Church of the Holy Ascension

The Church of the Ascension is the main architectural masterpiece of Kolomenskoe and one of the first tent-roof stone built churches in Russia. In 1994, it was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. In Moscow, only three other sites, the Kremlin, the Red Square and the Novodevichy Monastery, have the same status.

PLEASE NOTE that the church has been closed for restoration.

As tradition has it, the Church of the Ascension was built by the order of Moscow Grand Prince Vasily III, who had prayed a lot for the birth of the long-awaited heir - the future Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. Researchers agree that its architect was the Italian Pietro Annibale, or Little Petrok as he was nicknamed in Russia. We do not know how long the construction lasted, but in 1532, it was completed and the church was consecrated in the presence of the Grand Prince and his family.

The building strikingly differs from its counterparts of the same period. Traditional Russian decorative elements (such as the triangular kokoshnik gables and the square shirinka caissons resembling unanimous parts of the national costume, as well as an open walking gallery) neighbor here on typical West European ones (pilasters and pointed gothic wimpergs). The church was built of red brick and decorated with white stone tracery.

The entire building expresses striving upwards. Besides its vertical decorative elements and the elongated tent roof, the very location works for this effect. The church was erected on the high steep bank of the Moskva River and its foundation rests on an artificial limestone rock. The height of the church is 62 meters. Until 1600, when the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the Moscow Kremlin received a third storey, it was the tallest building in Russia. Looking inside by the basement windows, you can estimate the thickness of the building’s walls (from 2.5 to 3 meters). At the same time, the church is quite small inside: conceived as the palace chapel, it used to serve exclusively for the Grand Prince’s family.

To have a closer look at the church, you are welcome to:

• estimate its scale and proportions in a panoramic drone-shot video;
• watch a short video tour.