Have you ever been to the Assumption Convent in Alexandrov? If not, urgently need to fill this gap. In this article, we suggest you take a virtual tour of the city of Alexandrov. This small town has played an important role in the history of Russia. You could even say that the Aleksandrovskaya settlement was the capital of the state for 17 years! If you know Russian history, then the word "oprichnina" probably says a lot to you. Aleksandrov knew the years of ruin and complete desolation. And he was a clownish, "funny" settlement.
In addition to the small Tsarās Kremlin, sacred buildings have been preserved in Alexandrov. They also experienced difficult times of desolation and ruin, but already in the 30s of the twentieth century. However, the monastery was resurrected, and now, as before, the female monastic community lives in it. Let's visit this monastery and see what ancient buildings remained in it and what shrines it stores.
The history of the foundation of the Alexander settlement
The first mention of the existence of a posad on the banks of the Seroy river dates back to the middle of the 14th century. We do not know how this place attracted Grand Duke Vasily III, but he chose it as his summer residence. Already at the end of 1513, the Kremlin stood here fenced on all sides by fortress walls. The king came here not only with his family, but with the whole court.
In 1526, Vasily Ivanovich married a second time - to Elena Glinsky. When she was widowed, she was regent with her 3-year-old son, who later became known throughout the world as Tsar Ivan the Terrible. In 1565, he, along with his personal guard, arrived in the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda and settled in the Kremlin. Only āfor a short time,ā according to the annals, was the king removed from his capital Oprichniny. He even received foreign ambassadors there. Ivan the Terrible replaced the wooden walls of the Kremlin with brick ones.
Where the Assumption Monastery (Alexandrov) now stands, there were stone chambers, palace buildings and barracks of the guardsmen. Their king, being in a pious mood, ceremonialized in monastic cassocks and introduced a church charter. But after the death of his son John the Terrible left Alexandrov and never again returned there.
The history of the Assumption Monastery in Alexandrov: briefly about the main
In the Time of Troubles, the tsarās Kremlin was completely destroyed by Polish troops led by Jan Sapieha, who captured it twice - in 1609 and 1611. For about forty years, there were only ruins on this place until Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich answered the petition of the inhabitants of the Alexander Sloboda to rebuild the palace church of the Holy Assumption, built even under Vasily Ioannovich.
In the second half of the XVII century a monastery arose here. Located on a trade road from Moscow to Rostov, it quickly grew. Since he stood on the site of the former royal residence, a number of monarchs considered it necessary to bring rich gifts to the monastery - lands with serfs, mills and more. Fyodor Alekseevich, brother of Peter the Great, with his wife Agathia set up an iconostasis with icons of namesake saints.
Soon the number of inhabitants of the Assumption Monastery in Alexandrov increased to 200 people. During Soviet rule, the monastery was abolished. The museum worked here. At present, two institutions operate on the site of the Tsarās Kremlin - the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda architectural reserve and the Holy Assumption Monastery. And both of them are of considerable interest to an inquisitive tourist.
The role of the monastery in state affairs
In the XVII century, not far from Alexandrov was a desert, ruled by the elder Lucian. Local merchants turned to the shimonakh asking him to write a petition to the tsar to establish a monastery on the site of the destroyed palace church. Aleksei Mikhailovich favorably reacted to the āgodly deedā and gave the possession of the new monastery not only the temple, but also the royal chambers adjoining it from the north.
Elder Lucian was the first confessor of nuns. He was replaced in 1658 by Father Cornelius, who started a large construction project, which lasted 20 years. The Holy Assumption Convent in Alexandrov soon occupied the entire territory of the Kremlin. Alexei Mikhailovich and his eldest son Fedor sponsored the construction of the Trinity Cathedral and the gate church of Fedor Stratilat from the treasury.
When Princess Sophia decided to kill her brother Peter, the 17-year-old prince and his mother fled from Moscow to the Assumption Monastery. Natalya Naryshkina presented the monastery with a cross āfor her health, both her son and grandsonā. When Peter the Great began to suspect half-sister Martha of organizing a rebellion of archers (1698), he ordered the construction of prison chambers on the territory of the monastery. There the princess was forcibly sheared in a nun under the name of Margarita. Martha died in honorable confinement in the bell tower at the Church of the Holy Crucifix. A little later, at the beginning of the 18th century, the Assumption Monastery in Aleksandrov became a prison for the first wife of the āTsar Reformerā, Evdokia Fedorovna. The museum has several items of royal hermits.
Abode today
The nunnery flourished even after the October Revolution. Within the walls of the monastery were opened an orphanage, a hospital, a strange house. But in 1922 the Holy Assumption Convent (Alexandrov) was closed. In the cell building the Red Guards were stationed during the Civil War. Fortunately, he did not suffer the fate of many sacred buildings that were blown up and destroyed throughout the vast expanses of the Land of Soviets.
The buildings of the former monastery even underwent reconstruction twice, since an architectural museum-reserve was established there. Incidentally, it is still valid. But the rest of the monastery was given for development. The former Aleksandrovskaya settlement became known as the village of Zarya. Families of peasants lived in the cell building and the mentorās house; cattle were herded in the cemetery and rabbits were raised. The Trinity Cathedral was turned into a vegetable storehouse, and the Church of the Presentation of the Lord became a dairy. The tombs of the queens were completely lost.
The Assumption Convent (Alexandrov) was revived only in 1993. At first it functioned as a monastery, and in 2004 received the status of a stavropegic monastery. Now 26 nuns live in it. The abbess over them is the mother of John (in the world of Smutkin).
Pokrovsky Cathedral
Photographs, especially those taken from the other side of the Seroy River, give a complete picture of the scale of the Holy Assumption Monastery in Alexandrov. It occupies the entire space of the former royal Kremlin. If you look at the monastery from a bird's eye view, you can see that it is a square fenced with walls on the outskirts of Alexandrov, on the right bank of the Sery.
Now the city of Alexandrov is very close to the monastery. But before, he stood on the sidelines. Therefore, this place was called a settlement, and even earlier - a settlement. The most ancient building of the monastery is the Intercession Cathedral. This temple was erected by order of Tsar Vasily Ivanovich. Construction began in 1508, and in 1513 the cathedral was first consecrated in honor of the Life-Giving Trinity, and then it was called Pokrovsky. But it was a palace church, designed to have members of the princely family participate in liturgies. Previously, the royal chambers were adjacent to the temple so that you could get into the cathedral without going outside.
Church of the Holy Crucifix
Simultaneously with the Trinity Cathedral (Pokrovsky) Cathedral or a little later, a separate bell tower was built. Ivan the Terrible, who made the capital of Oprichnina from Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, ordered this building to be converted into a church. The temple was consecrated in honor of the Holy Crucifix. It is said that it was from this belfry that the serf Nikita tried to fly on improvised wings.
When the Assumption Monastery (Aleksandrov) was formed, the chambers of Princess Martha (sister of Peter the Great) were attached to the Raspiatsky bell tower. These rich cells were preserved in almost pristine form. There you can see a tiled stove of the XVII century, beautiful wall paintings and the icon of the Last Judgment. Tourists should definitely visit the Marthaās chambers and see how the princess forcibly sheared a nun lived.
Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Ivan the Terrible built many temples on the territory of his Kremlin. One of them was a small church, which later gave the name to the entire Assumption Monastery (Alexandrov). In the Time of Troubles, all the buildings of the Kremlin were ruined. The ruins of the churches haunted the inhabitants of Alexandrov. Merchants appealed, through the mediation of the Scimonk Lucian, to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with the request that the temples āshould not stand in vain, without singing.ā And it so happened that it was with the Assumption Church that the revival of the entire complex of sacred structures began.
Already in 1649, Lucian tonsured the nuns of the first two nuns of the monastery. The Assumption Church was at that time the only functioning church of the monastery. Two years later, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich granted the monastery all the lands of the former Kremlin. The real construction of the century was started by the successor of Lucian, Cornelius. He rebuilt the Assumption Cathedral with a five-domed, on a high basement. The building is adjacent to the bell tower and the refectory. In the sacristy are stored the gifts that were presented to the Holy Assumption Monastery in Alexandrov by royal people. They say that under the main cathedral there was once a secret underground passage leading outside the monastery.
Trinity Church
Under Ivan the Terrible, another stone cathedral was built, according to the assumption - on the site of a wooden cathedral, built under Basil III. Initially, it was consecrated in honor of the Protection of the Virgin, and later - to the glory of the Life-Giving Trinity. Experts say that the Italian architect Alevizy Novy could be invited to build it, since the architecture of this church resembles other works of the author - for example, the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
Ivan the Terrible greatly appreciated this building and decorated it in every way. When the king was in a particularly pious mood and put on monastic robes on himself and his guards, the church was the main one in this quasi-monastery. Of interest to tourists are the doors of the Trinity Cathedral. One of them was removed from St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, plundered by Muscovites, and the second from the church in Tver. Later, the church was rebuilt and expanded several times. So, in 1824, four small domes were attached to the church.
The cell building and the abbotās house
We continue the tour of the Assumption Monastery of Alexandrov. In addition to churches, there are still buildings worth visiting. Before the secular reform (1764), 400 nuns lived in the monastery. Therefore, the cell building, located on the northern side of the ensemble, is surprising in its size, given that now only 26 inhabitants live here. The sister of Peter the Great, nun Margarita, had her own separate chambers.
But the cell building also keeps a memory of other noble women, forcibly tonsured as a nun - Evdokia Fedorovna, Feodosiya Alekseevna (in the monasticism of Susanna), Varvara Arsenievna (sister-in-law of Menshikov), old capitolina, abbess Martha. A two-story building with narrow windows with one of its appearance indicates the harsh religious life of hermits. In the distance are the abbot's chambers. This house with a brick mezzanine and a wooden superstructure was recently built in 1823. In addition to the living quarters of the abbess herself, there is an administration, a workshop for sewing church vestments, and a library.
Gate and Sretensky (hospital) churches
Many Russian tsars considered it appropriate not only to bring rich gifts in the form of lands, mills and distilleries to the Holy Assumption Monastery in the city of Alexandrov, but also to build new churches on its territory. So, Fyodor III with his wife Euphemia-Agafia Grushetskaya gave money to Rector Korniliy to erect over the gates to the monastery. Together with finances, the king granted the monastery three mills, one of which was simply taken from the inhabitants of Old Sloboda.
In gratitude for the gifts, Cornelius consecrated the gate church in honor of St. Fyodor Stratilat. Later, the Nikon corps was attached to it. And in the southeastern part of the nunnery of the Holy Assumption stands a small church, built in the XVII century at the hospital. She was consecrated in honor of the Presentation of the Lord. The apse of this church of an unusual shape is four-sided. Also interesting are the belfry and the white stone basement.
Assumption monastery in Alexandrov: shrines
The monastery was rich not only with the gifts of royal persons. It was located on a busy Moscow-Rostov highway, and therefore many pilgrims visited the monastery. First of all, people went to bow to one of the lists of Our Lady of Vladimir. In the iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral of the monastery is another image representing St. Fedor Stratilates and the great martyr Agatha.
The relic cross was also considered a shrine of the monastery - a gift from the mother of Peter the Great, Tsarina Natalya, for their miraculous deliverance from the palace plot with their son. But, alas, during the Soviet era, all these relics were destroyed. Even the tombs of the princesses and the queens exiled to the monastery were ravaged. But miraculously, the imperishable relics of the second mentor of the monastery, Cornelius, were found. Now, on August 11 of each year, solemn liturgies are held over his grave.
How to get there
Do you want to see with your own eyes, and not virtually, all the sights of the Assumption Monastery in Alexandrov? The address of the monastery is quite simple: Museum passage, 20. But how to get to Alexandrov, Vladimir region? From Moscow, this settlement is separated by 122 kilometers. This is the fourth largest city in the Golden Ring of Russia. Therefore, getting to it is not difficult.
From Yaroslavsky station in Moscow to Aleksandrov, electric trains depart. Bus No. 676 travels from the VDNH metro station to the city, and a minibus leaves from the Kazan station. If you plan to travel along the Golden Ring by car, then to get to Alexandrov, you need to go north-east to the Moscow Ring Road and follow the M8 highway for a hundred kilometers to the village of Dvoriki. There, turn right and continue driving along the P75 for another 20 km.