Description of the attraction
There is only one church in Moscow, consecrated in honor of the Forty Martyrs of Sebastia. It is located next to the Novospassky monastery, on Dinamovskaya (former Sorokasvyatskaya) street.
Forty Sebastian martyrs during their lifetime were Cappadocian warriors, Christians who served under the command of a pagan named Agricola. For refusing to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, the soldiers were tortured, torture took place on the shore and in the water of a lake located near the city of Sevastia. The soldiers who died from torture were burned, and their bones were thrown into the lake, then collected by Bishop Peter of Sebastia and buried.
The history of this church is connected with the construction of the Transfiguration Cathedral and the new stone fence of the monastery in the 40s of the 17th century. Bricklayers settled near their place of work, establishing a whole settlement here. After the completion of construction in the settlement, the Church of the Forty Martyrs of Sebastia was erected in its current form. However, the church existed before: the first mention of it dates back to 1625, and it was erected, most likely, at the very beginning of the 17th century.
The 18th century became a time of hardship for the temple: the church was robbed, lost a large part of its parishioners during the plague epidemic of 1771, burned and could be closed because of this. However, the parishioners preserved the church and even managed to restore it. But their efforts were nullified by the invasion of Moscow by the French in 1812. The temple was again plundered, and its abbot was hacked to death by the French. After the war, the temple was restored; its second renovation took place towards the end of the 19th century.
In the early 30s of the last century, the temple was closed. During the Great Patriotic War, its building housed a workshop in which parts for shells were produced. In the post-war period, a research institute and a design bureau were located here. Divine services in the temple were resumed only in 1992.
