The
Church of the Nativity of the
Theotokos
at Putinki
is one of the most picturesque churches in
Moscow
and the last major
tent-like church
in the history of
Russian architecture
. The snow-white church with its multiple tents and azure-and-gold domes resembles a daintily carved piece of ivory.
The Nativity church at Putinki consists of six exquisite
tented roofs
arranged in a highly unusual composition. Three candle-like tents, placed in a row, crown the church, while its
refectory
is surmounted by several rows of
corbel arches
and the fourth tent. The fifth tent is a
belltower
placed between the church and refectory. The porch also terminates in a pyramidal roof.
The church was commissioned by Tsar
Alexis Mikhailovich
in 1649 in order to grace a highway leading from Moscow to the
Trinity Monastery
. Construction works were completed within three years. As the story goes,
Patriarch Nikon
, when passing the church on his way to the Trinity Monastery, was so scandalized by its unorthodox design that he prohibited the construction of tent-like churches altogether.
After the
Vysokopetrovsky Monastery
was closed down by the Soviet authorities in 1929,
Archimandrite
Bartholomew Remov
arranged for the monks and nuns to continue their monastic life in secret at the Nativity Church, where he was the Rector. The spiritual life of the monastery continued at Putinki until the
NKVD
was informed and arrested everyone involved in 1935.
[1]
The Soviet authorities closed the church in 1938 but they also funded repair works in 1957. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the church was reopened as the patriarch's
metochion
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
I.I. Osipova (2003),
Hide Me Within Thy Wounds: The Persecution of the Catholic Church in the USSR from Material in Criminal Investigation and Labor Camp Files
, Germans from Russia Heritage Collection.
Fargo, North Dakota
. Pages 43-45.
External links
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edit
]
55°46′01″N
37°36′24″E
/
55.76695001°N 37.60675001°E
/
55.76695001; 37.60675001