The chapel on a 19th-century photochrom postcardThe chapel in 2017
The Plevna Chapel is a public subscription monument to the Russian Grenadiers who died during the Siege of Plevna. It was opened on a square outside the Ilyinka Gate of the Walled City in Moscow on the 10th anniversary of the taking of Pleven (1887), in the presence of Field Marshal Nikolai Nikolayevich.[1] The monument was designed by Vladimir Sherwood. Each side is decorated with a high reliefplaque illustrating the exploits of the Grenadiers. The interior, now empty, once housed a set of bronze plaques listing 18 Grenadier officers and 542 soldiers who died at Plevna. An annual memorial service is held in front of the chapel on March 3 (the day of Bulgaria's liberation). In the Perestroika years, the surrounding park used to be notorious as a gay cruising ground.[2]
Artistic features
The cast-iron octagonal tent-chapel on a low pedestal is crowned with the orthodox cross.
The sides of the monument are adorned with four high reliefs: a Russian old peasant who is blessing a grenadier's son; a Turkish infantryman with a dagger, snatching a baby out of its Bulgarian mother's hands; a grenadier taking a Turkish soldier prisoner; a dying Russian warrior tearing a chain from a woman personifying Bulgaria. On the sides of the tent are the following inscriptions: on the northern side – "The Grenadiers to their fellows, fallen in the glorious battle of Plevna on November 28, 1877"; on the southern side – "In memory of the war with Turkey in 1877–1878" and a list of the main battles – "Plevna, Kars, Aladzha, Hadji Valy"; on the eastern and western sides – quotations from the Gospel. In front of the monument, there are cast-iron pedestals with inscriptions "In favour of the crippled grenadiers and their families" (donation cups were placed on them).
