Cathedral of the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands

The Cathedral of the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, better known as the Verkhospassky Cathedral, is the house church of the Russian sovereigns within the Terem Palace on the grounds of the Grand Kremlin Palace. It was built in 1635–1636 by a team of architects — Bazhen Ogurtsov, Antip Konstantinov, Trefil Sharutin, and Larion Ushakov — above the Golden Tsaritsa's Chamber. The name “Verkhospassky” comes from the church's location on the upper tier of the tsar's private apartments — “at the top.” Today the church is closed to visitors, and no services are held there.

Soon after construction, Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich had a side chapel built on the north side of the cathedral in honor of the Great Martyr John of Belgrade, in memory of his son, Tsarevich Ivan Mikhailovich; the chapel was later reconsecrated in honor of John the Baptist. In 1663, the master Nikita Tarutin added a refectory, and in front of it, on the flat roof of the Workshop Chambers, a platform was arranged connecting the tsar's apartments with the house church — it became known as the Verkhospasskaya platform.

In 1676–1677, under the direction of the architect Osip Startsev, the facades were finished with gesso and painted, the dome was covered with gilded copper, and the interior walls were decorated with oil paintings supervised by the tsar's court painter Simon Ushakov. At the same time, the staircase from the cathedral to the Boyar Platform was enclosed with a gilded wrought-iron grille depicting grasses and fantastic beasts — giving rise to the church's second name, “Behind the Golden Grille.” In 1682, three palace churches were united under a single roof, crowned with eleven gilded domes on slender drums; to reinforce the structure, Startsev built a supporting arch with a covered gallery on the eastern side.

The building repeatedly suffered from disasters and alterations: in 1737 a fire destroyed the roof and damaged the sacristy, and during the French invasion in 1812 the church plate was removed to Vologda while the remaining property was looted. In the 1840s, during the construction of the adjoining Grand Kremlin Palace, the old staircase was dismantled, the platform was enclosed, and new arched openings were created for the gilded grille. In 1917, artillery fire on the Kremlin damaged the building's northeastern corner, but the damage was repaired by 1920. Services in the church ceased in 1918.

The carved wooden Baroque iconostasis was made in the 18th century by the master Dmitry Shiryaev, and its central section was covered in 1778 with a chased silver revetment funded by the lady-in-waiting Matrona Saltykova. The local tier retains icons by Leonty Stepanov and Sergei Kostromitin, including an image of the Savior Not Made by Hands with twenty scenes from the life. Some icons are attributed to the master Fyodor Zubov. In the chapel of John the Baptist, a wooden iconostasis with 17th-century icons has survived.

The Verkhospassky Cathedral remains one of the few fully preserved examples of 17th-century palace church architecture in Russia. Closed to visitors as part of the Grand Kremlin Palace, it continues to be regarded as a significant monument to the history of Russian statehood and pre-Petrine church art.