In old times, the Urochishche of Putinki was situated where Malaya Dmitrovka Street now begins. A road forked there in two directions. One ran to Dmitrov, another — to Tver. Small curved streets and lanes, the so called "putinki", leaded to the travelling ambassadorial yard situated there. From these streets the Church's name was derived.
A wooden Church of the Nativity has been known since 1625 as the Church in the Old Ambassadorial Yard, beyond the Tverskiye Gate in New Sloboda.
After the 1648 fire, it was rebuilt in stone from 1649 to 1652. The construction was financed by Tsar Alexis I. It was a parish church of a small settlement situated beyond the Tverskiye Gate of Bely Gorod, near the road fork leading to Tver and Dmitrov.
The Church is one of the best examples of the mid-17-century Moscow architecture. It's the unique monument of Russian architectural style "Russian uzorochie". In 1653, Patriarch Nikon forbade building hipped-roof churches, thus the Church of the Nativity became the last monument of this kind architecture. The main Church's volume is crowned with three decorative canopies placed abreast.
By 1652, a stone side chapel dedicated to the Icon of the Virgin of the Burning Bush (the first one in Moscow and Russia) was built. Its construction was requested by Patriarch Pishoy of Jerusalem, who, in 1649, was in Moscow and petitioned to Tsar for building a church in honour of the Burning Bush and asked him to contribute money and materials. The side chapel dedicated to the Burning Bush is situated on the north of the Church. It was built at the same time when the Church itself and the steepled bell tower were built.
A refectory and the southern side chapel of Saint Theodore of Amasea were added in the late 17th century. The third side chapel is dedicated to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
The Church itself is a narrow, oblong double-height rectangular crowned with three canopies. In all probability it repeats the previous wooden church.
The octagonal hipped-roof belfry, situated between the side chapel and the Church, stands on the refectory's vaults. The arrangement is supplemented with a large hipped-roof porch on the western refectory's facade facing Malaya Dmitrovka Street (reconstructed in 1957).
The Church's facades are decorated with pointed kokoshniks, column-type, keel-shaped platbands, and complex broken cornices typical of the 16th century.
In 1812, the Church suffered damage from the Napoleon's invasion; however, church services were suspended for two weeks only.
The western entry was arranged in 1864 in accordance with a design by architect Zavialov.
The bell tower featured nine bells. Four bells dated back to 1715, one of them was cast by Ivan Matorin. The fourth bell was cast in 1856. Nothing is known about the ninth bell.
For the last time the Church was renovated in the late 19th century.
In the 1930s, Vysokopetrovsky Monastery's monks served in the Church.
The Church was shut down in 1938. For a long time it was occupied by offices. Later, a rehearsal room of the "Circus on the Scene" was situated there.
Gradually the condition of the building became critical. In 1959 and 1960, the complex restoration was done. Architect Sveshnikov, who supervised the reconstruction process, and his assistants overhauled the whole building from its foundation to the domes and described all construction periods in details. The Church's original appearance was reproduced. It looked the same as at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. The hipped-roof porch was attached again to the 17th-century foundation. Thanks to this brilliant work, a great example of scientific restoration, the Church's building with its marvellous architecture was successfully reconstructed and preserved.
In 1990, the building was handed back to the Church. The first Divine Service, after the 50-year oblivion, was hold on 24 August 1991, immediately after the 1991 Soviet coup d'etat attempt, on the Feast of the Transfiguration.
The Church of St. John the Evangelist in Bronnaya Sloboda, in Tverskoy Boulevard, dates back to 1615; it was founded under the Romanov dynasty. It used to keep an ancient icon of St. John the Evangelist, which was donated by Tsar Mikhail.
Bronnaya Sloboda was called so after the old settlement, which in those times occupied the area, of "bronnik...
The Church was built in 1774 in Karacharovo Village, beyond Pokrovskiye Gate, on the Kolomenka River, instead of two wooden tented-roof churches, the Church of Three Saints and Our Lady of the Sign Church.
The high altar, dedicated to the Life-Giving Trinity, was consecrated in June of 1776. The side chapel of the Our Lady of the Sign Icon — in ...
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