Description of the attraction
The Church of the Three Saints on Kulishki was built in that part of the White City, which in the 16th century became known as Ivanovskaya Hill - the hill where the monastery of the Nativity of John the Baptist was located. In the 19th century, Khitrovskaya Square was built next to the temple, therefore, among the parishioners there were both rich merchants and the so-called "Khitrovans" - permanent inhabitants of the square, who created its reputation as an extremely criminal place.
The church was named in honor of John Chrysostom, Gregory the Theologian and Basil the Great. According to the history of the holiday, which is called the Council of Ecumenical Teachers and is celebrated on January 30, these three saints at the end of the 11th century appeared to Metropolitan John with a demand to establish a common day of their veneration in order to stop disputes between their followers.
The first building on this site was the church of Flora and Lavra, erected in the 15th century, which stood in the horse yard next to the residence of the Moscow prince Vasily the First. Later, the Church of the Three Saints was added to it, which had the status of a house church in the possession of the Moscow metropolitan, which were also built next to the prince's palace.
In the next century, when the estate of the Grand Duke was moved to the village of Rubtsovo-Pokrovskoye, the Church of the Three Saints became a parish church. In the second half of the 17th century, the temple was rebuilt at the expense of parishioners and became stone. In the new two-story building, the main altar of the lower, warm church was consecrated in honor of the Three Saints, in the upper part there was an altar in honor of the Life-Giving Trinity. The second side-altar of the lower church was consecrated in honor of Florus and Laurus. Changes in the appearance of the building were made in the following centuries.
The establishment of Soviet power was marked for this church, as well as for many others, with the confiscation of relics and valuables. In particular, the temple icon of the Mother of God "Vision of the Eye" was lost. After the church was closed, the building was disfigured from the inside and outside: the fence, the top of the bell tower were demolished, the chapters were thrown off, the internal volume was divided by partitions, and another floor was added on top. Until the 60s of the last century, the former temple managed to be a prison, a hospital, a communal apartment, it housed offices of institutions. In the 60s, the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments carried out its restoration. In the late 1980s, the famous Pilot animation studio moved into the building and occupied it for almost ten years.
Currently, the temple is active and has the status of an object of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation.
