Moscow boasts hundreds of beautiful Orthodox churches, cathedrals and elegance temples. Before you visit Moscow, naturally, I would like to show you one of the most spectacular, but certainly the oldest of the cathedrals, namely The Epiphany Cathedral at Elokhovo (Bogoyavlensky monastery) in the late Empire style with slender four-tier bell-tower. It is the oldest monastery in Moscow, situated in Kitai Gorod, just one block away from the famous Moscow’s Kremlin and still has a functioning church.
The now – The surviving Epiphany cathedral was consecrated in 1696 and it is all that remains of the Bogoyavlensky Monastery standing on the site where the village Elokhovo and the church of the Mother of God of Vladimir laid in the 15th century. The church was built in 1693 – 96 in Kitai-Gorod on the bank of the Neglinnaya River in the territory of one of the oldest monasteries in Moscow – Bogoyavlensky Friary.
Legend has it that the Epiphany Monastery was founded by Prince Venerable Daniil Aleksandrovich around 1296 as a small wooden church. Its predecessor, the church built in 1624 was included into the Church of the Epiphany as a lower temple. The first stone church at the Bogoyavlensky monastery was founded in 1342.
The monastery was devastated and ransacked during the Mongol-Tatar invasion in 1382 and in 1427, it suffered an outbreak of pestilence, intervention of Polish and Lithuanian troops (the 17th century) and attacks of Napoleon’s army (1812).
Over the centuries the monastery was also damaged from numerous fires (1547, 1551, the greatest one took place in 1687 and 1787). The Cathedral, bell tower, monk cells and abbot’s chamber were the only buildings to survive.
In May, 1991, the Epiphany monastery was restored and officially returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. The Epiphany monastery was surmounted with five domes, the one in the centre is meant to be a copy of the one on St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
This place is like no other, if this tickles your fancy and had your interests, have a visit and take a tour to this historic site and where the Epiphany celebration is held.
