Of the churches of the orthodox, the number in Moscow is indeed great; add to these the cathedrals, the new Xram, chapels, monasteries and convents, and the claim of Moscow to its title of City of Churches will not be questioned. It is quite impossible even to enumerate those worth seeing. Instead take a typical street, say the Nikolskaya in the busiest part of the commercial Kitai-Gorod. It contains the Monastery of the Images, Za-ikono-spassky Monastyr—once, 1679, an academy; Church of the Virgin of Kazan, interesting as founded in 1630 by Prince Pojarski; the Nikolævski Monastyr, Greek, founded in 1556, and in 1669, with two churches; opposite it the old Monastery of the Epiphany, Bogoyavlenni, founded in 1396, with a church to Boris and Gleb and several others of lesser note—a large establishment with an extensive cemetery but the buildings of course modern. The Synodalia Typografiia; the printing house of the Synod, founded in 1645, the façade always painted a light blue, with the lion and unicorn, and other Byzantine decorations, in white. Then near the Vladimirski Vorot, the church to the Virgin, dating from the time of the boy-Tsars, Ivan and Peter, and opposite the second largest monastery, and most often used church in the Kitai gorod, that of the Trinity. In all eleven churches or chapels within less than 200 yards—and that is characteristic of Moscow. Among other tserkvi well worth seeing are:—
Kitai-Gorod. In the Varvarka: St Barb, St George the Martyr, St Maxim the Confessor, and the Monastery of the Resurrection. In the Ilyinka: St Nicholas of the Great Cross, St Elias. Also the Holy Trinity in the Cherkassky, St Anne in the Zariadi, and of the Virgin of Georgia, but St Ipatius is in the Ipatievski, and St Nicholas near the Moskvretski Bridge.
Bielo-Gorod. The Srietenka, built by John Taylor; All Saints, the Transfiguration, and the Manifestation.
CHAPTER X
Moscow of the Citizens
“Fair Moscow crowned: now towering high
And, seated on her throne of hills,
A glorious pile from days gone by.”
Dmitriev.
PETER “THE GREAT” who is credited with having created the history of Russia did little for Moscow, a town he, after his travels abroad, always despised and constantly distrusted. He evicted the last private owners from the Kremlin, and spoiled its palaces and treasures, but took no measures to enhance its beauty or increase its wealth. It is customary to date progress and civilisation from his reign; an anonymous Russian poet has even written:
“Russia and Russia’s strength lay hid in dreary night;
God said ‘Let Peter be’—straightway they burst to light,”