After baptism, the Russian people could not abandon pagan beliefs for a long time. One of them was the worship of Kupala. The holiday was celebrated on the summer solstice. It merged in the popular consciousness with the Nativity of John the Baptist, which was celebrated on June 24. Many Muscovites came on this day to the confluence of the Presnya and Moskva rivers to perform ritual bathing and other pagan rituals.
This state of affairs worried the church fathers. In order to enlighten baptized people and stop the insane worship of the demon, Patriarch Jeokim ordered the construction of a temple on this site in honor of the great prophet and preacher of repentance John the Baptist.
In 1687 the temple was already standing in its place. In 1714, the wooden church became very dilapidated. It was decided to build a new stone temple in its place. Construction lasted for many years. Only in 1734 did the consecration of the temple with a new chapel take place in the name of the holy martyr John, who was greatly revered in Moscow.
The icon of St. John the Warrior was painted by the icon painter Timofey Kirillov and was still in the old wooden church.
In 1804, the wooden bell tower burned down. After 6 years, a new one was built in the then fashionable Empire style. There were plans to build a refectory part of the temple, which would have connected the ancient temple with the new bell tower, but the War of 1812 prevented them.
They returned to construction only in 1824. Architect Fyodor Mikhailovich Shestakov adequately coped with the difficult task of combining the main quadrangle of Peter the Great's time with the classicist bell tower. Another limit of Sophia the Wisdom of God appeared in the temple.
At the end of the 19th century During the major renovation, the altar barriers of the boundaries of Sophia the Wisdom of God and the holy martyr John the Warrior were replaced with more convenient carved iconostases that imitated ancient models. The frescoes of the refectory part, made in 1894, copy the frescoes from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. In the main part of the temple, the paintings from St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Kyiv are taken as a basis.
The famous artist Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov and his students took part in painting and creating mosaics. In the vaulted part of the altar, he executed the composition Christ Immanuel. On the opposite side above the tomb there is a semicircular painting of the Entombment. Author's copy of the Kyiv sample.
The mosaic panel of the window openings, made in the Art Nouveau style, looks unexpected. Mosaic equal-armed cross with monogram on a blue background. The cross is superimposed on the intersecting quadrangle. This theme is developed by the rainbow sphere extending from the cross. This iconography goes back to ancient examples and symbolizes God the Creator and sacrificial love. The authorship of this composition is also attributed to Vasnetsov.
In the iconostasis of the main The altar contains icons of the former wooden church, made by royal isographers of the late 17th century:
On the left is the main revered icon of John the Baptist; in front of it on holidays, an ark with a particle of the relics of John the Baptist is placed for the worship of believers.
During the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church Not only precious vestments of icons were taken from the ancient Krasnopresnensky church, but also many ancient images were confiscated. For centuries, the icons of the Mother of God of Fedorov and the Holy Martyr Cyrus were venerated here. A casket containing his relics, which were brought here by the Georgian metropolitan at the beginning of the 18th century, was also kept here. They disappeared after the revolution.
The Church of St. John the Baptist did not close in the 20th century. At the beginning of the war, when they wanted to turn the church into a warehouse, the nun Epimistia locked herself in it and did not let anyone in. She lived in a cold, unheated room for several days, and the authorities retreated. About 6 thousand people gathered here for the Easter service in the spring of 1944. People filled the spacious courtyard and alleys near the church.
Many temple icons were brought here from churches closed during Soviet times in the Krasnaya Presnya area:
On weekdays at 7:30 Divine Liturgy. At 17:00 Evening. Special services are held on Sundays and church holidays.
The temple is located next to the 1905 Goda metro station. Maly Predtechensky lane, building 2.
Coordinates: 55°45′31.8″ n. w. 37°34′19.3″ E. d. / 55.758833° N. w. 37.572028° E. d.(G) (O) (I)55.758833 , 37.572028
Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist on Presnya- Orthodox church of the Central Deanery of the Moscow City Diocese. The temple is located in the Presnensky district, Central Administrative District of Moscow (Maly Predtechensky Lane, 2).
Most likely, the year 1685 can be considered the beginning and end of the construction of the first wooden Church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. This assumption is not contradicted by the fact that the temple icon “The Nativity of St. John the Baptist” is dated in its inscription to 1686. At that time, the year began on September 1, so the icon could be completed and placed in the iconostasis for the consecration of the temple in the fall of 1685.
The church is not described in the census book. What it looked like is unknown, but its location on church land is imaginable. The exit from the church, naturally facing west, opened onto the street leading to Vagankov - not to the modern cemetery, but to the place where the St. Nicholas Church is located. To the right of the temple, across the alley, was the extensive courtyard of the rector, priest Bartholomew (Kuzmin). To the left as you exit the church were the narrowly cut courtyards of the Baptist clergy, mentioned in the inventories. Thus, the location of the land plots was recorded, subsequently shown on maps and preserved to this day. It developed at the end of the 17th century when church land was allocated for a temple, cemetery and clergy courtyards. The church itself faced the alley directly and was located approximately on the site of the modern bell tower and vestibule. When they later began to build a stone temple instead, it was laid, retreating to the east, in its present location, and after the consecration, the wooden temple was dismantled. The new church ended up in the depths of church land, which, apparently, was always recognized as an inconvenience.
After the construction of the wooden temple, the settlement on Presnya continued to be built and grow. According to the Census Book of 1696, there were already 330 households, some of which belonged to St. Nicholas parish. The first information about the Baptist parish was given in 1693. At that time there were 196 households in it, by 1702 their number had grown to 240. The parish grew, and since more than half of the people in it were very wealthy, thirty years after the construction of the wooden church there was talk of building a stone one.
In the petition of 1714 it was written: “In past years, we built a wooden parish church in the name of the Nativity of John the Baptist, which is beyond the Presnya River, which has become very dilapidated over the years.” Instead, they asked for a decree to build a stone church. Obviously, construction began, but was soon interrupted, as a decree was issued banning stone construction throughout the empire for the sake of the speedy construction of St. Petersburg. In 1728, the ban was lifted, and construction of the temple resumed.
On December 7, 1731, priest Peter (Mikhailov) and the parish people asked the Synodal Treasury order to consecrate the newly built chapel in the name of John the Warrior. Presumably on Christmas Day in 1734, Archpriest (Dean) Nikifor (Ivanov) consecrated the stone church.
In 1804, the wooden bell tower of the temple burned down. Its appearance with an asymmetrically located left aisle and outdated architecture was then clearly behind the times, and the clergy and parishioners decided on a serious project: to build a new stone three-tier bell tower more than 25 meters high with a cross, moving it from the depths of the site to the red line of the street, and then this is to connect both buildings into a single whole.
The bell tower in the classicist style was built from 1806 to 1810 under the leadership of the church warden, merchant Fyodor Rezanov. Its lower tier, rectangular, with rusticated corners, represented not only the foundation for the upper tiers, but also a solemnly arranged entrance to the temple using the Palladian motif of a double arch inscribed in rusticated pylons. Currently, this motif has been preserved only in the front, western part of the bell tower. The bell tower was later built up on the south and north, which deprived it of greater expressiveness. At that time, there was not a single bell tower like this in the entire Presnensky district. The only exception was the huge four-tier bell tower of the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary in Kudrin.
The creator of the project for the refectory of the temple was the architect Fyodor Mikhailovich Shestakov, well known in Moscow at that time. Exact information about when the construction of the refectory was completed has not been preserved, however, according to the estimate, construction work should have been carried out during the summer of 1828. Among the guarantors for the construction of the refectory in 1828, State Councilor Nikolai Vasilyevich Ushakov was the first to sign from the parishioners.
In January 1843, the southern chapel of Sophia of the Wisdom of God was consecrated, built at the expense of the doctor of medicine Matvey Yakovlevich Mudrov.
Church in 1882. View from the south.
In May 1889, Father Theodore (Remov) and elder E. S. Matyushin applied to the city government for permission to demolish all existing buildings on church land and rebuild a two-story stone house and a one-story stone barn. The talk was about erecting a new stone clergy house instead of the wooden houses of the deacon, sexton and sexton. Soon after the completion of the construction of the clergy house, in the summer of 1892, construction of another residential building began on an empty church site, and on October 10, 1893, the consecration and opening of a parochial school on the upper floor and an almshouse on the lower floor took place.
By the end of the 19th century, the need arose to increase the refectory part of the church. This was due to the increase in the number of people living in the parish and the increase in church property - the old premises for storing it were no longer enough. Soon after the consecration of the almshouse and school, the priests and the church warden began new construction and in January 1894 turned to Metropolitan Sergius of Moscow and Kolomna for a blessing, which read: “Parishioner of the Church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, for Presnya, Rogozhskaya Sloboda, coachman Alexander Pavlov Napalkov expressed a desire, at his own expense, to make a stone extension to the said church, on the northern and southern sides of the porch and bell tower, to increase the dining area and create special rooms for the sacristy and pantry. The headman of the church, Moscow merchant Georgy Stefanov Mityushin, declared his readiness to donate funds for plastering and final finishing of the entire extension. Finding such an expansion of the church very desirable, and the construction of a sacristy and storeroom necessary, we ask permission to make the said extension...”
On March 20, a positive resolution from the metropolitan followed, and on May 22, 1894, a refectory was laid out at the chapels of the temple according to the design of the architect P. A. Kudrin. Perhaps next summer, when the masonry was in place, the extension was plastered and painted to match the color of the entire temple.
This completed the construction of the stone church, which began in 1714. Both in reality and on the 1913 plan, it is clearly visible that the temple is set obliquely in relation to Maly Predtechensky Lane, onto which it faces. The temple looks towards Novovagankov, which was its main landmark at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century. Then the parallel Presnensky streets prevailed in the topography of the area, the system of urban planning coordinates shifted to the north, and the temple did not fit into it. The additions to the side volumes in 1894 tried to smooth out this imbalance by lengthening the western façade of the temple and giving it a planar-monumental character. Up close, the irregularity of the location of the temple is almost invisible, but from a distance, from Bolshoi Predtechensky Lane, it is clear that the temple is located at an angle to it.
From 1886 to 1898, under the rector Fr. Theodore (Remov) and elder Yegor Stepanovich Mityushin carried out a whole construction program in the temple: the temple was completed, its interior was completely renovated, a new school, an almshouse and a clergy house were built. To all this we must add the repair and restoration work of the early 20th century.
In March 1922, the authorities began to confiscate church valuables from the Kremlin and Moscow monasteries. On March 31, there was also a seizure from the Church of the Baptist. Several “top secret” reports have been preserved from the chairman of the Provincial Commission F. Medved, deputy security officer Unshlikht, from which it follows that on March 31 and April 1, 12 churches in the Krasnopresnensky district were subject to confiscation of valuables. In total, 8 poods, 30 pounds, 30 spools of silver, 4 spools of gold, 24 diamonds, 1 ruby and small pearls were seized from the temple. In 1922, Fr. remained the rector of the temple. Alexy Flerin (served in the parish until 1937). The temple, in many ways, apparently thanks to its rector, escaped the networks of the Renovationist schism, and throughout the 20-30s, when shrines were closed and destroyed everywhere, the clergy were expelled and persecuted, it did not interrupt services. They never stopped during all the years of Soviet power.
In 1930, the church was deprived of bells. While throwing down the bells, the anti-religion fighters damaged the steps of the porch. At this time, the burials of the old cemetery were desecrated.
In the post-war years, with the revival of church life, the opportunity arose to begin repairing the temple. A significant cycle of work in the temple occurred in the 1960s. The painting was restored, the gilding of the Royal Doors was restored, and the chandeliers were updated. The brass gratings on the main and side soles were replaced with a marble balustrade. The side walls of the passage and the pillars of the refectory are lined with white marble. Poorly preserved colored painted glass is inserted into the lower parts of the refectory windows. The side parts of the western wall of the refectory were laid, which until then had opened through a wooden balustrade into the temple. A baptism was set up in the northwestern lower room, which was rare at that time. In 1960-1961 installed central heating. The oak vestibule from the vestibule into the refectory was dismantled. The boiler room was located in the western basement, where the heater was located; a warehouse was installed in the eastern basement. At the same time, a separate house was built for the kitchen, dining room and toilet. The side doors from the refectory to the church yard were cut through and a permanent stone fence was built around the yard. The temple itself was covered with iron. This is how the temple and courtyard appear to us today.
Rafters and sub-lattice. The cross from the bell tower is gilded. The ringing of bells has resumed. The bells from the northern vestibule, where the belfry was located, were carried upstairs; a large new bell was added to the set of small ones. At the entrance to the temple, icons of St. John the Baptist and St. Nicholas were installed in the side niches, and the icons on the tin above the windows of the refectory from the south and north and on the southern entrance gate were restored. The yard is paved with paving stones. Inside the temple, all walls and vaults were washed. To the old images were added icons of newly glorified saints.
By decree of the Moscow government, part of the former church land of 13 acres was returned to the parish, which the parish has yet to develop.
In recent years, a marble font in the shape of a cross has been built in the baptismal building for the baptism of adults with full immersion.
A Sunday school has been operating at the church for more than 15 years.
In honor of the Holy Prophet and Baptist John Spasov. Today it is famous for the fact that it is its walls that bear the imprint of the talent of the famous Russian artist V. Vasnetsov.
At the end of the 17th century, on these lands it was quite modest - wooden - and had only one throne. Naturally, the wooden one has not reached us, but by God’s providence several icons have reached us, which were painted in 1686 specifically for this temple. One of them - the temple icon of the Nativity of John the Baptist - even has the autograph of the icon painter Efim Ivanov.
Icon of John the Baptist “Angel of the Desert” located in the temple
Even more amazing is the image of John the Baptist “Angel of the Desert”. Not only is it older than the temple itself (it dates back to the first half of the 17th century), but it is also interesting because of the angelic wings behind the saint’s back.
Presnya in those days was the Moscow outskirts, which was successfully settled by newcomers. The parish grew and soon the temple could not accommodate all the believers. In 1714, it was decided to build a new temple - a stone one. However, its construction dragged on for 20 long years. This was due to the fact that Peter I was so eager to quickly rebuild St. Petersburg that he banned any stone construction throughout the empire, except for the new capital. As soon as the ban was lifted (in 1728), they continued to build. A couple of years later the small chapel was ready, which was consecrated in 1731 in honor of St. martyr John the Warrior. The icon of the saint also dates from the end of the 17th century. and has the autograph of Timofey Kirillov.
The exact date of the consecration of the main altar is unknown, although there is an assumption that it happened on the Nativity of Christ in 1734 according to a minor rite.
Entrance gate. View from the inside of the temple grounds
The temple was consecrated with a great ceremony by Metropolitan Roman of Samtavria and Gori (Romanos Eristavi) in 1736, since this, by decision of the Holy Synod, was at that time the Metochion of the Georgian Orthodox Church. It was here, behind the altar, that Metropolitan Roman was buried after his death...
The church of that time was quite simple - a two-color quad with a hipped roof and a small dome on a light drum. Adjoining it was a wooden bell tower (possibly a remnant of the original church), which burned down in 1804.
Fragment of Vasnetsov’s fresco “Emmanuel in Power” with a mosaic halo
In 1806-1810, the church warden, merchant F.I. Rezanov, found funds for the construction of a new bell tower in the classicist style. Its height was about 25 meters; in the lower tier there was an entrance to the temple in the form of a double arch.
In 1828, the reconstruction of the temple continued. Architect Fyodor Shestakov created a design for an extensive refectory, according to which the temple and bell tower were connected together. In 1843, a southern limit appeared in this refectory in the form of a rotunda - in honor of Sophia, the Wisdom of God, erected at the expense of the doctor of medicine, therapist M. Ya. Mudrov, who was the son of a Vologda priest.
In 1894, the temple was again enlarged by expanding the refectory according to the design of P.A. Kudrin at the expense of the Rogozhskaya Sloboda coachman A.P. Napalkov.
During the years of Soviet power Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist on Presnya turned out to be one of the few that managed to remain open. Divine services never stopped here, despite the fact that atheists threw down the bells, one of which was consecrated in 1848 by St. Filaret of Moscow.
Fresco by V. Vasnetsov “City of God”
The temple even managed not to become a shelter for renovationists and has preserved to this day not only the grace of the holy place, but also the ancient prayer icons, which believers can venerate today. Recently, an antique chandelier in the center of the church and a rare altar Gospel weighing 22 kg, which is a rarity even for Moscow, which abounds in churches and shrines, were restored.
Disc cover with recordings of the temple choir
In 2006, as a result of the myrrh streaming of one of the frescoes on the wall, it became known that under the layers of later paintings were hidden masterpieces, if not by Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (V.M. Vasnetsov is listed in the Synodic (memorial book of the temple’s benefactors), then at least At least, made by his students based on his sketches on the same biblical subjects as in the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev, a thorough restoration was begun, revealing to the world the magnificent murals and mosaic panels of the Russian painter. Today, everyone who comes to the temple can rejoice at the great creations. On the day of the 160th anniversary of Vasnetsov’s birth, the church on Presnya honored the artist’s memory with a memorial service, which was led by Bishop Ambrose himself, the rector of the church.
The church does a lot of work with young people, there is a magnificent choir and even an ethno-studio “Izhitsa”, and social, spiritual and educational services are well organized.
House 2).
| Orthodox church | |
| Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist | |
|---|---|
| Temple bell tower |
|
| 55°45′31″ n. w. 37°34′19″ E. d. HGIOL | |
| A country | Russia Russia |
| City | Moscow |
| Confession | Orthodoxy |
| Diocese | Moscow |
| Author of the project | Fedor Shestakov |
| Date of foundation | 1685 |
| Construction | - years |
| Side chapels | Sophia of the Wisdom of God, Martyr John the Warrior |
| Status | Cultural heritage site № 7710635000 № 7710635000 |
| State | valid |
| Website | ioannpr.ru |
| Media files on Wikimedia Commons | |
Most likely, the year 1685 can be considered the beginning and end of the construction of the first wooden Church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. This assumption is not contradicted by the fact that the temple icon “The Nativity of St. John the Baptist” is dated in its inscription to 1686. At that time, the year began on September 1, so the icon could be completed and placed in the iconostasis for the consecration of the temple in the fall of 1685.
The church is not described in the census book. What it looked like is unknown, but its location on church land is imaginable. The exit from the church, naturally facing west, opened onto the street leading to Vagankov - not to the modern cemetery, but to the place where the St. Nicholas Church is located. To the right of the temple, across the alley, was the extensive courtyard of the rector, priest Bartholomew (Kuzmin). To the left as you exit the church were the narrowly cut courtyards of the Baptist clergy, mentioned in the inventories. Thus, the location of the land plots was recorded, subsequently shown on maps and preserved to this day. It developed at the end of the 17th century when church land was allocated for a temple, cemetery and clergy courtyards. The church itself faced the alley directly and was located approximately on the site of the modern bell tower and vestibule. When they later began to build a stone temple instead, it was laid, retreating to the east, in its present location, and after the consecration, the wooden temple was dismantled. The new church ended up in the depths of church land, which, apparently, was always recognized as an inconvenience.
After the construction of the wooden temple, the settlement on Presnya continued to be built and grow. According to the Census Book of 1696, there were already 330 households, some of which belonged to St. Nicholas parish. The first information about the Baptist parish was given in 1693. At that time there were 196 households in it, by 1702 their number had grown to 240. The parish grew, and since more than half of the people in it were very wealthy, thirty years after the construction of the wooden church there was talk of building a stone one.
In the petition of 1714 it was written: “In past years, we built a wooden parish church in the name of the Nativity of John the Baptist, which is beyond the Presnya River, which has become very dilapidated over the years.” Instead, they asked for a decree to build a stone church. Obviously, construction began, but was soon interrupted, as a decree was issued banning stone construction throughout the empire for the sake of the speedy construction of St. Petersburg. In 1728, the ban was lifted, and construction of the temple resumed.
On December 7, 1731, priest Peter (Mikhailov) and the parish people asked the Synodal Treasury order to consecrate the newly built chapel in the name of John the Warrior. Presumably on Christmas Day in 1734, Archpriest (Dean) Nikifor (Ivanov) consecrated the stone church.
In 1804, the wooden bell tower of the temple burned down. Its appearance with an asymmetrically located left aisle and outdated architecture was then clearly behind the times, and the clergy and parishioners decided on a serious project: to build a new stone three-tier bell tower more than 25 meters high with a cross, moving it from the depths of the site to the red line of the street, and then this is to connect both buildings into a single whole.
The bell tower in the classicist style was built from 1806 to 1810 under the leadership of the church warden, merchant Fyodor Rezanov. Its lower tier, rectangular, with rusticated corners, represented not only the foundation for the upper tiers, but also a solemnly arranged entrance to the temple using the Palladian motif of a double arch inscribed in rusticated pylons. Currently, this motif has been preserved only in the front, western part of the bell tower. The bell tower was later built up on the south and north, which deprived it of greater expressiveness. At that time, there was not a single bell tower like this in the entire Presnensky district. The only exception was the huge four-tier bell tower of the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary in Kudrin.
The creator of the project for the refectory of the temple was the architect Fyodor Mikhailovich Shestakov, well known in Moscow at that time. Exact information about when the construction of the refectory was completed has not been preserved, however, according to the estimate, construction work should have been carried out during the summer of 1828. Among the guarantors for the construction of the refectory in 1828, State Councilor Nikolai Vasilyevich Ushakov was the first to sign from the parishioners.
In January 1843, the southern chapel of Sophia of the Wisdom of God was consecrated, built at the expense of the doctor of medicine Matvey Yakovlevich Mudrov.
In May 1889, Father Feodor Remov and elder Mityushin applied to the city government for permission to demolish all existing buildings on church land and rebuild a two-story stone house and a one-story stone barn. The talk was about erecting a new stone clergy house to replace the wooden houses that belonged to the deacon, sexton and sexton. Soon after the completion of the construction of the clergy house in the summer of 1892, construction of another residential building began on an empty church site, and on October 10, 1893, the consecration and opening of a parochial school on the top floor and an almshouse on the bottom took place.
By the end of the 19th century, the need arose to enlarge the refectory part of the church. This was due to the increase in the number of people living in the parish and the increase in church property - the old premises for storing it were no longer enough. Soon after the consecration of the almshouse and school, the priests and the church warden began new construction and in January 1894 they asked for a blessing from Metropolitan Sergius of Moscow and Kolomna, which read: “Parishioner of the Church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, for Presnya, Rogozhskaya Sloboda, coachman Alexander Pavlov Napalkov expressed a desire, at his own expense, to make a stone extension to the said church, on the northern and southern sides of the porch and bell tower, to increase the dining area and create special rooms for the sacristy and pantry. The headman of the church, Moscow merchant Georgy Stefanov Mityushin, declared his readiness to donate funds for plastering and final finishing of the entire extension. Finding such an expansion of the church very desirable, and the construction of a sacristy and storeroom necessary, we ask permission to make the said extension...”
On March 20, a positive resolution from the metropolitan followed, and on May 22, 1894, a refectory was laid out at the chapels of the temple according to the design of the architect Pavel Kudrin. Perhaps the following summer, when the masonry was in place, the extension was plastered and painted to match the color of the entire temple.
This completed the construction of the stone church, which began in 1714. In reality and on the 1913 plan, it is clearly visible that the temple is set obliquely in relation to Maly Predtechensky Lane, onto which it faces. The temple looks towards Novovagankov, which was its main landmark at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century. Then the parallel Presnensky streets prevailed in the topography of the area, the system of urban planning coordinates shifted to the north, and the temple did not fit into it. The additions to the side volumes in 1894 tried to smooth out this imbalance by lengthening the western façade of the temple and giving it a planar-monumental character. Up close, the irregularity of the location of the temple is almost invisible, but from a distance, from Bolshoi Predtechensky Lane, it is clear that the temple is located at an angle to it.
In March 1922, the authorities began to confiscate church values from the Renovationist schism, and throughout the 20-30s, when shrines were closed and destroyed everywhere, the clergy were expelled and persecuted, and did not interrupt services. They never stopped during all the years of Soviet power.
In 1930, the church was deprived of bells. While throwing down the bells, the anti-religion fighters damaged the steps of the porch. At this time, the burials of the old cemetery were desecrated.
In the post-war years, with the revival of church life, the opportunity arose to begin repairing the temple. A significant cycle of work in the temple occurred in the 1960s. The painting was restored, the gilding of the Royal Doors was restored, and the chandeliers were updated. The brass gratings on the main and side soles were replaced with a marble balustrade. The side walls of the passage and the pillars of the refectory are lined with white marble. Poorly preserved colored painted glass is inserted into the lower parts of the refectory windows. The side parts of the western wall of the refectory were laid, which until then had opened through a wooden balustrade into the temple. A baptism was set up in the northwestern lower room, which was rare at that time. In 1960-1961 installed central heating. The oak vestibule from the vestibule into the refectory was dismantled. The boiler room was located in the western basement, where the heater was located; a warehouse was installed in the eastern basement. At the same time, a separate house was built for the kitchen, dining room and toilet. The side doors from the refectory to the church yard were cut through and a permanent stone fence was built around the yard. The temple itself was covered with iron. This is how the temple and courtyard appear to us today.
In the post-war years, the temple turned from what was once a suburb into one of the most revered and visited in ecclesiastical Moscow.
With the end of the Soviet period, real opportunities opened up for the parish's diversified activities. In the 1990s, under the leadership of rector Fr. Nicholas (Sitnikov) significant repair work was carried out: the roof of the temple was covered with sheet copper with the replacement and rebuilding of the rafters and sub-lattice. The cross from the bell tower is gilded. The ringing of bells has resumed. The bells from the northern vestibule, where the belfry was located, were carried upstairs; a large new bell was added to the set of small ones. At the entrance to the temple, icons of St. John the Baptist and St. Nicholas were installed in the side niches, and the icons on the tin above the windows of the refectory from the south and north and on the southern entrance gate were restored. The yard is paved with paving stones. Inside the temple, all walls and vaults were washed. To the old images were added icons of newly glorified saints.
Where can I pray to John the Baptist? John the Baptist Convent, Cathedral of the Beheading of John the Baptist, Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist on Presnya.
In the north of Moscow, behind the Moscow Ring Road, there is the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in Vinogradovo.
The history of the church is interesting in itself: built in 1777, it was never closed, during the Great Patriotic War the head of St. Sergius of Radonezh was kept here. But today another shrine is especially important for us - particles of the relics of John the Baptist.
You can get to the temple from the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya metro station by minibus or bus, or on foot from the Dolgoprudnaya station along Dolgoprudnaya Alley and then through Dmitrovskoe Highway.
In the center of Moscow, on Bolshaya Ordynka, there is the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi. It contains a reliquary cross with particles of the relics of 72 saints, including the relics of John the Baptist.
Also in the temple there are other unique shrines: a milk tooth of one of the royal children-passion-bearers and a myrrh-streaming icon of the holy passion-bearer Tsar Nicholas II.
The most convenient way to get to the temple is on foot from the Novokuznetskaya and Tretyakovskaya metro stations.
In the St. John the Baptist Monastery (not far from the Kitai-gorod metro station) there are several shrines associated with the name of the prophet John the Baptist. In the monastery's cathedral there is also an ancient icon of the saint with a particle of his relics, and a copy of it is in the chapel of John the Baptist.
Next to the list is a shrine revered for centuries: a metal hoop - the measure of the head of the Forerunner. Its origin is unknown.
Image of the Prophet and Forerunner John with a hoop
To this day, numerous healings occur near the hoop.
You can get to the monastery on foot from the Kitay-Gorod metro station - Maly Ivanovsky Lane, building 2.
In the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist, near the left choir of the temple, there is a revered shrine in a separate icon case - an icon of John the Baptist with the head in his right hand - this canon is called the “Angel of the Desert”. The image dates from the first half of the 17th century.
This is one of the most active Moscow parishes. The temple never closed.
To get there from the Krasnopresnenskaya metro station on foot - Maly Predtechensky lane, building 2.
Have you read the article Where can I pray to Saint John the Baptist in Moscow?
