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reign; but was almoft as inftantly hurried from the palace to a dungeon, where (helanguifhed during the whole reign of the Emprefs Anne. Being releafed upon theacceffion of Elizabeth, fhe married Count Bruce, and died without iffue.
Chap. III.— Number of Churches in Mofcow.—‘'Their outward Structure.—Interior Di-vifions.—Worjhip of painted Images.—Defcription of an enormous Bell.—Principal Build-ings in the Kremlin.—Ancient Palace.—Convent ofTfchudof—Nunnery bfViefnovitfkoi.—Cathedral of St. Michael.—Tombs and Characters of the Tzars. —Genealogical Tablesof the Ruffian Sovereigns.
THE places of divine worlhip at Mofcow are exceedingly numerous* and exclufiveof chapels, there are four hundred and eighty-four* public churches, of which onehundred and ninety-nine are of brick, and the others of wood; the former are com-monly ftuccoed or whitewalhed, the latter painted of a red colour.
The mod antient churches are generally fquare buildings, with a cupola and four fmalldomes tj fome of copper or iron built, others of iron tinned, either plain or painted green.Thefe cupolas and domes are for the mod part ornamented with erodes entwined withthin chains or wires ; each crofs has two tranfverfe bars J, the upper horizontal, thelower inclining, which, according to the opinion of many Ruffians, is fuppofed to bethe form of the real crofs, and that our Saviour was nailed to it with his arms in a ho-rizontal pofition, and one of the legs higher than the other. I frequently obferved acrefeent under the lower bar, the meaning of which no one could explain §.
The infide of the church is moftly compofed of. three parts; that called by the Greekswf 0VCX.0S, by the Ruffians Trapeza; the body; and the fan&uary or fhrine.
In the body of the church are frequently four fquare and maffive piers, which fup-port the cupola: thefe piers, as well as the walls and cielings, are painted with nu-merous reprefentations of our Saviour, the Virgin Mary , and different faints. Manyof the figures are enormoufly large, and executed in the rudeft manner, fome aredaubed upon the bare walls; others upon large maffive plates of filver or brafs, or en-clofed in frames of thofe metals. The head of each figure is invariably decked with aglory, which is a maffive femicircle, refembling an horfe-fhoe, of brafs, filver, or gold,and fometimes compofed almoft entirely of pearls and precious ftones. Some of thefavourite faints are adorned with filken drapery fattened to the walls, and ftudded withjewels ; fome are painted upon a gold ground, and others are wholly gilded but theface and hands. Towards the extremity of the body of the church is a flight of fteps
* According to Hcym, in 1793, Mofcow contained twenty-two convents, nine Cathedrals, and threehundred and twenty-fix churches.
f The church of the Holy Trinity, fometimes called the Church of Jerufalem, which (lands in the Khi-taigorod, clofeto the gate leading into the Kremlin, has a hind of high lleeple and nine or ten domes ; it wasbuilt in the reign of Ivan Vaffilievitch 11 . An engraving of that, as well as fome of the more antientchurches, may be feen in Olearius and Le Brun’s Travels.
f I am here deferibing the mo ft antient churches 5 the modern erodes over thofe of 3 t. Petcvfburgh aremollly fingle.
§ Dr. King ingenioufly accounts for the crefeent. ** Some churches have a crefeent under the crofs ;for when the Tartars , to whom Mufcovy was fubje&ed two hundred years, converted any of the churchesinto mofques for the ufe of their own religion, they fixed the crefeent, the badge of Mahometanifm, uponthem ; and when the Grand Duke Ivan Bafilovitch had delivered his country from the Tartar yoke, andfeftored thofe edifices to the Chriftian worlhip, he left the crefeent remaining, and planted a crofs upon itas a mark of its viftory over its enemy.” Kites,and Ceremonies of the Greek Church, p. 23.
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