Nativity Church in the Kremlin, Orthodox church in Tverskoy District, Moscow, Russia.
The Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos na Senyakh is the oldest surviving building in the Moscow Kremlin, a white-stone church of 1393–1394 preserved to half the height of its walls, with a main portal and slit windows. In 1514–1518 Aloisio the New built a brick, five-domed upper church on the ancient lower part, which became a chapel of Lazarus. Under Tsar Feodor Alekseevich in 1681–1684 it was rebuilt as a single-domed church with a rectangular altar and a refectory on the west.
The church was founded in 1393 at the request of Eudoxia of Moscow, widow of Prince Dmitri Donskoi, on the site of an older wooden church dedicated to Saint Lazarus. Over the following centuries, the building went through several phases of reconstruction, though it retained its role as a palace church within the Kremlin.
The name "na Senyakh" comes from the seni, the palace hall or covered entrance passage the church adjoined. It served as the house church of the Grand Princess in the women's half of the palace. Its patronal feasts were the Nativity of the Theotokos and the Fedorov Icon, when the patriarch served with the full consecrated council. In February 1667 and 1668 three patriarchs celebrated here in the presence of the tsar and his family.
The church is part of the Grand Kremlin Palace complex and cannot be visited; it has been enclosed in the palace since the mid-19th century. It can only be seen from outside, within the Kremlin grounds, whose entry follows the general ticket arrangements. The lower part of the 1393–1394 building survives to half the height of its walls.
The church is closed to the public, so its oldest masonry is known mainly from study: the 1393–1394 walls survive to half their height, up to the choir, with the main portal and some windows. Two of the four pillars are round in plan, a rare form, and a eight-petalled rosette window sits on the west facade.
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