Puerta y capilla ibéricas

La primera puerta de piedra que daba acceso a la Plaza Roja se erigió en 1535, durante la reconstrucción en ladrillo de la muralla de Kitai-gorod. En la reconstrucción de 1680, el doble pasaje quedó coronado por cámaras de dos plantas con dos tejados a cuatro aguas octogonales , similares a las torres del Kremlin . En la puerta que da a la Plaza Roja se colocó un icono de la Resurrección , del que la puerta toma su nombre.

Hasta 1731, las dependencias situadas sobre la puerta eran compartidas por la Casa de la Moneda y la Farmacia Central, ambas vecinas. Tras la fundación de la Universidad de Moscú por Mijaíl Lomonósov en este último edificio, la imprenta universitaria se trasladó a las dependencias de la puerta. Nikolái Nóvikov , quien dirigió la imprenta a finales del siglo XVIII, convirtió la segunda planta en su sede.

Since 1669, the wooden chapel in front of the gate (facing away from Red Square) has housed a replica of the miracle-working icon of Panaghia Portaitissa ("keeper of the gate"), the prototype of which is preserved in the GeorgianIveronmonastery on Mount Athos. Hence, the name Iversky (that is, "Iberian") that stuck both to the chapel and the gate. In 1781, the Nikolo-Perervinsky Monastery constructed a new brick chapel on the spot. The star-splattered cupola of the structure was topped with a statue of an angel bearing a cross.

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. Beggars and outlaws would pray there next to the highest royalty and even the Tsar himself. It was there that the rebel Emelyan Pugachev asked the Russian people for forgiveness a few hours before his execution. 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.

In 1931, the Resurrection Gate and the chapel were demolished by the Soviet regime in order to make room for heavy military vehicles driving through Red Square during Soviet military parades. 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.

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  View of the gate at the turn of the 19th century.
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  The gate in 1898
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  The gate and chapel before their destruction in 1929.
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  The restored gate and chapel at night.
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  View through the gate toward Saint Basil's Cathedral.