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Further down the river Moskva and about
twenty miles from the Kremlin is the old village of Ostrov, where Vassilii III
had another log cabin and more orchards. His son Ivan was a frequent visitor.
In 1547 a large delegation from Pskov came their to complain to the young tsar
against his viceroy, Prince Turntai Pronskii. The infuriated tsar poured
boiling wine on their heads and burned their beards. Then came the news from
Moscow that the large bell in the Kremlin had suddenly fallen down. The
superstitious tsar rushed to his capital and the life of seventy Pskov
delegates was spared. Around the middle of the 16th century the church of the
Transfiguration was erected in Ostrov, a very picturesque example of the
"The octagon on a square type" with two small chapels, one on each
side, northern and southern. Almost two hundred kokoshniki, semicircular and
pointed, embellish the church and serve as transition from the square base to
the octagonal tower ending in a band of small kokoshniki that are surmounted by
a round drum, a cupola and a cross. All three chapels have apses. This church
was built entirely of a white stone found near the village of Miachkovo, which
supplied the limestone for a long time for many major constructions in Moscow.
In the absence of specific information some Soviet architects tend to believe
that the church of the Transfiguration was also built by Barma and Posnik.
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