Church of the Twelve Apostles
The Patriarch 's Palace and the Twelve Apostles Church (Russian Патриарший дворец и церковь Двенадцати апостолов ) is an architecturally coherent combination of a secular and a religious building in the Russian capital Moscow. The palace with the adjoining church stands in the Moscow Kremlin Cathedral Square, directly adjacent to the Dormition Cathedral and the Church of the Assumption Deposition of the Robe Church. He served until the 18th century as a residence and work and residence house church of the Moscow Patriarch. Today the building houses a museum with a broad exposure to the Russian Orthodox Church utensils and everyday objects from the 16th and 17th centuries.
Historical Background
A first residential residence of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin was built in 1325, at that time, as the Moscow Grand Prince Ivan I ( Kalita ) and was ruled for several years before the fort was at the direction of newly built. The then Metropolitan Peter settled in the vicinity of the Dormition Cathedral, specifically its the same time ( 1326-27 ) established by previous building down, marking the beginning of the history of the Kremlin as the center of the spiritual life of Muscovy. The original chambers, had been as well as usual, built of wood. A first mention of stone Metropolitan Chambers of the Kremlin dates from the year 1450, with this building apparently did not stop long. Until the late 16th century, when the Russian Orthodox Church the title of Patriarch was introduced for the first time, fell several Nachfolgebauten, as well as other houses and churches in the Kremlin, frequent fires victim and had to be rebuilt again and again.
The chambers received today were only built under Patriarch Nikon, who wanted to build a special representative palace for his office, in order to underline the importance of the Orthodox faith. For this purpose, Nikon received by the then Tsar Alexis I, in addition to the existing patriarch house an adjoining site to the north because of the Dormition Cathedral. The old quarters were demolished and built over the property then today's palace. The construction, which lasted from 1653 to 1656, led the Russian architect Antip Konstantinov and Baschen Ogurtsov that two decades earlier, even were allowed to build the Terem Palace for the royal family.
The new building surpassed the old quarters not only in its architecture and features, but presented a novel combination of a residential building and a church dar. When looking from the Cathedral square of put the left half of the building the profane part is where living, working - and reception rooms of the patriarch were, while the right half - as indicated by the closed by five steeples roof part - housed the domestic church of the Patriarch. Originally this church was consecrated to the Apostle Philip Nikon, only under one of Nikon's successors - the Patriarch Joachim - the church was consecrated on the Orthodox feast of the Twelve Apostles, and received its present name. In the lower part of the building of the church was a half that remains largely intact through the portal, which led from the street to the Patriarchenhof.
As chambers of the Moscow Patriarch served the palace until the year 1721, when the Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church canceled and the church council was taken over by the Holy Synod. The latter taught the former Patriarch Palace one shortly after one of its service premises. Former Parade Reception Room of the patriarch - the so-called cross chamber - was established from 1763 for the annual ceremony of anointing oil production; large parts of the interiors of the palace, however, had already at that time as a public museum of the Russian church everyday life of the 17th century.
With the advent of the Bolshevik government in the Kremlin shortly after the October Revolution of 1917, both the former residence of the Patriarch and the Church from the state power has been closed. After the closure of the entire Kremlin for public access in the 1920s, the Patriarch chambers fell into oblivion. Only with the re-opening of the Kremlin in 1955 and the establishment of many dortiger historic buildings and churches as museums of the former Patriarch Palace was restored and also opened for visitors. Its main function as a museum it meets today. A variety of exhibits on display here is from other Kremlbauten, even those that were destroyed in the 1920s and 1930s at the behest of the Soviet government.
Interiors and exposure
Patriarchal Palace
At times, when the building served as the residence of the Patriarch, the private chambers of the patriarch were - including the bedroom and the prayer room - all on the second floor of the left half of the building. The first floor, where the exposition of the museum is housed today, served as parade part for receptions, audiences and meetings, while the ground floor exclusively hosted business premises and therefore historically is not of interest. Upon entering the palace through the visitors' entrance a staircase leads to the exposure on the first floor.
The central part of the museum is the former space for solemn receptions, the ( палата Крестовая ) as a cross chamber is known. This is a 280 square-meter hall, its the original condition original décor has a very ostentatious form and in some ways reminiscent of the parade hall of the palace nearby facets. The vaulted ceiling of the room has extra supports in the form of columns or pillars and is continuously painted with plant ornaments. The hall was the patriarch as a place for receptions, church meetings, Tsar Audiences and other special acts. From the cross of lead chamber richly decorated doorways into adjacent exhibition rooms, which also served mainly representative purposes in the 17th century, including about the refectory or the former labor cabinet of the patriarchs.
One of the famous exhibits in the cross- chamber is the former furnace in which from 1763 to the early 20th century, all three or four years, always in the fast week before Orthodox Easter, anointing oil ( chrism ) for church rituals such as baptism or anointing ( latter took, for example, Russian Tsar at their coronation ceremonies ) was prepared. It was the only place in Russia where this process took place: The final anointing oil was distributed from here to Orthodox churches in Russia and also in the Orthodox countries ( such as Bulgaria or Serbia). This tradition has not been produced in the Russian Orthodox Church still exists today, but the oil is in the Kremlin, but in Moscow's Donskoi Monastery. Next to the old furnace whose ample ornamented and embellished with icons enclosure assumes considerable proportions, historical, also very artfully produced boilers for storage of the ointment can be seen. They were all donated to the Patriarchal Palace at the time of the Empress Catherine II ( the Great).
Also in the cross chamber and an adjacent refectory, which is located at the far end of the left part of the building, a variety of original items of the budget of the former Patriarch Palace and the Zarenhofs is issued. On display are particularly representative, partially made of precious metal tableware pieces, various unique pieces of the watch craft, magnificent garments or icon mounts and other exhibits from the 17th and 18th centuries. In the former study of the patriarch, the interior of the 17th century was reproduced, but original pieces of furniture are not preserved from the Patriarchal Palace of the time.
Twelve Apostles Church
The Twelve Apostles Church is now also part of the museum in the former Patriarch 's Palace, the original furnishings from the 17th century is here, however, do not get too much of: many of the historically valuable utensils that are not lost, were in the 20th century in the armory of the Kremlin moved, where some of it is exhibited today. This also applies to items from the former sacristy of the Patriarch Palace, which today - including Parade robes and mitres of Moscow Patriarch - can also be seen in the armory. The richly decorated with Schnitzornamenten fünfrängige iconostasis, which today is in the Twelve Apostles Church, was transferred in 1929 from the Ascension Monastery, one of the two in the 1920s, destroyed by the Bolsheviks monasteries of the Kremlin, here. The two dozen icons hanging on the walls of the church - some of them are works of famous icon painter Simon Ushakov such as - are originally from other places of worship.
Beginning of the 1990s was the Twelve Apostles Church, as returned the other major churches in the Kremlin, the Moscow Patriarchate. Once a year, on the holiday of the Twelve Apostles on July 13, services are held here.