The Archangel's Cathedral

The history of the Archangel's Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin dates back to the XIV century: in 1333, the first Great Moscow Prince Ivan Kalita (Money-bag) ordered to lay the foundation of a white-stone church devoted to St. Archangel Michael respected in Russia as a guardian of soldiers and Russian princes in their feats of arms. In 1505-1508, a new majestic cathedral was erected on the place of the old church. Venetian architect Aleviz Novy was especially invited by Great Prince to supervise the construction project.

Up to the XVIII century, the Archangel's Cathedral had been a burial place of Moscow Princes and Tsars. The white-stone gravestones of Princes adorned with praying words and epitafhs stand under the cathedral's vaults in strict order. The tombs of the Ryurikovich dynasty are located endlong the cathedral's walls. The tombs of the Romanov dynasty are situated near the south-western and north-western pillars. The first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible and two his sons are buried in a special tsar's shrine set in the altar part of the cathedral.

Among the most respected reliquaries of the Archangel's Cathedral are the one with the relics of St. Prince Michael Chernigovcky murdered in the Golden Horde in 1254 and the one with the relics of Tsarevich Dmitry, the younger son of Ivan the Terrible. The remnants of Saints had never been covered with sod but placed in special reliquaries set up for belivers' worship. The reliquary of Tsarevich Dmitry is placed at the south-western pillar under the stone carved marquee.

The cathedral was first adorned with wall-painting in the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The ancient murals have not survived except small fragments on pillars and several compositions of the altar and the tsars' shrine. In 1652-1666, the cathedral was painted anew by a big team of Russian masters. The works were supervised by famous tsar's isograf (icon-painter) Simon Ushakov. The program of the new wall-painting had the same idea of the one of Ivan the Terrible's times. One of the main themes was the glorification of the Great Princes' and Tsars' power through the images of Saint Russian Princes. Among the Saints, painted on the cathedral's pillars, there are Princess Olga, Great Prince Vladimir who had set up the Orthodoxy in Ancient Rus in 988, his martyred sons Boris and Gleb, Princes Alexander Bogolyubsky, Alexander Nevsky, Daniyl Moskovsky and others. The particular point of the cathedral's wall-painting is the circle of tombstone portraits: the ideational portraits of Princes from the Ryurikovich dynasty are painted over their tombs in the lower tier. The "portrait" gallery of historical persons is opened with the image of Moscow Great Prince Ivan Kalita and ended with the image of George Vasilyevich, the younger brother of Ivan the Terrible.
The cathedral's iconostasis crowned with the scene of Crucifixion was created in the reign of Tsar Feodor Alekseevich Romanov in 1679-1681.
All the icons were painted by masters of the Tsar's Armoury Chamber. Only several ancient icons in the lower local row there have been saved. To the right of the King's Gate there is the cathedral's icon "Archangel Michael in gests". According to a legend, the icon was painted on the order of nun Eudokia, the widow of Great Prince Dmitry Donskoi, to the memory of Great Prince and his victory in the Battle on the Kulikovo Field.