In the very center of the capital is an old church, well known to Muscovites as the temple of Antipa of Pergamon in the Kolymazhny Dvor. For many years, it housed first art courses, then a library, and only in the years following the changes made to our lives by perestroika, it again opened the doors to parishioners. About her is our brief essay.
Church near the sovereign stables
During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, royal stables were located to the north-west of the Kremlin. From ancient times this place was called Chertol, and in subsequent years it received the name of the Kolymyazhny Dvor, although sovereign carriages hardly resembled kolymygs. It is known that it was first mentioned in historical documents dating from 1365.
Since nothing was done in those years without heavenly protection, two churches were erected there - in the name of the Conception of John the Baptist and in honor of the holy great martyr Antipius of Pergamon. The first has not survived to this day (dismantled in the XVIII century), and the second still stands, reminding Muscovites of the days of the bygone past.
At first, the temple of Antipas of Pergamon in the Kolymazhny Yard was wooden, as evidenced by a record made in 1530. But after in 1547 stables with horses appeared on its western side, on which the emperor himself rode (it’s a joke!), It was rebuilt, and the walls were built of stone. The main throne, and it was a two-altar, was consecrated, as before, in the name of the faithful disciple of John the Theologian - the bishop of Antipius, Church of Pergamon, who glorified the Lord with the martyrdom of his death. His memory is still celebrated by the Orthodox Church on April 24.
One of the favorite churches of Ivan the Terrible
According to legend, Tsar Ivan the Terrible married one of his wives in this church, only when and with which one is it not clear that there are different opinions on this. Despite the fact that the church charter allows no more than four marriages, the loving sovereign managed to do this seven times - because the kings were not written the law. However, it is possible that the last three wives were not married to him.
It was no coincidence that the Temple of Antipas of Pergamon in the Kolymazhny Yard enjoyed the special attention of the formidable king - the holy great martyr Antipas, he considered one of his heavenly patrons, and among the most revered family relics he kept his tooth set in silver.
Tomb of Skuratov
It is also known that the church near the royal stables became the family burial place of the Skuratov clan, one of which, Malyuta, who was the head of the Ivan the Terrible’s guardsmen, went down in the history of Russia almost as the most bloodthirsty villain of the past centuries. By the way, there is reason to believe that he took an effective (financial, of course) part in the construction of the church itself and was buried in it after his death in 1573.
After in 1565 the territory on which Chertol was located was given to Oprichnina, and all who lived on it were evicted, the houses of the royal cronies began to be built there. Among them was the estate of Tsar Peter Skuratov, one of the relatives of Malyuta, mentioned in documents of 1638. She closely adjoined the church fence.
Aristocrats - parishioners of the temple
When one of the worst fires in its history broke out in Moscow in 1737, the temple of Antipa of Pergamon in the Kolymazhny Dvor was the victim of fire, like most city buildings. Its restoration for various reasons dragged on and was completed in 1741. Thanks to the generous financial assistance of Prince S. A. Galitsin, it was possible to completely rebuild the limit of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and later add another one in honor of the great martyr Catherine. For many years, among the parishioners of the temple were representatives of the most high-profile aristocratic families, and at the beginning of the 20th century, one of them was a wonderful Russian artist Valentin Serov.
The End of the Strollers
In 1830, the palace stables in the Kolymazhny Yard were abolished. The buildings themselves - still quite strong - were first used as an arena for riding lessons, and then a transit prison was located in them, known mainly for the fact that at one time the Polish revolutionary Yaroslav Dombrovsky successfully escaped from it.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the prisoners in it were transferred to Butyrka, and the building itself was destroyed. In 1912, the Museum of Fine Arts, which was named after A.S. Pushkin in 1937, was inaugurated on the vacated spot. Its founder was professor of Moscow University Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev - the father of the famous Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva.
Courses of proletarian artists
After the October coup, the temple of Antipas in the Kolymazhny Dvor remained open for several years. It is known that in 1922 the future new martyr Russian Ilya Gromoglasov was ordained to him deacon’s rank, a few months after that he was shot on charges of organizing resistance to the seizure of church values.
The temple of the holy martyr Antipas at the Kolymazhny Dvor was closed in 1929. At first, they planned to use his building to place library funds in it, but then they decided to transfer it to the courses that trained the so-called “artists of the revolution”, who were called with a brush and chisel to sing the great achievements of the victorious people.
Enlightened Barbarians
Despite the fact that over time the main dome and one of the limits were dismantled, the Antipas temple in the Kolymazhny Dvor still did not suffer the worst fate - they could have been completely destroyed, as they did with thousands of churches and monasteries throughout Russia. But, nevertheless, the creative workers under whose jurisdiction the church was transferred, treated it barbarously.
From the description drawn up in 1966, it can be seen that the building had acquired an abandoned and sloppy appearance by this time. There was no roof on the bell tower, and pieces of rotted crate hung from the walls. Holes gaped in the domes that had been preserved until then, and traces of crumbling plaster were visible everywhere. At the same time, the temple of Antipa of Pergamon in the Kolymazhny Dvor was partially used as a home for artists and singers of new life, and the rest of it housed a warehouse.
Revival of the former shrine
The restoration of the temple went on gradually, starting back in 1968 - long before the state began to return the property seized from the church in the wake of perestroika. However, the restoration work of those years affected only the facade of the building, as it housed the library of the Museum of Fine Arts.
Today, the temple of Antipa of Pergamon in the Kolymazhny Dvor, whose address: Moscow, Kolymazhsky per., 8/4, p. 1, has become one of the many parishes of the capital. It was transferred to the ownership of the Orthodox Church in 2005, but long before this, a community had formed under it, which was then headed by Archpriest Vladimir (Volgin).
Temple of Antipas at the Kolymazhny Dvor: schedule of services
Already in 2016, Father Andrei (Shchennikov) was appointed priest of the church as priest. Under his leadership, the temple of Antipas of Pergamon in the Kolymazhny Dvor fully unfolded its religious life. The schedule of services held therein is as follows: on weekdays, morning services begin at 8:00, and evening services at 17:00. On holidays and weekends at 9:40 a late liturgy is added to them. All changes made to the schedule are announced in advance on the temple's website.