... and also, the capabilities of the APS-C lens Sony SEL-1018 10-18 mm F/4 OSS
using a full-frame Sony Alpha A7R camera
Total 61 photos
Today I want to talk about Church of the Nativity of Christ in Besedy. My interest in this wonderful church, as an example of sublime tent-roofed architecture, is not at all accidental. Not so long ago, I was simply fascinated by the tent, which is located very close to the Besedinsky temple and was also erected on the high right bank of the Moscow River. These churches are similar not only in that they are located nearby, but are also connected by a common history, the time frame of the period of construction of tent churches in Rus' and the spiritual principles underlying their construction... In addition, these lands, as it turned out, are very ancient and, long before the royal villages appeared here, our numerous glorious ancestors settled in this fertile place. The river, fertile water meadows, and dense forests fully fed them and provided them with everything they needed to live in prosperity. The beauty of these places and the abundance of various game ultimately determined the appearance of grand-ducal villages here.
This material has two purposes - to tell about my impressions of this wonderful and sublime temple and, at the same time, to test the “cropped” Sony SEL 10-18 mm F/4 OSS lens in conjunction with the new full-frame Sony Alpha A7R camera. For those who are interested in this topic, it will be quite interesting. All the photos in this post were taken by this rather cute couple, although not intended for each other...) Conclusions about the results of the interaction between the camera and the lens are at the very end of this post.
Conversations begin to be mentioned in chronicles associated with the name of Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. Times were hard and troubled then. Only a couple of years have passed since the Tatar governor Begich was defeated in the Ryazan land and then Mamai, in the form of an ultimatum, threatened Dmitry with the devastation of Russian lands and the promise to impose an exorbitant tribute on the Russians for their obstinacy. It was during Dmitry’s stay in this royal village that the news came to him that Mamai with an innumerable army was marching on Moscow. And in this place, on the high bank of the Moscow River, the prince’s tent was pitched, where the “conversation” took place, the military council of the Grand Duke with his faithful and close associates - cousin Vladimir, Prince of Serpukhov, Prince Bobrok of Volyn, married to his sister , Prince Belozersky, brave warrior and brave commander Timofey Vasilyevich Voluy and many others.
02.
After this great victory, Dmitry was named Donskoy and ordered the construction of a Church of Christ on the spot where the fateful “conversation” took place in honor of commemorating the victory on the Kulikovo field. Since then this place has been called Conversations. Just two months after the Grand Duke’s command, a wooden Church of the Nativity of Christ was built here.
Two hundred years later, the church became dilapidated, the village of Besedy gradually fell into decay, and only at the end of the 16th century did life revive here again. In 1584, the son of Ivan the Terrible, Feodor Ioannovich, was crowned king. During this solemn ceremony, the relatives of Queen Irina - Boris and Dmitry Godunov held the royal scepter and crown. From then on, the Godunovs, being close to the tsar, received privileges and rich real estate assets. The Tsar granted boyar Dmitry Ivanovich the best lands and estates near Moscow, which included the village of Besedy. Soon, having submitted a petition to Tsar Theodore, boyar Dmitry, with his consent, begins to build a stone church in his village in honor of the Nativity of Christ on the spot where the old wooden one once stood. Boris Godunov also takes an active part in this construction on his uncle’s estate, generously donating both money and building materials, and subsequently expensive church utensils to decorate the interior of this church.
03.
In 1598-1599 The construction of a small but majestic temple was completed, similar in style to Kolomenskoye and Ostrovnoye, built around the same years. The pillarless single-apse temple, standing on the foundation of a deep basement, rises with a lower stone quadrangle, which turns into a middle octagonal drum and ends with a high tent open inward. The transition from a quadruple to an octagon is structurally carried out using “trompos” and is externally decorated with a system of tiers of kokoshniks. (tromp is a vaulted structure for the transition from a tetrahedral volume to an octagonal one, having the appearance of an arch with a conical inner surface). The basement, quadrangle and apse are made of white stone delivered from the nearby Myachkovskaya quarry. Carefully hewn, this stone is the cladding of both the interior and exterior of the church, the upper part of which was made of brick. The brick tent top, decorated with towers and barrels, is crowned with a small dome and an eight-pointed gilded cross on a crescent. The ties in the lower and middle tier were oak, and in the upper tier - iron. In terms of its slender proportions and completeness of forms, the temple stands among the best tent-roofed structures of its time, the significance of which remains in our time.
04.
Initially, the main building of the temple was surrounded by a stone open porch with one western entrance, above which rose a hipped belfry. This extensive porch connected the small attached two chapels, which were consecrated in honor of the Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates, the heavenly patron of Tsar Theodore Ioannovich and the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, the patron saint of Demetrius Godunov, the owner of the Conversations.
05.
Thus, one can trace the special attention that was paid during the construction of this church from not only the Godunov family, but also Tsar Theodore Ioannovich himself, and subsequently Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. After the overthrow and death of Tsar Boris, the fall of the entire Godunov family followed, and this was followed by terrible turmoil in Rus'. In troubled times, the village of Besedy passes to other owners...
In 1646, a year after the accession of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, Besedy became a palace village. In 1889, the famous researcher of Russian antiquity A. Martynov reliably wrote about this: “Once upon a time there was a royal place in the church. Judging by the previous structure of this village and by the contributions of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to this temple, this sovereign, his ancestors and descendants loved and attended Conversations, which provided them with freedom for recreation and hunting...”
06.
(on the engraving you can guess the silhouettes of the Temple of the Ascension
and "Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich" in Kolomenskoye)
At the same time, icon painters depicted the faces of the namesake saints of the family of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich on two large icons: on one - St. Alexy the man of God and Mary of Egypt, and on the other - St. Theodore Stratelates and the holy martyrs Irene and Sophia.
Since Besedy was listed in the church books as the sovereign's palace village, then, like in other similar villages near Moscow, there were the sovereign's mansions, royal gardens, a barn, granaries and stables. There is now no trace of the former - time and fires have destroyed the entire royal economic establishment. And only the last wonderful stables are now reminded by the Stables Ravine (more on that a little later).
The only monument left from the former way of life is the ancient stone tented church, which is the pearl of not only the village of Besedy, but is well known both here in Russia and far beyond its borders.
In 1765, Catherine II granted her favorite, Count Alexei Grigorievich Orlov-Chesmensky, the village of Besedy and, in addition, the neighboring village of Ostrov. The new owner, who mainly resides in the northern capital and the royal palaces, does not visit his estates near Moscow very often. The conversations are starting to gradually fall into disrepair again... I already posted the material at one time.
At the beginning of the 19th century, or more precisely in 1815, a new period began in the renovation of this temple - the old stone porch, once built around the temple, was dismantled and, on the south side, a small chapel was built in honor of the Holy Prophet Elijah. In 1820, a more extensive northern aisle of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built. At the same time, a three-tier bell tower, topped with a high tent, was built, which we can still see.
07.
In 1882, a monumental oil painting was carried out inside the church on a plaster basis on the themes of evangelical history and in a strict academic style. In addition to wall paintings, the interior decor of the entire temple is complemented by individual icons, including the especially revered icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow,” decorated with beads, seven lamps and an openwork canopy, as well as a large 18th-century icon of the “Resurrection of Christ” in an icon case, the image of St. Nicholas the Miracle -the creator of miracles in a gilded robe of the 18th century and other remarkable holy icons, such as the large icon of St. Tryphon, who have been attracting my attention so much lately.
It should be noted that in the main altar of the temple to this day there is an ancient stone throne, which is now covered with gilded metal vestments with enamel inserts. The aforementioned A. Martynov wrote at the beginning of the 19th century: “... about 60 years ago, according to the legend of a 75-year-old cleric, a wooden vessel “Holy Chalice”, carved from birch and covered with red paint. On this bowl is written in oil paint the Deesis (images of Christ and significant saints in the “iconostasis tradition”) and the eight-pointed cross on Calvary.” Similar vessels were once found in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Such wooden bowls were used for worship in the first ancient church. Also in this altar, ancient holy antimensions were then found (in ancient Byzantium, these, mostly linen, antimensions with the relics of saints sewn into them were attached or nailed to the throne). Unfortunately, these artifacts have not survived to this day.
In the period from 1917 to the 30s of the last century, the Besedinsky temple was closed and its lower premises, where the church and the vast area adjacent to it were also located, were turned into a vegetable storage facility by the local state farm. During the Great Patriotic War, in 1943, the Church of the Nativity was finally transferred to the use of believers. On September 21, 1999, the Temple celebrated its 400th anniversary.
Digressing a little, I want to say that, to my surprise, online practically There are no old photos of this temple, so I, if possible, ecologically intersperse my story about its history with historical portraits of Russian tsars who were related to the “Besedinsky” temple)
As you can see, this is a glorious place, which is located very close to Moscow - getting to it by car is generally as easy as shelling pears - from the Besedinskaya interchange on the Moscow Ring Road - less than a minute. It must be said that, having passed the junction towards the region, you should not turn right where all the cars are going, but you should go straight straight along a nondescript rural asphalt path. The traffic on this smooth-sharp turn is intense, so be attentive to oncoming traffic...
It’s an amazing feeling - the Temple is initially very “warm and familiar” - it’s as if you are immersed in its welcoming and at the same time sublime energy. The tension and the usual city bustle in the mind immediately subsides. The temple is already beginning to “speak to you”, although you are only still approaching it... A familiar feeling! It is these similar and characteristic feelings that I acutely I recently experienced enthusiastically in the palace village of Ostrov on the site of the erected one. Extremely interesting!
The church is all green, so at first I was even upset that it would be difficult to take general photos, but it turned out that next to the church, on the site of the ancient Konyushenny ravine, there is now a lovely intimate church square with paths for leisurely walks and, in the same place, a small water-blessed chapel of the prophet Elijah with the holy spring of the same name. It is from there that the main angles of this wonderful church were taken, which will be below...
However, first, let’s enter the church, look around a little and try to capture its spiritual atmosphere... Taking pictures in churches is traditionally prohibited, but in “non-Moscow churches” such prohibitions are not so strong, and so in this case - I took a few photos here inside temple.
09.
I would like to note the strongest impression from the so-called “praying” of the church and its unique rich, solemn interior decoration. The temple is impressive and amazing. Despite the fact that the church is rural, the prayerful attention of the former “powers of this world” and today’s parishioners is strongly felt.
10.
I repeat, but the temple is truly “prayed” - you can’t find another word as an equivalent - you don’t expect this at all at first - “falling through” and dissolving in the thick and golden energy of the Church of the Nativity of Christ. This is where I definitely recommend going and experiencing it all. Based on a similar general impression, based on the above factors, I can compare this church in terms of sensations, so far only, with the Church of the Sign on Rizhskaya in Moscow, where the miraculous icon of St. Tryphon with his relics is located.
11.
Since at first I made a little mistake with the camera settings, and in the depths of the temple it was also very dark, the next three photos turned out to be very noisy, so it’s not too bad).
12.
In the foreground is the icon of “St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with “miracles”...
13.
By the way, I am very interested, feeling some kind of unconscious trembling attraction to this saint, and one of the reasons for visiting the Church of the Nativity was precisely the discovery of an ancient and large icon of St. Tryphon in one of the chapels of the temple. Icons of Saint Tryphon are quite rare in Moscow and every meeting with Saint Tryphon is very important and exciting for me... In the photo below there is an icon of St. Tryphon, it is located in the middle part of it and a little to the right - near the arch.
An interesting observation - you don’t want to leave the temple, despite the fact that you seem to have examined and “absorbed” everything...
15.
And now, nevertheless, let’s leave the temple and walk around it. It is noteworthy that here, on its territory, many old tombstones are carefully preserved, in contrast to most existing churches, whose graveyards did not withstand the test of the Bolshevik period. Truly, it is here that “love for the tombs of our fathers” is visible and demonstrated...
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
It’s not for nothing that I focus attention on the necropolis of the Church of the Nativity in Besedy - here a surprisingly integral impression of the temple and everything that surrounds it is created - there is an awareness of a careful and surprisingly meek attitude towards history, attention to the almost forgotten people who came here - to the Temple, prayed and thought about the Eternal... It’s definitely worth it, like this, calmly, to reflect here, away from the city noise, and to “turn off” the human Consciousness that excites and torments the soul...
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
I made an attempt to walk around the church around its fence... On the left side it was not very successful - because of the barking dogs without leashes) And this photo is just on the left...
39.
And this is on the right - from the side of the church square...
40.
And this is from the side of the old church pond...
41.
And here is the church pond itself... There is a holy spring flowing here somewhere... The fence that you see in the top photo encloses an old ravine in which a small cozy park square has been built - we will return there soon.. .
42.
And I took this couple of photos of the temple from the side of the slope of the Konyushenny ravine... probably, after all, this is what it is...
43.
44.
At first I thought that the door was closed, but the padlock on the gate turned out to be only on one hinge and the door opened easily... Going down the steps into the park you immediately see the touching water-blessed chapel of the Prophet Elijah...
45.
46.
A walk through the church square (and in fact, once upon a time, an ancient ravine) gave me not only pleasure, but also true peace and real unloading of the mind. With surprise and, in a new way, I began to understand that every temple built once carried in its unique and individual history a piece of the Great History of our Motherland. From the past and recent troubled times of the beginning of the last century, there are still a sufficient number of churches left, whose heads directed towards Heaven can tell a lot to the one who Asks Questions, and simply looks at them, passing through their sublime Beauty and, not only architecture, but touching to the collective unconscious of our people, which can reveal its secrets as a result and convey to us the feelings and emotions of ancestors long gone into the Eternal...
61.
P.S. for those who came here to see the photos taken on the Sony Alpha A7R camera with the “cropped lens” Sony SEL-1018 10-18 mm F/4 OSS: All photos for this article, as I already said, were taken entirely by this curious couple . Vignetting naturally appears at extreme focal lengths - especially at 10-12 and 17-18 mm. Comfortable focal lengths for shooting are, respectively, 13-15 mm. Light vignetting, of course, also appears at these focal lengths, but it is not at all as critical as at the extreme ones. You probably noticed that many of the photos in this post are cropped “square” and this is not surprising - after all, the lens is “cropped” and it’s easier to do just that with vignettes. Also, in the corners, some horizontal and vertical frames had to be stamped in Ps... But how does the Sony Alpha A7R full-frame camera shoot with this lens in terms of quality and convenience!? And does it have the right to be used specifically with the A7 family? These questions are quite relevant for those who have this 10-18 lens from the NEX family, which is going down in history, and for those who have already purchased a new full-frame “seven” or are just not planning on purchasing it, but still want to use the fleet of existing cropped optics. ..
To some extent, the quality of wide-angle photos is even higher than that of . The picture turns out transparent, detailed and quite high quality. There are, as usual, geometric distortions and, here, I can only recommend that you pay more attention to the construction of the frame regarding verticals and horizontals - according to my feelings, the risk of ruining the frame is quite high. I tested 10-18 on a Sonya in order to understand for myself whether it can replace the new wide-angle zoom Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35 mm F4, which has not yet been released for sale and is not very budget-friendly in price. ZA OSS!? (Note - the Sony FE 16-35 lens was released in October 2014. My review of it: it turned out - maybe, but with a couple of serious reservations - it is possible to shoot with it on a full-frame camera, but with the obviously aware presence of vignetting - it is necessary to make a significant allowance for it , perhaps by cropping. Temporarily, in the absence of a full-frame wide-angle lens or the necessary budget, it can take good pictures - in terms of a wide angle, it copes with this task quite well. The level of quality and detail can be judged from the photos from this post, and some frames. initially they were “built” by provoking critical conditions in terms of light and the ratio of “highlights and shadows”. But, in general, the 10-18 “did not disappoint”. I also photographed other architectural objects with it and am pleased with the result.
... and also, the capabilities of the APS-C lens Sony SEL-1018 10-18 mm F/4 OSS
using a full-frame Sony Alpha A7R camera
Total 61 photos
Today I want to talk about Church of the Nativity of Christ in Besedy. My interest in this wonderful church, as an example of sublime tent-roofed architecture, is not at all accidental. Not so long ago, I was simply fascinated by the tented Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the village of Ostrov, which is located very close to the Besedinsky temple and was also built on the high right bank of the Moscow River. These churches are similar not only in that they are located nearby, but are also connected by a common history, the time frame of the period of construction of tent churches in Rus' and the spiritual principles underlying their construction... In addition, these lands, as it turned out, are very ancient and, long before the royal villages appeared here, our numerous glorious ancestors settled in this fertile place. The river, fertile water meadows, and dense forests fully fed them and provided them with everything they needed to live in prosperity. The beauty of these places and the abundance of various game ultimately determined the appearance of grand-ducal villages here.
This material has two purposes - to tell about my impressions of this wonderful and sublime temple and, at the same time, to test the “cropped” Sony SEL 10-18 mm F/4 OSS lens in conjunction with the new full-frame Sony Alpha A7R camera. For those who are interested in this topic, it will be quite interesting. All the photos in this post were taken by this rather cute couple, although not intended for each other...) Conclusions about the results of the interaction between the camera and the lens are at the very end of this post.
Conversations begin to be mentioned in chronicles associated with the name of Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. Times were hard and troubled then. Only a couple of years have passed since the Tatar governor Begich was defeated in the Ryazan land and then Mamai, in the form of an ultimatum, threatened Dmitry with the devastation of Russian lands and the promise to impose an exorbitant tribute on the Russians for their obstinacy. It was during Dmitry’s stay in this royal village that the news came to him that Mamai with an innumerable army was marching on Moscow. And in this place, on the high bank of the Moscow River, the prince’s tent was pitched, where the “conversation” took place, the military council of the Grand Duke with his faithful and close associates - cousin Vladimir, Prince of Serpukhov, Prince Bobrok of Volyn, married to his sister , Prince Belozersky, brave warrior and brave commander Timofey Vasilyevich Voluy and many others.
02.
After this great victory, Dmitry was named Donskoy and ordered the construction of a Church of Christ on the spot where the fateful “conversation” took place in honor of commemorating the victory on the Kulikovo field. Since then this place has been called Conversations. Just two months after the Grand Duke’s command, a wooden Church of the Nativity of Christ was built here.
Two hundred years later, the church became dilapidated, the village of Besedy gradually fell into decay, and only at the end of the 16th century did life revive here again. In 1584, the son of Ivan the Terrible, Feodor Ioannovich, was crowned king. During this solemn ceremony, the relatives of Queen Irina - Boris and Dmitry Godunov held the royal scepter and crown. From then on, the Godunovs, being close to the tsar, received privileges and rich real estate assets. The Tsar granted boyar Dmitry Ivanovich the best lands and estates near Moscow, which included the village of Besedy. Soon, having submitted a petition to Tsar Theodore, boyar Dmitry, with his consent, begins to build a stone church in his village in honor of the Nativity of Christ on the spot where the old wooden one once stood. Boris Godunov also takes an active part in this construction on his uncle’s estate, generously donating both money and building materials, and subsequently expensive church utensils to decorate the interior of this church.
03.
In 1598-1599 The construction of a small but majestic temple was completed, similar in style to Kolomenskoye and Ostrovnoye, built around the same years. The pillarless single-apse temple, standing on the foundation of a deep basement, rises with a lower stone quadrangle, which turns into a middle octagonal drum and ends with a high tent open inward. The transition from a quadruple to an octagon is structurally carried out using “trompos” and is externally decorated with a system of tiers of kokoshniks. (tromp is a vaulted structure for the transition from a tetrahedral volume to an octagonal one, having the appearance of an arch with a conical inner surface). The basement, quadrangle and apse are made of white stone delivered from the nearby Myachkovskaya quarry. Carefully hewn, this stone is the cladding of both the interior and exterior of the church, the upper part of which was made of brick. The brick tent top, decorated with towers and barrels, is crowned with a small dome and an eight-pointed gilded cross on a crescent. The ties in the lower and middle tier were oak, and in the upper tier - iron. In terms of its slender proportions and completeness of forms, the temple stands among the best tent-roofed structures of its time, the significance of which remains in our time.
04.
Initially, the main building of the temple was surrounded by a stone open porch with one western entrance, above which rose a hipped belfry. This extensive porch connected the small attached two chapels, which were consecrated in honor of the Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates, the heavenly patron of Tsar Theodore Ioannovich and the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, the patron saint of Demetrius Godunov, the owner of the Conversations.
05.
Thus, one can trace the special attention that was paid during the construction of this church from not only the Godunov family, but also Tsar Theodore Ioannovich himself, and subsequently Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. After the overthrow and death of Tsar Boris, the fall of the entire Godunov family followed, and this was followed by terrible turmoil in Rus'. In troubled times, the village of Besedy passes to other owners...
In 1646, a year after the accession of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, Besedy became a palace village. In 1889, the famous researcher of Russian antiquity A. Martynov reliably wrote about this: “Once upon a time there was a royal place in the church. Judging by the previous structure of this village and by the contributions of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to this temple, this sovereign, his ancestors and descendants loved and attended Conversations, which provided them with freedom for recreation and hunting...”
06.
(on the engraving you can guess the silhouettes of the Temple of the Ascension
and "Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich" in Kolomenskoye)
At the same time, icon painters depicted the faces of the namesake saints of the family of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich on two large icons: on one - St. Alexy the man of God and Mary of Egypt, and on the other - St. Theodore Stratelates and the holy martyrs Irene and Sophia.
Since Besedy was listed in the church books as the sovereign's palace village, then, like in other similar villages near Moscow, there were the sovereign's mansions, royal gardens, a barn, granaries and stables. There is now no trace of the former - time and fires have destroyed the entire royal economic establishment. And only the last wonderful stables are now reminded by the Stables Ravine (more on that a little later).
The only monument left from the former way of life is the ancient stone tented church, which is the pearl of not only the village of Besedy, but is well known both here in Russia and far beyond its borders.
In 1765, Catherine II granted her favorite, Count Alexei Grigorievich Orlov-Chesmensky, the village of Besedy and, in addition, the neighboring village of Ostrov. The new owner, who mainly resides in the northern capital and the royal palaces, does not visit his estates near Moscow very often. Conversations again begin to gradually fall into desolation... I already posted material about the Ostrov estate and Count Orlov at one time.
At the beginning of the 19th century, or more precisely in 1815, a new period began in the renovation of this temple - the old stone porch, once built around the temple, was dismantled and, on the south side, a small chapel was built in honor of the Holy Prophet Elijah. In 1820, a more extensive northern aisle of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built. At the same time, a three-tier bell tower, topped with a high tent, was built, which we can still see.
07.
In 1882, a monumental oil painting was carried out inside the church on a plaster basis on the themes of evangelical history and in a strict academic style. In addition to wall paintings, the interior decor of the entire temple is complemented by individual icons, including the especially revered icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow,” decorated with beads, seven lamps and an openwork canopy, as well as a large 18th-century icon of the “Resurrection of Christ” in an icon case, the image of St. Nicholas the Miracle -the creator of miracles in a gilded robe of the 18th century and other remarkable holy icons, such as the large icon of St. Tryphon, who have been attracting my attention so much lately.
It should be noted that in the main altar of the temple to this day there is an ancient stone throne, which is now covered with gilded metal vestments with enamel inserts. The aforementioned A. Martynov wrote at the beginning of the 19th century: “... about 60 years ago, according to the legend of a 75-year-old cleric, a wooden vessel “Holy Chalice”, carved from birch and covered with red paint. On this bowl is written in oil paint the Deesis (images of Christ and significant saints in the “iconostasis tradition”) and the eight-pointed cross on Calvary.” Similar vessels were once found in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Such wooden bowls were used for worship in the first ancient church. Also in this altar, ancient holy antimensions were then found (in ancient Byzantium, these, mostly linen, antimensions with the relics of saints sewn into them were attached or nailed to the throne). Unfortunately, these artifacts have not survived to this day.
In the period from 1917 to the 30s of the last century, the Besedinsky temple was closed and its lower premises, where the church and the vast area adjacent to it were also located, were turned into a vegetable storage facility by the local state farm. During the Great Patriotic War, in 1943, the Church of the Nativity was finally transferred to the use of believers. On September 21, 1999, the Temple celebrated its 400th anniversary.
Digressing a little, I want to say that, to my surprise, online practically There are no old photos of this temple, so I, if possible, ecologically intersperse my story about its history with historical portraits of Russian tsars who were related to the “Besedinsky” temple)
As you can see, this is a glorious place, which is located very close to Moscow - getting to it by car is generally as easy as shelling pears - from the Besedinskaya interchange on the Moscow Ring Road - less than a minute. It must be said that, having passed the junction towards the region, you should not turn right where all the cars are going, but you should go straight straight along a nondescript rural asphalt path. The traffic on this smooth-sharp turn is intense, so be attentive to oncoming traffic...
It’s an amazing feeling - the Temple is initially very “warm and familiar” - it’s as if you are immersed in its welcoming and at the same time sublime energy. The tension and the usual city bustle in the mind immediately subsides. The temple is already beginning to “speak to you”, although you are only still approaching it... A familiar feeling! It is these similar and characteristic feelings that I acutely I recently experienced ecstatically in the palace village of Ostrov on the site of the erected Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Extremely interesting!
The church is all green, so at first I was even upset that it would be difficult to take general photos, but it turned out that next to the church, on the site of the ancient Konyushenny ravine, there is now a lovely intimate church square with paths for leisurely walks and, in the same place, a small water-blessed chapel of the prophet Elijah with the holy spring of the same name. It is from there that the main angles of this wonderful church were taken, which will be below...
However, first, let’s enter the church, look around a little and try to capture its spiritual atmosphere... Taking pictures in churches is traditionally prohibited, but in “non-Moscow churches” such prohibitions are not so strong, and so in this case - I took a few photos here inside temple.
09.
I would like to note the strongest impression from the so-called “praying” of the church and its unique rich, solemn interior decoration. The temple is impressive and amazing. Despite the fact that the church is rural, the prayerful attention of the former “powers of this world” and today’s parishioners is strongly felt.
10.
The temple is truly “prayed” - you don’t expect this at all at first - “falling through” and dissolving in the thick and golden energy of the Church of the Nativity of Christ. This is where I definitely recommend going and experiencing it all. Based on a similar general impression, based on the above factors, I can compare this church in terms of sensations, so far only, with the Church of the Sign on Rizhskaya in Moscow, where the miraculous icon of St. Tryphon with his relics is located.
11.
Since at first I made a little mistake with the camera settings, and in the depths of the temple it was also very dark, the next three photos turned out to be very noisy, so it’s not too bad).
12.
In the foreground is the icon of “St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with “miracles”...
13.
By the way, I am very interested in Saint Tryphon, feeling some kind of unconscious trembling attraction to this saint, and one of the reasons for visiting the Church of the Nativity was precisely the discovery of an ancient and large icon of Saint Tryphon in one of the chapels of the temple. Icons of Saint Tryphon are quite rare in Moscow and every meeting with Saint Tryphon is very important and exciting for me... In the photo below there is an icon of St. Tryphon, it is located in the middle part of it and a little to the right - near the arch.
An interesting observation - you don’t want to leave the temple, despite the fact that you seem to have examined and “absorbed” everything...
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And now, nevertheless, let’s leave the temple and walk around it. It is noteworthy that here, on its territory, many old tombstones are carefully preserved, in contrast to most existing churches, whose graveyards did not withstand the test of the Bolshevik period. Truly, this is where “love for fathers’ tombs” is visible...
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It’s not for nothing that I focus attention on the necropolis of the Church of the Nativity in Besedy - here a surprisingly integral impression of the temple and everything that surrounds it is created - there is an awareness of a careful and surprisingly meek attitude towards history, attention to the almost forgotten people who came here - to the Temple, prayed and thought about the Eternal... It’s definitely worth, calmly, thinking like this, away from the city noise and “turning off” the human Consciousness that excites and torments the soul...
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I made an attempt to walk around the church around its fence... On the left side it was not very successful - because of the barking dogs without leashes) And this photo is just on the left...
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And this is on the right - from the side of the church square...
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And this is from the side of the old church pond...
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And here is the church pond itself... There is a holy spring flowing here somewhere... The fence that you see in the top photo encloses an old ravine in which a small cozy park square has been built - we will return here soon.. .
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And I took this couple of photos of the temple from the side of the slope of the Konyushenny ravine... probably, after all, this is what it is...
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At first I thought that the door was closed, but the padlock on the gate turned out to be only on one hinge and the door opened easily... Going down the steps into the park you immediately see the touching water-blessed chapel of the Prophet Elijah...
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A few more photos of the Temple.
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A walk through the church square (and in fact, once upon a time, an ancient ravine) gave me not only pleasure, but also true peace and real unloading of the mind. With surprise and, in a new way, I began to understand that every temple built once carried in its unique and individual history a piece of the Great History of our Motherland. From the past and recent troubled times of the beginning of the last century, there are still a sufficient number of churches left, whose heads directed towards Heaven can tell a lot to the one who Asks Questions, and simply looks at them, passing through their sublime Beauty and, not only architecture, but touching to the collective unconscious of our people, which can reveal its secrets as a result and convey to us the feelings and emotions of ancestors long gone into the Eternal...
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P.S. for those who came here to see the photos taken on the Sony Alpha A7R camera with the “cropped lens” Sony SEL-1018 10-18 mm F/4 OSS: All photos for this article, as I already said, were taken entirely by this curious couple . Vignetting naturally appears at extreme focal lengths - especially at 10-12 and 17-18 mm. Comfortable focal lengths for shooting are, respectively, 13-15 mm. Light vignetting, of course, also appears at these focal lengths, but it is not at all as critical as at the extreme ones. You probably noticed that many of the photos in this post are cropped “square” and this is not surprising - after all, the lens is “cropped” and it’s easier to do just that with vignettes. Also, in the corners, some horizontal and vertical frames had to be stamped in Ps... But how does the Sony Alpha A7R full-frame camera shoot with this lens in terms of quality and convenience!? And does it have the right to be used specifically with the A7 family? These questions are quite relevant for those who have this 10-18 lens from the NEX family, which is going down in history, and for those who have already purchased a new full-frame “seven” or are just not planning on purchasing it, but still want to use the fleet of existing cropped optics. ..
I personally am satisfied with the quality of the resulting images. To some extent, the photo quality at a wide angle is even higher than that of the full-frame Sony FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Carl Zeiss Vario Tessar T* lens. The picture turns out transparent, juicy, detailed and of quite high quality. There are, as usual, geometric distortions and, here, I can only recommend that you pay more attention to the construction of the frame regarding verticals and horizontals - according to my feelings, the risk of ruining the frame is quite high. I tested 10-18 on a Sonya in order to understand for myself whether it can replace the new wide-angle zoom Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35 mm F4, which has not yet been released for sale and is not very budget-friendly in price. ZA OSS!? As it turned out - it can, but with a couple of serious reservations - it is possible to shoot with it on a full-frame camera, but with the obviously aware presence of vignetting - it is necessary to make a significant correction for it, possibly by cropping. Temporarily, in the absence of a full-frame wide-angle lens or the required budget, it can take good pictures - in terms of a wide angle, it copes with this task quite well. The results, in terms of the quality and detail of the images, can be judged from the photo from this post, and some frames were initially “built” by provoking critical conditions in terms of light and the ratio of “highlights and shadows”. But, in general, 10-18 “didn’t disappoint.” I have also photographed other architectural objects with it and am pleased with the results.
Chapels: prophet. Elijah, the Protection of the Mother of God, the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow.”
After the victory in the Battle of Kulikovo, Prince Dimitry Donskoy ordered to build a church in honor of the Nativity of Christ on the site of the “conversation” (the military council at which the battle plan was drawn up). The stone church in honor of the Nativity of Christ was built in Besedy in 1598-1599. Godunov. The temple is similar to the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye. Its brick hipped roof, decorated with towers and barrels, is crowned with a small dome and an eight-pointed gilded cross on a crescent. The white stone for the construction was delivered from the nearby Myachkovskaya quarry. Initially, the base of the temple building was surrounded by a stone open porch with one rear entrance, above which a hipped belfry rose. This extensive porch connected the small attached two chapels, which were consecrated in the name of the Great Martyr Theodore Stratilates, the heavenly patron of Tsar Theodore, and the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, the patron saint of Dmitry Godunov, the owner of the Conversations. The third chapel, in the basement of the church, was consecrated in the name of St. Theodosia.
In 1646 Besedy became a palace village. In 1765, Catherine II granted it to Count Alexei Grigorievich Orlov-Chesmensky. In 1815, the old stone porch around the temple was dismantled, and a small chapel was built on the south side in the name of the holy prophet Elijah. In 1820, a more extensive northern chapel was built in honor of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary and a three-tiered tented bell tower was erected.
In the 1930s the temple was closed and its lower room, where the church and the vast area adjacent to it were located, was turned into a vegetable storehouse.
In 1943, the Church of the Nativity of Christ was transferred to the use of believers. Recently, by the efforts of the parishioners, the church was restored, and in the lower part of the church a throne was consecrated in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow.” At the same time, a training class was created at the Sorrow Church. A chapel was built at the healing spring in the name of the prophet Elijah.
http://www.mepar.ru/eparhy/temples/?temple=9
More than six centuries have passed since the construction of the wooden church on Besedino Hill and more than four hundred years since the completion of the stone temple consecrated in honor of the Nativity of Christ. After the death of Boris Godunov and the subsequent disgrace of his entire family, Besedy languished without an owner for several years. Only with the end of the Time of Troubles and the accession of the Romanovs to the Russian throne, namely in 1623, a record appears in the scribe books of the Moscow district that the Besedskaya estate was granted to Prince Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy. The same Trubetskoy who, together with Dmitry Pozharsky, led the militia army that liberated Moscow from the Poles. In the scribe book from 1623 it is written: “... the boyar Prince Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy for Princess Anna Vasilievna,” who live “in the patrimony, the village of Besedy on the river in Moscow, and in the village there is a stone church of the Nativity of Christ and the chapel of Demetrius of Thessaloniki, and Fyodor Stratelates, and the Venerable Theodosius..." The clerk also mentions the "patrimonial building" in which people live - "his servants and grooms", there is also a "cattle yard, and a shepherd lives in it, in the yard is the clerk Nagai Smagin." Two years later, Conversations in another scribe’s book are already mentioned as “the patrimony of Princess Anna Vasilievna, the wife of the boyar Prince Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy.” And this means that by that time the prince himself had passed on to another world - he died in the summer of 1625 in Tobolsk. History, alas, is silent about the contribution of the honored commander to the arrangement of the Beseda estate and the temple.
In 1646, in one of the documents, the Besedskaya estate was mentioned among the palace estates, that is, it already belonged to the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov. And a famous researcher of antiquity, who lived in the first half of the 19th century, writes about that period as follows: “Once upon a time there was a Tsar’s place here. Judging by the previous structure of this village and by the contributions to this temple of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, this Sovereign, his ancestors and descendants loved and visited Conversations, which provided them with freedom for recreation and hunting...” This quote is taken from the book of the famous historian, ethnographer and art critic Ivan Snegirev “Russian Antiquity in the Monuments of Church and Civil Architecture.” One of the chapters of the book is entirely devoted to the temple in Besedy. What are these contributions of the king that the author is talking about? “Two service books testify to the zeal for this temple of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich,” Snegirev tells us. “This is: “The Altar Gospel, printed in Moscow in 1658.” Snegirev also reports much more, for example, this detail: “On the altar cross , there is the following inscription: The Church of the Nativity of Christ was consecrated in the summer of 7161 (1653 according to the modern calendar) under the power of the Blessed and Christ-loving Sovereign of our Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich of All Russia Autocrat, under His Holiness Patriarch Nikon of Moscow and All Rus', the church was consecrated by Archpriest Makei of the village of Kolomenskoye May on the 8th day..." On two large boards, icon painters painted the faces of the namesake saints of the family of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov: "St. Alexius, man of God and Mary of Egypt, St. Theodore Stratelates and St. martyrs Irina and Sofia." These faces, according to Snegirev, resembled the tsar and his first wife Maria Miloslavskaya, as well as their children - Tsarevich Fyodor, Princess Sophia and Grand Duchess Irina Mikhailovna and were painted in an "old-fashioned manner." Further, Ivan Snegirev writes: " Time and fires destroyed the Tsar's economic establishment; The only monument left from the previous way of life is an ancient stone church..."
An imperial decree dated February 23, 1767 has survived to this day. According to him, Count Alexey Grigorievich Orlov becomes the owner of these places. Orlov, however, preferred St. Petersburg to Moscow and practically never visited Besedy. In 1807, Count Orlov-Chesmensky died, and the Bedinsky estates were inherited by his daughter Anna, “the maid of honor of the Court of His Imperial Majesty.” After the Patriotic War of 1812, 3 years later, in 1815, a small chapel in the name of the Prophet Elijah was added to the southern side of the temple, and in 1820, a northern chapel in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos and a three-tiered bell tower, crowned with the same temple, octagonal tent. Anna Alekseevna sells the estate in Besedy to the state for 1,400,000 rubles. According to the observations of Ivan Snegirev, by the middle of the 19th century, traces of antiquities were still preserved inside the temple. But the walls whitened with lime had already hidden the former paintings, and from above the temple was illuminated by three windows “which previously had mica windows.” The windows facing north and south are “now boarded up.” Snegirev further reports that “the altar iconostasis is not older than the 18th century, with four belts,” although “before there were only two.” The icons in the iconostasis are old, “of which there are ancient local Greek-style icons, in copper frames, but not excellent in art: the Savior, Hodegetria the Mother of God, the temple Nativity of Christ and St. Nicholas of Mozhaisk with miracles...” At the end of the 19th century, the church was painted in themes of gospel history in classical style. Actually, during these years the temple acquired the appearance that we see today. To this day, ancient icons of the 18th century in gilded frames have been preserved in the temple: this is the icon of the Nativity of Christ, as well as St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with the Life.
In the 1930s, the Soviet authorities closed the Church of the Nativity of Christ to parishioners and equipped it with a vegetable storage facility. But unlike most other Russian churches, Besedinsky was lucky - at the height of the Great Patriotic War, namely, in 1943, it was returned to the believers. Since then, liturgical life here has not stopped. The current appearance of the Church of the Nativity of Christ was formed at the beginning of the 19th century, when two large chapels and a bell tower were added to the main volume of the building, which was a pillarless quadrangle on a high round basement, on which stood a brick octagon with a hipped roof. Even earlier, around the 18th century, three apses were added to the quadrangle. In the 1980s, a church with a throne was built in the basement, consecrated in the name of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow,” which has a separate entrance.
The church building is elongated along an east-west axis and appears to be two-story due to the basement windows. The northern part, where the refectory and the chapel of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos are located, is larger than the southern part with the chapel in the name of the Prophet Elijah, so there is a slight asymmetry in the plan. The octagon of the central part ends with a tent topped with a small octagonal blind drum, decorated with a row of semicircular kokoshniks, and an onion with an eight-pointed gilded cross on a crescent. The transition from the quadruple to the octagon is decorated with two rows of semicircular kokoshniks, above the level of which trumpets are raised. Smaller kokoshniks cover the edges of the octagon. The walls of the octagon are decorated with square panels, three of them have windows. The northern and southern aisles have their own miniature domes, installed directly on the roof and made in the style of the dome on the hipped end of an octagon, only they are painted blue and decorated with golden stars. The three-tier bell tower was built in the style of late classicism. The tent that completes it is made similarly to the completion of the temple, only in a smaller form, this creates an overall harmonious, slender silhouette. The transition from the third tier of the bell tower to the hipped roof is marked by pinnacles - decorative turrets, often crowned with a decoration in the form of a stylized flower, the so-called vial. A very common detail in Romanesque and Gothic architecture, pinnacles were placed mainly at the top of buttresses, also on the ledges of buttresses and towers, on ridges and pillars of walls. The first and second tiers of the bell tower are completed with classic triangular pediments on all four sides. On the second tier there is a belfry, three new bells of which were cast with donations from church parishioners. The ceremonial consecration of the bells took place on July 9, 2006. The rite of consecration was performed by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna. One of the main architectural elements of the church is kokoshniks. Two rows of large semicircular kokoshniks serve as a kind of border between the four and eight. Smaller kokoshniks hide the edges of the octagon, making it round. The snow-white apses are decorated with semi-columns and blue window cornices. The original stone church had one apse; it seems that it was dismantled along with the old aisles and porch.
In the early 2000s, next to the temple in a ravine, on the site of a holy spring, a brick overhang chapel, consecrated in the name of the holy prophet Elijah, and a bathhouse were built. Entering the church and climbing the steep stairs, you find yourself in a spacious refectory. On its vaults there is a luxurious multi-figure composition dedicated to the Holy Trinity: against the background of the blue sky there are clouds on which sits God the Father, Host Jesus Christ, and above them a dove - the Holy Spirit. Around, also on the clouds, saints are depicted. Here is the Mother of God with the apostles and evangelists, the archangels, the prophet and baptist St. John the Baptist surrounded by prophets, saints, saints, cherubs... Numerous icons and wall frescoes depict the faces of saints, as well as scenes from biblical scenes. The paintings on the walls complement the ornaments and friezes. In the central part of the temple there is the same quadrangle, built several centuries ago. If you stand in the center, you will find yourself directly under the dome and “face to face” with the main iconostasis. In 1988, as a result of a fire, the chapels in honor of the Intercession of the Mother of God and in the name of the Prophet Elijah were seriously damaged. After a major overhaul, the artists updated the paintings on the walls and ceilings, and built a new iconostasis in the Ilyinsky chapel. Even earlier, the basement of the temple was completely renovated. During the Great Patriotic War, a vegetable storage facility was located here, and only in 1979, with the help of parishioners and the rector, Archpriest Vasily (Izyumsky), the premises were cleaned and a church was built here in honor of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow.” Today the Besedsky Church has four altars, and in the main altar there still stands an ancient stone altar, which is more than four hundred years old.
Magazine "Orthodox Temples. Travel to Holy Places." Issue No. 237, 2017
At this place, where the village is located. Conversations, according to legend, the Grand Duke. Dimitri Donskoy gathered his army and held a military council before going to battle with Mamai. This explains the name of the village - Besedy. In the XVI-XVII centuries. Besedye was the “sovereign palace village”, where there was a palace and a number of outbuildings. Of the ancient buildings, only the church, built at the beginning of the 16th century, has survived. under Ivan the Terrible (according to other sources - in 1599 under the Godunovs).
The stone church in honor of the Nativity of Christ with a hipped roof, decorated with towers and barrels, is very close in architecture to the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye. Initially, the church was surrounded by a stone open porch with one rear entrance, above which a hipped belfry rose. This porch was connected to two chapels: in the name of the Great Martyr. Theodore Stratelates and the Great Martyr. Demetrius of Thessalonica. The third chapel, in the basement of the church, was consecrated in the name of St. Feodosia.
In 1765, Catherine II granted the village to gr. Alexey Grigorievich Orlov-Chesmensky. In 1815, the old stone porch around the temple was dismantled, and a chapel in the name of the prophet Elijah was built on the south side. In 1820, an extensive northern chapel was added to the temple in honor of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary and a three-tier bell tower was built.
In the 1930s The temple was closed and converted into a vegetable storehouse. In 1943 it was handed over to believers.
Currently, the temple has been restored at the expense of parishioners, and a throne in its lower part has been consecrated in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow.” At the temple there is the holy Elijah spring, over which a chapel was built in the name of the prophet Elijah.
http://www.vidania.ru/temple/temple_mosobl/leninskii_raion_hristorozdenskaya_zerkov_besedy.html
The village of Besedy stands on the right bank of the Moscow River at the intersection of Lyublinskaya Street and the Moscow Ring Road and is part of the Razvilkovsky rural settlement of the Leninsky district of the Moscow region. The Pearl of Conversations is the ancient Church of the Nativity of Christ.
The village of Besedy, located on the right bank of the river. Moscow, known since the 14th century. The Church of the Nativity was built in the 1590s, when the village belonged to D.I. Godunov, at his expense. For many years the village was a palace property, and in 1765, by decree of Catherine II, it was granted to Count Alexei Orlov. The reconstruction of the church was carried out at the expense of A.A. Orlova.
According to legend, before the Battle of Kulikovo, Prince Dmitry Donskoy received news that a huge army of Khan Mamai was approaching Moscow, after which he decided to gather a military council on the banks of the Moscow River, as they said then - “gather a conversation.” On that day, the princes and governors who gathered here chose a plan for the upcoming battle, and in the fall of 1380 they inflicted a complete defeat on the enemy, defeating the khan's hordes. Returning to Moscow, Dmitry Donskoy ordered, in the place where he held a “conversation” in the spring, to erect, in thanksgiving to God for the victory, the Church of the Nativity of Christ with the chapels of Demetrius of Thessalonica, Fyodor Stratelates and St. Feodosia. And it was from then on that the name “Conversations” stuck to the village.
The church was built at the expense of the boyar Dmitry Godunov, and there were later reconstructions and additions to it. The tented temple was originally built in the form of a pillarless white-stone quadrangle on a high basement in which a chapel was located. On the quadrangle there is a brick octagon, topped with an octagonal tent with a small dome. An open porch surrounded him. The transition from four to eight is hidden by rows of kokoshniks. Only the central part has survived from the original building. In the 19th century, the church was extensively rebuilt, the porch was dismantled, and in its place the current refectory with a large chapel and a two-tier hipped bell tower was built. During the reconstruction, the portals of the temple were cut down and the narrow windows were widened.
The temple was closed by the Bolsheviks in the 1930s, after which a vegetable storehouse was built in the lower room. Reopened in 1943. and was no longer closed, thanks to which two ancient iconostases were preserved. The side chapels are Pokrovsky and Ilyinsky, in the basement there is the Skorbyashchensky chapel. On the territory of the temple in 2004, a small red-brick water-blessed chapel was built in the name of the prophet of God Elijah. Next to the temple there is an old overgrown pond with St. source on the shore.
Since 1979 he has been rector of the Church of the Nativity of Christ in the village of Besedy near Moscow. His pastoral activities deservedly earned him love and respect among his parishioners. Archpriest Vasily Izyumsky is the author of the books “Why Do We Need the Church” and “Zaraisk Shrine”, as well as articles in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The material was provided by church parishioners Alexei Fedotov and Natalya Smirnova.
