Description of the attraction
The Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost", located on Zatsepa Street, is currently one of the buildings of the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. True, the leadership of the university several years ago allocated one of the premises of the former church (its altar part) for holding services.
The church has coexisted with an educational institution from its very foundation. In the early years of the twentieth century, a female commercial school was opened on this site, to which a house church was added. The construction of both buildings was initiated by the Moscow Society for the Dissemination of Commercial Education.
The author of the project was the architect Nikolai Shevyakov, and several of his colleagues, including Aleksey Shchusev, took part in the work. Construction started in 1904, and in the summer of 1905 the church was consecrated. Both the school and the temple were named after the icon "Seeking the Lost". For the temple, the neo-Russian style was chosen, which was popular at the beginning of the last century.
In 1907, the school, together with the male commercial school located on a nearby street, was transformed into the Moscow Commercial Institute, the predecessor of the Moscow Institute of National Economy, which became the Russian Economic University.
After the revolution, the church was separated from the school and changed the status of a domovoy to the status of a parish church. A few years later, it was completely closed, and the building of the temple began to be used for other purposes. Before the revolution, the church was distinguished by its rich interior, which was lost. For example, the iconostasis of the church was made of marble, the doors were made of oak, and colored majolica was used in the design of the porch and walls. In the 90s, a partial restoration of the temple was carried out.
