Among the variety of historical monuments of the capital, a special place is occupied by the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, located in Trinity-Lykovo, an area located in the western part of the city. This amazing masterpiece of temple architecture in 1935 was recognized by the League of Nations as an architectural monument of world significance.
Good initiative of the boyar Martimyan Naryshkin
Trinity-Lykovo got its name due to the fact that in its place there was the palace village of Troitskoye, which the then reigning Vasily Shuisky granted in 1610 to one of his close associates, Prince Boris Mikhailovich Lykov-Obolensky. In 1690, the village became the property of another noble Moscow family, the Naryshkins, who were related to the new sovereign Peter I. By order of the head of this family, boyar Martimyan, they built a church in Trinity-Lykovo. It was made in a style called the Naryshkin Baroque, and was a true masterpiece of Russian temple architecture.
The authorship of the project of the church in Trinity-Lykovo is traditionally attributed to the famous Russian architect Yakov Grigorievich Bukhvostov, although, according to researchers, there is no solid evidence for this. The only basis for such a statement can only be the architectural similarity of this building with the universally recognized works of the master, who, incidentally, was the founder of the Naryshkin Baroque style, which was very common in Russian architecture of the late XVII and early XVIII centuries.
The appearance of the new temple
The place chosen near the Moskva River, by the way, is already high, was raised due to the artificial bulk hill, thanks to which the church became clearly visible from all sides. It is placed on a wide basement, which is the lower economic floor of the building and is surrounded by an elegant balustrade (low stone fence).
The overall architectural composition of the church in Trinity-Lykovo does not go beyond the tradition established at that time. It is a quadrangle quite often found in buildings of this type, built on top of an additional floor, having an octagonal shape in plan.
Above it, in turn, is placed another, narrower tier, cut by the vertical windows of the ringing, inside of which the bells are placed. The crown of the entire structure is a richly decorated drum with one glaucus. Thus, the church in Trinity-Lykovo is a typical example of a tiered pyramidal composition, which is commonly called the “octagon on the four”.
Bells and facade decoration
One more, very characteristic definition ─ “a church like bells” fits in fully with it. So in the old days they called the temple buildings, where the bells were placed not in a separately built bell tower, but on one of the upper tiers of the main building. An altar part was erected on the western side of the main volume, and on the eastern side, symmetrical to it, a narthex. Both of these extensions are crowned with heads mounted on two-tier drums.
Of particular note is the decorative design of the building's facades covered with voluminous white stone decorations. Their undoubted advantage is the window platbands, individual for each of the tiers. Forged doors and shutters in the past were richly decorated with picturesque floral patterns, which also gave the general appearance of the building sophistication and grandeur. There are records according to which the masters of the Kremlin Armory: brothers Boris and Alexei Mayerov, worked on the gilding of crosses that crowned the head of the church in Trinity-Lykovo.
The splendor of the interior of the temple
The interior of the church was in no way inferior to its exterior design and was equally luxurious. According to contemporaries, the true masterpiece of applied art was a tall nine-tier iconostasis richly decorated with gilded carvings depicting the interweaving of vines, as well as outlandish fruits and plants.
Two-tier choirs were placed on the southern and northern walls of the temple, and from the upper tiers one could get to that part of the building where the bells were placed. The center of the composition that made up the interior was the royal place, located on the western wall of the room and representing an exquisitely decorated lantern crowned with a three-dimensional image of the royal crown.
To top it off, the walls of the room were so skillfully painted in marble that visitors did not even think of imitating this noble material. Despite the fact that a significant part of the elements of the exterior and interior decoration of the temple has not been preserved to this day, it occupies one of the leading places among the architectural monuments of Moscow.
Blows of fate
During the Napoleonic invasion, the temple was sacked by the French. Everything was stolen from it, which, in their opinion, was of material value, and the building itself was set on fire. So after the expulsion of the invaders from Moscow, the burnt church in Trinity-Lykovo had to be restored from the ashes, which was done over the next few years.
The next heavy blow for the temple of God was the October armed coup of 1917. The new authorities acted with his property in much the same way as the once Napoleonic soldiers, that is, once again plundered everything that was possible, but, unlike many other Moscow shrines, did not begin to destroy the building itself. Nevertheless, in 1933 the parish of the temple was abolished, and worship in it ceased.
The return of the temple to its historical appearance
Despite its extremely negative attitude towards religion, the city authorities gave the temple the status of a state-protected architectural monument in Moscow, and in 1941 were going to begin its restoration. However, at that time only necessary measurements were carried out, since the war prevented further work.
Only in the period of the 60s and 70s did they finally begin the full volume of restoration work. However, the true revival of the religious building should be attributed to the period of perestroika, when sufficient funds were allocated for the necessary work. Thanks to state subsidies and donations from private individuals, this outstanding monument of the Naryshkin Baroque was restored to its original form.
Today, the Trinity Church of the Life-Giving in Trinity-Lykovo, located at: Odintsovo St. 24, Moscow, as in previous years, amazes the eye with the extraordinary harmony of its outlines and the splendor of the decoration.