Znamenskaya Church (Dubrovitsy)

The church is built of white stone on the high bank of the cape, formed by the confluence of the Desna and Pakhra rivers. It is famous for its unique architecture, unusual for Russian architecture, as well as its mysterious history ^[2] . In its place in 1662–1690, the wooden Ilyinsky Church operated ^[3] . The stone temple was laid July 22, 1690 ^[4] . Construction time - from 1690 to 1703. Presumably, foreign (possibly Italian) masters, written by Prince Golitsyn specifically for this purpose, participated in the construction ^[2] . So, Alexey Grech cites the remark of the secretary of the Austrian embassy Johann Korb (1698) about Golitsyn, who built in Moscow “chambers worthy of greatness of his kind” that “he holds in the service of Italian architects”, which were erected on his estates - Dubrovitsy and Vyazemy - "Two very beautiful temples." Grech, however, casts doubt on this message, since the temple in Vyazemy was built by Boris Godunov , and in the creation of the Dubrovitsky temple, which, in his opinion, is close to the works of the South German Baroque with its “heavy splendor of decorative forms”, “the participation of Italian builders are doubtful ” ^[5] .

At the end of the XVII century, under Prince Boris Golitsyn , who was the educator of Peter I , a large construction began on the estate. In 1689, Golitsyn fell into disgrace and was forced to retire to his estate.

According to one version, it was during the years of disgrace in Dubrovitsy that the construction of the Church of the Sign began; according to another, the temple was laid in memory of the elevation of Boris Golitsyn to boyar dignity in early 1690.

The base of the temple is an equilateral cross with rounded ends divided into three faces. The edges of these faces are decorated with columns with Corinthian capitals - not of a classical form, but freely stylized. The high foundation is surrounded by an open porch , richly decorated with carvings, and an ornament located along the parapet . The church has four staircases leading to the doors in the central faces of the ledges. The door frame is made of heavily rusted stone, the portals are also flanked by Corinthian columns supporting the ornamental frieze ^[6] . The first floor is surrounded by a sculptural frieze with an ionic belt and a cornice with brackets . The windows are decorated with columns entwined with vines, volutes and shells. All this decoration ends with images of angels ^[7] . An octagon with arched windows at its base is placed above the central part of the temple ^[7] . Its ground floor, compared with the rest of the decoration, is modestly finished ^[8] .

The temple is decorated with sculpture. At the main entrance, on the sides of the western staircase, two white-stone statues rise. On the left side is Gregory the Theologian with a book and a raised hand, and on the right is John Chrysostom with a book and a miter standing at his feet. Directly above the entrance, on the roof of the western vestibule - the statue of Basil the Great . The twelve figures of the apostles share the facets of the octagon: eight sculptures in its corners and four in front of the windows ^[8] .

The temple is crowned with a dome with four-leafed lucarnes and a carved gilded crown ^[9] . The construction combines aspiration upwards and a number of accenting horizontal lines ^[10] .

Patriarch Adrian refused to consecrate the temple, citing an unusual, non-traditional architectural style. After his death, at the opening and consecration of the temple, which was performed on February 11 (February 22 ), 1704 by the exarch, Metropolitan of Ryazan and Murom Stefan (Yavorsky) , Peter I was present ^[11] .

The temple is richly decorated with high relief compositions, carved baroque iconostasis and choirs. A distinctive feature of the temple's decoration were inscriptions in cartouches in Latin: four and three verses, including the stanzas of the anthem “Patris sapientia, veritas Divina” by Egido da Colonna, a student of Thomas Aquinas . The inscriptions in the 1870s were rewritten and recorded in the manuscript of Father Sergius Romanovsky. Similar inscriptions were also found on the Menshikov Tower in Moscow, but they were lost there when the church was rebuilt in the 1850s ^{[3] [12]} .

By the middle of the 18th century, a three-tier bell tower was built south-west of the temple. It was also made in the Baroque style, but the nature of its architecture was more calm and traditional. The bell tower had nine bells, the largest of which weighed 2 tons. Under the bell tower in the 1780s, a warm church was consecrated in the name of the martyrs Adrian and Natalia ^[3] .

In the late 1840s, under the leadership of Fyodor Richter , the church was restored, after which on August 27, 1850 it was again consecrated - Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret . The latter, in his word “on the renewal of the temple,” said, in particular: “After the renewal of the material and the artistic, the temple is now renewed by this spiritual and sacred renewal. <...> With a view of the image of its dispensation and decoration, one cannot help but notice that the temple-maker tried to produce something unusual, to arouse the special attention of the viewer, and therefore to inform the building about the quality of the monument. In fact, this temple has been keeping the memory of the Prince for one and a half centuries, who took the pious idea to create it - and at the same time proclaims the glorious memory of the great Tsar, who, by grace of the nobleman, took upon himself to guide the fulfillment of his pious thoughts, and who the prevailing idea is to give Russia a new image following the models of other European nations, printed on almost every stone of this building ” ^[13] . At the request of Metropolitan Filaret, Latin verses were replaced by Church Slavonic inscriptions explaining the contents of high reliefs ^[12] .

At the beginning of the 20th century, a three - year parish school operated at the church, as well as an almshouse for the poor for nine people.

In 1917, the Dubrovitsa estate was turned into a historical and everyday museum, which originally existed at the expense of the office of the princes Golitsyn and was under the jurisdiction of the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR, and since 1925 - under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Department of Education; in February 1927, the Moscow City Council decided to close the museum, which was executed in August 1927, all exhibits were taken to the museums of the former Donskoy Monastery and Tsaritsyno . In 1929, the temple was closed for worship; in September 1931, the bell tower and the church of Adrian and Natalia located in it were blown up.

In October 1989, a local religious community was formed, which began to seek the return of the Church Church. On February 1, 1990, the Podolsky district executive committee decided to register the community and transfer the church to the community ^[14] ; however, formal obstacles to the opening of the temple remained. The first service was held on July 22, 1990 outside the walls of the temple, on the street. The first liturgy in the church was performed by the vicar of the Moscow diocese, Bishop Grigory (Chirkov) of Mozhaisk, on October 14, 1990. In 2000, the parish returned to the temple the preserved icons of the iconostasis, which were in the All-Russian Institute of Animal Husbandry .

In 2004 , the 300th anniversary of the consecration of the temple, the first stage of its restoration was completed. In particular, the interior was restored, poems in Latin were returned ^[12] .

Rectors of the Church

• Grech A. Dubrovitsy // Moscow Region Museums: Guides Issue. 4. / Ed. Willow Lazarevsky and V. Zgur . - 1925.
• Kolosova A. G., Fedorova R. P. Dubrovitsy, “He has erected this magnificent temple.” / 4th ed., Revised. and add. - Dubrovitsy, Moscow region. - Printed at Tula Printing House. 2009. - S. 1-94.
• Krasilin M. The Sign Church in Dubrovitsy. (On the vicissitudes of fate of an unexplored architectural monument of the 18th century in the Golitsyns estate near Moscow.) // Our Heritage: A Journal. - 1991. - No. 23.
• A word on updating the Church of the Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Dubrovitsy // Works by Filaret Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomensky. Words and speeches. - T. V. - M. , 1885.
• Tarunov A.M. Dubrovitsy. - M .: Moscow Worker , 1991. - 112, [16] p. - (Monuments of the Moscow Region). - 45,000 copies. - ISBN 5-239-01177-X .

• History on the official website of the Church of the Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• Church of the Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• Photoreport - Temple of the Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Dubrovitsy (57 photos)
• Dubrovitsy. Znamenskaya church. Golitsyn Manor
• Dubrovitsy near Moscow
• Latin poetic inscriptions of the Church of the Sign in Dubrovitsy // Archnadzor
• Panoramic view of the church (inaccessible link)
• Modern (2015) and pre-revolutionary photographs of the church, photos of the bell tower in the 1930s in the Russian newspaper .