In ancient times, the square of Kaluzhskaya Gate and Vorobyovo Field often became a battlefield where defenders of the Russian capital fought against unwelcome "guests" trying to capture Moscow.
In 1591, a camp of the Russian army resisting the horde of Gazi II Giray, the Khan of the Crimean Tatars, situated there. In 1612, troops of the Polish hetman Chodkiewicz, beaten in Zamoskvorechye by Minin and Pozharksy's corps, retreated from Moscow in this direction. However, the walls of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe still remember the Napoleon's invasion. The area beyond Kaluzhskay Gate as well as many over Moscow outskirts did not suffer from the fire. Only seven of forty six houses belonging to the Church of the Deposition of the Robe burned down. However, the Church was desecrated by the enemies. But its interior furnishings and holy objects, most likely hidden from the enemies, were intact. After, the French army left Moscow, on 22 December 1812, church services were resumed in St. Catherine side chapel of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe.
In the 19th century, several quite large industrial enterprises appeared within the territory bordering the Church. From 1856 to 1867, the Bromley's Engineering Works (later the Machine Tool Factory "Krasny Proletariy") were founded in close proximity to the Church. Industrial and office workers of the new companies, who lived nearby, became the Church's parishioners. Hospitals were established in former aristocracy's estates (Golytsinskaya and 1st Gradskaya Hospitals). In Neskuchny Garden, laid down according to a new plan, Emperor Nicholas I built a palace for his wife Alexandra and named it Alexandrinsky Palace. Today it is occupied by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences. A palace church dedicated to St. Alexandra (commemoration on 23 April / 6 May) as well as a house church under the Asylum of SS. Mary and Maximilian and dedicated to the "Seeking Out the Lost" Icon (the building did not survive) were ascribed to the Church of the Deposition of the Robe.
By the end of the century, noblemen built luxurious estates there and in the southern outskirts of Moscow: the Orlovs' estate (Neskuchny Garden) and the Golytsins' estate (now 1st Gradskaya Hospital). One of the brightest and most talented people of the Catherine the Great's time, Count Alexei Orlov, the statesman, diplomat, and military leader, was a parishioner of the Church. Alexei Grigoryevich was a brother of Grigory Orlov, the lover of Catherine the Great, one of five brothers Orlovs, who actively participated in the 1762 palace revolution resulted in Peter III's dethronement. Alexei Orlov leaded the Russian squadron in the Mediterranean Sea and was granted the honorific Chesmensky for his success in the battles of Navarin and Chesma (1774). In 1775, he retired and settled down in Moscow.
Building a great estate on the bank of the Moscow River, he surprised Moscow citizens with holidays, high jinks, and theatrical performances. He was very skilled in horse-breeding and loved horses very much. He bred the world known Orlov Trotter and arranged the first Moscow horse-race in Donskoye Field. The disgraced Count died in Moscow and his funeral service was held in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe. His only daughter Countess Anna Orlova (1785–1845), the heiress of the great fortune, was also a parishioner of the Church. Rejecting the best suitors, she devoted her life to charity, donating a great share of her really overwhelming wealth. Anna went pilgrimage to holy places often, contributed big money to monasteries, assisted in preaching to Chuvash pagans inhabiting her lands in Samara Province, and built churches. On the whole, her way of living was very austere and almost selfless. The Countess wanted to make satisfaction for her father's sin, who took part in assassination of Peter III. The St. George's (Yuriev) Monastery in Veliky Novgorod had her special patronage. Its prior was a famous Archimandrite Photios (Spassky), the Anna's religious advisor known for his fight against Duke Alexander Golytsin's (1773–1844) Bible Society.
The wooden church was first mentioned in 1690. It was rebuilt in stone in 1701. In 1708, a one-sided refectory with a side chapel dedicated to St. Catherine and a bell tower were added.
The now existing Moscow baroque stone building was constructed from 1701 to 1716. The construction history is unusual. It was begun with building of the side chapel of St. Catherine (commemoration on 24 November / 7 December). The foundation stone was laid on 7 October 1701. The side chapel was consecrated on 18 August 1705. The consecration was held by Archbishop Antonius of Kolomna and Kashirskoye with the blessing of Metropolitan Stephan (Yavorksky) of Ryazan and Murom, the acting Patriarch.
Construction of the main Church's building continued for several years more and was finished in 1716. It was because of hard times in Russia. The Great Northern War was fought for the access to the Baltic Sea and for the Russian lands captured by Sweden. Peter's reform was in full swing. The Tsar introduced it with a heavy and sometimes merciless hand. A new capital, St. Petersburg, was erected by incredible efforts of the whole nation on the sludgy benches of the Neva River. Because of this, stone construction was prohibited in the whole country. And still, despite all these circumstances, Moscow citizens kept on building a church in the southern outskirts of the capital, beyond the Kaluzhskaya Gate of Zemlyanoy Gorod, in the area named then "Vorobyovo Field". It was impossible for parishioners of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe Near Donskoy Monastery, in Novoya Sloboda (it was the name of the Church then) to finish the great construction. Thus, all people together built it collecting money and donations in the form of construction materials from the whole Moscow.
Among those who are still remembered during church services as "founders of this holy church" are noble and rich people as well as the poor who like the gospel widow donated their scant savings to "the church treasury" and gave their last money to the Church. It is known from a special "Collection Register" of 1706, containing names of donors, that one of them was a widow Daria who lived in an alms-house and "donated a rouble to construct the Church". The "Collection Register" includes the names of the Tsar's family — the poor Peter I's son, Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, and his mother Eudoxia Lopukhina, the first Peter the Great's wife who was rejected by the Tsar and died as a nun in Moscow Novodevichy Convent. It may be the reason for a crown on a cross above the Church's central dome. However, another explanation exists. The crown reminds of virtue of Christ as King of Glory. The central dome is a symbol of Saviour; and four side domes symbolise St. Apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
In late 1880s, the side chapel of St. James designed by Alexander Kaminsky was added to the refectory, so that it was not one-sided any more. A sacristy was added to the side chapel of St. Catherine from the west at the same time. The Church was consecrated on 10 September 1889. In 1923, a hurricane tore two of five domes off the Church. However, they were reconstructed later in the year. Inside, there was a wonderful carpet with an image of Sowatiy of Solovki donated by a parishioner.
The northern side chapel was designed by Alexander Kaminsky and added again from 1886 to 1889. The fence with gate was also designed by Kaminsky in 1897.
The northern side chapel of St. James, the son of Alphaeus appeared almost in fifty years after the Church was completed; it was arranged by Colonel Yaakov Durnovo in honour of his Saint's day in 1763. At that time the builders erected an iconostasis in the left part of the Church's refectory. To do that they made an arch to the main church, so the lookout was half-closed, and the refectory was of the wrong shape.
The side chapel was consecrated on 8 October 1763 by the sacristan of the Assumption Cathedral of Moscow Kremlin Archpriest Pyotr Alexeyev (1731–1801), who was one of the first historians of the Russian Church. In 1885 and 1886, parishioners were invited by the Archpriest V. Rozhdestvensky and decided at their meetings to make a petition to Metropolitan Joannicius for permission to restore the Church to its original state, to construct an additional room from the left side of the Church's refectory for the altar and arrange new iconostases there.
Due to incorrectly built heating stoves in the main church, the ancient iconostasis, stucco, and mural decorations were blackened. It was suggested to gold-plate the iconostasis, wash paintings, and make all works without any changes; as icons did not require changes, they should be kept in their original state. The side chapels' iconostases were dilapidated and did not have any artistic merit, so they were supposed to be re-arranged with respect to the main iconostasis of the Church, and appropriate stucco and painting would be made on the walls. In September 1886, permission was obtained, and the works started after the solemn laying of the side chapel's foundation stone on April 26, 1887.
Parochials Vasily Mikhailov, Alexei Andreyev, Grigory Savvin and Deacon Matthew Ivanov served there in the first third of the 18th century and took an active part in creation of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe. In the 18th century, the area around the Church was sparsely populated, and the parish was relatively small. In 1722, there were 130 houses in the list. The most part of the churchgoers were the inhabitants of Moscow suburbs: craftsmen, petty traders, and vegetable gardeners.
The Church of the Deposition of the Robe, a unique monument of the 18th century church architecture, was renewed to meet its 300th anniversary (in 2001) since its foundation. Its graceful proportions and well-designed details attract the eye of everyone who values the Orthodox culture, roads, and monuments of Russian art and history of the country's glorious past. Quadrangle frame of the main Church's volume, crowned with five powerful and elegant domes, is decorated with white-stone portals against the red background, window frames, arranged in two tiers, and white stone cornice. Below the roof of the quadrangle, one can see decorative white stone shells in large corbel arches, giving the entire building a particularly elegant, festive look. The refectory's decoration is laconic and reserved; it emphasizes the baroque magnificence of the quadrangle. The Church's appearance is completed by an octagonal bell tower with a low hip roof and dormer windows. One of the bells of the bell tower was cast in the year of the Moscow plague epidemic (1771).
The Church's interior is rich in decoration, created by flight of fancy of masters of the 18th century. The quadrangle arches and walls are covered with high relief stucco; a tall carved six-level iconostasis is striking with detailed complex patterns. The Icons of the Holy Apostle James, the son of Alphaeus, and St. Catherine are particularly revered. The Icons of the Dormition (18th century), the Not-wrought-by-hand Image of the Saviour (18th century), Tikhvin and Vladimir Mother of God (18th century) are just wonderful. The Icon of St. Michael the Archangel (18th century) on the western side of the pillar is painted in bright expressive manner.
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