Old Believers' Churches Built According to the Projects of E. Bondarenko in Moscow and Moscow Province

Abstract

The article contains a brief description of the four Old Believers' churches, built according to the designs of architect I.E. Bondarenko (three in Moscow and one in Moscow province) in the second half of the 1900s - the first half of the 1910s. The very possibility of building Old Believers' churches was a direct consequence of the revolutionary events unfolding in Russia and October 17, 1906, Supreme Decree on Religious Freedom, for the first time since Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon, giving the Old Believers equal rights with the dominant church.

The issuance of this decreeled to the explosive volume of Old Believer construction in Russia, including Moscow, which in the second half of the 18th century became the true capital of Russian Old Believers. For Bondarenko, the issuance of this decree also became fateful. For the decade of 1906-1916 (in February 1917, a revolution began in Russia that put an end to this construction), the design of Old Believers' churches became the main business of the architect. According to his projects, 12 churches were built, including four described in the article published below.