Moscow's Churches

In addition to the famous St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square, Moscow is filled with beautiful churches in the classic Russian onion-domed style. This page lists just a few.

The white Church of the Conception of St. Anne, pictured above, adjacent to the Rossiya Hotel and near the Moscow River, is an elegant, simple example of the style. Unfortunately, it was boarded up and in something of a state of disrepair when I visited.

Two other churches in the downtown area, easy walking distance from Red Square, are the Cathedral of the Holy Mother of Kazan (here seen in mid-restoration) and the Church of the Holy Trinity in Nikitniki, built by Grigory Nikinikov, a wealthy merchant, around 1640.

The Donskoi Monastery is another interesting destination. It has a few churches, such as the Old Cathedral of the Donskaya Virgin pictured at left, but the really interesting part is the large graveyard, filled with elaborate mausoleums and sculptures. The weeping angel is on the grave of Natalia Pushkin, the poet's wife and subject of the novel Queen of Spades.

On the back wall of the monastery are several huge stone wall carvings -- the ones pictured, St. George and his blessing, are at least twelve feet high -- rescued from a stone church in downtown Moscow before it was razed.

To the list of places