Description of the attraction
The Church of St. George the Victorious, located in Lubyansky passage, was restored several years ago. During the years of Soviet power, the temple was closed and used as a hostel for the NKVD, then a shoe workshop was located there. The work of machine tools inside the building and the construction of an electrical substation nearby led to the fact that the temple began to collapse: cracks went along the walls, and the foundation sagged. In addition, immediately after the closure, crosses and chapters were dropped from the church, the upper part of the bell tower was destroyed, inside the building was divided by interfloor and interroom partitions, toilets were built and a freight elevator operated. By the 90s of the last century, the church had changed beyond recognition, its condition was deplorable. Even the French invasion of 1812 did not cause such damage to this temple, then the church lost some of its values, but the building itself did not burn down and did not even suffer serious damage.
To the name of this church of St. George the Victorious is added an indication of the place - "in Starye Archers". The name of the area in which it was built has two variants of pronunciation (in Archers and in Luzhniki). The first option was associated with the presence here of a settlement of archers - the masters who produced this type of weapon. The second option is associated with the location here of pasture meadows and the "Cow site" - a market for cattle.
The first wooden church existed near the Cow's site already in 1460. It is known that at the beginning of the 17th century this temple was made of stone. Its current building was built at the end of the 17th century with the money of the merchant Romanov. In the 19th century, changes took place in the appearance of the church: the gallery connecting the main building and the bell tower was dismantled, and two chapels of the lower church appeared, consecrated with the names of the reverends Nil Stolobensky and Fyodor Sikeot.
Another side-altar of the temple was consecrated in honor of Vladimir Lubyansky, who in the 30s of the last century was the last abbot of the temple and in 1937 was shot. In 2000, he was canonized as a holy martyr.
Today the temple is active, its building is recognized as an architectural monument of federal significance.
