Temple of the Archangel Gabriel on the clean ponds of the shrine. Moscow Church of St. Archangel Gabriel. Temple in Myasnitskaya Sloboda

Menshikov Tower, Church of the Archangel Gabriel on Chistye Prudy - the earliest surviving Peter the Great baroque building in Moscow. The author of the project is called Ivan Zarudny and the participation of Domenico Trezzini is expected.

The circumstances under which the Menshikov Tower was built are interesting. In these places there passes Myasnitskaya Street, which at the end of the 16th century was cut by the fortress wall of the White City, and at the intersection there was the Myasnitsky Gate. The name of the street and the fortress gate comes from the butchers' settlement located outside the city walls.

And inside the city, next to the gate, in 1699 he bought the estate of A.D. Menshikov, friend and ally of Peter I. This was even before the founding of the city of St. Petersburg, so Menshikov intended to settle in the Moscow estate for a long time.

The butchers also had no intention of moving anywhere and continued to do their job, and dumped production waste into ponds located nearby. These ponds exuded a bad smell, which is why Muscovites received the dissonant name “Filthy” ponds. The fortress wall could protect the city from the enemy, but it was not able to protect against bad odors. So the aromas reached Alexander Danilovich’s nose and, presumably, greatly annoyed him.

The question is, why did he buy the estate here then? With his capabilities, it was possible to acquire ownership in a more suitable location. The case probably was in Myasnitskaya, along which one of the roads to the German settlement passed. Having bought the estate, Menshikov ordered the ponds to be cleaned, which have since been called “Chistye”. The current pond is artificial, dug after the fire of 1812. All the old ponds apparently were filled in at the same time.

Construction of the Menshikov Tower began in 1704 and ended three years later. As a result, a tower rose over the city, one and a half fathoms (3.2 meters) higher than the bell tower of Ivan the Great, which was considered the pride and one of the landmarks of Moscow. The townspeople, who disliked the prince, believed that by this Menshikov tried to “hurt” them.

In Moscow, there was a strict ban on the construction of bell towers exceeding the height of Ivan the Great. There is a version that Menshikov did not start the construction of the tower of his own free will. He would not have been allowed to exceed the height of Ivan the Great for the sake of his ambition. It is clear that Peter the Great himself ordered the construction. And the fact that construction was entrusted to a second person in the state indicates the importance of the facility.

In Moscow, Peter was worried about the fate of the German Settlement, which the archers had recently wanted to cut out. Lefort's palace (actually a fortress) was hastily built there. Before Lefort's death in 1699, there was even a Lefortovo regiment. What was needed was a reliable connection between Sloboda and the Kremlin and not only messengers. Most likely, the Menshikov Tower was built to receive alarm signals from the German Settlement and transmit them to the Kremlin, and possibly also to the regiment of Lavrentiy Sukharev, loyal to Peter, located at the newly built Sukharev Tower. In Moscow they said that through the Menshikov Tower the Kremlin was communicating with Kukuy (German Settlement).

The fact that the tower was used in the state signaling system can be judged by the following facts. Almost immediately after construction was completed, the tower was built on. It seems that shortcomings in the visual connection between the Sukharev Tower and the Kremlin have been revealed. On the top floor of the Sukharev Tower there was an observatory; it was equipped with instruments and devices for receiving visual signals. The observatory was headed by Yakov Bruce, a person who was not only versed in the exact sciences, but also enjoyed the enormous trust of the tsar.

If the Moscow Kremlin received signals from the outside, then it was most convenient to do this from the bell tower of Ivan the Great. This assumption explains why it was forbidden to build tall structures in Moscow (so as not to obscure the view) and why the Menshikov Tower was built in violation of this prohibition (to establish a visual connection with both the Kremlin and the German Settlement).

The location of the Menshikov Tower near the current Moscow Post Office also leads to interesting guesses. Visual and audio signals could convey only the briefest information such as “Danger!” But the details had to be duplicated with the help of messengers. From here it is clear: somewhere near the Menshikov Tower there must have been houses and courtyards of the messengers. That is why already in the 19th century the first Moscow post office appeared in the same quarter.

And in 1723 the tower suffered a terrible fate. An inexplicable event occurred. On June 13, one of the priests of the church fell dead on the porch after an evening service. The next day, during the funeral service, clouds gathered over the church, thunder roared, and lightning struck the cross, setting the dome on fire.

When the fire spread to the oak farmhouse, the bells began to break off and the church vaults to break through. Falling bells and fire killed people who were carrying out valuables and relics at that time. The top of the tower was completely lost. Thus, according to Muscovites, providence itself punished Menshikov for his pride.

The building stood in this form for more than fifty years. In 1787, Gavriil Izmailov, who belonged to the then existing in Moscow lodge of Masons who called themselves Martinists, undertook to restore the church. In Krivokolenny Lane, not far from the Church of the Archangel Gabriel, about fifty students of the Pedagogical Seminary, organized by the Masons, lived in the house of Professor Schwartz. It was for them that Izmailov restored the Church of the Archangel Gabriel, decorating it inside and out with Masonic symbols and emblems with Latin inscriptions.

For a long time, the authorities looked condescendingly at the existence of Masonic lodges in the country. Catherine II believed that this was just a harmless passion for mystical teachings. Everything changed when the Moscow Masons were caught in a secret connection with the Prussian court, hostile to Russia. From the deciphered secret correspondence it was clear that the “champions of enlightenment” were preparing a coup d’etat. As a result, several high-ranking masons were arrested and imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress.

However, the secret signs that decorated the walls of the Menshikov Tower existed for several more decades. In 1852, Metropolitan Philaret suddenly remembered the Masonic signs and Latin inscriptions and ordered them all to be destroyed. The numerous sculptural decorations that have come down to us are not just modeling or carving, they are “story sculptures” on evangelical themes, perhaps the first in the Moscow tradition.

Finally, for lovers of mysticism, a few facts. If we look at the map of Moscow as it developed after Peter, when the square of Petrovskaya Yauza was added to the round Kremlin Moscow, and an irregular diamond-shaped figure was formed with its displaced center. Where is this center?

If we put a line between its most distant outposts, Luzhnetskaya and Preobrazhenskaya, the center of Moscow will be the area at the Myasnitsky Gate with the Menshikov Tower. It seems that Peter and Menshikov intuitively found a new city center.

Moreover, the Menshikov Tower was located near the top of Sretensky Hill, the highest hill in Moscow, higher than the Kremlin Hill. Here, near the post office, was then the “zero kilometer”, the beginning of all Russian roads.

And at the beginning of World War II, military control was carried out not from the Kremlin, but from the dungeons of the Kirovskaya metro station, now Chistye Prudy.

Well, in the time of Peter I, the three tallest buildings in Moscow were the Ivan the Great, Sukharev and Menshikov towers, about which Muscovites said: “The Sukharev Tower is the bride of Ivan the Great, and Menshikova is his sister.”

Menshikov Tower, Church of the Archangel Gabriel in Moscow - an Orthodox church in honor of the Archangel Gabriel; the earliest surviving Peter the Great baroque building in Moscow.

Church of the Archangel Gabriel built in the Moscow Baroque style, influenced by secular palace architecture (balconies over the entrance porticoes with free-standing columns, numerous sculptural decorations, etc.). It is a tower with two blind octagonal tiers of bells - the elongated lower quadrangular one and the square tier above it inside visually merge into a single space.

The height of the temple itself is 26 m. It is cruciform in plan (in the upper part). The bypass galleries are wooden (repetition of those killed in the fire of 1723). The tall octagons are smoothly connected to each other by roofs. The walls are decorated with white stone sculptural decor.
The main, western facade with side volutes (spiral-shaped curls with domes in the center) stands out especially. The western entrance has a balcony above and a two-columned Corinthian portico. Above the portals there are relief images: above the southern entrance - Archangel Gabriel, above the northern - Archangel Michael. Above the western, main entrance is the composition “The Ascension of Christ”.

The church was originally built in 1707 by order of Alexander Menshikov by Ivan Zarudny with the help of Domenico Trezzini, a group of Italian and Swiss craftsmen from the cantons of Ticino and Friborg and Russian stonemasons from Kostroma and Yaroslavl.

Southwest entrance

Menshikov Tower was significantly changed in the 1770s. The church functioned only in the summer; in winter, services were held nearby, in the Church of Theodore Stratelates, built in 1782-1806. The Church of St. Theodore Stratelates also had bells for ritual melodies: despite its height, the Menshikov Tower did not have bells.

The first church in the name of the Archangel Gabriel on this site was first mentioned in the 1551 census records. By 1657 it was rebuilt in stone, and was enlarged in 1679. Twenty years later, the influential statesman Alexander Menshikov consolidated land plots south of modern Chistye Prudy. The Church of the Archangel Gabriel became the home church of his family, who lived in the next block to the west, on the site of the current Central Post Office.

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In 1701, Menshikov repaired the old church, and in 1704 he ordered its demolition. Menshikov entrusted the general management of construction to Ivan Zarudny. Domenico Trezzini, Zarudny’s subordinate, was from European masters (from the families Fontana, Rusco, Ferrara, etc. from the canton of Ticino), but six months later he was sent to St. Petersburg. The new church was structurally completed by 1707, the height was 81 meters and was comparable to the height of the bell tower of Ivan the Great. The building originally had five levels with stone (nave, square tower and three lower octagonal levels; the upper two octagons were built of wood). In 1708 the tower acquired 50 bells and an English clock mechanism. It was crowned with a 30-meter spire with an angel in the shape of a weather vane. The original building of the Menshikov Tower in Moscow was richly decorated with decorative sculpture, but most of it was lost in the 18th century.

In 1710, Menshikov was appointed governor of St. Petersburg and abandoned all his Moscow projects, taking most of the craftsmen with him. Work on the tower's interiors slowed; Menshikov's private property inside the temple was rebuilt into an ordinary altar.

In 1723, the tower was struck by lightning and the fire completely destroyed the upper wooden part with the clock. The bells fell, shattering the wooden ceilings and (partially) destroying the interiors of the naves. The side altars, however, survived and continued to function while the main tower stood decapitated until 1773. In 1773-1779 the tower was restored by the mason G.Z. Izmailov and acquired its current form: instead of recreating the destroyed upper octagon, the new architects replaced it with a compact but complex dome in the Baroque style. Vases at the corners of the first octagon, installed in the 1770s, replaced the lost statues of 1723; Later, the vases were regularly replaced; the current ones are made of concrete. The windows of the octagonal vaults were filled with brick, making the installation of bells impossible. On the other hand, the original sculptural decorations of this period were practically lost (modern sculpture consists mainly of cement copies).

The building was used for Masonic meetings; restored as a temple in 1863, when, by order of Metropolitan Philaret, Masonic symbols and sayings were erased from the walls. According to other sources, in 1821 the Menshikov Tower was assigned to the postal department and was called the Church of the Archangel Gabriel at the Post Office as a summer temple. As a warm one, the smaller neoclassical church of Theodore Stratelates was built, which is also used as a bell tower.

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Arkhangelsky lane, 15a

At the Chistye Prudy metro station there is the Church of the Archangel Gabriel. The first mention of it in history dates back to 1551, and until the beginning of the 18th century, a wooden church stood in its place. The modern building appeared thanks to Prince Alexander Danilovich Menshikov. He bought himself an estate, which overlooked Myasnitskaya Street, and became a frequent parishioner of the then wooden Church of the Archangel Gabriel. And in 1704, by order of the prince, the temple was demolished, and a modern church building was erected in its place. At that time there was a body of water called Poganye Ponds. Again, thanks to Menshikov’s order, they were cleansed, and they began to be called Clean. The construction of the ponds was entrusted to the architect Zarudny and it lasted three years.

In the Church of the Archangel Gabriel in 1706, a very valuable thing appeared in the form of an image of the Polotsk Mother of God, which Menshikov brought after the battle of Kalishche, where the troops led by the prince won. According to legend, this icon was painted by the Evangelist Luke himself. Alexander Danilovich wished to build a new temple for her on the site of the old church. Its construction began in 1704 and ended three years later. As a result, a tower rose above the city, one and a half fathoms (3.2 meters) higher than the bell tower of Ivan the Great. It was a light, lacy, airy structure, the likes of which Moscow had never seen before.
There is a legend that the wayward Menshikov, whom Muscovites did not like for his “art” and constantly reminded him of the notorious pies that he allegedly sold in his youth, wanted to offend Muscovites - to erect a building higher than Ivan the Great, Moscow’s beauty and pride. But God judged differently - firstly, as we will see, Menshikov’s pride was humiliated, and secondly, Muscovites really liked the new church. Just three years earlier, the construction of the Sukharev Tower was completed. “Sukharev Tower is the bride of Ivan the Great, and Menshikova is her sister,” people said. Residents of the capital were proud of the three Moscow giants.

And in 1723 the church suffered a terrible fate. An event occurred that is difficult to explain. On June 13, one of the priests of the church fell dead on the porch after an evening service. The next day, during the funeral service, clouds gathered over the church, thunder roared, and lightning struck the cross, setting the dome on fire. It took about two hours to extinguish the fire; the difficulty was that the tower was very high. And when the fire spread to the farm, made of oak, the bells (there were 50 of them) began to break off and break through the church vaults. The falling bells killed the people who were carrying out valuables and relics at that time. The top of the tower was completely lost. However, the precious icon was saved, and in 1726, on the orders of the seriously ill Menshikov, it was transported to St. Petersburg, where the prince’s home church was located on Vasilievsky Island. In 1727, Menshikov was exiled, and the icon disappeared.

The church had many distinctive features. It was almost three meters higher than the bell tower of Ivan the Great, which was considered the pride and one of the landmarks of Moscow. The townspeople, who disliked the prince, believed that by this Menshikov tried to “hurt” them. A spire with a weather vane in the form of a soaring angel with a cross in his hand was installed on the church tower. On the last, uppermost three through tiers there were 50 bells. In 1708, chimes were bought in London for a lot of money and installed on the tower. They struck every 15, 30 and 60 minutes, and at noon all the bells rang at once.

In history there is one assumption about the reason for the destruction of the church. Menshikov did not live long on Myasnitskaya Street. He left his palace when he was appointed governor of St. Petersburg. The temple began to collapse. The architect Zarudny, back in 1721 (two years before the ill-fated fire), warned the prince in letters about the leaking roof, that the chimes had already stopped, the iconostasis was still unfinished, and the wooden parts of the church were rotting and might fall any moment.

After the fire, the church, which stood in a ruined state for a long time, began to be restored in 1787 by Gavriil Izmailov. He removed one tier, bells and spire. He designed the dome in the form of a candle, screw-shaped. Gabriel belonged to the Masons of the Pedagogical Seminary, who called themselves Martinists. Both outside and inside, he decorated the church with Masonic symbols, emblems and Latin inscriptions. Many of the representatives of the Freemasons were arrested after they were caught in connection with the Prussian court, with which Russia was then at enmity, but the signs left by Izmailov on the walls of the church remained there for several more decades before Metropolitan Philaret ordered their destruction in 1852.

The post office was located in Menshikov's house on Myasnitskaya Street in 1792. Nowadays the building of the Moscow post office is located exactly on the site of the prince’s palace. The Menshikov Tower was also included in it, which became known as the Church of the Archangel Gabriel at the post office. This event took place in 1821.
The Menshikov Tower is like a precious pearl, hidden in the shell of a courtyard surrounded by houses.
The tower had a noticeable influence on the architecture of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

The church was originally built in 1707 by order of Alexander Menshikov.

The authors of the project in modern publications are called Ivan Zarudny, and the participation of Domenico Trezzini, a group of Italian and Swiss craftsmen from the cantons of Ticino and Friborg and Russian stonemasons from Kostroma and Yaroslavl are assumed.

NVO, CC BY-SA 3.0

The earliest surviving building in Moscow, the Menshikov Tower was significantly altered in the 1770s.

The church functioned only in the summer; in winter, services were held nearby, in the Church of Theodore Stratelates, built in 1782-1806.

The Church of St. Theodore Stratilates also had bells. Despite its height, the Menshikov Tower did not have bells.

Story

unknown, Public Domain

The new church was structurally completed by 1707, exceeding the height of Ivan the Great's bell tower by one and a half fathoms (3.2 meters) and amounting to 84.3 meters. The building originally had five levels with stone (nave, square tower and three lower octagonal levels; the upper two octagons were built of wood).

In 1708 the tower acquired 50 bells and an English clock mechanism. It was crowned with a 30-meter spire with an angel in the shape of a weather vane.

The original building of the Menshikov Tower in Moscow was richly decorated with decorative sculpture, but most of it was lost in the 18th century.

NVO, GNU 1.2

In 1723, the tower was struck by lightning and the fire completely destroyed the upper wooden part with the clock. The bells fell, breaking through the vaults and (partially) destroying the interiors of the naves. For half a century, services were performed only in small chapels (in the choir and refectory), while the main tower stood beheaded until 1773. In 1773-1779 the tower was restored by the mason G.Z. Izmailov and acquired its current form: instead of recreating the destroyed upper octagon, the new architects replaced it with a compact but complex dome in the Baroque style. Vases at the corners of the first octagon, installed in the 1770s, replaced the lost statues of 1723; Later, the vases were regularly replaced; the current ones are made of concrete. The windows of the octagonal vaults were filled with brick, making the installation of bells impossible. On the other hand, the original sculptural decorations of this period were practically lost (modern sculpture consists mainly of cement copies).

The building was used for Masonic meetings; restored as a temple in 1863, when, by order of Metropolitan Philaret, Masonic symbols and sayings were erased from the walls. (According to other sources, in 1821 the Menshikov Tower was assigned to the postal department and was called the Church of the Archangel Gabriel at the Post Office as a summer (unheated) temple). Through the labors of the freemason Klyucharyov, the smaller (warm) neoclassical Church of Theodore Stratelates was built (completed in 1806), which is also used as a bell tower. The book “Moscow with its Shrines and Sacred Sights,” published in 1888, stated: “In 1806, a bell tower with a chapel in the name of Theodore Stratilates was added to the Church of the Archangel Gabriel. Currently, only in this chapel is worship performed. The Arkhangelsk Church remains only as a monument to the times of Emperor Peter.”

At the very end of the 19th century, the post office authorities abandoned the maintenance of the church and it became a parish. The temple was closed in the 1930s. The existing iconostasis was moved from the Moscow Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, which was destroyed in 1964; The iconostasis of the Menshikov Tower itself, with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy I, was transferred to the Assumption Church in the city of Makhachkala in 1969.

Admiring Moscow. Menshikov Tower

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Useful information

Menshikov Tower
Church of the Archangel Gabriel on Chistye Prudy

Cost of visit

for free

Address and contacts

Moscow, Arkhangelsky lane, 15a

Antioch Compound

In 1945, His Beatitude Patriarch Alexander III of Antioch (Takhan), who was the rector of the Antioch metochion in Moscow at the beginning of the twentieth century, was present at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.

During his official interview with Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow, it was decided to resume the activities of the Antioch metochion.

To organize the metochion of the Moscow Patriarchate at the beginning of 1948, two churches were transferred, in the name of the Archangel Gabriel and in the name of the Great Martyr Theodore Stratilates.

The opening of the metochion took place on July 17, 1948 at the end of the Meeting of the heads and representatives of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches of the world.

Temple shrines

In the Church of the Archangel Gabriel, there are remarkable icons in the local row of the iconostasis: the Archangel Gabriel in a silver robe and the icon of Our Lady of the Blessed Heaven to the left of the Royal Doors.