HISTORY OF ICONOSTASIS

The history of the iconostasis starts from the decree of Tsar Fyodor Alexeevich on the building of its new construction. The activities were launched in October 1679, and the next November a new carved iconostasis (without icons) was installed in the Cathedral.

It was made in the Armoury at the Poteshny Dvor, in the "workshops of carving, tool and joiner's craft". Over seventy masters were involved in the work. The artel was headed by leading craftsmen: Mokei Ilyin, Gerasim Okulov, Ivan Ivanov, Ivan Sagdashnikov, Gregory Yermolin, Maxim Shatrov and Ivan Naumov. A workshop of fourteen masters was engaged in gilding the carved iconostasis. Supervision over activities for gilding was effected by painter Dorofei Yermolaev Zolotarev. Initially, the iconostasis was not only gilded, but also silvered, and painted in red and greyish-blue colours. It lost its polychromy in 1853 under the substantial renovation of the construction, after which all the carved details were gilded again, and the greyish-blue background was replaced by a red one.

The Holy Doors and the icons on them were executed in the early 1770s and replaced the decaying old ones. Formerly, there were compositions based on Christian parables, on the socle panels under the icons of the Veneration tier. During the restoration of the iconostasis in 1950s, the decision was taken to overpaint those compositions with the red colour, leaving only a fragment under the icon of the Archangel Michael, with Acts of the Angels.