Description of the attraction
The Church of Saints Athanasius and Cyril on Sivtsev Vrazhka is also known under the name of the Church of the Resurrection of the Word, and the second name is official, and the first is more common among the people. The people used to call the temple after one of the side-chapels consecrated in honor of Athanasius and Cyril. But the main name is still considered in honor of the Resurrection of the Word - by the name of the main throne, the former Spassky and re-consecrated in 1856 at the request of one of the benefactors who participated in the reconstruction and renovation of the church in the first half of the 19th century.
In Moscow, the temple is located in Filippovsky Lane. The first church was wooden and existed already at the beginning of the 16th century. At the beginning of the next century, it was rebuilt in stone, and its main throne (Spassky) was consecrated with the name of the Savior Not Made by Hands. The side-altar of Saints Athanasius and Cyril appeared in the church in the middle of the 18th century, and the whole church began to be called among the people by the names of the saints - Athanasius-Cyril. Saints Athanasius and Cyril were bishops of Alexandria during their lifetime: Athanasius lived in Egypt in the first half of the 4th century, Cyril at the end of the 4th - first half of the 5th centuries.
During the war with the French, the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God was brought to the temple from Smolensk, but its presence in the temple did not save it from being plundered by French soldiers who entered Moscow in September 1812. The icon was subsequently transferred to the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral, and the temple was restored a few years later thanks to the generous donations of Praskovya Yushkova. The temple acquired its present appearance at the end of the 19th century after its next reconstruction.
In Soviet times, the temple was a warehouse, a hostel, an electromechanical plant, transferred from here before the 1980 Olympics. Even plans were considered to transform the building with excellent acoustics into a concert hall, but in the end, in the early 90s, the building returned to the bosom of the church.
