As you know, in the XX century, the Cathedral of the Intercession on the Moat has already undergone several complex restorations, which returned the appearance of the 16th-17th centuries to the temple, sacrificing a significant part of the later interior elements, but could not solve all the problems of this monument. That is why restorers are now working in the cathedral again. Until 2005, they dealt mainly with the facades of the temple. Work in the interiors continues to this day. Two of the nine chapels of the cathedral were restored in the past, in 2008: the northeastern chapel of the Three Patriarchs and the southeastern chapel of St. Alexander of Svir. In parallel, work is being carried out in the vast subchurch of the church.
The expert council began its work at the visiting session with an acquaintance with the results of the restoration of the premises of the southern basement, where, upon completion of all work, it is planned to place one of the expositions (recall that the cathedral is a branch of the Historical Museum). The most interesting room, in the opinion of experts, turned out to be the basement of the Trinity Church, where in the upper part of the vault were opened, restored and supplemented in the lost places of the painting of the early XX century. This painting is much younger than the temple; it is part of the restoration work of a century ago and in a stylized form reproduces the plant ornament characteristic of the cathedral, which first appeared on the walls of its gallery in the 17th century. However, despite their relative novelty, the discovered fragments are interesting as an example of the style of the early 20th century - the painting was cleared, the lost areas were supplemented, and one fragment was kept uncleared and covered with glass for future exposition.
In the subchurch of the Trinity Church, work was also carried out to restore the brickwork of the 16th century and the reconstruction of the original architectural forms of window niches, arches, etc. In particular, a previously laid slit-like window leading to an adjacent room was revealed - its experts recommended making it openable for better ventilation. It was decided not to paint over the unpainted areas of the masonry in the window niches under the brick, but only to tint the seams so that they did not look too new and white.
In other parts of the basement of the cathedral, the paintings practically did not survive, and the restorers here, first of all, were required to preserve the premises themselves (vaults, windows, etc.), as well as restore the brickwork of the 16th century destroyed by time. The lime plaster was removed from the walls, and then the broken brick was leveled and the losses were made up with a special solution that imitated it, which differed in color from the original fragments.
The offsite meeting continued in the north outer gallery of the cathedral. Here, on the walls and vaults in the 1930s, under a layer of 19th century oil painting, the tempera painting of the last quarter of the 17th century was uncovered. It is very fragile - the paint layer lies on the thinnest levkas soil applied directly to the brick - and in the lower register, moreover, it is constantly touched by visitors. The painting has already gone through several restorations and renovations in the 1970s and 80s, and now again requires cleaning, renovation and conservation. For this, specialists have already developed a new method and technology for preserving the painting and are going to test it on the walls of the northern porch, taking the vaults and upper registers covered with floral patterns on a white and blue background as a standard of preservation. The experts agreed with the proposal of Lev Lifshits, head of the sector of Old Russian art of the State Institute of Art History, to first make a soft cleaning of the paintings from contamination and select the level of possible toning. However, the restorers are forced to think about much more prosaic things than the nuances of toning - in particular, they need a new project of electrical wiring in the cathedral, since the cables are still running right over the painted walls.
Then the experts proceeded to the eastern part of the main gallery of the cathedral, where, under a thin layer of 19th century writing, restorers managed to uncover a fragment of 17th century oil painting. Having carefully studied this find, the experts decided to expand the probe, as well as try to reveal the late painting on the gallery's pilasters.
Based on the results of the visiting session, the expert council once again formulated the main tasks of the current stage of restoration of the Cathedral of the Intercession on the Moat. First of all, the experts recognized the need to carry out work on the bypass galleries and porches with the preparation of sites for testing various restoration and conservation techniques. Secondly, they approved the further disclosure of the 17th century murals in the eastern gallery of the cathedral. And, finally, the need for constant technological control over the course of restoration of brickwork in the subchurch of the church was once again emphasized.
