The Krutitsy Court: Hidden treasure in the center of Moscow

William Brumfield

Nov 18 2022

The Krutitsy Court: Hidden treasure in the center of Moscow — William Brumfield

Architectural historian and photographer William Brumfield puts focus on a forgotten (to most) 13th century site near the Moscow Kremlin that proved to be strategically important throughout the centuries.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Russian chemist and photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky invented a complex process for vivid, detailed color photography. His vision of photography as a form of education and enlightenment was demonstrated with special clarity through his photographs of architectural monuments in the historic sites throughout the Russian heartland.

The main part of the Proludin-Gorsky collection ultimately became a part of The Library of Congress, but he also established a business that produced color postcards and illustrations in books. In 1914, his enterprise was reestablished under the name ‘Biochrome’.

Among the publications with his color photographs was a large volume published in 1913 to commemorate the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty. The illustrations included his panoramic view from a nearby rooftop of one of Russia’s most historic monastic institutions, the medieval Novospassky (New Savior) Monastery, located on a rise overlooking the Moscow River near the Kremlin.

Nestled just down the slope and to the left of the monastery is an enchantingly beautiful corner of Moscow that reflects centuries of turbulent history. Even Muscovites are not always aware of Krutitsy, a church ensemble located on a small lane of 19th-century wooden houses. Its remarkable display of 17th-century church architecture decorated with a wealth of ceramic tiles is a unique part of Moscow’s cultural heritage.

Humble beginnings

The origins of the Krutitsy Court (Krutitskoe Podvorye) reach back to the 13th century, in the aftermath of the Mongol/Tatar invasion of medieval Rus’ (1237-41). Following the Mongol conquest, thousands of Russians were held in captivity as slaves near the center of the Golden Horde at Sarai down the Volga River.

The Mongols respected the Russian Orthodox Church and, at the request of Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky of Vladimir, they allowed the formation in 1261 of an eparchy (bishopric) to minister to this large group of Russians. The eparchy was called ‘Sarsky and Podonsky’, after the name Sarai and the fact that the bishopric stretched from the lower Volga to the Don River.

A decade later, in 1272, the distant eparchy established a legation, or court (Krutitskoe podvorye), on the outskirts of Moscow with the support of Prince Alexander’s son Daniil, founder of the Moscow Rurikovich dynastic branch. The Krutitsy Court was located downriver from the Moscow Kremlin on the high left bank of the Moskva at a site known as Krutitsy (from the Russian word for ‘steep’). Its first church was dedicated in 1272 to Sts. Peter and Paul.

Increased importance of Moscow

The Orthodox Church sensed Moscow’s increasing authority, which rivaled that of Vladimir and Tver. The presence of a legation placed the distant Sarsky-Podonsky eparchy near a center of political power and provided a suitable residence during the bishop’s visits (Other bishoprics also established courts in the capital).

Krutitsy was located in the vicinity of two important monasteries - Savior (later New Savior) and Simonov. All three were near a major route to Kolomna and the southeast - a route taken by Moscow princes during their obligatory journeys to the Horde.

Descendants of Prince Daniil - notably Ivan II and Dmitry Donskoy - made important gifts to the Krutitsy Court. Funds for a new church dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin were provided by Grand Prince Ivan II, who ruled from 1355 to 1359.

Rise of Krutitsy

With the waning of Tatar authority in the 15th century, few Russians remained in an area whose rulers had adopted Islam. In 1454, Bishop Vassian transferred the seat of the bishopric from Sarai to Krutitsy and the word ‘Krutitsy’ was added to the name of the eparchy.

Decades after this transition, Krutitsy Court gained a new masonry called the Cathedral of the Dormition in 1516. With little practical connection to their original territory, the Krutitsy bishops began to play a more important role in managing church affairs within the Kremlin.

By the middle of the 16th century, the Krutitsy Eparchy had its own court within the Kremlin. In 1589, the year when the first patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church was installed, the Krutitsy bishop was elevated to the level of metropolitan.

In the early 17th century, Krutitsy played a momentous role in sustaining the Orthodox presence during the Time of Troubles, a national catastrophe that lasted from 1605 to the end of the next decade and combined a dynastic interregnum with civil war and foreign invasion. There were moments in the Polish occupation of the kremlin when the “Little” Dormition Cathedral at Krutitsy performed as a surrogate for the inaccessible Kremlin Dormition Cathedral, the main temple of Russia.

In 1612, the Krutitsy Dormition Cathedral was ransacked by the Poles, but, during the same time, Krutitsy became a rallying ground for forces led by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky that would expel the Poles from the kremlin in November 1612. In 2012, a large votive cross was placed at Krutitsy to commemorate these events.

Romanov influence

As the situation in the country slowly stabilized after the establishment of the Romanov dynasty in 1613, Krutitsy Court also underwent a revival. Major expansion occurred during the tenure (1664-1675) of Metropolitan Pavel III, who, in 1667, initiated the construction of the present Dormition Church (at that time a cathedral), with a ground floor chapel dedicated to Sts. Peter and Paul.

The design of the Dormition Church, completed in 1689, was typical for the late 17th century, with a domical ceiling vault supporting a roof with five decorative cupolas. Although the interior was ransacked during the early Soviet period, some of the 19th-century wall paintings have remained and the icon screen has been recreated. The construction of the church included an elevated, arcaded passage known as the Dormition Gallery that led from the cathedral to the Metropolitan’s residence and refectory.

The rebuilding of Krutitsy Court continued under Evfimy, metropolitan between 1688 and 1695. He belonged to those 17th-century prelates who made no apologies for a display of the wealth and beauty of the Orthodox Church, which at this time witnessed a revival of ceramic decorative art. The effusive use of ceramic decoration was often interpreted as a preview of the beauty of Paradise itself.

Teremok

Perhaps nowhere in Russia was this revival more lavishly displayed than in the “teremok” built above a gateway leading to the courtyard of the Metropolitan’s Chambers (palaty). Begun in 1693, the Krutitsy gateway was completed shortly before Metropolitan Evfimy’s departure in 1695 to become Metropolitan of Novgorod and Velikie Luki.

The north façade of the teremok, which included two pairs of windows, was covered in almost 2,000 polychrome tiles, including ceramic columns. The bays of the façade were divided by carved limestone columns with a grape vine motif, symbol of the Eucharist. The pitched wooden roof above the teremok was clad in dark ceramic roofing tiles.

The architects of this display were Osip Startsev and Larion Kovalyov, while the design of the ceramic tiles has been attributed to Stepan Ivanov. It should be noted that the main, north façade receives direct sunlight only in the summer, yet the variety of the ceramic tiles is perhaps best perceived in indirect light.

Unique expansion

The late 17th-century, expansion begun by Metropolitan Pavel III at Krutitsy Court also included the rebuilding on the foundations of the earlier Dormition Cathedral of a refectory known as the Cross Chamber (Krestovaya palata; 1665-89), because of the cross vaults that supported the ceiling of its dining hall. Attached to the north of the refectory was the small Church of the Resurrection, a remnant from the earlier cathedral.

These various components were united by the building of the Metropolitan’s Chambers, a two-story residence with a pitched roof begun by Pavel III. In 1727, the residence gained a more imposing, elevated entrance with a stairway and porch in an early Baroque style. The residence overlooked a courtyard with an ornamental garden, one of the first of this type in Moscow.

Although a half century of work had created a unique architectural setting, the travails of Krutitsy Court were far from over. In 1721, Peter the Great abolished the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate, a move that led to the demotion of Krutitsy from a metropolitanate to a bishopric. Then, in 1737, a catastrophic Moscow fire (the Trinity Fire) caused serious damage to the ensemble including the teremok, whose ceramic roofing was replaced with sheet metal.

Rising from the ashes

During the church administrative reforms of Catherine the Great, the bishoprics of Sarai, Don and then Krutitsy were abolished and the Krutitsy ensemble was transferred to the War Ministry. Only the Dormition Church continued to function and it, too, suffered major damage from the 1812 fire during the French occupation of Moscow.

After the 1812 fire, the military administration recommended converting the Dormition Church to barracks, but the discovery of bishops’ graves led to the preservation of the remaining Krutitsy ensemble. Its restoration became a personal project of Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich (subsequently Tsar Alexander II) that lasted from 1833 to 1865.

At the same time, the military expanded its presence with the construction of the Krutitsy Barracks and prison at the perimeter of the ensemble along the Moscow River. Those temporarily incarcerated at Krutitsy included such renowned figures as Archpriest Avvakum (in 1666) and Alexander Herzen (in 1834).

The establishment of Soviet power brought new threats to Krutitsy, whose military barracks compound continued to function. Paradoxically, the restoration of the Moscow Patriarchate (part of the separation of the Church administration from the Soviet state) led to the creation of the Metropolitanate of Krutitsy and Kolomna as an administrative arm of the Patriarchate.

A new era

A new era in the history of Krutitsy began in 1947, when preservation of the ensemble was declared a national priority and entrusted to Peter Baranovsky, the leading specialist in historic restoration. In 1982 the ensemble was placed under the administration of the State Historical Museum, and in 1991 Krutitsy was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. Renovation of the main space of the Dormition Church was completed in 2007.

Preservation work gradually continues at Krutitsy Court with its close relations to the Moscow Patriarchate. Despite threats to its existence over the centuries, fate has spared this peaceful enclave, which has witnessed some of the most dramatic events in Russian history.

In the early 20th century, Russian photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky developed a complex process for color photography. Between 1903 and 1916 he traveled through the Russian Empire and took over 2,000 photographs with the process, which involved three exposures on a glass plate. In August 1918, he left Russia and ultimately resettled in France where he was reunited with a large part of his collection of glass negatives, as well as 13 albums of contact prints. After his death in Paris in 1944, his heirs sold the collection to the Library of Congress. In the early 21st century the Library digitized the Prokudin-Gorsky Collection and made it freely available to the global public. A few Russian websites now have versions of the collection. In 1986 the architectural historian and photographer William Brumfield organized the first exhibit of Prokudin-Gorsky photographs at the Library of Congress. Over a period of work in Russia beginning in 1970, Brumfield has photographed most of the sites visited by Prokudin-Gorsky. This series of articles juxtaposes Prokudin-Gorsky’s views of architectural monuments with photographs taken by Brumfield decades later.

#Russian architecture