The Church of the Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos on Rozhdestvenskaya Street is popularly known as the Stroganov Church after the merchant Grigory Stroganov who funded its construction. The church is steeped in many legends: one of them has it that when the church was finished, the master builder was due to be blinded so that he could never build anything as magnificent again but he turned into a raven and flew away.

The church was on fire several times and was even shut down for three years by Peter the Great, who was outraged to see there the icons he had commissioned from Louis Caravaque for the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg (Stroganov is said to have bought them). Since saltern enterprises lay at the heart of Stroganov’s vast fortune, he reserved the church cellars for storing salt. The Stroganov Church has ancient icons of St Nicholas the Wonderworker and icons with some relics of St Seraphim of Sarov. Note the weather vane in the shape of a flag, which is a nod to the fashion for all things nautical in the times of Peter the Great.