FESTIVE TIER

The iconostasis of the Twelve Apostles' Church presents ten in fourteen icons that used to compose the iconostasis of the Ascension Cathedral. There are several peculiarities in the arrangement of icons. The "Festive" icons are placed between the Veneration and Deisis tiers; the icons of the Triodion ("Three Odes", in Byzantine liturgical tradition, the book of hymns of the Lenten period), which were traditionally arranged on the Festive tier, are fixed on the Passion tier and both sides of the Crucifix. Along with that, the compositions and certain details bear elements of western engraving.

Icons of the Festive tier are similar to icons of other tiers in their stylistic and iconographic features. They have similar manners in painting faces, similar ornaments in garments and techniques of preparing and fixing the boards. This tier, as the whole iconostasis, is dated back to 1679, as judged by the document about the donation for executing the cover for the Holy Doors.