Church of Saint John the Evangelist under Elm-tree, Orthodox church in Tverskoy District, Russia
The Church of Saint John the Evangelist under Elm-tree is a Russian Orthodox church in Tverskoy District, Moscow, built in the Empire style with a cylindrical bell tower and a facade lined with columns. It stands on Novaya Ploshchad, a short street in the center of the city.
The building went up between 1825 and 1837, during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I, at a time when the Empire style was widely used across Russia. During the Soviet period, it lost its religious role and became part of the Moscow History Museum.
The church takes its name from an elm tree that once stood on its grounds and served as a reference point for people in the neighborhood. Today the tree is gone, but its name remains, and visitors can see the white columned facade up close from the surrounding square.
The church is a short walk from Lubyanka Metro station and easy to reach on foot from central Moscow. If you want to attend a service, it is worth checking in advance, as opening times for general visitors can vary.
The name of the church is unusual because it directly references a tree, which was a common way in old Moscow to tell apart churches that shared the same patron saint. Several Moscow churches used similar landmark-based suffixes for exactly this reason.
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