[2] At that time, the Dubrovitsy Estate was small; it had boyar's court, cow's yard, and several huts for courtyard people and a wooden church in the name of Prophet Elijah.

He remained in the post of the head of the Kazan department, i.e. his duties included managing the vast southern and eastern lands of Russia.

In 1690, July 22 (August 1, new style), Tsar Peter arrived in Dubrovitsy to consecrate the foundation of the new church in the name of The Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[6] The new church was built of white stone on the high bank of the cape, formed by the confluence of the Desna and Pakhra rivers.

[5] Manager of the Armoury Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin Alexander Veltman stated that "in general, the architect's intention was to create a semblance of an ancient basilica, with all the embellishments of Catholic and Gothic temples.

[11] Of course, foreign craftsmen working for Boris Golitsyn did not ignore local traditions, which gave rise to a synthesis of Western and Russian styles in church architecture.

[14] Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Adrian refused to consecrate the church, citing an uncharacteristic non-standard architectural style.

[16] In 1787, on June 23 (July 4, new style), Empress Catherine II visited Dubrovitsy to buy this estate and present it to her favorite Alexander Matveyevich Dmitriev-Mamonov (1758–1803).

Retired in 1789, Alexander and his wife Princess Daria Fyodorovna Shcherbatova, the Empress's maid of honor, settled in Dubrovitsy.

As a member of a secret organization aimed at reforming the autocracy, Matvey was arrested, declared insane and placed under guardianship.

Fedor Richter, being a specialist in the field of medieval architecture, decided to remake the church in the "Old Russian" style.

Such alterations were actively opposed by the priest of the local parish Bulkin, filing complaints against Richter, due to which the original appearance of the church was practically preserved.

A fountain in the form of two cast-iron bowls brought from the Ural factories of Sergei Golitsyn was installed in front of the palace's facade.

[36] The Main Department of Cultural Heritage of the Moscow Region exercises state control over the preservation of the church and the implementation of comprehensive repair and restoration work on it.

For the sacrament of baptism in the lower tier of the bell tower, a church was built in honor of the martyrs Adrian and Natalia.

Until now, the names of architects, stone carvers, sculptors and artists who participated in the construction and decoration of the church remain unknown.

Aksinya, Morozov's daughter, at the end of her life took a monastic vow as Euphimiya and spend some time in the St. George Monastery in Moscow.

[38] Bojar Boris Golitsyn at the beginning of 1713 took monastic vows as Bogolep and he spend his last days in the monastery of the Holy Florischev desert (Nizhny Novgorod Oblast).

[3] For Count Matvey Dmitriev-Mamonov, his Moscow townhouse on the Sparrow Hills became a monastery, where he spent more than 30 years under guardianship and where he died.

The type of centric temple of this shape was widespread in Catholic countries and expressed the main features of the European Baroque of the XVII century.

Many of these decor elements have never been found in Russian art before: a "diamond" facet, various columns, relief curls and brushes, shells, exotic flowers and fruits carved from stone, leaves of the Mediterranean plant acanthus.

These eight Cherubs installed on the roof of the church hold the tools of Christ's Passions: Spear, Ladder, Cross, Nails, Crown of Thorns, Sponge, etc.

Near the ground, in the corners of the basement, are located, now badly damaged, the statues of the Four Evangelists: Mark, Luke, Matthew and John.

[47] The sculptural objects at the feet of the Evangelists reproduce one of the incarnations of Tetramorph (a mythical winged demon from the visions of the Prophet Ezekiel).

Tetramorph appears in the form of four living creatures: an Angel, a lion, a calf and an eagle, which guard the four corners of the Throne of the Lord and the four borders of Paradise.

In 1910, the architect Sergei Makovsky wrote about the church in Dubrovitsy: "... nothing like this will ever be found in greater Rus'; nothing more extravagant ... more charming simply not to invent!".

If you stand in the middle of the quadrant of the building, you can see the entire interior of the church, with the exception, of course, of the altar, which is hidden from view by a high iconostasis.

[50] On the four pillars of the supporting arches there are figures: on the eastern wall to the right of the iconostasis is St. Joseph with a lily flower in his hand; to the left – Virgin Mary, carrying the Child Christ to the temple.

[52] The interior of the church is richly decorated with many relief compositions, inscriptions in Latin, a skillfully carved iconostasis and a Baroque choir.

Krasovsky described the iconostasis of the church as follows: "In its marvelous fabulousness and high technology, it surpasses all the iconostases in the Russian Baroque that only I have ever seen ...".