Plevna Chapel
russo-Turkish War memorial in Moscow
The Plevna Chapel (in Russian Памятник героям Плевны, Pamyatnik geroyam Plevny, The Monument to Plevna heroes) 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. The monument was designed by Vladimir Sherwood. Each side is decorated with a high relief plaque 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.
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.
The public source identifies “Plevna Chapel” as russo-Turkish War memorial in Moscow. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Plevna, Chapel and russo-Turkish.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 19, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4343466. Authority coordinates are 55.757, 37.631. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887, 1877 and 1878.
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This entry incorporates text from “Plevna Chapel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.