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Church of St Simeon Stolpnika (St Semyon
Stylites), 1676-1679, on Povarski street. This is just a block from the New
Arbat street and two from the Arbat pedestrian walk, also between the ring
roads that show the former location of the Beli gorod and Zemli gorod walls. It
is well worth the detour. The street name, povar, comes from the povari, cooks,
of the royal court who lived there. At one time the church was known with the
location of being in the kitchen gardens by the Arbat gate. The chapels are
dedicated to Reverend Semyon Stolpnik, Saint Nikolai Chudotvortsa and Saint
Dmitrii Rostovski. The church has three apses and bright blue domes. And it has
a tent-shaped belltower. Some historians believe that the secret marriage of
Prince N. P . Sheremetev with his serf actress wife, P. I.
Kovalevoi-Zhemchugova was performed here. Gogol attended services here. The
last service during Soviet times here was in April 1938 after the great basso,
F. Shaliapin died in Paris. His daughter, Irina Feodorovna, demanded a memorial
service here for her father. The church was closed soon after. When Kalinin
street (now New Arbat) was widened there was an excuse to destroy the church,
but only the strenuous and dangerous insistance of the famous architect, L. I.
Antropov, saved it.
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