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The Church of the Trinity at Nikitnikah in
Moscow belongs to the new type of rather small pierless churches which started
to appear in Russia during the first half of the 17th century. It was built in
1628-1636 by the rich merchant Grigorii Leontiev Nikitnikov, a native of
Yaroslavl, who sometimes helped the tsars during periods of financial
difficulty. Rich and ambitious, Nikitnikov wanted his new church to fascinate
Muscovites and it was partly because of this that it took so long to finish it
completely. After the main church was completed in 1636, he decided to add two
chapels, then a porch with a staircase and a belfry which were not finished
until 1653. When the plague decimated the population of Moscow, the icon of the
Georgian Virgin, which Grigorii's brother Stepan had brought to Russia from
Persia, was rushed from the Krasnogorskii Monastery, near the town of Pinega.
The icon was kept in the Trinity Church, and legend says that the prayers of
the people and he icon saved many in Moscow from the plague and certain death.
From that time the church was called the Church of the Georgian Virgin, after
the miraculous icon.
The main church was built on a very high basement, partly because of the steep
ground on which it rests. Its slim figure was further accentuated by three
receding and overlapping (v perebezhku) rows of decorative kokoshniki, ending
in five lender drums that carry onion-shaped cupolas. With the exception of the
Cathedral of Vasilii the Blessed, the Trinity Church is the most decorated
Moscow church. The builders used carved stone ornaments to decorate the brick
structure of the church. The window architraves, and portals are covered with
carved gegetal ornaments. White stone is also used to decorate the cornices,
entablatures, parapets, pilasters, kokoshniki, arch-like friezes etc. The
entire interior of the church is covered with frescoes., painted most probably
by the best contemporary artists and cleaned by Soviet restorers. On each wall
there are four tiers of frescoes that narrate major events and scenes from the
Bible, treated by the painters with much freedom. Thus inside the central absid
we see for the first time a birch-tree, and in one of the chapels a group
portrait of Nikitnikov and his family, dressed in contemporary garments. The
iconostasis is one of the most elaborate in existence, and has its tiers of
icons. A few of them were painted by Simon Ushakov, and other best "Tsar's
izografs." Some of the icons were taken out of the iconstas and moved to
various museums.
|We have a photo of Ushakov's home
across the small square from the church and of the
church itself. Plus
more in the Moscow churches directory
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