Mine page / The Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist
The Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist and Forerunner of the Lord on Maiden’s Field
In 1525, a wooden church was built to serve the residents of the monastery settlement. Here, they were baptized, married, and given funeral rites. In the second half of the 16th century, a new brick church was erected in place of the wooden one, standing about 35 meters tall. It featured a tented roof, similar to the Church of Martyr Nikita in the village of Yelizarovo and the Church of the Nativity of Christ in the village of Besedy.
By the late 17th century, as the congregation grew, a small five-domed side chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built next to the brick tented church. This ensemble existed until 1812.
During the French occupation of Moscow, the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist with the side chapel of St. Nicholas was one of the few churches in Moscow destroyed by Napoleon's orders. In 1816, a new church was built on another site for the settlement’s residents near Maiden’s Field, dedicated to the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. This dedication commemorated the day Napoleon’s forces left Moscow. In the 1930s, this church was also destroyed, but by the atheist authorities of the Soviet regime.
The decision to reconstruct the church was made by the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation and President-elect Vladimir Putin, together with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, on May 6, 2012. This occurred during the ceremony of returning the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God from the State Historical Museum to Novodevichy Convent.
Before construction began, archaeological excavations were conducted on the chosen site by the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2013 and 2015, as part of a program by the Department of Cultural Heritage of Moscow.
By the late 17th century, as the congregation grew, a small five-domed side chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built next to the brick tented church. This ensemble existed until 1812.
During the French occupation of Moscow, the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist with the side chapel of St. Nicholas was one of the few churches in Moscow destroyed by Napoleon's orders. In 1816, a new church was built on another site for the settlement’s residents near Maiden’s Field, dedicated to the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. This dedication commemorated the day Napoleon’s forces left Moscow. In the 1930s, this church was also destroyed, but by the atheist authorities of the Soviet regime.
The decision to reconstruct the church was made by the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation and President-elect Vladimir Putin, together with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, on May 6, 2012. This occurred during the ceremony of returning the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God from the State Historical Museum to Novodevichy Convent.
Before construction began, archaeological excavations were conducted on the chosen site by the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2013 and 2015, as part of a program by the Department of Cultural Heritage of Moscow.
The composition of the new church follows the traditional layout of tented churches from the mid-to-late 16th century—a square base (chetyrek), transitioning to an octagon (vosmerik) decorated with kokoshniks. The ribs of the tented roof, resting on the square base, are highlighted with ornamental bands. The tent is crowned by a round drum with a small onion-shaped dome. To the west of the square base is a small porch with a single-span belfry. The church’s apse has a faceted shape, and beneath the entire building is a basement intended to house an archaeological museum. The designers of the project created a new image of a tented church for the 21st century, inspired by the 16th-century church destroyed in 1812. The iconostasis of the newly built church is stylistically tied to the 16th-century panel iconostases, but it is a new creation harmonized with the overall structure.
The image of Saint Alexander Nevsky is associated with Emperor Alexander I the Blessed, who prayed to his patron saint for the expulsion of enemies from Russian lands. The local image of Christ, “The Smolensk Savior”, recalls both the miracle of repelling Magmet Giray’s troops from Moscow in 1521 and the capture of Smolensk in 1524, events that led to the foundation of Novodevichy Convent.
The image of Saint Alexander Nevsky is associated with Emperor Alexander I the Blessed, who prayed to his patron saint for the expulsion of enemies from Russian lands. The local image of Christ, “The Smolensk Savior”, recalls both the miracle of repelling Magmet Giray’s troops from Moscow in 1521 and the capture of Smolensk in 1524, events that led to the foundation of Novodevichy Convent.
