Church of Saint John the Baptist pod Borom, Moscow, Eastern Orthodox church in Zamoskvorechye District, Russia.
The Church of Saint John the Baptist pod Borom is an Orthodox church on Piatnitskaya Street in the Zamoskvorechye District of Moscow. It features a dome and a bell tower, and holds the status of a federal cultural heritage site in Russia.
Records of a church on this site date back to 1514, placing it among the oldest religious sites in the city. The current stone building was erected in 1675, while the bell tower was rebuilt and took its present shape in 1758.
The name "pod Borom" means "under the pine forest" in Russian, recalling the dense woodland that once covered this part of the city. Today, standing before the church, one can still sense how different this area must have looked centuries ago, before the city grew around it.
The church sits on Piatnitskaya Street and can be reached on foot from several Metro stations in the area. Since it is an active parish, visiting during a service is the most reliable way to see the interior.
During the Soviet period, the church was repurposed rather than demolished, which was not the fate of many religious buildings in Moscow at the time. This relatively sheltered history is part of why the structure has survived in its current form.
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