St. Clement's Church

This is the only church to fully survive the fire of 1812. Its carved and gilded wall of icons decorated with sculptures managed to survive intact and remains unrivalled in Moscow. The church is believed to be the work of Pietro Trezzini, the architect behind a number of palaces and churches in St. Petersburg. The current building dates back to the end of the 18th century. The reconstruction of the stone church was paid for by the merchant Kuzma Matveev, who lived in a mansion nearby. Matveev owned clothing factories near Kursk and was the inventor of rare fabric dyes that were just as high-quality as their foreign counterparts.