Pearls of Russia

Cultural heritage

The Church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist

The Church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (Pyatnitskaya Street, 2/4) In XIV-XV centuries the Ivanovsky Monastery was located in that part of the Moscow suburb.
The Great Prince Vasily II-s birth caused the record of the monastery in the chronicles of 1415. The stone cathedral of the monastery was erected by an Italian architect Alevis Fryazin Novy, the one who built the Kremlin Archangel Cathedral, a palace in Bakhchisaray and some cathedrals in Moscow.
After the monastery had been moved by Vasily III-s order (1514-1515), it was given the status of a parish church in 1530. In 1658 the monastery underwent some partial restoration. And in 1757-1770 the church building was reconstructed in the spirit of baroque.
A new refectory and a vestibule were attached to the monastery. That reconstruction was sponsored by the merchant F. F. Zamyatin. A three-tiered belfry, built in 1780 combining the features of baroque and early classicism, became the leading high-altitude dominant of the Moscow suburb.
The church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist is actually a centre of a large complex consisting of a three-storeyed lucrative house built in the XIX century, a two-storeyed church house erected in 1798, a refectory, a belfry, a fence and a neighbour church of Tchernigov miracle men Michael and Feodor.
In 1772 the dome of the cathedral was rebuilt. And in 1896-1904 a famous architect F. O. Shekhtel worked on the interiors of the church (including its marble iconostasis). After the revolution of 1917 the church was closed. In 1970-1980 it was restored. And since 1990 a show-room "Decorative Glass" has been located in the church building.

District: Downtown
Address: 2, Mal. Ivanovskiy Lane, Moscow
Underground: Kitay-gorod (Kaluzhsko-Rizhskoy linii)