The Russian Academy Of Arts

In St. Euthymius monastery in Suzdal on the National Unity Day, November 4,  the Archbishop of  Vladimir and Suzdal Eulogius consecrated the cross installed on the burial place of the national hero Dmitri Pozharsky (1578-1642) and the foundation stone for the marble chapel of Dmitri Pozharsky to be recreated according to the original destroyed in 1933. The ceremony was attended by Georgy Poltavchenko, Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Central Federal District; Alexander Avdeev, Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation;  Nikolai  Vinogradov, Governor of Vladimir Region. The chapel is planned to be completed by November 4th, 2009.   

In the June of 2007, the Russian Afon Society initiated raising funds for the  rebirth of the chapel on the burial place of Dmitri Pozharsky. The Patriarch of Moscow Alexi II,  President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have been among the first contributors.

Designed in the Russian style of the early 17th century and constructed in 1885 with the involvement of the Imperial  Academy of Arts, the marble chapel of Dmitri Pozharsky, commander of the people’s volunteer corps that liberated Moscow from Polish invaders in 1612, has been a place of pilgrimage for many devotees of Russian history. Till 1917, the chapel had been under the supervision of the Imperial Academy of Arts.

At present, the President of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Tsereteli has been included in the Council of Trustees for the revival of the sacred place. He  provided his assistance in the search of archival documents and photographs of the demolished monument and contributed to the fabrication of the afore-mentioned  cross with a commemorative inscription on its base. In accordance with the original blueprints, in the foundry of the Russian Academy of Arts under the supervision of Zurab Tsereteli, as a donation, there will be cast a bronze cross crowning the chapel, massive doors and railings around the chapel.

Historical background

     The exact burial place of Prince Dmitri Pozharsky was discovered in 1852 as a result of archaeological excavations held by the edict of Emperor Nicholas I. At the same time they began to raise funds for the construction of the memorial.
     On November  14th, 1858 the Emperor Nicholas I ordered:
1. To erect in St. Euthymius Monastery in Suzdal a stone chapel in the old Russian style over the burial place of Prince Pozharsky; to place inside the chapel a tombstone to be covered by a shroud with a cross sewed on it;  to install a lectern in the eastern part to perform services for the dead and to place there icons donated by Prince Pozharsky;  to put in showcases robes made of the fur coat that had covered his coffin as well as  the Price’s  other belongings and books dear to his heart; to engrave on other walls of the chapel a short narration of his services to the homeland.
2. To invite bids through the Academy of Arts for the design of the memorial.

Alexei  M. Gornostaev (1808-1862), Professor of the Imperial Academy of Arts has been selected from other candidates as a finalist. He designed a remarkable white marble chapel  to be lavishly adorned with carving, bronze reliefs, mosaic icon of Christ the Savior and an epitaph on the pediment: To Prince Dmitri Pozharsky From Grateful Descendants. The construction lasted almost a quarter of the century. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in 1863. After Gornostaev’s death, in 1865 Emperor Alexander II made a few amendments in the project: “To replace the wooden icon case by a marble one and  to substitute the painted icon of Our Lady for a mosaic icon”. From the two mosaic icons in the chapel only one “Christ the Savior” has survived and is now on show in the Vladimir and Suzdal Museum.  The image of the Savior for the mosaic was painted by academician Geideman in 1867. The mosaics have been executed in 1870 by artist Rikatov and mosaic maker Kokoshkin.
     The chapel funded exclusively from private donations was consecrated on June 2, 1885.

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