Conciliar Chamber

STOU Historical, Cultural, and Educational Center

The Conciliar Chamber at Likhov Lane in Moscow has become a new cultural venue with its own unique atmosphere. Classical music concerts [ru] are held here. You can listen to the music of great composers: Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi and others from the Baroque era. These masterpieces, which have survived through the centuries, are interesting not only for adults, but also allow, along with the theater, to develop artistic taste and instill true values in children. Traditionally, festivals of sacred music [ru] are held in the Conciliar Chamber. The brightest and most famous choral groups of Moscow perform here. On the website, you can buy tickets for all major events and interesting concerts. 

The Conciliar Chamber’s playbill [ru] includes not only classical music concerts, but also musical events for children, children’s concerts and performances, events for children and adults, as well as a musical lecture hall, which includes concerts and lectures about the history of classical music and the special musical traditions of Christian nations. To see the calendar of events, weekday and weekend activities, please visit the website.

The Conciliar Chamber is also a new lecture hall [ru] for Moscow, offering lectures on history, theology, cultural studies and Christian art. The schedule of the lecture hall [ru] can be found on our website.

The Conciliar Chamber is located in the center of Moscow, near the Garden Ring, in the historic building of the Moscow Eparchy House. While the building originally belonged to the Orthodox Church, after the Revolution, it changed hands several times and was rebuilt. Today, after being returned to the Church and restored to its historical appearance, the building at 6 Likhov Lane, with its high dome and bell tower, has become a real adornment of the capital city of Moscow. The most convenient way to get there [ru] is from the Tsvetnoy Bulvar, Chekhovskaya, Pushkinskaya, and Tverskaya metro stations. You can check the address on the official website.

History

STOU’s Conciliar Chamber historical, cultural and educational center revives the traditions of the Moscow Eparchy House. Here, people talk about life with God, about Holy Rus and its ascetics, about Orthodox culture and the beauty of Christian art. 

Built in 1902 with the blessing of the future Hieromartyr Metropolitan Vladimir Bogoiavlenskii “for the good cause of spiritual enlightenment,” the Moscow Eparchy House was a centre of the spiritual and cultural life of the ancient capital in the pre-Revolutionary years. Magnificent services and brilliant sermons were held in the house church; there were concerts of religious music, a library accessible to all who sought it out, open lectures on history, geography, and theology – everything here served the purpose of spiritual, moral, and cultural enlightenment.

In 1917–1918, at the beginning of the era of persecution of the Church, the Moscow Eparchy House hosted the Local Council, which restored patriarchy in the Russian Church and elected St. Tikhon Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. During the Soviet years, the building of the Moscow Eparchy House was repeatedly modified and its appearance altered beyond recognition.

In 2004, the building was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church, and by 2015, it had been completely restored to its original appearance. With the blessing of Patriarchs Alexis II and Kirill, it now houses St. Tikhon Orthodox’s University of the Humanities. 

For more information, click here [ru]. 

Museum of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia

The museum [ru] is located in the historic building of the Moscow Eparchy House. It was here in 1917–1918 that meetings of the Local Council took place, which decided to restore the Patriarchate in Russia. Of the five hundred members of the Council, most were later subjected to repression, and many were killed. Fifty of them have been glorified as saints.

The exhibition – archival documents and photographs, damaged icons and liturgical items, personal belongings of people who were subjected to repression – addresses the God-hating policy of the authorities, the Church’s reaction to it, and the personal choices that everyone had to make.

​Special attention in the exposition is paid to the holy martyr Metropolitan Vladimir, the founder of the Moscow Eparchy House, and St. Tikhon, ‘the most goodly patriarch in the most evil time’, as it was said about him during his lifetime.

​The Museum of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia is a unique collection of exhibits recounting tragic pages in the history of the Church during Soviet rule. But this is not a memorial exposition facing the past, not a museum of grief. It is a story of the victory of life and love, of the triumph of the righteousness of Christ, which remains unchanged in any historical circumstances.

The permanent exhibition of the Museum of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia is intended for adults interested in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church and the recent history of Russia.