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 two-tiered Empire-style church on Novaya Ploshchad, built in 1825–1837. Its lower facade is rusticated, the east side has a six-column portico with stuccoed entablature, and the upper tier is a light drum ringed by an Ionic colonnade. The bell tower's ringing tier sits level with the dome, and two parish houses flank the church, linked by arched gates.

The first mention of a wooden church here dates to 1493, in connection with a fire recorded in the Nikon Chronicle. A brick church replaced it in 1658, and the present Empire-style building went up in 1825–1837, funded by the local priest Vasily Lyubimov and attributed to architect Ivan Tamansky. Closed in 1925, it housed the Moscow History Museum from 1934 until services resumed in 2011.

The name "under Elm-tree" comes from a large elm that stood beside the church and its cemetery until 1775. Historian Pyotr Sytin instead links it to dense forest that once protected the eastern approaches to the Kremlin before the 15th century. Today the church serves as the domestic chapel of the Russian Orthodox University, hosting exhibitions, conferences and youth meetings.

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.