A gem of Peter’s Baroque: restoration architects uncover 18th century murals in the Novaya Basmannaya church

Restoration of St. Peter and Paul Church, a rare specimen of Peter the Great’s Baroque period is ongoing at 11/4 Novaya Basmannaya Street. Restoration architects have fully uncovered the early 18 th century murals in the upper chapel.

The church is a cultural heritage site of federal significance. It was built on Peter the Great’s orderand financed by him. The construction started before the ban on stone construction in Moscow: the Emperor’s decree was published in 1714 and remained in effect for 27 years. After the decree had been published, the Senate still resolved to allow the construction to finish in stone. Some historians believe that Ivan Zarudny, a famous architect and artist of that period, managed the construction project.

”The St. Peter and Paul Church on Novaya Basmannaya is a one-of-a kind architectural landmark with rich history. There’s a legend that Peter the Great personally had a hand in designing the building. An ambitious façade restoration effort was completed in 2021; now the architects are busy with the interiors. The lower chapel is almost done; all the original details have been restored, including elegant chandeliers and wall sconces that have been put back in their places not so long ago. The work in the upper chapel is in full swing. Restoration workers are preparing for painstaking work: they have to recreate the murals and restore ornamental mouldings. Our Department staff are supervising all the works,” said Alexey Yemelyanov, Head of the Cultural Heritage Department.

The St. Peter and Paul Church was built as an octagon on top of a quadrangle, with both of them resting on a tall, semi-underground foundation. The lower chapel was consecrated to St. Nicolas, the upper one-to Apostles Peter and Paul. The church is surrounded by open walkways on three sides. Sculpted white stone cornices and abutments (flan pillars) adorn the façades. The bell tower, richly decorated with moulded ornaments, rounds up the ensemble.

When doing their work in the upper chapel, restoration artists carefully removed multiple sealing layers, fixed the damaged areas and cleaned the murals of blackened varnish. That helped them understand the church’s iconography and the painting series and select the images that would help them restore the murals that were lost.

Now they have to do a lot of work to recreate the destroyed paintings and restore those that have survived. Over 40 narrative murals are going to be put to rights. For example, there’s an early 18 th century image of a warrior preserved on the south wall; the dome has some painting fragments from the same time.

Right now, they are finishing mural maps and drafts. Artists are going to work on scaffolding as high as 45 meters in the middle of the dome.

The carpentry workshop is busy with the upper chapel’s icon stand. They use linden wood to make ornaments: the rack and the apron. At the same time, small decorations are being gilded. In order to be as precise as possible, restoration artists apply gilt with special tiny tools made of agate.

The cast-iron staircase is also being renovated. Cast bannisters were dismounted and numbered: they are going to be restored in the workshop, along with wooden doors. Plaster mouldings, stucco and brickwork inside the church are also being worked on.

In 2021, restoration architects returned the church’s façades to their old splendor, restored the white stone wall base and applied a fresh gilt coating to the crosses topping its domes. The lower church restoration is almost complete. Murals there were in good shape, so all they did was clean them and harden the paint layer.

The St. Peter and Paul church construction started in 1705 and finished in 1719. In May of 1737, a fire destroyed the bell tower railings, platform and stairs, along with the fence. The building had been restored, and by the mid-18 th century, its ensemble, including the church and the bell tower crowned with spires, was complete.

The church suffered from dampness for years, so restoration started again in the 1860 s. Funded by one of its parishioners, a third guild merchant Andrey Zalogin, the restoration campaign lasted for 12 years. They built walkways around the altar, put up new façades in the old Baroque style, added two new chapels, restored ovens, windowsills and the bell tower. Photographs takes in the late 19 th-early 20 th century show us how it used to look.

After the Revolution of 1917, the Moscow Theological Academy (or Bell Tower Academy) kept operating there. Some priests in Moscow used to wear Candidate of Theology badges earned in the Academy. The church was robbed in 1921 and closed down in 1935. The building was handed over to the Moscow regional police and used as a warehouse. A wooden hangar was built on the church grounds for the Geodesy plant; a kindergarten was added in 1940.

In 1959, the Moscow Executive Soviet resolved to hand the building over to the Geophysical Survey Research Institute. Both the upper (St. Peter and Paul’s) and the lower (St. Nicolas’) chapels were divided into offices. The church was given back to the believers in 1992.