Iberian Gate and Chapel

The gate adjoins the ornate building of the Moscow City Hall to the east and the State Historical Museum to the west.

When the structure was rebuilt in 1680, the double passage was surmounted with two-storey chambers crowned by two octagonal hipped roofs similar to the Kremlin towers.

According to a popular custom, everyone heading for Red Square or the Kremlin visited the chapel to pay homage at the shrine, before entering through the gate.

The ever-overcrowded chapel, with candles burning day and night, figures in works by Leo Tolstoy,[1] Ivan Bunin, Marina Tsvetayeva, and H. G. Wells,[2] to name only a few.

Both structures were completely rebuilt in 1994–1995 after the fall of the USSR, and a new icon of the Iveron Theotokos was painted on Mount Athos to replace the original.

The gate and chapel are wedged between the Moscow City Hall (to the left) and the State Historical Museum (to the right), 19th-century postcard.
Our Lady of Iveron, Mount Athos, Greece
The heavenly blue, star-studded dome of the little chapel is sandwiched between the twin arches of the gate.