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      Preobrazhenka and Cherkizovo: Old Believers and a pond

      ⏱ 1 h 55 min🚶 3 km + 🚋🍽 1📍 5 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      About two hours between two stations of the red line: the regimental church of Peter’s “Poteshny” troops, a closed Old Believer town with a monastery kitchen and a 17th-century church above the pond in Cherkizovo.

      🏛 History and architecture🏘 Off the centre⏱ An hour or so
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps (with transit)
      1. 1
        🏛 Church of the Transfiguration on Preobrazhenskaya Square
        Преображенская пл., 9А
        The church of the former regimental settlement of the Preobrazhensky Regiment — demolished in 1964 and rebuilt to the old drawings in 2014.
        Two minutes from the exit of Preobrazhenskaya Ploshchad metro. The church is new, from 2014, but repeats the one demolished in 1964 — the bell tower again stands in its old place by the square.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Church of the Transfiguration on Preobrazhenskaya Square
        © Gennady Grachev from Moscow, Russia · CC BY 2.0
        • The village of Preobrazhenskoye has been known since the 17th century, when Alexei Mikhailovich built a summer palace here.
        • The "play regiments" of the young Peter I were stationed here, and in 1687 the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiments grew out of them.
        • The stone church was built in 1765–1768, and the side chapel and bell tower were added in 1781.
        • The church was blown up in 1964 and rebuilt in 2014.
        • Since 2015 it has been the main church of the Russian Ground Forces.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🏛 Preobrazhenskaya Old Believer Community and Nikolsky Monastery
        ул. Преображенский Вал, 25
        🆓 free entry
        A walled 18th-century town of Fedoseyevtsy Old Believers, with turrets: the Church of St Nicholas, the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross by the cemetery, cell buildings and a quiet courtyard.
        10 minutes along Preobrazhensky Val. Enter through the gate in the wall with turrets; it is quiet in the yard, so behave as in a monastery. Dress modestly to go in: women in a skirt and headscarf.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Preobrazhenskaya Old Believer Community and Nikolsky Monastery
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Preobrazhenskaya Old Believer Community and Nikolsky Monastery
        © AndyVolykhov · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The community was founded in 1771, during the plague, around a quarantine and a cemetery for priestless Old Believers.
        • The organiser was the Fedoseyevtsy merchant Ilya Kovylin; the chapel at the cemetery bears his name.
        • Under Nicholas I some of the buildings were taken from the Old Believers and made into the Nikolsky Edinoverie Monastery.
        • The wall with pseudo-Gothic turrets looks like a small kremlin.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        ☕️ Monastyrsky Dvorik café on Preobrazhensky Val
        ул. Преображенский Вал, 25, корп. 4
        ▮▮▯▯▯
        Right there, on the community grounds. An inexpensive lunch: soup, porridge, pies. Open until 19:00, on Monday until 18:00.
        🍴 A simple café on the grounds of the Preobrazhenskaya community: homemade soups, porridges, pies and pastries. What to order: soup of the day and a cabbage pie, or a vatrushka (curd tart) with tea.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        • "Monastyrsky Dvorik" (Monastery Courtyard) is the refectory on the grounds of the Church of St Nicholas the Wonderworker on Preobrazhensky Val.
        • The church is part of the former Nikolsky Edinoverie Monastery at the Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery; in the 18th century there was a community of priestless Old Believers here.
        • The Nikolsky side chapel was consecrated in 1854 by Metropolitan Filaret (Drozdov), when part of the Fedoseyevtsy Old Believers joined Edinoverie.
        • Before Easter the refectory bakes and sells kulichi (Easter breads).
      6. 🚋 Tram along Preobrazhensky Val and Bolshaya Cherkizovskaya to the stop by Cherkizovsky Pond, ≈10 min
      7. 4
        🏛 Church of Elijah the Prophet in Cherkizovo
        Большая Черкизовская ул., 17
        A small single-domed church of 1690 on a hill above Cherkizovsky Pond — a remnant of the former village of the Moscow metropolitans.
        On foot along Bolshaya Cherkizovskaya — about 25 minutes beside a noisy road, faster by tram. The church stands on a hill above the pond, with the entrance from Bolshaya Cherkizovskaya.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Church of Elijah the Prophet in Cherkizovo
        © Ludvig14 · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The village took its name from the Horde prince Serkiz, who was baptised as Ivan Serkizov.
        • The first church was built in the 14th century by the new owner, the baptised Tatar Ilya Ozakov, in honour of his patron saint.
        • In 1378 Metropolitan Alexei bought Cherkizovo "with his own silver" and bequeathed it to the Chudov Monastery.
        • The stone church was consecrated on 18 June 1690 on the site of a burnt wooden one.
        • The Sosenka river, on which the church stood, now flows in a collector along the pond's eastern shore.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🌳 Cherkizovsky Pond
        Большая Черкизовская ул., у храма Илии Пророка
        🆓 free entry
        An old pond on the Sosenka river with a path along the shore and a view of the hill with the Church of Elijah — a quiet corner steps from the metro.
        Go down the hill to the water and walk along the shore — the best view of the church is from here. It’s 10 minutes to Cherkizovskaya.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Cherkizovsky Pond
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Cherkizovsky Pond
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The pond is one of the few places where you can still see how the Sosenka, a tributary of the Khapilovka, flowed.
        • The Sosenka is almost 9 km long, rising near Golyanovo; almost all of it is piped underground.
        • The church on the hill above the pond stands on the site of a 14th-century church.

      ↩️ Getting back: From Cherkizovsky Pond 10 minutes to Cherkizovskaya metro

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