VENERATION TIER

The iconostasis of the Ascension Monastery consisted of icons made at different times. They were the evidence of donations and paintings been commissioned for the monastery from the 15th till the beginning of the 20th century. According to the 1910 Inventory, the Veneration (Local) tier consisted of the Holy Gates and the canopy bearing The Last Supper image; the door into the Prothesis with the image of Archdeacon Stephan; the door into the Diaconicon with the image of Forefather Melсhizedek. These icons were made around 1679. The images of two seraphs above the door were painted on tin sheets at the end of the 19th century. 

To the left of the Royal Gates, there used to be the Hodegetria icon of the Virgin (1482), which is now placed in the State Tretiakov Gallery, and the Annunciation (1630-1640s). Now there are icons of the Holy Wisdom (second half of the 17th century) and Our Lady Fyodorovskaya (18th century).

To the right of the Holy Doors are the next icons: Christ Enthroned (about 1679), the Ascension (second half of the 18th century) and the Holy Trinity (1630-1640s (?) stored in the Kremlin Museums’ fond). The Veneration tier was acquired from the Ascension Cathedral in 1929. The Holy Doors, the doors into the Prothesis and Diaconicon, together with the paintings above them, as well as the icons of Christ Enthroned and the Ascension were set in the iconostasis of the Church of the Twelve Apostles in 1930.