The Church of Our Lady of Kazan Icon

According to the extant references, in the 1630s Mikhail Feodorovich, the first Tsar of the Romanov dynasty, had a wooden church built in memory of the liberation of Moscow from the Poles.

In 1649, on the day of Our Lady of Kazan Icon, the heir to the throne Dmitry Alekseevich was born. In this regard, in the 1650s, a new stone church was built and consecrated at the order of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich in the place of the old wooden one. The main shrine of the church is the icon of Our Lady of the Sovereign. According to the report of Tikhon, Metropolitan of Moscow, it was found in the basement of the Church of the Ascension.

The style of the church is specific to the architecture of the XVII century. It is built on a high plinth, the dome of the bell tower is tent-roofed, and the main volume of the church is cubical. Two massive porches lead to an open arcade with semicircular arches. Two side chapels with additional altars adjoin the main church crowned with five domes.

In one of the side chapels of the church visitors can observe a unique shrine - a wooden statue of Jesus Christ, which is not typical of Orthodox churches.

Previously, it was a house church and a covered passage connected it with the palace of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich, so that only the Tsar’s family and its immediate circle could get to the service. When at the end of the XVIII century the royal palace location was changed, the church became the parish church of Kolomenskoe.

Nowadays, church services are held at the Church of Our Lady of Kazan all year round.

Did you know that…

• The church service was interrupted only in 1941-1942. During the Great Patriotic War, the basement of the church was used as an air-raid shelter.
• Until the beginning of the XX century, there were no paintings inside the church, they were added only in the 1910s.