Church of St Sergius of Radonezh in Krapivniki

The church consecrated in honour of St Sergius of Radonezh, known as the Church in Krapivniki, stands in Moscow’s Tverskoy District, not far from Petrovka Street and Trubnaya Square. The church belongs to the Iversky deanery and holds the status of a patriarchal metochion. Over its history it has borne several names — “St Sergius in the Old Silversmiths’ Quarter,” “St Sergius near the Guardhouses,” “St Sergius on Petrovka near Truba” — the current name became established after the Krapivki tract, where nettles (krapiva) were once gathered. The building’s author is presumed to be an architect from the circle of Dmitry Ukhtomsky.

A parish is known to have existed on this site from 1597, and stone construction began in 1625. The earliest surviving part of the present building is the four-pillar core (chetverik) dating from 1678. In 1702 a spacious south side chapel of the Beheading of John the Baptist was added to the church, sharing a common space with the refectory. The church’s final appearance took shape in 1749–1750: a second tier and a bell tower were built above the ancient chetverik, and a north side chapel was added along the building. In 1883 the land and the church itself were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Constantinople Metochion — the representation of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Russia.

The building is executed in the Baroque style: a rectangular volume with clipped corners is topped by a tall octagonal dome on a blind drum, with a small cupola and a wrought openwork cross. The corners of the upper tier are treated with pilasters, and the short faces feature arched niches with keystones — a device typical of mid-18th-century Moscow Baroque. The lower chetverik retains the massive horizontal rustication and heavy cornice of pre-Petrine construction, contrasting with the lightness of the superstructure above.

After the revolution the church’s fate took a dramatic turn: in 1920 its liturgical vessels and ancient vestments were confiscated despite the protests of parishioners, and the bell tower was dismantled down to the level of the second tier. In 1922 the Bolsheviks confiscated the church’s valuables, and on 5 February 1938 the church was closed and the metochion abolished. From 1960 the building was occupied by a metalware factory, which adapted the premises for production needs.

Services resumed in 1991, and in August of that year the church received the Kiy Cross — an exact replica of the Cross of the Lord, containing particles of the relics of numerous saints, commissioned by Patriarch Nikon in 1657. In 1993 a lyceum of spiritual culture named after St Seraphim of Sarov was opened at the church. In 1997–1998 carved iconostases were made for all the side chapels, in 2001 the bell tower was restored, and in 2013 Irina Zaron painted the altar of the St Seraphim of Sarov chapel. Other venerated items include the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God and an 18th-century image of St Sergius of Radonezh containing a particle of his relics. On the wall of one side chapel, memorial slabs survive bearing burial inscriptions of the princely Ukhtomsky family, members of whom were buried here in the 16th–18th centuries.

Today the Church in Krapivniki is an active parish with a full cycle of services and educational work — a rare example of Moscow Baroque that preserves a pre-Petrine foundation beneath an ornate mid-18th-century superstructure.