Description of the attraction
On Bolshaya Nikitinskaya Street in Moscow, you can see two churches called "Big Resurrection" and "Small Resurrection". "Big" is called the Church of the Ascension of the Lord in the Watchmen at the Nikitsky Gate, and "Small" - the Church of the Ascension in the White City, these are their official names. "Big Resurrection" is also famous for the fact that in 1831 the poet Alexander Pushkin and Natalia Goncharova were married in its refectory, who played a fatal role in the fate of the poet.
The church in the Watchmen is recognized as a federal architectural monument. The exact date of the construction of the first building has not been determined, but it is known from the chronicles that in 1629 the church building burned down. Towards the end of the 17th century, a stone church was built in its place, the decision was made by Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna (Naryshkina), whose courtyard was located next to the temple. That building had five chapters and two side-chapels, consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas and the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God.
In the 18th century, the land on which the temple stood passed into the possession of Prince Grigory Potemkin. There is even a legend that in 1774 the prince entered into a secret marriage with Empress Catherine the Great in this Church of the Ascension. In 1790, Prince Potemkin ordered the reconstruction of the Church of the Ascension in the Watchmen in stone, but died a year later.
The church was not completed by the beginning of the 19th century either. The French who entered Moscow in September 1812 set fire to the unfinished building. But after the end of the war, the church was restored by 1816.
In 1827, the church began to rebuild again, and by the time of the wedding of Pushkin and Goncharova, it was in a half-disassembled, half-built state, so the wedding ceremony was held in the refectory. The work in the church was completed only by 1848.
In the early 30s of the last century, the church was closed, and with its values and property they acted barbarously: the icons were burned, not taking them out of the church, the wall frescoes were smeared, the church space was divided into floors and new windows were broken, later the bell tower was demolished. From 1960 to 1987, the building housed one of the laboratories of the Energy Institute. It was planned to open a concert hall in the former church, but instead renovations were carried out and the building of the Russian Orthodox Church was returned. The new bell tower was built at the beginning of the 21st century.
