Church of the Three Saints on Kulishki
The Church of the Three Saints in Kulishki is an Orthodox church in the Basmanny district of Moscow. It belongs to the Bogoyavlenskiy sub-district of the Moscow diocese. The main altar is consecrated in honour of the Ecumenical teachers and saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom; the lower aisle is in honour of St. Silouan of Athos (until 2 January, 2018 – in honour of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus); the upper aisle is in honour of the Life-Giving Trinity. The church in honour of the Three Ecumenical Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom is located in one of the most beautiful corners of the White City, in Kulishki. This was the name given to the uncut areas of the forest that covered the high watershed hill between the Moskva River and the Yauza River in ancient times. In the second half of the XVIII century Counts Tolstoy, Count Osterman, Princes Volkonsky, Melgunovs, Lopukhins lived near the Church of the Three Saints. In 1770s the church was rebuilt at their expense. They dismantled the ancient tent bell tower at the corner and built a new one from the west. The decoration of the XVII century facades was knocked down, and an additional row of windows was built in the quadrangle. The temple acquired a classicist appearance. In 1771 the parish cemetery was abolished. The year 1812 brought many disasters to the inhabitants of Ivanovskaya Gorka. In the parish of the Church of the Three Saints 10 yards were burnt down. The church itself suffered only the roof, but it was looted, the altars were destroyed, the holy antimins were taken away. The first to be re-consecrated in 1813 was the side-chapel of the Three Saints, but because of the small number of parish, the church was attached to the church of John the Baptist, preserved from the abolished Ivanovsky Convent. The inventory of church property of 1813 mentions a locally honoured relic – the icon of the Mother of God “Enlightenment of the Eyes” standing in the Trisvyatitelsky aisle. After 1917 the Myasnitskaya police station was transformed into a prison, and a concentration camp was set up nearby in the Ivanovo Monastery. The building of the Church of the Three Saints with its thick walls suited the prisoners for storage and workshops. The church was beheaded and the tent of the bell tower was demolished. In the 1930s the church territory came under the jurisdiction of the NKVD, which built a hospital here. The hospital also included a stone church house, which was added on the 4th floor. The church building was supposed to be a dormitory for the staff, and it was divided into many cells. However, the medics found other accommodation, and the church was turned into a communal flat. In the 1950s the fence was destroyed. In the mid-1960s the building was emptied of its tenants and used for the needs of various offices. The All-Union Society for the Protection of Monuments started its restoration. The architect-restorer A. I. Okunev chose the way of maximum recreation of the original appearance of the temple. The bell tower in the corner, the chapels, the decoration of the XVII century facades were restored. Only the second bell tower, preserved without completion, reminds of the late re-buildings. In 1987 the building was occupied by the animation studio “Pilot”. In 1991 an Orthodox community headed by Archpriest Vladislav Sveshnikov was formed, wishing to reopen the church. On 30 June 1992, the Moscow Government issued a decree on the transfer of the church to the believers. On 6 July 1996 on the feast day of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God the first Liturgy was served in the upper church in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity.
Address: Moscow, Maly Trekhsvyatitelsky lane, 4/6, p. 5
