Epiphany Cathedral

Like many other large churches, Epiphany Cathedral was built on the site of the ancient church. The first stone church of the Epiphany was built there with the assistance of Peter I in 1722-1732. Before that the whole area was occupied by the village of Elohovo well known for the fact that there, in 1468, Basil, the holy fool and the miracle-maker, was born.

In 1835 the clergy and the wealthy parishioners decided to build a new Cathedral of the Epiphany on the site of the old church. The cathedral was built in 1835-1845. Huge and majestic, with entrances decorated as triumphal arches and the central dome, Epiphany Cathedral became one of the last monument of late classicism in Moscow. In 1853 the church was painted. Later, the attic and the dome above the refectory, new paintings, and the church plate were added. One of the main attractions of the cathedral is the copy of the miraculous Virgin Mary of Kazan, which helped in liberating Russia from the Polish invasion in 1612. The Epiphany Cathedral also has especially revered icons of the Tikhvin Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas. In 1930-1992 the Epiphany Cathedral was the Patriarch’s Cathedral.