Kazan Cathedral, Moscow
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Kazan Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox church located on the northeast corner of Red Square in Moscow. It was erected in the 1630s to mark the city's liberation from the Polish aggressors by the Russian people's volunteer army at the close of the Time of Troubles.
Upon clearing Moscow from the Poles in 1612, Prince Dmitry Pozharsky attributed his success to the divine help of the icon Theotokos of Kazan, whom he had prayed on several occasions. He financed from his private funds construction of a wooden church to the Virgin of Kazan on Red Square in Moscow.
After the diminutive shrine was destroyed by fire in 1632, the Tsar ordered it to be replaced by a brick church. The one-domed edifice, featuring several tiers of kokoshniki, a wide gallery and a tented belfry, was consecrated in October 1636. That its history was tempestous is evidenced by the fact that its archpriest Avvakum led the party of religious dissenters, or Old Believers.
After numerous renovations of the cathedral undertaken in the imperial period, the original design was lost behind later additions. The distinguished Russian restorator Peter Baranovsky had the church's exterior completely reconstructed to its original design in 1929–1932. Some specialists, however, criticised the accuracy of this reconstruction.
In 1936, when Red Square was being prepared for holding the military parades of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin ordered to clear the square from churches. Although Baranovsky managed to save Saint Basil's Cathedral from destruction, he could not prevent the Kazan Cathedral from being demolished.
The Kazan Cathedral was the first church to be completely rebuilt after having been destroyed by the Communists. The cathedral's restoration (1990–1993) was based on Baranovsky's detailed measurements and photographs of the original church.
[edit] External links
- (Russian) Kazan Cathedral, Moscow
