The Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin is an Orthodox church currently operating. Location: Cathedral Square in Moscow. It is the main temple of the state. This is the oldest building in the city that has been fully preserved.
Short story
The Assumption Cathedral is the House of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The construction of Assumption churches in Russia has become a tradition and began in ancient Kiev, where, together with the Hagia Sophia , the first Assumption Cathedral was built at the Kiev Pechersky Monastery. They say that the Most Holy Theotokos herself transmitted gold through the Architects from Constantinople and promised to live in a newly built church.
In 1326-1327, Ivan Kalita built the first stone cathedral in Moscow, and it was on this site that the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin subsequently appeared. Even in front of the church built by Ivan Kalita, there was another ancient Moscow church (wooden architecture of the 12th century) at this place.
The Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin has been the main temple in Russia for four whole centuries. It crowned the heir to the kingdom of successors, it was in it that they announced important state acts, elected patriarchs and metropolitans. There were many other, no less important, ceremonies that were performed by the Assumption Cathedral. Moscow has raised many patriarchs and metropolitans, for some the Assumption Cathedral has also become a tomb. Their tombs are located along the walls of the temple.
Cathedral architecture
The architect of the Assumption Cathedral was Italian Aristotle Foravanti, who was specially invited by Ivan III. The Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin was built in 1475-1479 in the likeness of the Assumption Cathedral of the XII century in one of the oldest Russian cities - Vladimir.
The main entrance to this oldest temple is located from the Cathedral Square. A wide front staircase at the entrance ends with a picturesque portal of three semicircular arches. Here, Archangel Michael, together with an angel, as if guarding the entrance to the building of the cathedral. A little higher than the arch are the figures of saints, and above them is the Virgin Mary with a baby in her arms. All these are multicolored frescoes, which were very high quality executed by Russian artists of the distant seventeenth century, whose names remained unknown.
Inside the cathedral, the central part is separated from the altar by a five-tiered seventeenth-century iconostasis (the iconostasis is about sixteen meters high and is covered with chased gilded silver), and it was executed in about 1652 by painters invited from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Unfortunately, in 1682 there was a fire in the cathedral, due to which the icons suffered, but were successfully updated by the tsar’s isographers (Kirill Ulanov, Georgy Zinoviev and Tikhon Filatiev). For many centuries, the cathedral housed icons created by Russian painters. The oldest, oldest icon that is in the cathedral is “St. George”, it is located directly in front of the iconostasis.
The cathedral was raided by French troops (World War 1812 ). Of the part of silver that the Russian Cossacks later recaptured and returned to their homeland, a chandelier was forged, which now hangs in the very center.
Also the most ancient monument of Russian applied art with the Assumption Cathedral are its southern entrance doors. They were brought to the capital from the Suzdal Cathedral (they are reckoned by the beginning of the fifteenth century). About twenty biblical images were made on them in gold (on black lacquer).
Cathedral now
After the Russian revolution of 1917, the Assumption Cathedral was turned into a museum. The employees, creating the exposition, tried to preserve its interiors as much as possible. And since 1990, services have been resumed in the Assumption Cathedral. Thus, now the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin performs two main functions: a museum and the temple itself.