Red Square in Moscow is a kind of “zero kilometer”, the most significant place for the Russians. To get to it, you need to pass the Resurrection Gate, which makes several million people daily. But not all of them know that one of the most revered Orthodox places in Moscow is located very close by. This is the Iverskaya chapel on Red Square. Many Muscovites consider this small building, hiding at the Resurrection Gate, a remake. But this is not so. It was only restored in its former place instead of the old one, destroyed by the Bolsheviks. The Iveron icon of the Mother of God was considered miraculous in Russia. For such a shrine, a suitable “frame” was also required. She became the chapel. Why is it not located inside a cathedral or church? This will tell our article. Her story, as well as the icons of the Mother of God, will also be revealed. We will give the exact address of this building, the opening hours of a small church and the services held there.
Iverskaya chapel on Red Square: how to get
Finding this landmark of Moscow and the shrine of the Orthodox people is extremely simple. After all, it is located on the “tourist zero kilometer”. Nearby is Red Square with the Kremlin and the Mausoleum. You can get here from almost anywhere in Moscow by metro. Many branches of the metro subway pass here. Exit should be at the stations "Okhotny Ryad", "Theater" or "Square of the Revolution." The best option is the first. From the Okhotny Ryad station there are road signs for pedestrians - “Exit to Red Square”. Following them, you will come to the double-wing gate. They are crowned by two towers. Under them is a small building under the dome. This is the Iverskaya Chapel on Red Square. The address at the building is as follows: Voskresensky Gate, Building 1a.
Icon of the Mother of God of Iver
Marina Tsvetaeva called this miraculous image “the red heart of Moscow”. And he appeared in the capital long before the first chapel was built. The Iveron Icon of the Mother of God in Moscow was not all the time; it was brought from Greece, from the holy Mount Athos. This is not the original. The real icon of the Mother of God remained in the walls of the monastery on Mount Athos. But for Russia, an exact copy was made - the “list”. He was delivered to Belokamennaya in October 1648. At first, the icon was found in the St. Nicholas Monastery, but several years later it was transferred to the Valdai Iveron Monastery. She gave a name to the image. By order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the icon painters were instructed to make an exact copy of this “list”. She was placed in the triumphal arch of the Neglininsky Gate. Through them, Russian tsars entered Red Square. Later, in 1669, this gate was renamed Voskresensky.
The history of the first chapel
For some time, only a small canopy protected the “list” from rain and snow, wind and sunlight. In the year one thousand six hundred and eighty, it was decided to build a small wooden chapel for the image. Those were the times when the icon enjoyed the fame of helping with illnesses. Therefore, the face was often delivered to the house of an unmarried or hard giving birth woman. She was delivered by an escort from priests and guards, and during the absence of the icon she was replaced by a new “list” in the chapel. Over time, the building in which the miraculous face was kept became the object of worship of the devout people. Merchants before the deal, schoolchildren before the exam, travelers came to him to "be blessed." But this building has not reached our days. In the eighteenth century, the Iverskaya chapel on Red Square was rebuilt at least twice. In the middle of the century, it again became wooden and only in 1791 - stone.
Modern view of the Iversky Chapel
So, the end of the eighteenth century marked a new era. The icon of the Mother of God of Iver met everyone passing through the Resurrection Gate. Men had to take off their hats, Christians - to attach to the image. Iverskaya chapel on Red Square did not close at night. At any time there crowded the people. But the Russian architect Matthew Kazakov decided not to make the chapel too spacious. She now holds at most fifty people. The architect planned a simple square single-tiered building crowned with a dome. During the Napoleonic invasion, the chapel was looted. To restore it, Prince Nikolai Yusupov invited the Italian artist Pietro Gonzago. He decorated the building from the outside, strewn the dome with metal stars, placed a gilded sculpture of an angel with a cross at the very top, and decorated the interiors. And somehow it happened by itself that the chapel became a symbol of the triumph of the Russian people in the war with Napoleon.
Destruction and Resurrection
Immediately after the victory of the October Revolution, the Iberian Chapel experienced the hostility of the new government to religion. Already in the spring of the eighteenth year, the building was looted. Then the Nikolo-Perervinsky monastery was closed, to which the chapel was assigned. In the twenty-second year, the remaining values were "expropriated in favor of the starving." And after seven years the chapel came to an end. In the last days of July of the twenty-ninth year, under cover of night, a small building was demolished. The “lists” contained in it were lost forever. Two years later, the Resurrection Gate disappeared. They allegedly interfered with the passage of military equipment for the parades on Red Square. The entire architectural complex (gate and chapel) was restored in the ninety-fifth year. And for the Orthodox flock, Athos icon painters made a new list. Now, from the “zero kilometer”, from the Iverskaya Chapel, many bus excursions around Moscow will start. And the small building at the Resurrection Gate is the first exhibit on the list.
Shrine and Temple
Restored in 1994-1995. the chapel was consecrated by Patriarch Alexy II himself. Now it is a temple, albeit of the most modest size. A new copy of the icon of Our Lady of the Goalkeeper, made by monk painters from Mount Athos in Greece, makes it a shrine to the Russian people. You can attach to the image, and at the same time admire the luxurious interior of the temple every day. Opening hours of the Iverskaya Chapel on Red Square from eight in the morning until twenty zero-zero, seven days a week. All Moscow clergy are serving prayers there. At the same time, the reading of the akathist to the Virgin Mary in honor of her icon “Our Lady of Iver” takes place. This small temple also has patronal festivals. They are celebrated with great solemnity on February 25th, on Tuesday of the Bright Week and on October 26th. The temple is now assigned to the Patriarchal Compound, which only raises its status. The chapel has its own abbot. Now his duties are performed by Archpriest Gennady Nefedov.
Iverskaya chapel on Red Square in literature and painting
This small temple has become a certain symbol of Orthodox Russia. When Peter the Great, returning from a military campaign, did not go to adhere to the icon of the Mother of God of Iver, Muscovites almost rebelled. It is known that here Emelian Pugachev prayed before his execution . The Iberian chapel in Moscow is often mentioned in fiction, both in poetry and in prose. For I. Bunin, these are the stories “Pure Monday” and “Memoirs,” for I. Shmelev, “The Praying Mantis,” for B. Zaitsev, “The Blue Star”. Anton Chekhov in Moscow always stayed at the Bolshaya Moskovskaya Hotel, and he asked for a room overlooking the Iverskaya Chapel to watch the night prayers. Concisely, but at the same time, he symbolically described the temple at the gate between the Red and Manezhnaya squares of Leo Tolstoy in "War and Peace." Pierre Bezukhov, passing the Iverskaya Chapel with its countless candles under the golden sacristy, finally felt at home. The temple is mentioned by Solzhenitsyn, Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva, Khodasevich. And in painting, the painting by A. Lentulov "At Iverskaya" is dedicated to him.
Copies
The chapel, having become a kind of symbol of Russian patriotism (for example, in the struggle against Napoleon Bonaparte) and Orthodox piety, was very popular at the end of the empire. Many cities began to build similar buildings. The Iverskaya chapel at the Resurrection Gate in Moscow served as a model for a small church in Tomsk. There a copy was built in the year eighteen fifty-eighth. During the Soviet era, this provincial temple was also demolished, and a square was destroyed in its place. But the inhabitants of Tomsk restored their chapel in two thousand and two. It, like the capital's original, was consecrated by Patriarch Alexy II. There is at least one more copy of the Iversky Chapel in Moscow. True, she is not in Russia, but in Belgrade. It was built in the New Cemetery with the money of emigrants from the USSR in the thirty-first year. For many years this chapel was abandoned, but in the summer of 2014 it was completely restored and restored. There is also a chapel of the Iverskaya Mother of God, where one of the “lists” is kept, but they are not copies of the Moscow church.
The attraction of the capital
Even if you are an atheist or belong to a different religion, if you understand that the new copy and the old icon are not the same thing, still do not pass by this small temple. Examining it inside and out is a matter of half an hour. And excursions in Moscow by bus take the chapel and even less time. But you should take a closer look at the paintings and stucco molding, admire the angel on the roof and go inside. In addition to the main icon of Our Lady of Iver, it attracts attention with a double anal, all covered with wood carvings.