Church of St. Nicholas of Pyzhi (Moscow)

 Russian Orthodox Church, 17th century construction, object of cultural heritage of federal importance (Russia), Orthodox church

The Church of St. Nicholas of Pyzhi is a beautiful example of a late 17th century church. The white stone building has a lavish exterior including two rows of kokoshniki, dentil and beaded molding below the wide cornices, and finely carved window frames with triangular, pointed and rounded pediments. Vertical round, beaded, sculptured columns compliment horizontal belts of decorations. Its roof supports five cupolas, four blue ones in the corners and a central gilded one. All are topped with small crowns and traditional crosses that are said to symbolize "tongues of fire." The refectory with side chapel and the tiered, tent style bell tower whose lowest level has arches with pendentives were added by 1692.

On this place in 1635 there was the Church of the Annunciation in the Streletsky Regiment of Filosofov. Either in 1647-1657 or 1670-1672, Colonel Bogodanov and the Pyzhov Streltsi regiment built this beautiful church, but they were unable to enjoy it for long. Peter the Great executed Bogodanov in Red Square on October 10, 1698 for his involvement in the Streltsi uprising instigated by Peter's half sister, Sofia. At the same time, Peter took away the special rights and privileges held by the Streltsi.

Although the church was closed in 1934, the iconostasis contains some original icons as well as copies of more famous ones. Restoration work first occurred in the 1960s while the building was occupied by a newspaper workshop. The church was returned to the Moscow patriarchy in 1991.