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The oldest architectural monument in Moscow
that has reached us is the Church of the raising of Lazarus in the Kremlin,
located under the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. It was built by
Yevdokia in 1397 but was later sealed on all sides by stone walls and for
centuries completely forgotten. The chronicles are silent about the church for
the duration of 200 years. It was discovered by workers in 1842 when the ground
floor of the Terem Palace was under repair, a wall was torn down and to their
surprise there was the darkened arches of the Church of the Raising of Lazarus
supported by two thick pillars, the apse where the altar was, with three narrow
windows (v' polukruzhii gornyago mesta, s prestolom I chetvernnikom,) made from
heavy bricks. At the behest of his highness Emperor Nicholas Pavlovich, the
church was restored to its past glory to which it had been constructed 450
years before. In the church on the wall of the arch, there is an ancient
depiction of God's Angel with the inscription: "The Lord's angel heralds
the earthly dwellers." In one of the pillars of this church there is a
nook in the shape of a niche for a prince's privacy. During construction of the
emperors palace, under the church in the ground, human bones were found which
proves that this church, prior to the construction of the Ascension monastery
was a burial place for princesses; and adjacent to the Terem.
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