A unique carved 17th-century iconostasis from Moscow’s Visoko-Petrovsky Monastery, created by order of Tsar Peter I and believed to have been lost, has been found in the storerooms of the “Kolomenskoe” Metropolitan Museum-Reserve, reports TASS. “The iconostasis of St. Peter’s Cathedral of Visoko-Petrovsky Monastery was not destroyed when the soviet authorities closed the monastery as was previously believed. A presentation was held in the State Institute for Art Studies on the first results of the examination of the dismantled and surviving icons, found in Kolomenskoe,” said the abbot of the monastery Fr. Peter (Yeremeev).

As Fr. Peter noted, the iconostasis was preserved thanks to the distinguished restorer Peter Baranovsky. “Elements of the six-tier iconostasis were transferred to Kolomenskoe at the end of the 1930s. They were kept without inventory, not really in proper conditions, but they survived… The carved columns, two rows of panels, other individual elements, and nearly all the icons have survived to our day,” Fr. Peter explained.

The museum now faces the difficult task of restoring the icons and the remaining carved elements. There is as yet no talk of transferring the iconostasis back to the monastery. The iconostasis was made by order of Tsar Peter I and installed in the monastery cathedral in 1690. The icons were painted in various styles by masters of the armory chamber. (Quelle: www.orthochristian.com, 9. Juni 2018)