On our planet there are places in which, having visited once, I want to return repeatedly. Apparently, they have some special mystical energy. It is impossible to fully realize the sensations that embrace a person in such a place, at least the first time. That is why one wants to return there again and again.
Such special places with mystical energy and amazing atmosphere, without any doubt, include the Savior-Efrosinievsky Convent, located in Polotsk. Not everyone heard about this temple. But here the relics of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk, with whose name the Savior-Efrosinievsky monastery is inextricably linked.
Story
This temple appeared a very long time ago, in the distant twenties of the twelfth century. It was then that Princess Preslav and the Spaso-Efrosinievsky monastery was founded, which is named after her. Better known as Efrosinya Polotskaya, this very smart woman was the granddaughter of the legendary Vseslav the Sorcerer. Her mother came from an equally famous family: she was the daughter of Vladimir Monomakh. Of course, with such a brilliant pedigree, the young princess had a bright future in the world. Therefore, when the daughter was barely twelve, her parents began to think about finding a worthy husband. However, the little princess, distinguished by her strong character, made her completely different decision: the girl wanted to become a nun. Parents did not succeed in dissuading Predslava: she secretly escaped from her father’s house and received tonsure in one of the Polotsk monasteries, where the abbess was her native aunt. The girl received a new name: she was named Euphrosyne.
Many years later. Efrosinya, with the permission of the Bishop of Polotsk, settled in one of the cells in St. Sophia Cathedral. She, according to the chroniclers, rewrote, and sometimes translated books. Somewhere in 1124, a nun from the bishop was granted a small piece of land located in the vicinity of Polotsk. Here she decided to build a monastery.
Legend
This decision of Euphrosyne did not come by chance. According to legend, Bishop Ilya Polotsky had a prophetic dream in which an angel allegedly ordered the nun Euphrosyne to establish a monastery under the Savior Church. The reverend herself saw a similar dream, not just once, but three times. That is how it was decided to build a monastery, which today is called the Savior-Efrosinievsky Monastery (Polotsk).
The temple stands on the very shore of the Strip. It was erected at the place where the wooden Church of the Savior stood. The first nuns who moved here were the cousins of Euphrosyne herself. And soon, women from all over the country began to come to the Spaso-Efrosinievsky monastery.
Description
The peak of active construction fell on the period from 1133 to 1143. Then on the throne of Polotsk sat the brother of St. Euphrosyne. The architecture of the temple combined several directions at once, in which the influence of various schools is visible. The Spaso-Efrosinievsky Monastery itself, a photo of which is a proof of its ascetic beauty, is a six-pillar three-nave single-domed structure, blocked by arches and wide spring arches. It has a narthex, as well as choirs located on the second floor, to which a narrow narrow staircase leads.
On both sides of the choir are two cruciform very tight cells. In one of them, according to church records, the Monk Euphrosyne herself was in prayer, and in another, the saint's relatives prayed - nuns Eudokia (her sister) and Eupraxia (cousin). Cells are made like tiny, near-cross cross-domed churches. Moreover, one of them (southwest) is closed by a small dome, and the second - northwest - by a vault of cylindrical configuration.
Features
The Savior-Euphrosinius Convent has one amazing characteristic both in the interior and in the appearance. This is the verticalism of the whole composition, the emphasis on the "aspiration" of the temple up. The monastery is quite small in size: its length is 14.4, its width is about 10, and its height is twenty-two meters. The size of the dome space is less than three hundred centimeters, and the side naves are already twice.
Restorations
The appearance in which the Spaso-Efrosinievsky Monastery reached us was greatly distorted by numerous restructures. Although, in fairness, it should be said that these changes did not affect the ancient masonry. Studies of many architectural historians, for example, Rakitsky, Rappoport, Pillar and others, make it possible to restore the original form of the temple with extreme accuracy. They managed to accurately recreate one of those main elements that form the unique look of this church dating from the twelfth century. It is a double row of keel-shaped three-bladed kokoshniks framing a faceted drum of a monastery crowned with a helmet-shaped dome. There is no doubt that the builders who erected the Spaso-Efrosinievsky monastery in the twelfth century had a fairly large technical knowledge. This confirms the excellent quality of the plinth - brick, the cleanliness of the masonry and the composition of the mortar.
Difficult years
The history of the Savior-Efrosinievsky monastery knows both good and bad times. In 1579, the monastery became the residence of Sovereign Stefan Batory, the king, who later transferred it to the Jesuits. Those, in turn, began to rebuild the building. When Polotsk was captured by Russian troops in 1656, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich returned the monastery to the Orthodox, but not for long. In 1667, the temple again passed to the Jesuits. Such an endless change of owners ended only in 1832, when the monastery finally went to the Orthodox. And since 1841 he is female.
Values
In 1899, the Spaso-Efrosinievsky monastery underwent another reconstruction: a magnificent cathedral was erected on the territory of the complex. During the war years, a camp for Soviet prisoners of war was organized here. At this time, many buildings in the complex were destroyed. And only after the liberation of Belarus the monastery became operational again. At the end of World War II, fifty nuns already lived here. They lived in a large two-story house and cultivated three hectares of land. Regulated the routine of life of those who took under their roof Spaso-Efrosinievsky monastery, abbess. The nuns sewed blankets for the inhabitants of Polotsk, grew vegetables, were engaged in needlework.
Where is the monastery
The monastery is two hundred twenty-seven kilometers distant from Minsk. Getting to it is simple: on the twenty-second kilometer of the Moscow Ring Road, you need to turn towards the village of Ostroshitsky town. From there you need to get to Pleshchenitsy (forty-five kilometers), then turn to Polotsk. The journey will take several hours.
It is easy to navigate in Polotsk itself. From the city center to the monastery is the street of Euphrosyne of Polotsk. It is almost impossible not to see the gate with the bell tower. Not far from the monastery itself, two hundred meters to the right of it, there is a parking lot where you can leave the car.