The Church of St. Simeon Stylites in Povarskaya Street, 5 represents an excellent example of a Moscow trade church.
The church has got one more name v ?Presentation to the Church in Dekhtyarny Side over Arbatskie gates³ (named after the great altar). It was erected in the settlement of tsar-s cooks in 1676-1679 by Godunov. The church is built of large bricks on a white-stoned basement and is located at the crossroad of Povarskaya Street and Novy Boulevard.
The cathedral is topped with traditional for the XVII century five decorative domes. A refectory is attached to the church from the west. And a three-tiered belfry completes the composition.
The church was numerously rebuilt in XVIII-XIX centuries. A diversity of buildings and premises imparts the cathedral with a special plastic and vivid expressiveness. White-stoned tombs remained in the church walls. In 1801 the church was the scene for the wedding of Count N. P. Sheremetyev to P. I. Kovalyova-Zhemchugova, and later on of the writer S. T. Aksakov to O. S. Zaplatina. The priest from the Church of St. Simeon Stylites gave communion to N. V. Gogol. On the church land there was a house of a famous actor P. S. Motchalov, where he lived in 1820s. In 1926 the church was closed, and the belfry was disassembled.
Workshops have been located in the building up to 1966. The building of the Novy Arbat street caused the reconstruction of the church. Since 1968 a show-room of the nature preservation society has been situated there. In 1992 the cathedral was turned over to the Moscow Diocese.