Description of the attraction
The Church of the Ascension on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street was built at the end of the 16th century. In this church, Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, the son of Ivan the Terrible, was married to the kingdom.
In 1629, the temple burned down, but was rebuilt in 1634 again. In 1680 the temple was rebuilt: the southern side-chapel of the Ustyug Miracle-Workers and the northern side-altar of St. Nicholas appeared.
The lower part of the temple, quadrangular in plan, stretches from north to south. Adjacent to it is a refectory and a two-tier hipped-roof bell tower, at the base of the tent of which there are dormer windows in the kokoshniks - resonators.
In 1739, the church was restored after a fire in 1737. During the reconstruction, the northern side-chapel was added in the name of the Beheading of John the Baptist.
In the 60s of the 18th century, an octagonal baroque drum with a dome was installed on the temple.
In the 19th century, the Church of the Ascension was built at the Nikitsky Gate. The temple turned out to be large in volume, so Muscovites began to call it "Big Ascension", and the Ascension temple on Nikitskaya Street - "Small Ascension".
At the beginning of the 19th century, the south side-altar of the temple was enlarged, an arched gallery was built at the north side-altar and a warm porch. In 1831 a new iconostasis was installed. Remains of wall paintings from the 18th-19th centuries have survived.
In the temple there is an icon with the relics of the holy noble spouses - Prince Peter and Princess Fevronia of Murom. In old age, they accepted monasticism and prayed to God to die one day and be buried together. And so it happened. Saints Peter and Fevronia are revered as patrons of marriage and family.
