PATRIARCH'S PALACE IN THE 18TH-19TH CENTURIES

In 1703, Peter the Great abolished the Patriarchate. Since then, the Patriarch’s estate fell into desolation. On March 1718, Peter I visited the Patriarch’s Palace and ordered to organize a “library of multilingual handwritten and printed books” on the third floor. In the Chamber of the Cross, the last Church Council about the establishment of the Holy Synod was in session in 1720; and the Synod’s sessions were held there before it moved to St. Petersburg in 1731. The palace was renovated several times in the first quarter of the 18th century. The Twelve Apostles’ Church and the Refectory were refurbished under the direction of architect Ivan Zarudny in 1722-1725. The church was divided into two levels by a wooden ceiling; they set up the Patriarch’s library on the first floor and the sacristy in the living quarters. The renovated church was provided with a new carved and gilded iconostasis; Peter Zherebtsov made frescoes in the Church and Refectory. The Chamber of the Cross got another name—the Chrism Chamber in 1763, as the stove for making church oil, called chrism or myrrh, was removed from the dismantled Church of the Three Blessed Fathers.

In the mid-19th century, the wooden floor dividing the church into two floors was dismantled. The walls of the Twelve Apostles’ Church and the Refectory were painted again and a high carved iconostasis was installed to the full height of the church. The activities were led by architect Chichagov, who was realizing the Emperor’s order to make the church lighter—he enlarged the old windows and cut the new ones, as well as changed the exterior.

In the 19th century, the Patriarch’s Palace housed various offices of the Synod.