Description of the attraction
First, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in this place, and only then the nearby ravine began to be called the Assumption Vrazhk. The exact time of the construction of the church is hidden in the thickness of time, it is only established that in the 30s of the 16th century it already stood over the ravine.
Most likely, the first Assumption Church was wooden and single-altar. Closer to the middle of the 17th century, this building was dismantled and a new stone building was erected in its place. The temple became two-aisled, its thrones were consecrated with the names of St. Nicholas and John the Baptist. A hundred years later, the Nikolsky side-altar of the temple was dismantled due to its dilapidation, and instead of it a separate stone church was built, also consecrated in the name of Nicholas the Wonderworker.
In the middle of the 19th century, the reconstruction of the temple was carried out at the expense of a merchant by the name of Zhivago, who became the owner of the estate next door and was elected the head of the church. The temple was rebuilt according to the project of the architect Alexander Nikitin, who also created the image of the Sheremetyevsky courtyard on Nikolskaya Street and designed the Warm shopping arcade on Ilyinka, which have not survived now. The new church was consecrated by the Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret.
With the advent of Soviet power, the temple was closed in the mid-1920s. Its building was transferred to the regional historical archive. From 1979 to 1998, a long-distance telephone exchange was located in the former church. In the late 90s, the building was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church.
In Moscow, this Assumption Church is located in Gazetny Lane. The current church has several side-altars, built in the name of Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Sergius of Radonezh, in memory of the Beheading of John the Baptist. Among the shrines of the temple there is an icon of the Great Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth with her relics.
