The Rise of the Patriarch

The image shows a a scale comparison between the Moskova Bank Site and the Vatican. I will rewrite the story with more programmatic detail once I have made more progress with the design. They are informing each other at the moment.

The red brick walls of the Kremlin once housed both Rulers of Russia, one political, the other spiritual. In 1652 the Patriarch of Nikon felt that his residence in the small church of the Deposition of the Robe was not grand enough for him. He ordered his residence within the Kremlin to be extended and create the Palace of the Patriarch with its integral church of the Twelve Apostles. The building of the Palace of the Patriarch was a physical demonstration of the power of the Church. This avocation of the supremacy of Church of State angered Tsar Alexis and the Patriarch was forced to retreat from the Kremlin. 

The denial of the Patriarch’s power was strengthened by the rejection of religion by the Soviet Party.  The repeated destruction and iconoclasm of all religious iconography continued until 1943 when Stalin softens towards the Church after WWII.  When, in exchange for churches humanitarian work the Patriarch was given a working residence in Central Moscow and allowed to open religious schools but his powers remained limited.

Today the Patriarch still resides in the suburbs of Moscow but under the new Russian Federation the power of the Church is once again gaining strength. Alexius II is the current Patriarch of Moscow, all of Russia and the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.  He is the advisor to Russian Presidents and has begun to play an influential role in state affairs.

The church spires which once dominated the Moscow skyline have today been overshadowed by Soviet High-rise buildings and Capitalist Mega structures. Over the last century respect for the churches of Moscow has almost disappeared. They have ended up in back yards hemmed into blocks of flats, stripped of there position and status. You will find then preserved in the shadows of looming buildings exhibited as lifeless symbols. “They have been robbed of their aura, their inviolability, the atmosphere around them purposely destroyed or left pitilessly exposed.”  

Today there is a once again a shift in power and a change in perception. The Patriarch has regained his seat of power. Believing his distance from the Kremlin a hindrance, he declares the reconstruction of the Cathedral Christ Our Saviour as evidence of a growing nostalgia for Russia’s past and the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church. Sponsored by the money of Moscow’s billionaire elite, the Moskova Bank will now re incarnate to become the spiritual container intended to contain the history and essence of old Moscow.  

The new container will be a formal manifestation of the renewed connection between church and state. Working as a constant reminder of the destruction that the church has been subjected to it will reinstate the institution to its former glory, dominating the view of the Moscow skyline.