and the other plant is owned by Moscow burghers Ivan and Mikhail Semenov, children of Ilyin, with a payment of 100 rubles a year, and this money is received in the benefit of the clergy. On top of this, a tithe of the church land was given to the above-mentioned Shmelev for digging clay for seven years under a contract by the former priest Dmitry Nikolaev at 100 rubles a year in favor of the priests and church ministers.

Thanks to the metric books of the Trinity Church, it became possible to partially restore the daily life of the village and the Shmelev family.

In July 1814, already middle-aged, the deacon of the Trinity Church, Ivan Semenov, remarried. His wife was the “philistine daughter” Olga Vasilyeva. In July of the following year, the newlyweds had a son, Pavel. In the metric book there is an entry stating that “the godmother (that is, the godmother of the newborn) was the Moscow merchant Ivan Ivanov, his wife Ustinya Vasilyeva.” This evidence suggests that the Shmelevs settled down on Vorobyovy Gory and had fairly close acquaintances.

The Shmelevs themselves had two children born on Vorobyovo. On May 1, 1814, daughter Pelageya was born. With a high degree of probability, it can be argued that this is the same Aunt Pelageya from “The Summer of the Lord” who punished both her own death and the death of the writer’s father. In March 1816, a son, Gavrila, was born, died at the age of nine months and was buried near the Trinity Church.

Later, the Shmelevs moved, becoming the owners of a house and estate on Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Street in the parish of the Church of the Kazan Mother of God.

The Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Sparrow Hills (Moscow, Kosygina St., 30) is one of the cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in the city of Moscow. It stands in a very picturesque place, from which a magnificent panorama of Moscow opens.

The current building of the temple was built at the beginning of the nineteenth century, but the church existed here much earlier.

The village of Vorobyovo has been known since the mid-15th century, when the wife of Vasily I, Princess Sofya Vitovtovna, bought the settlement from “Priest Sparrow.” It seems that it was from the name of this priest that the name of the mountains arose. True, there is another legend, according to which there were continuous cherry orchards growing around, and there were so many berries that there were many sparrows here.

Vorobyovo was called a “village” from the very beginning, which means that there was a temple in it. Apparently, even then the Trinity Church occupied its place of honor in the village.

Once upon a time, not far from the church, the father of Ivan the Terrible, Grand Duke Vasily III, built a wooden palace, which he often visited and even hid in during the invasion of Khan Mengli-Girey.

When Ivan the Terrible was 17 years old, he also fled to the Vorobyovy Gory to the royal palace during the terrible summer fire in Moscow in 1547. The burning city was deserted, and the rebel people rushed here, to the royal palace, but were met with cannons. This event marked the beginning of the reign of the first Russian Tsar.

This palace was loved by Boris Godunov, Peter I, who ordered a birch grove to be planted in his garden, and Catherine the Great, but by the end of her reign in the 1790s, the palace was dismantled due to its disrepair. But the temple remained.

In 1812, M.I. Kutuzov himself prayed in the temple before going to the military council in Fili. According to legend, this area has been associated with the Kutuzov family since ancient times. They owned the village of Golenishchevo, adjacent to Vorobyov.

Napoleon also came here to study the panorama of Moscow, which lies at the foot of the mountains. But even during the war, the temple on Sparrow Hills was almost not damaged.

The church miraculously survived during Soviet times, although the Bolsheviks paid great attention to the Sparrow Hills (somewhere here was the dacha of Lunacharsky himself, and then Khrushchev).

Then the Sparrow Hills were renamed - they became Lenin Hills. Ilyich Avenue, which is under construction, the main thoroughfare of the city, as planned, will also pass through the Lenin Hills. Surprisingly, the temple was not touched even then. Moreover, the shrine was never closed during the years of Soviet power.

When the construction of the Moscow State University building began, it seemed that nothing would help keep the temple intact. However, this time the historical monument survived, which seems incredible. The temple could have become a home for the university, but this did not happen. And it is unlikely that he would have been able to accommodate all the numerous parishioners within his walls.

Vladimir Putin visited the church several times: in 2000 he visited the temple during Christmas, in 2004 he attended a litany for those killed during the terrorist attack in Beslan, in 2011 at a memorial service for those killed in the terrorist attack in Domodedovo, and in September 2014 he lit a candle “for those who suffered while defending people in Novorossiya.”

In the temple there is an icon of the holy martyr, who once served as a priest in this temple, and who was shot in the year 37 - Hieromartyr Andrei (Voskresensky).

Moscow rockers call this temple “John Lennon Church.” According to legend, when John Lennon was killed, all the leading Russian rock musicians gathered in the church on Vorobyovy Gory and remembered him. Here we could also talk about the bikers who gather in the evenings around the Observation Deck and have chosen this temple as “theirs,” but for some reason I recently fell in love with this audience very much.

The Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Sparrow Hills (Moscow, Kosygina St., 30) is one of the cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in the city of Moscow. It stands in a very picturesque place, from which a magnificent panorama of Moscow opens.

The current building of the temple was built at the beginning of the nineteenth century, but the church existed here much earlier.

The village of Vorobyovo has been known since the mid-15th century, when the wife of Vasily I, Princess Sofya Vitovtovna, bought the settlement from “Priest Sparrow.” It seems that it was from the name of this priest that the name of the mountains arose. True, there is another legend, according to which there were continuous cherry orchards growing around, and there were so many berries that there were many sparrows here.

Vorobyovo was called a “village” from the very beginning, which means that there was a temple in it. Apparently, even then the Trinity Church occupied its place of honor in the village.

Once upon a time, not far from the church, the father of Ivan the Terrible, Grand Duke Vasily III, built a wooden palace, which he often visited and even hid in during the invasion of Khan Mengli-Girey.

When Ivan the Terrible was 17 years old, he also fled to the Vorobyovy Gory to the royal palace during the terrible summer fire in Moscow in 1547. The burning city was deserted, and the rebel people rushed here, to the royal palace, but were met with cannons. This event marked the beginning of the reign of the first Russian Tsar.

This palace was loved by Boris Godunov, Peter I, who ordered a birch grove to be planted in his garden, and Catherine the Great, but by the end of her reign in the 1790s, the palace was dismantled due to its disrepair. But the temple remained.

In 1812, M.I. Kutuzov himself prayed in the temple before going to the military council in Fili. According to legend, this area has been associated with the Kutuzov family since ancient times. They owned the village of Golenishchevo, adjacent to Vorobyov.

Napoleon also came here to study the panorama of Moscow, which lies at the foot of the mountains. But even during the war, the temple on Sparrow Hills was almost not damaged.

The church miraculously survived during Soviet times, although the Bolsheviks paid great attention to the Sparrow Hills (somewhere here was the dacha of Lunacharsky himself, and then Khrushchev).

Then the Sparrow Hills were renamed - they became Lenin Hills. Ilyich Avenue, which is under construction, the main thoroughfare of the city, as planned, will also pass through the Lenin Hills. Surprisingly, the temple was not touched even then. Moreover, the shrine was never closed during the years of Soviet power.

When the construction of the Moscow State University building began, it seemed that nothing would help keep the temple intact. However, this time the historical monument survived, which seems incredible. The temple could have become a home for the university, but this did not happen. And it is unlikely that he would have been able to accommodate all the numerous parishioners within his walls.

Vladimir Putin visited the church several times: in 2000 he visited the temple during Christmas, in 2004 he attended a litany for those killed during the terrorist attack in Beslan, in 2011 at a memorial service for those killed in the terrorist attack in Domodedovo, and in September 2014 he lit a candle “for those who suffered while defending people in Novorossiya.”

In the temple there is an icon of the holy martyr, who once served as a priest in this temple, and who was shot in the year 37 - Hieromartyr Andrei (Voskresensky).

Moscow rockers call this temple “John Lennon Church.” According to legend, when John Lennon was killed, all the leading Russian rock musicians gathered in the church on Vorobyovy Gory and remembered him. Here we could also talk about the bikers who gather in the evenings around the Observation Deck and have chosen this temple as “theirs,” but for some reason I recently fell in love with this audience very much.

Fais se que dois adviegne que peut.

What is what in the church

The completion of Trinity Church is sometimes credited to Dr. Fyodor Gaaz. He wanted prisoners in the local transit prison to be able to visit the temple. The stone church was placed next to its predecessor, in the place of whose altar there is a white stone monument topped with a cross.

On the eve of the famous council in Fili, Kutuzov prayed here, and the fire of 1812 bypassed the temple.

The Trinity Church, located far from the center, survived and did not close during Soviet times. Its ancient interior remained untouched, and during the period of the ban on bell ringing in Moscow, the bells continued to ring in the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Sparrow Hills.

In 1937, due to the closure of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Troitsky-Golenishchevo, the antimensions from the chapels of St. Jonah and the Martyr Agapius were moved to the temple on the Sparrow Hills. Also installed in the church was a reliquary with particles of the relics of Saints Mitrofan of Voronezh, Alexy Mechev and Blessed Matrona of Moscow.

Email: [email protected]
Address: 119334, Moscow, st. Kosygina, 30 (metro station “Vorobyovy Gory”, observation deck).
Schedule of services: http://www.hram-troicy.prihod.ru/raspisanie-bogoslujeniy

Directions:

From Oktyabrskaya metro station, Kyiv metro station, trolleybus No. 7, to the Universitetskaya Ploshchad stop.

Social activities

• Orphanage No. 7 for disabled children, Moscow, st. Profsoyuznaya, 47.
• Children's psychoneurological hospital No. 4, Moscow region, Ruza district, Nikolskoye village.
• Orphanage, Voronezh region, village of Gubari.
• Home for the disabled, Moscow region, Yurma village.

We also provide assistance to the elderly, disabled and large families.

The parish of Trinity Church interacts with a number of social institutions and provides them with assistance:
1. Orphanage No. 7 for disabled children, Moscow, st. Profsoyuznaya, 47.
2. Children's psychoneurological hospital No. 4, Moscow region, Ruza district, Nikolskoye village.
3. Orphanage, Voronezh region, village of Gubari.
4. Home for the disabled, Moscow region, Yurma village.
We also provide assistance to the elderly, disabled and large families.

Temple information

The wooden Trinity Church on the Sparrow Hills has existed since ancient times and is associated with the history of the ancient palace village of Vorobyovo. According to the chronicle, it is known that when in the 15th century the village was bought by Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna, the wife of the Moscow Grand Duke Vasily I and the daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt, the temple was already standing.

The first priest of the wooden Trinity Church known to us was Fr. Titus, who was abbot from 1628 to 1632. According to the parish books of the Patriarchal Treasury Order of 1628, the wooden Trinity Church in the village of Vorobyovo was listed among the “residential” Moscow churches - “beyond the Wooden City”. Until 1690, the Trinity Church was built in the Prechistensky Forty of Moscow, and from 1691. it was already written in the Zagorodskaya Tithe. By the end of the 1790s, the temple had become very dilapidated and was dismantled by order of Catherine the Great. The last priest of the wooden Trinity Church was Father Nikifor Vasiliev.

The current brick church with a white stone plinth was built in 1811 according to the design of the architect A.L. Vitberg, the author of the design of the temple-monument of Christ the Savior on Sparrow Hills. The building was built in the style of late classicism, as stated in the documents “... through the diligence of parishioners and willing donors...” The first rector of the stone church was Father Jacob Ilyin. The stone temple was erected near the previous wooden one. In 1811, a crowned one was installed on the site of the altar of the old church. cross is a white stone monument that has survived to this day. The porch in front of the entrance on the western facade of the bell tower and extensions on its sides appeared during renovations of the building in 1858-61 and 1898. The territory of the church is surrounded by a brick fence of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. with metal grille.

In 1812, M.I. Kutuzov prayed here before the council in Fili. The building survived the Napoleonic invasion.

Until 1818, the temple was listed among the churches of the Moscow district, and from March 30, 1818, in the Zamoskvoretsky forty of Moscow.

Trinity Church not only escaped socialist destruction, but was not even closed during Soviet times, so its ancient interior has been preserved. Moreover, after the well-known Bolshevik ban on bell ringing throughout Moscow, it was in the Vorobyov Trinity Church that the bells continued to ring and Orthodox Muscovites secretly went to listen to the blessed ringing of its bells. Once again, the church survived the construction of a high-rise building at Moscow State University in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Now the temple on the Sparrow Hills has, as before, three chapels - in honor of the Holy Trinity, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and St. Sergius of Radonezh. There is also a side altar of St. Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow, which is located in the altar of St. Nicholas.

The temple belongs to the Mikhailovsky Deanery of Moscow.

Shrines: The temple contains icons of the 19th century - “Saints Gury, Samon and Aviv”, “Saints Cosmas and Damian”, “The Burning Bush”, “Joy of All Who Sorrow”, the “Kazan” icon of the Mother of God, a four-part icon - with images of the Nativity of Christ, the nativity The Most Holy Theotokos, the Nativity of John the Baptist and the Nativity of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the icon of the “Savior Not Made by Hands” from the school of Simon Ushakov. The revered icon of the Mother of God - “Blessed Heaven”. Ancient icons: a revered copy of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Donskaya” and holy. Nicholas with his life. In the temple there is a reliquary with particles of the relics of saints: St. Mitrophan of Voronezh, Righteous Alexy (Mechev) and Blessed Matrona of Moscow.

Temple Clergy

Rector - Archpriest Andrey Novikov

Full-time cleric - Archpriest Konstantin Georgievsky

Full-time cleric - Archpriest Gennady Eremenko

Full-time cleric - Priest Sergius Zverev

Seconded cleric - Deacon Anthony Gorokhovets