Temple of the icon of Tikhvin Mother of God in Kolomna

Kolomna is one of the famous tourist sites of the Moscow region. Here there are unique monuments of history and culture of our state of different historical periods and various architectural styles. There are also unique monuments of ancient Russian architecture, as well as structures built in pseudo-Russian style, such as the temple of the Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God depicted below.

Kolomna as a historical and cultural monument

The city of Kolomna as one of the important centers of Russian statehood arose on the border of two independent principalities - Vladimir-Suzdal and Ryazan. He controlled the trade routes running along the Moscow River and its tributary Oka, and was located on the shore of a small river Kolomenki. Apparently, hence the name of the city.

There are two versions of the appearance of a toponym: from the ancient Slavonic "coco", which means "circle, circle", or from the Turkic, which translates as "cemetery, grave".

Ivan III united independent principalities in a single Russian state. Kolomna entered the Moscow land much earlier. She was joined by the son of Alexander Yaroslavich (Nevsky) Daniil Alexandrovich (Moscow). Kolomna under Ivan III and later was part of Muscovy in the status of a specific principality and became part of the Moscow region.

Kolomna was repeatedly subjected to the invasion of the Horde troops, was ruined, burnt and restored. In the center of the city, according to the Old Russian tradition, in the 16th century the Kremlin was built, which ensured the security of the settlement.

Temple of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God in Kolomna: history

It was in the Kremlin that the temple of the Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God was erected at the end of the 18th century. The initiator and financier of the construction was Kolomna merchant Ivan Meshchaninov. There is a legend that once there was a wooden church in the same place.

The church was rebuilt in the late 19th century. During the restoration, the church was expanded. The number of chapters and chapels has been increased. A heating boiler has been installed. Financed the construction of the merchant FN Tupitsyn. After the reconstruction works, the temple was consecrated by Metropolitan Philaret.

After the revolution, the temple of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God in Kolomna initially functioned without heating, as the boiler was dismantled and then completely closed. The decoration of the church was destroyed. They also took off the bells with a number of bell-belfry located nearby. And only at the end of the 20th century the church was returned to the diocese. Kolomna masters have done a huge amount of restoration work, a large number of interiors and decor has been remodeled. New bells were cast. The largest of them got its own name - "Pimen".

The address of the temple of the icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God: Kolomna, Lazarev street, 14.

Temple architecture

The church is built in the style of the pseudo-Russian cross-domed architecture, based on the Byzantine canons. The original temple, according to the surviving documents, was single-headed and single-pedestal.

However, after the reconstruction, the number of domes was increased to five. The heads have an onion shape. The smallest gilded head is placed on the tent cover of an octagonal lantern turret. Four others are the same, they are covered with blue paint, they are somewhat larger and are placed in corners on small hexagonal drums.

In the old stone church of the XVIII century on the east side of the temple there was one apse. Now the church has three apses of the same height, but in shape the central one has differences: lateral - semicircular in shape, and central - tetrahedral, in terms of representing the trapezoid. Accordingly, there are three thrones in the existing church.

The stone church of Tikhvin has a contrasting color: brick - the main color, white painted simple and figured platbands, vertical strings and plinth. White has a stone tent belfry attached to the temple, reminiscent of the external appearance of the tent churches of Ancient Rus. The belfry is also crowned with a blue bulbous glans on the drum.

Its paintings are of great importance for the temple of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God in Kolomna. The wall of the western side is painted with a fresco on the Last Judgment. And the iconostases of the right and left side-altars restored at the end of the 20th century include the iconic faces of the most revered Russian saints: Sergius of Radonezh, Seraphim of Sorovsky, John of Kronstadt, Dmitry Donskoi and others.

Icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God

According to one of the legends of Kolomna, on the site of the stone Tikhvin church, a wooden church was consecrated in the name of Dmitry Donskoy, consecrated in the name of the icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God in memory of the appearance of the icon over the waters of the Tikhvin River, described in the legend.

In Kolomna it is especially customary to celebrate the holiday of the icon of the Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God. This icon is miraculous. Now it is stored in the Great Tikhvin Assumption Monastery. But lists from it can be found in different temples of Russia. One of them is located in the canopy to the right of the main iconostasis of the temple of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God in Kolomna.