Crypts in the History of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin: Discovery, Origin, Dating.

Introduction:The relevance of the study lies in the need to generalize and interpret fragmentary data on burial structures discovered during excavation work near the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin and directly inside it.

In the period from ser. XIX century to the third quarter of the XX century . in the space under the Assumption Cathedral, the Patriarchal Chambers and the Church of the Twelve Apostles, as well as between these buildings, Moscow archaeologists have repeatedly encountered medieval burials. Their research demonstrated the presence of a multilayered soil cemetery on the specified territory of the XII – beginning . XIV century., unknown according to synchronous written sources ^{[1, p. 9]}.

The study of this necropolis was devoted to the articles by D.A. Belenka "Archaeological observations in the Assumption Cathedral in 1966" [Belenka D.A., 1971] and N.S. Shelyapina (Vladimirskaya): "Archaeological observations in the Moscow Kremlin in 1963-1965" ^[26], "Tombstones of the XIII-XIV centuries from excavations in the Moscow The Kremlin" ^[27], "On the history of the Study of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin" ^[28], "Archaeological research in the Assumption Cathedral" ^[29], "Archaeological study of the northern part of the Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin" ^[7]. A brief description of the necropolis was given by T.D. Panova in her works "Burial complexes on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin" ^{[15, pp. 219-222]} and "Necropolis of the Moscow Kremlin" ^{[16, pp. 5-6]}. However, these data have not been fully characterized and analyzed so far. So, on the site to the north of the cathedral, scientists twice encountered crypts containing human remains. However, in the first case, only a brief mention of the find got into the historical literature ^{[22, p. 91]}, and in the second, the results of the research were not published at all by their author and only many years later the crypt was briefly mentioned in T.D. Panova's article "Burial complexes on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin" ^{[15, p. 220]}. In addition, in the magazine "Lamp" there is a mention of a crypt found inside the cathedral, under its floors ^{[23, p. 44]}.

In 1873, a two-volume book by historian I.M. Snegirev "A detailed historical and archaeological description of the city" was published ^[22]. This monumental work contains the first mention of the discovery of burials near the Assumption Cathedral: "A brick crypt is open at the northern doors and human bones are in it" ^{[22, p. 91]}.

The second case of the discovery of burials near the cathedral occurred in 1913 . In connection with the preparation of the celebration of the tercentenary of the Romanov House, large-scale restoration works have been launched in the Kremlin, which also affected the Assumption Cathedral. During excavation work under the supervision of archaeologist S.S. Zakatov, several graves were identified near the cathedral, including "part of an ancient crypt laid out of white limestone" ^{[30, p. 252]}.

S.S. Zakatov left a rather detailed report on the observations, but these data were never published by him. Only the magazine "Lamp" honored the work of 1913 near the Assumption Cathedral with a small note "Excavations in the Kremlin", where it was briefly mentioned that "Well-preserved human skulls, bones are found in piles of earth dug here ..." ^{[20, p. 40]}. The same note was published a year later in the "Proceedings of the Imperial Archaeological Commission" ^{[21, pp. 113-114]}.

As it turns out from the work of T.D. Panova "Historical and social topography of the Moscow Kremlin", data on the works of S.S. Zakatov were first discovered in the 1960s. Then the archaeologist R.L. Rosenfeldt found his report in the archive of the IA RAS of the USSR, among the unassembled materials ^{[19, p. 36]}.

Later, necropolis researcher N.S. Shelyapina (Vladimirskaya) very briefly noted S.S. Zakatov's observations in her articles "Tombstones of the XIII-XIV centuries from excavations in the Moscow Kremlin" ^{[27, p. 288]} and "On the History of the Study of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin" ^{[28, p. 203]}, and used the report in as an appendix to his PhD thesis, which was never published ^[30].

The first mention of the crypt discovered by S.S. Zakatov was made by T.D. Panova in an article in 1989. "Funeral complexes on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin" ^{[15, p. 220]}. However, no comments and analysis of the find were given in the article.

It is noteworthy that in both cases, the researchers mentioned the crypts in connection with the excavation of ser. I.M. Snegirev gave information about the brick crypt immediately after describing the work on the device of the collapsed "vault" of the cathedral (here and further – in this case, I.M. Snegirev called the "vault" of the ceiling of the underground, basement part of the cathedral) ^{[22, p. 91]}. S.S. Zakatov pointed out that the crypt limestone, apparently, was damaged during the laying of the heating pipe in the cathedral ^{[30, p. 252]}. Details about these works are given in the article by V.S. Markov "Assumption Cathedral in Moscow: its heating device" ^[11].

It is important to note that regarding the concept of "crypt" in the Russian historical and archaeological literature there is a long-standing and still unresolved terminological discussion. Classical crypts, which are underground chambers, sometimes having an aboveground part or even completely aboveground, intended for reusable use and visits, are not typical for the funeral rite of medieval Russia and Modern Russia. The so-called "crypts" in Russian burial practice were, as a rule, of a one-time nature. They are mainly known of two types: underground (in rare cases, floor–mounted) early brick tombs made of plinth and later brick (as an exception – white-stone) tombstone vaults. Crypts were also called simple brick tombstone structures, a kind of fences that do not even have a vault. They were often arranged for formal compliance with the law (for example, in Moscow in 1722, a ban on burial in the city without a "crypt" was established).

Since the 15th century, brick tombstones have also been known to be installed over underground burials in the interiors of status tombs (usually temples). They represented both a simple brick parallelepiped and more complex forms of vaulted pseudo-sarcophagi ^{[5, p. 83]}. The remains of the buried were not contained directly inside the tombstones, so they are only indirectly related to the crypts.

Thus, in the cases under consideration, for which the researchers of the XIX – beginning XX century. the word "crypt" was written, without specifying the design, it is possible to talk about a specific type of these burial structures only by indirect signs.

The typology of funerary structures, such as crypts, brick tombs and tombstones, was considered in their works by T.D. Panova and L.A. Belyaev. In T.D. Panova's work "The Kingdom of Death: the Funeral rite of Medieval Russia of the XI-XVI centuries", separate sections are devoted to medieval brick tombs and interior tombstones ^{[18, pp. 95-99 and pp. 129-130, respectively]}. Interior brick tombstones on the example of the necropolis of the Archangel Cathedral are also considered by T.D. Panova in the article "Medieval funeral rite based on the materials of the necropolis of the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin" ^[13]. L.A. Belyaev studied tombstones from the ancestral tomb of the princes Pozharsky, compared by him with similar ones from other ancestral necropolises of the nobility of the XVI-XVII centuries ^{[5, pp. 70-103]}. According to his conclusions, they all largely follow the model of the Archangel Cathedral. A large number of late brick crypts were found in the necropolis of the Smolensk Cathedral of the Novodevichy Monastery, the study of which opens the article by Belyaev L.A., Grigoryan S.B. and Shulyaeva S.G. "Necropolis of the Smolensk Cathedral of the Novodevichy Monastery of the XVI-XVII centuries. Research 2017-2018: methods and results" ^[6]. In his work "The experience of studying historical necropolises and personal identification by methods of archeology" ^[4] L.A. Belyaev gives a description of the late tombstone vaults. It is worth noting that these late crypts could in some cases not have a vault directly, being just a brick fence made inside a grave pit ^{[2, p. 18, Fig. 7]}.

Interestingly, in the status tombs, a combination of a brick tombstone and an intra-grave brick crypt could be used, including repeating each other in shape ^{[5, p. 99, fig. 81]}. Also, later tombstones were built over earlier ones ^{[13, p. 111]}.

T.D. Panova's works, containing detailed information about the Assumption Cathedral as the burial place of the heads of the Russian Church and the internal funeral monuments: "Necropolises of the Moscow Kremlin" ^[16] and "Kremlin tombs: history, fate, mystery" ^[17], were also involved for research.

As an analogy, a valuable note by A.G. Melnik "Ossuary of the Rostov Assumption Cathedral" ^[12] is drawn, in which a white-stone burial structure discovered in the Assumption Cathedral of Rostov the Great is considered.

The last mention of the medieval cemetery under the Assumption Cathedral, the research of S.S. Zakatov and the discovered crypts is contained in my article "The Necropolis of the Moscow Kremlin: the history and stages of field archaeological research" ^[1]. However, the format of this publication did not allow us to pay attention to the details of research and individual finds, in particular, burial structures identified in the deep zone of the cemetery and in the cathedral itself. This article is intended to highlight in detail the history and context of the crypts, to characterize these structures and to propose their dating.

The study of the crypts should be preceded by a brief historical reference, since the condition and reconstruction of the cathedral at different stages of its existence have the most direct relation to the studied funerary structures.

In the second half of the XII – first quarter of the XIV century. on the territory of the northern part of the Cathedral Square there was a cult center of Moscow with the oldest dirt cemetery and, probably, a wooden church.

There is a version that in 1280-1290 the first stone building of Moscow was erected in its place – the Dmitrov Church ^[28], but this assumption is debatable ^{[9, p. 194]}.

The first stone Assumption Cathedral was built of white stone under the Moscow Prince Ivan Kalita in 1326. Initially, the temple was conceived as a resting place for secular and spiritual lords, but after the construction of the Archangel Cathedral in 1333, the princes began to be buried in it, and the Assumption remained a necropolis of metropolitans and, later, patriarchs. The only prince buried in the Assumption Cathedral was Yuri Danilovich. Besides him, Metropolitans Peter, Theognost, Cyprian, Photius and Jonah were also buried in this first cathedral.

By the end of the third quarter of the XV century . The Assumption Cathedral is dilapidated. In 1472, the solemn laying of the new Assumption Cathedral by Metropolitan Philip and Grand Duke Ivan III took place. The construction was entrusted to Pskov architects Krivtsov and Myshkin. However, on May 20, 1474, the almost completed white stone building suddenly collapsed. One of the causes of the disaster chronicles call "coward" – an earthquake that occurred that day.

The current Assumption Cathedral was built literally on the ruins of a collapsed building, invited in 1475 from Venice by an Italian master, Aristotle Fioravanti. Previously, the Venetian dismantled the white-stone cathedral damaged by the "coward", and erected a new brick one in its place, including partially using the foundations of the cathedral of Krivtsov and Myshkin. The relics of all the Metropolitans and Prince Yuri Danilovich buried earlier in the first white stone church were transferred to this cathedral.

Subsequently, the floors were repeatedly shifted in the cathedral, in the middle of the XIX century. heating pipes were also repeatedly laid into the cathedral, and at the beginning of the XX century. its restoration was carried out and the basement of the temple, overgrown with soil over the centuries, was cleaned. All these changes were associated with earthworks, during which the burial structures discussed in the article were identified.

Brick cryptIn 1858, work began on the heating of the Assumption Cathedral, under the direction of engineer-captain Bykov (his initials are unknown).

Archpriest V.S. Markov, who described the work in detail, pointed out that during the work an earthen sinkhole was discovered in the altar part of the cathedral, "under the separation of the altar" ^{[11, p. 419]}. In connection with these events, the first mention, still hypothetical, of the crypts under the Assumption Cathedral appears. On November 22, 1858, the Moscow Governor-General, Count Zakrevsky A.A. wrote to Metropolitan Filaret: "the architectural council, when examining the site ... of an earthen sinkhole that appeared under the separation of the altar of the Moscow Assumption Cathedral, found that it probably occurred from the crypts that were destroyed from time to time in this place" ^{[11, p. 421]}. It was decided to "arrange a proper vault under the failure" ^{[11, p. 421]}. And in the course of further work, indeed, a crypt was discovered.

Information about this has reached us thanks to I.M. Snegirev. Describing the "plan, facade and style" of the Assumption Cathedral, the researcher wrote: "There are no exits and basements visible under the very platform, except for the northern pre-altar, where there was a human-sized exit without a vault and a support until 1858; this vault collapsed, another one was made instead. A brick crypt is open at the northern doors and human bones are in it" ^{[22, p. 91]}.

Comparing the data from the letter of Count A.A. Zakrevsky and the information of I.M. Snegirev, it can be concluded that in the above excerpts both authors mean the same works on the elimination of the failure and the replacement of the "vault" under the altar part of the cathedral. A.A. Zakrevsky mentions the department of the altar, and I.M. Snegirev – the northern altar, having in mind the same part of the cathedral – the northern apse of the altar part, in which the altar is usually located in the temples of the cross-domed system.

The crypt, apparently, was discovered during further excavation work by engineer-captain Bykov, who, in addition to the heating device, was also entrusted with strengthening the "vault" ^{[11, p. 421]}. The absence of any other data about the crypt makes it difficult to determine its origin and dating. It is only known that it is, in fact, brick and "opened at the northern doors" in 1858 during the excavation of Bykov, and I.M. Snegirev did not specify which side of the doors – directly under the cathedral or near it, outside. Apparently, I.M. Snegirev, giving information about the crypt in the description of the exteriors of the cathedral, considered the external position of the burial structure obvious to the reader, so he did not provide clarifying phrases (the localization of the crypt will be discussed in more detail later). As already mentioned, "human bones" are recorded in the crypt. There are few structures of the type of crypts made of brick in Russian archeology: these are medieval brick tombs arranged under the floors of temples and later inter-grave crypts made according to the type of vault, parallelepiped or simply fences used both for burials under the floors of status tombs, and in parish cemeteries in the city limits. In addition, early brick floor tombs and later brick tombstones are also known, but they were arranged above the floor level, while I.M. Snegirev obviously refers to the crypt identified below.

The architectural commission, called to the site to find out the causes of the collapse, suggested that the "vault" of the temple collapsed due to the fact that the crypts that were under it collapsed "from time to time". Brick crypts made of plinths under the floors of temples have been known in Russia since the XI century in Kiev, Chernigov, Zarub ^{[18, p. 96]}. In the XII-XIII centuries. They are found in Kiev, Chernihiv, Pereyaslavl-Khmelnitsky, Polotsk, Smolensk, occasionally in Novgorod. The latest burials of similar types are known all in the same Chernihiv and date from the XIII-XIV century. ^{[18, p. 97]}. Such burial structures are not typical for the territory of northeastern Russia, only one brick tomb was found in Old Ryazan ^{[18, p. 97]}.

Could this crypt have been built in the Assumption Cathedral, during its construction and be an underground brick tomb? For the end of the XV century, this type of structures is not typical, as it is not typical for Northeastern Russia. At the same time, the discovery of a "crypt" under the floors of the cathedral once took place. However, this case is unique and will be considered separately in the article. It is also important to note here that the Assumption Cathedral is the resting place of the Moscow metropolitans and Russian patriarchs, the list of persons buried in it is known, as are the places of their burial under the floors and in the interior of the cathedral. They are located mainly along the walls of the temple, only one burial was performed on the salt at the southern doors and two, the earliest – in the reliquaries, in the altar ^{[15, p. 228; 16, p. 8-9]}. Another burial committed in the church belonged to the Moscow Prince Yuri Danilovich – he was buried in the Dmitrov side chapel, in the altar part ^{[17, p. 12]}. Most of the burials are marked in the interior of the cathedral by tombstones.

The location of all these graves was known to I.M. Snegirev. In cases when this author described bones found directly under the floors of other temples belonging to status temple burials, he offered identification of the buried ^{[10, p. 165; 17, p. 100]}. In the case of the crypt under study, this is not observed. This is not surprising, because if we assume that the crypt mentioned by I.M. Snegirev was an underground brick tomb inside the temple, then it is impossible to even imagine who could be buried in it. The history of burials in the Assumption Cathedral has been documented in the annals for several centuries and there simply could not be "superfluous" or "accidental" burials in it.

In addition, it should be noted that although the Assumption Cathedral has a powerful basement and a high floor level raised above ground level to a height of about 2 m, this architectural feature inherited from the building of 1472-1475 ^[9] did not lead to the formation of a sub-church space used for burials (as, for example, the Smolensk Cathedral of the Novodevichy Monastery, where 35 crypts alone are open ^{[6, p. 7]}). Burials in the Assumption Cathedral were carried out directly under the floors, in the ground or a brick battle, underlying, according to research in the 1960s. the level of the first floors of the cathedral ^{[25, p. 3, photo 1]}.

If we assume that the specified crypt could have been built in the first Assumption Cathedral in 1326, it would certainly have been destroyed by large-scale construction in the 1470s. During these years, two buildings of the cathedral were consistently dismantled and created, and from the first temple (as, indeed, from the second) only parts of the buried foundations and supports, layers remained construction residues and preparations for the floor and paving of the area ^{[25, pp. 3-5; 26, pp. 38-46]}. Bones were also found in the crypt, while it is known about the transfer of all the remains of the buried metropolitans during the rebuilding of the cathedral in the 1470s ^{[8, p. 270; 9, p. 188-189; 17, p. 21]}. 

In addition, the discovery of a crypt with some unknown burial directly inside the main shrine of the state - the Assumption Cathedral, would undoubtedly cause a certain reaction. Moreover, both those who found the crypt and the architectural commission in charge of the work, and Metropolitan Filaret of Moscow, who took a zealous part in trying to prevent any work in the cathedral. Not to mention I.M. Snegirev, who, as a rule, interpreted the status burials described by him. For example, in 1913, the discovery of a crypt under the floors of the cathedral caused the instant publication of this event. However, neither such a reaction nor details about the 1858 discovery followed.

As it turned out during the later studies of the XX century, the crypt discovered by Bykov and described by I.M. Snegirev apparently had nothing to do with temple burials, but with the remains from the graves of an ancient dirt cemetery, on the site of which the Assumption Cathedral later stood ^[1]. Numerous pits laid inside the Assumption Cathedral by researchers of the 1960s revealed the white-stone remains of the temples-predecessors of the Assumption Cathedral of 1475-1479, ground burials of the XII - early XIV century. and tombstones. Neither in the articles nor in the reports of N.S. Shelyapina and D.A. Belenka there is no mention of the finds of brick tombs under the floors of the cathedral ^{[3, 25-30]}. Panova, who devoted detailed works to the necropolises of the Moscow Kremlin, does not describe the internal temple structures of this type in the Assumption Cathedral, etc. In a number of funerary monuments of the Assumption Cathedral, crayfish and canopy, sarcophagi, white stone slabs and floor brick tombstones have been preserved, but not underground brick tombs ^{[16, pp. 7-9, 20-50; 17, pp. 10-33]}.

The collapse of the vault occurred, apparently, not because of the destruction of the alleged crypts, expressed by the architectural council. Engineer-captain Bykov, who was directly involved in the work on the heating device and discovered the failure, noted: "I believe that the space under the floor was filled with organic substances, which, having decayed, produced the resulting void... when excavating the ground for heat-conducting pipes, having passed a depth of three yards, I had to take out whole layers of burnt rye" ^[11].

In addition, in a report to the Commission for the construction of a church in the name of Christ the Savior in Moscow dated October 15, 1858, defending his project for heating the Assumption Cathedral, Bykov mentioned: "the history of the Assumption Cathedral shows that in former times they allowed themselves to make breaks in the walls in many cases, by the way, even the chimney was broken, assuming to arrange heating of one of the altars, but which did not take place, probably because they did not know how to get down to business" ^{[11, p. 402]}. The "exit to human growth" in the basement of the northern predaltery, mentioned by I.M. Snegirev, was most likely one of the breaks indicated by Bykov. When could it have been arranged?

Archpriest V.S. Markov, thanks to whom the story of the heating device of the Assumption Cathedral has come down to us, writes that "the idea of eliminating this inconvenience ... in the Assumption Cathedral (the absence of a heating system – auth.) appeared only in the half of the nineteenth century and belonged to the most pious Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich" ^{[11, pp. 392-393]}. The project was drawn up by the chief architect of the commission, K.A. Tone, after which the senior assistant of K.A. Tone, academician A.S. Kaminsky, "informed the commission that for a correct inquiry whether there is a foundation under the Assumption Cathedral and what depth, it is necessary to dig a hole at one of the outer walls of the cathedral" ^{[11, p. 394]}. On September 12, 1849, the commission authorized the said work. However, during the life of Nicholas I, the project was not destined to be completed: the idea of heating the cathedral and the work that began met the resistance of the zealot of the Orthodox antiquity, Metropolitan Filaret of Moscow. His desire to leave the cathedral untouchable had an effect and on August 22, 1851, the emperor ordered "to leave it as it is, forever." ^{[11, p. 395]}.

"As is" did not remain forever, and soon after the death of Nicholas I, Filaret's resistance was broken. The cathedral was warm, and a crypt with bones was found at the northern doors of the cathedral.

Thus, the crypt was opened in 1858 by engineer-Captain Bykov during the work on the heating of the Assumption Cathedral and the repair of the "vault". Bykov knew that they had tried to arrange heating in the cathedral before him. Archpriest Markov, however, mentions that this idea appeared no earlier than the middle of the XIX century, at the same time the first attempt was made to implement it, for which earthworks and other works were started in 1849, which Bykov mentioned in his report. Based on this, it can be assumed that this crypt could be a reburial of the remains disturbed by earthworks in 1849-1851. 

The so-called brick crypts are especially characteristic of the device of burials in Moscow of the XVIII-XIX centuries. The brick shell became mandatory thanks to the decree of 1722 on the prohibition of burials in the city limits and the admission of such only in the construction of the crypt. In Russian historiography, these inter-grave brick structures were called a crypt, although by type it is rather a brick vault. It is always disposable, unlike the classic crypt – an underground chamber designed for reusable use and visits ^{[4, p. 14]}. Inside this type of "crypts", the deceased were placed in additional burial structures, wooden coffins or stone sarcophagi ^{[18, p. 98]}. These late crypts could in some cases not have a vault, being a kind of brick fence of the buried remains. Similar brick structures are found during excavations of Moscow cemeteries ^{[2, p. 18, fig. 7]}. It is most likely that the crypt mentioned by I.M. Snegirev belongs to this type of inter-grave structures.

Similar funerary structures were encountered by researchers at other temples of the Kremlin. Thus, brick crypts containing disturbed burials were discovered during excavations of the Kremlin cemetery at the Church of Constantine and Elena, which functioned until the XVIII century inclusive ^{[14, p. 11]}.

In this case, the remains reburied in a brick crypt are related to the medieval necropolis of the XII – beginning. XIV centuries, on the site of which the Assumption Cathedral later stood. It was this find that became the first in a series of subsequent discoveries during the excavations of the oldest Moscow dirt cemetery.

White Stone cryptIn 1913, on the occasion of the tercentenary of the Romanov House, large-scale restoration work unfolded in the Kremlin, including the Assumption Cathedral, whose basement eventually overgrown with soil, as I.M. Snegirev wrote about ^{[22, p. 91]}.

During the work on its cleaning and leveling the level of the Cathedral Square, ancient burials were recorded to the north of the cathedral. The work was supervised by archaeologist S.S. Zakatov and architect I.P. Mashkov ^{[28, p. 203]}.

Initially, during excavation work, at a depth of 89 cm, one of the heating pipes was discovered, arranged in the middle of the XIX century. Deeper, at 2.58 m, scientists recorded traces of construction work in the 1470s in the form of a layer of white stone waste. Below, at a depth of 3.78 m, a layer of building remains from the construction of the cathedral in 1326 was revealed. Ancient burials have also been identified at a depth of more than three meters ^{[30, p. 248]}.

The remains found by S.S. Zakatov belonged to the oldest dirt cemetery in Moscow ^{[28, p. 203; 1]}. However, in addition to the usual corpses in coffins, the crypt attracted the attention of the researcher. It was located 2.58 m from its northern wall and 4 m from the northern portal of the temple: "... at a depth of 3 arshins 9 vershkov (2.54 m – auth.), a part of an ancient crypt laid out of white limestone and broken, obviously, in 1855 by a nearby heating pipe was discovered. In the crypt there was a box with several skeletons folded in disarray." ^{[30, 252; 15, p. 220]}. Given the location of the crypt, it is tempting to correlate it with the one discovered in 1858. However, the different material of the structures clearly indicates that during the work of engineer-captain Bykov, not one, but at least two crypts were discovered, of which only the brick one was mentioned by I.M. Snegirev (apparently because it was associated with repair work directly from the cathedral building, which was described by the historian). This brick crypt either did not survive, or simply was not discovered by S.S. Zakatov's pits – the autopsies of 1913 along the northern facade of the cathedral were not continuous ^{[30, p. 195]}.

It is worth noting that S.S. Zakatov apparently made a mistake with the dating of the heating works. The initial work could take place no earlier than 1849 and no later than 1851 ^{[11, pp. 394-395]}. Further, "in March 1856, the highest order followed to make the Moscow Assumption Cathedral warm" ^{[11, p. 395]}, and Bykov's work was started no earlier than the autumn of 1858, since Count A.A. Zakrevsky notified Metropolitan Filaret by the attitude of September 1, 1858 that "The Sovereign Emperor on August 30 deigned to approve the Commission's assumption on the provision of this heating device to Captain Bykov… these works should be started in the same 1858" ^{[11, p. 396]}.

Interestingly, the limestone crypt was found on the same level with the white-stone building remains from the cathedral of the early 1470s. Given this, as well as the obvious nature of the secondary burial of the remains ("a box with randomly folded skeletons"), it can be assumed with sufficient confidence that this crypt was built for the reburial of the bones disturbed during construction the white stone cathedral in the early 1470s, or, most likely, when it was dismantled by Aristotle Fioravanti in 1475.

White-stone burial structures are atypical for the funeral rite of both medieval Russia and later times. Both early, intra-temple tombs of the XI-XIV centuries, and later so-called crypts of the XVI-XIX centuries were laid out of other materials - plinths or bricks ^{[18, p. 96; 4, p. 14]}. Only occasionally, as an exception, on city and monastery necropolises of the XVI-XIX centuries there are white-stone tombstone vaults ^{[4, p. 14]}. So, for example, in the necropolis of the XVI-XVII centuries. in the Smolensk Cathedral of the Novodevichy Monastery, only 1 white–stone crypt was opened, while there were 34 brick ones ^{[6, p. 7]}. Thus, the crypt under study is a unique structure of its kind. However, an interesting analogy can be found for him in another Assumption Cathedral located in Rostov the Great.

In 1954-1956, N.N. Voronin, during an archaeological study of the Rostov Assumption Cathedral, discovered a peculiar structure in its north-western corner, square in plan, composed of blocks of white stone ^{[12, p. 185]}. This structure contained numerous human remains inside – skulls and bones, obviously reburied. According to researcher A.G. Melnik, this structure was created during the construction of the cathedral, in 1508-1512.. for the reburial of ancient burials disturbed during construction ^{[12, p. 186]}.

The researcher notes that special structures for performing secondary burials are not traditional for Ancient Russia, but various variants of such structures – "ossuaries", were widespread in Western Europe in the XV-XVIII centuries ^{[12, pp. 186-187]}. A.G. Melnik explains the appearance of the similarity of the European ossuary in the Rostov Cathedral by the participation of an Italian architect in the construction of the temple ^{[12, p. 187]}.

Aristotle Fioravanti was also an Italian. Probably, it was with his participation that the white-stone crypt was created for the reburial of the remains disturbed during the dismantling of the Assumption white-stone Cathedral damaged by the "coward". Limestone, no longer needed during construction (the new cathedral was created from bricks), was logically used to build an improvised ossuary. The placement of this structure against the wall of the temple outside, and not inside, as in Rostov, may be due to the fact that the bones of princes and bishops buried in the old cathedral in the previous five centuries were reburied in the Rostov Cathedral ^{[12, p. 186]}. These status remains undoubtedly required repose inside the new temple. The builders of the Moscow Assumption Cathedral, obviously, encountered the graves of an ancient dirt cemetery, about the buried in which, their origin and status they knew nothing (the cemetery had not functioned for more than 150 years by the time of the cathedral's reconstruction ^{[16, p. 5]}) and did not consider these bones worthy to rest directly inside the new temple.

Underground cryptAs mentioned above, in 1913, large-scale restoration work was carried out in the Kremlin, including the Assumption Cathedral.

They consisted, of course, not only in cleaning the basement – the work was carried out inside the cathedral itself. It was in connection with these works that a brief mention of the "crypt" found under the floors of the cathedral got into the historical literature.

In the first, March issue of the magazine "Lamp" for 1913, in the section "Chronicle" there was a note "Crypt under the Assumption Cathedral" with the following content: "In March, an emergency meeting of the Committee for the restoration of the Assumption Cathedral was held. This meeting was caused by the fact that during the work at the chapel of Dmitry Solunsky, a double floor was discovered and a crypt under the second floor. What kind of crypt is this has not yet been clarified. The works were temporarily stopped, but now the committee has decided to continue them and comprehensively investigate the found crypt" ^{[23, p. 44]}.

However, nothing is known about comprehensive research – the journal did not return to this topic again. He does not mention in his report the intra-temple crypt and S.S. Zakatov. However, the available information is sufficient to attribute this unique find.

As you know, several levels of floors in temples are not unusual - the floors in them have been repeatedly repaved and this has been confirmed archaeologically. So, during the study of 1967-1969 in the Assumption Cathedral, a white stone floor of the XVII century on lime preparation was recorded under the floor of cast-iron slabs of the late XIX century, and under it a half–brick paving - the preparation of a non-preserved floor of rhombic stone slabs ^{[25, p. 3]}.

The crypt was discovered under the second floor, that is, under the white stone, laid in the XVII century. (as mentioned above, the third floor was not preserved and only the preparation areas for it fell into separate pits in the 1960s). After the end of the XVII century, the cathedral was no longer buried, the last burial of Patriarch Adrian was performed in 1700 ^{[16, p. 9]}. Thus, the identified burial structure was the grave of someone from a well-known circle of people buried in the Assumption Cathedral from the last quarter of the XV to the end of the XVII century. Its location – the chapel of Dmitry Solunsky, or Dmitrovsky chapel, clearly indicates that in 1913 the lost grave of the Moscow Prince Yuri Danilovich was discovered.

Yuri Danilovich was the only prince buried in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, back in the building of 1326. In the white-stone cathedral of Krivtsov and Myshkin, his body was reburied in a niche-an arcosolium or "mosquito", arranged in the wall of the Dmitrov chapel. In the temple in 1479, his remains were placed in the same chapel, in the altar part, but already in the grave pit, under the floor, in the "ground, with a bridge (floor – auth.) exactly", and the place of the grave was marked in the interior with a tombstone monument: "and the tombstone of uchinish over it" ^{[8, p. 270]}. Later, the "tombstone" was apparently destroyed, and the memory of the prince's burial place was lost: in the inventories of the Assumption Cathedral of the XVII century. his grave is no longer mentioned ^{[17, p. 13]}. Considering that in the XVII century the floor was repaved in the cathedral, the "tombstone" could be disassembled during these works. 

It is difficult to say what exactly the restorers came across in 1913 – the remains of a tombstone between the remains of the floors of the end of the XV century and the white stone floors of the end of the XVII century (so, S.S. Zakatov pointed to the distance between the floors of the cathedral up to 54 cm ^{[30, p. 251]}) or a brick tomb arranged under the first, non-preserved floors, or simply to a certain niche in the ground or, rather, a brick battle, underlying, according to research in the 1960s, the level of the first floors of the cathedral ^{[25, p. 3, photo 1]}. As mentioned in the introduction, crypts are still called different constructions, and at the beginning of the XX century there was even more terminological confusion. In any case, the chronicle, describing the reburial of the prince, does not mention any structures other than the underground space – "land with a bridge exactly" and, in fact, a certain "tombstone", apparently brick (for the princely tombstone, the material is not specified, but for the relics of Metropolitan Theognost transferred at the same time, it is indicated that the place of his burial "on the time bridge, with a brick") ^{[8, p. 270]}. There is also nothing mentioned about the discovery of the remains of the one buried in the "crypt", but there is almost no doubt that the specified structure or its remains, found under the multilayer floors of the Dmitrov chapel, was the burial place of the only secular person buried in the Assumption Cathedral – Prince Yuri Danilovich.      

ConclusionThe article discusses the funerary structures discovered by researchers near the Assumption Cathedral and directly inside it, and characterized by them as crypts.

The first crypt was recorded during the heating of the Assumption Cathedral in 1858 and was mentioned by I.M. Snegirev in the work "Detailed historical and archaeological description of the city", published in 1873. The crypt was opened near the northern doors of the cathedral, the material of the structure was brick, there were human bones inside. I.M. Snegirev did not leave any more information about the crypt.

The second crypt was recorded during the restoration of the Assumption Cathedral in 1913 by S.S. Zakatov and briefly described in his report, but information about it was never published by the author of the research. Only after almost 80 years, the mention of the crypt got into one of T.D. Panova's articles. This crypt was discovered near the northern portal of the temple, built of white limestone, inside it was a box with randomly stacked skeletons. The level of detection of the crypt coincided with the level of white-stone building remains from the construction and dismantling of the cathedral in the early 1470s. The crypt was damaged during the above-described construction of the cathedral's heating pipes. His drawings and photographs have not been preserved.

Given the above facts, it could be assumed that we are talking about the same crypt, but the researchers clearly indicated different material structures. The brick crypt, apparently, either did not survive after the work of 1858, or simply was not discovered by S.S. Zakatov's pits – archaeological autopsies of 1913 along the northern facade of the cathedral were not continuous.

The third crypt was discovered during the same restoration work of the Assumption Cathedral in 1913, but in the underground space of the building itself, in the chapel of Dmitry Solunsky (Dmitrovsky chapel). All that is known about him is that he was found under the double floor of the cathedral. Brief information about the crypt was published by the magazine "Lamp" in March 1913.

In this case, the following interpretation and dating of structures seems to be the most likely:

- the first crypt could have been a brick vault or, rather, a fence hastily made for the reburial of remains disturbed during earlier work on the heating of the cathedral in 1849-1851. Such crypts are especially characteristic of the device of burials in Moscow of the XVIII-XIX centuries, the brick shell became mandatory thanks to the decree of 1722 on the prohibition of burials in the city limits and the admission of such only when the "crypt" is constructed. Similar brick crypts containing disturbed burials were recorded during the excavations of the Kremlin cemetery at the Church of Constantine and Elena, which functioned until the XVIII century inclusive.

- the second discovered crypt, apparently, was a kind of ossuary made from the remains of the collapsed white-stone Assumption Cathedral, for the reburial of the remains disturbed during the dismantling of the ruins and the subsequent construction of a new temple in 1475. White-stone crypts are not characteristic of Russia, as are not characteristic of the Russian funeral rite and ossuary-ossuaries, typical mainly for Western Europe. However, in this case, the architect of the Assumption Cathedral, the Italian Aristotle Fiorovanti, could have had a Western European influence.

One way or another, the recorded crypts were obviously disposable receptacles for the secondary burial of disturbed remains belonging to the ancient ground necropolis of the XII – beginning. XIV century., in place of which the Assumption Cathedral later stood.

The third crypt found inside the cathedral probably relates to the place of reburial in 1479 of the only prince buried in the Assumption Cathedral, Yuri Danilovich.  Restorers who worked in the cathedral in 1913 could call the remains of a brick "tombstone", arranged in the interior of the Dmitrov chapel and partially preserved between the cathedral floors of the late XV and late XVII centuries, a crypt. The underground brick tombs in the Assumption Cathedral are unknown.