The whole ground on which a church stands is holy, but most particularly and for ever holy is the spot on which an altar has once rested ; not even a priest can unconsecrate it. Though the church vanish, no other building nmst arise there, nor must any human foot profane that spot. Should the church be burned or pulled down, this place is carefully indicated. A stone is sunk with an inscription stating the name of the church and the manner of its disappearance ; round the stone a little wall is built, and the whole is roofed in. In laying out new plans for towns, these Httle monuments, which are on no account to be removed, are often sad stum • blingblocks, and sometimes lie very strangely and awkwaj'dly in the road. It is difficult to decide on the exact numbers of the churches in Moscow, the accounts given differ so widely. While some speak of 1500, others reduce the number to 500, and others even to 260. Some reckon every chapel attached to the larger churches, those in private houses, convents, and those erected over graves, which might easily swell the number to thousands. Some people reckon the summer and winter churches separately, and others together There are even some churches in Moscow which do in fact consist of several joined together, of which each has its own name and is quite apart from the rest. In this manner the church of tlie Protection of tlie Holy Virgin might be set down as twelve. Lastly, some of the convents have one chief church, and three, four, and even five supplementary churches, in erch of which service is performed only once a year ; these are passed over in some estimates, and included in others.
It is sufficient to say that the buildings in Moscow destined for divine service are countless. The most classic and holiest of all, -the quintessence of the whole sacred mass, is w ithin the inmost heart of Moscow, on the height of the Krendin. This consecrated spot Sahonioi-Ploshtshad (Catliedral Place), has been surrounded by the Emperor Nicholas w^th a lofty and magnificent iron grating, and contains the church of the Czars' tombs ; the church with the tond)s of the Patriarchs ; the cathedral where the coronation takes place; the church in the old palace of the Czars; the great John, the highest tower in the city of the Czars, and the chapel of Mary of the Cave. It is hard to say which of these is the most important ; perhaps the preference belongs to the Uspenski Sabor (the Cathedral of the Resurrection), as the emperors are crowned in it, and the Patriarch formerly officiated there.
The name of the cathedral leads a Western European to expect great spaces and lofty arches, in which the voice returns in echo, and the eye loses itself in the distance ; but these expectations will be fulfilled by no Russian cathedral. According to Russian taste, a church must be crowded with pictures and shrines, and thus, in this cathedral, eye and spirit are bewildered with the glitter of gold and the glare of colour. The whole chiu-ch is gilt v^ithin ; even the heavy pillars that support the five cupolas are covered with gilding from top to bottom, and the walls the same, and on this golden ground large fresco paintings have been executed, the subjects taken from the Bible. The figures are gigantic, and distinguished by astonishing strength of grimace. They are said to have been painted by foreign artists at the command of the Czar Vassili Ivanovitsh, but they are right Russian as well as the church. The artist must have yielded to the national spirit. There is more gilding than gold in this church. The French seem to have distinguished the true metal from the false better here than in the castle chapel, where they left a quantity of gold, mistaking i't for copper. The guide showed us a part of a pillar where he asserted the value of the metal removed had been calculated with a blacklead pencil, by Napoleon's own hand. As, however, it has all been painted over, and only a white place is now shown where the writing is said to have stood, it is not very easy to believe the story.