Have you ever been to the Assumption Convent in Alexandrov? If not, this gap needs to be filled urgently. In this article, we suggest you take a virtual tour of the city of Alexandrov. This small town played an important role in the history of Russia. You can even say that Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda was the capital of the state for 17 years! If you know Russian history, then the word “oprichnina” probably says a lot to you. Alexandrov also knew the years of ruin and complete desolation. And he was also a buffoonish, "amusing" settlement.
In addition to the small royal Kremlin, sacral buildings have also 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 remain in it and what shrines it keeps.
History of the founding of Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda
The first mention of the existence of a settlement on the banks of the Seraya River dates back to the middle of the 14th century. We do not know why Grand Duke Vasily III liked this place so much, but he chose it as his summer residence. Already at the end of 1513, there was a Kremlin fenced on all sides by fortress walls. The king came here not only with his family, but with the whole court.
In 1526, Vasily Ioannovich married a second time - to Elena Glinskaya. When she was widowed, she was regent for her 3-year-old son, who later became known to the whole world as Tsar Ivan the Terrible. In 1565, together with his personal guard, he arrived in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda and settled in the Kremlin. Only "for a short time," according to the chronicles, the tsar retired from his capital Oprichnina. He even received foreign ambassadors there. Ivan the Terrible replaced the wooden walls of the Kremlin with brick ones.
Where the Assumption Monastery (Aleksandrov) now rises, there were stone chambers, palace buildings and barracks of guardsmen. Their king, being in a pious mood, dressed them in monastic robes and introduced the church charter. But after the death of his son Ivan the Terrible, he left Alexandrov and never returned there again.
History of the Assumption Monastery in Alexandrov: briefly about the main thing
During the Time of Troubles, the Tsar's Kremlin was completely destroyed by Polish troops led by Jan Sapieha, who captured it twice - in 1609 and 1611. About fortyFor years, there were only ruins on this site, until Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich answered the request of the inhabitants of the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda to rebuild the palace church of the Holy Assumption, erected under Vasily Ioannovich.
A monastery arose here in the second half of the 17th century. Located on the trade road from Moscow to Rostov, it quickly expanded. Since it stood on the site of the former royal residence, a number of monarchs considered it necessary to bring rich gifts to the monastery - land with serfs, mills, and so on. Fyodor Alekseevich, brother of Peter the Great, with his wife Agafia set up an iconostasis with icons of the namesake saints.
Soon the number of nuns of the Assumption Monastery in Alexandrov increased to 200 people. During the Soviet era, the monastery was abolished. There was a museum here. At present, two institutions operate on the site of the Tsar's Kremlin - the architectural reserve "Alexandrovskaya Sloboda" and the Holy Dormition Convent. And both of them are of considerable interest to the inquisitive tourist.
The role of the monastery in state affairs
In the 17th century, not far from Alexandrov, there was a hermitage ruled by the elder Lucian. Local merchants turned to the schemamonk with a request that he write a petition to the king to establish a monastery on the site of the destroyed palace church. Aleksey Mikhailovich favorably reacted to the “charitable cause” and gave not only the temple, but also the royal chambers adjacent to it on the north side, into the possession of the new monastery.
Elder Lukian was the first spiritual father of the nuns. He was replacedin 1658, Father Cornelius, who started a large construction project that lasted 20 years. The Holy Assumption Convent in Alexandrov soon occupied the entire territory of the Kremlin. Alexei Mikhailovich and his eldest son Fyodor sponsored the construction of the Trinity Cathedral and the gate church of Fyodor Stratilat from the treasury.
When Princess Sophia decided to kill her brother Peter, the 17-year-old prince fled Moscow with his mother to the Assumption Monastery. Natalya Naryshkina presented a cross as a gift to the monastery "for her he alth, and her son, and grandson." When Peter the Great began to suspect his half-sister Martha of organizing the rebellion of the archers (1698), he ordered the construction of prison chambers on the territory of the monastery. There, the princess was forcibly tonsured as a nun under the name of Margarita. Martha died in honorary imprisonment in the bell tower at the Church of the Holy Crucifixion. A little later, at the beginning of the 18th century, the Assumption Monastery in Alexandrov became a prison for the first wife of the “reformer tsar”, Evdokia Feodorovna. The museum contains several things of royal recluses.
Resident Today
The convent flourished even after the October Revolution. An orphanage, a hospital, and a hospice were opened within the walls of the monastery. But in 1922 the Holy Dormition Convent (the city of Alexandrov) was closed. The cell building housed the Red Guards during the Civil War. Fortunately, he did not suffer the fate of many sacred buildings, blown up and destroyed throughout the expanses of the Land of the Soviets.
The buildings of the former monastery were even reconstructed twice, as an architectural museum was established there-reserve. By the way, it still works. But the rest of the monastery was given for construction. The former Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda became known as the village of Zarya. Families of peasants lived in the private building and the mentor's house, cattle grazed in the cemetery and rabbits were bred. The Trinity Cathedral was turned into a vegetable store, and the Church of the Presentation of the Lord became a dairy plant. The graves of the queens were completely lost.
Assumption Convent (Aleksandrov) was revived only in 1993. At first it functioned as a skete, and in 2004 it received the status of a stavropegial monastery. Now 26 nuns live in it. Mother John (in the world of Smutkin) serves as abbess over them.
Pokrovsky Cathedral
Photos, especially those taken from the other side of the Sera River, give a complete picture of the scale of the Holy Assumption Monastery in Aleksandrov. 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 walled square on the outskirts of Alexandrov, on the right bank of the Sera.
Now Alexandrov's urban development is very close to the monastery. But before, he stood apart. Therefore, this place was called a settlement, and even earlier - a settlement. The oldest building of the monastery is the Intercession Cathedral. This temple was erected by order of Tsar Vasily Ioannovich. Construction began in 1508, and in 1513 the cathedral was first consecrated in honor of the Life-Giving Trinity, and then named Pokrovsky. But it was a palace church, designed to participate in liturgies here.members of the royal family. Previously, the royal chambers were adjacent to the temple, so that you could get into the cathedral without going outside.
Church of the Holy Crucifixion
At the same time as the Trinity (Pokrovsky) Cathedral or a little later, a separate bell tower was built. Ivan the Terrible, who made the capital of the Oprichnina out of Alexandrova Sloboda, ordered this building to be converted into a church. The temple was consecrated in honor of the Holy Crucifixion. They say that it was from this bell tower that the serf Nikita tried to fly on makeshift wings.
When the Assumption Monastery (Alexandrov) was formed, the chambers of Princess Martha (sister of Peter the Great) were attached to the Crucifixion bell tower. These rich cells have been preserved in almost original form. There you can see a tiled stove of the 17th century, beautiful wall paintings and the Last Judgment icon. Tourists should definitely visit the Marfina Chambers and see how the princess who was forcibly tonsured as 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 (the city of Alexandrov). During the Time of Troubles, all the buildings of the Kremlin were destroyed. The ruins of churches haunted the inhabitants of Alexandrov. The merchants appealed, through the mediation of the schemamonk Lucian, to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with a request that the temples "no longer stand in vain, without singing." And it just so happened that it was from the Assumption Church that the revival beganthe entire complex of sacred structures.
Already in 1649, Lucian tonsured the first two nuns of the monastery as nuns. 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 Lucian's successor, Cornelius. He rebuilt the Assumption Cathedral with five domes, on a high basement. A bell tower and a refectory adjoin the building. The sacristy contains gifts that were presented to the Holy Dormition Monastery in Alexandrov by royal persons. It is said that there was once a secret underground passage under the main cathedral that led outside the monastery.
Trinity Church
Under Ivan the Terrible, another stone cathedral was built, supposedly on the site of a wooden one built under Vasily III. At first, 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 Aleviziy Novy could have been 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 possible way. When the tsar was in a particularly pious mood and put on monastic robes for himself and his guardsmen, 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 taken from the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, plundered by the Muscovites, and the second - from the church in Tver. Later, the church was repeatedly rebuilt and expanded. So, in 1824 to the churchfour small domes were attached.
The cell building and the rector's house
Let's continue our tour of the Assumption Monastery in Alexandrov. In addition to churches, there are other 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, surprises with its size, given that only 26 nuns now live here. The sister of Peter the Great, nun Margarita, had her own separate chambers.
But the cell building keeps the memory of other noble women who were forcibly tonsured nuns - Evdokia Feodorovna, Feodosia Alekseevna (in monasticism Susanna), Varvara Arsenyevna (Menshikov's sister-in-law), Elder Kapitolina, Abbess Martha. A two-storey building with narrow windows, by its very appearance testifies to the harsh religious life of hermits. In the distance are the chambers of the abbot. This house, with a brick mezzanine and a wooden superstructure, was built recently, in 1823. In addition to the living quarters of the abbess herself, the administration, a workshop for sewing church vestments, and a library are located here.
Gate and Sretenskaya (hospital) churches
Many Russian tsars considered it necessary not only to bring rich gifts in the form of lands, mills and distilleries to the Holy Assumption Monastery in Alexandrov, but also to build new churches on its territory. So, Fedor III with his wife Euphemia-Agafya Grushetskaya gave money to the rector Cornelius for the construction of a church over the gate to the monastery. Together with finances, the king granted three mills to the monastery, one of which wassimply taken from the inhabitants of Staraya Sloboda.
In gratitude for the gifts, Cornelius consecrated the gate church in honor of St. Theodore Stratilates. Later, the Nikonovsky Corps was attached to it. And in the southeastern part of the convent of the Holy Assumption rises a small church built in the 17th century at the hospital. It was consecrated in honor of the Presentation of the Lord. The apse of this unusually shaped church is four-sided. Also of interest are the belfry and the white-stone cellar.
Assumption Monastery in Alexandrov: shrines
The Abode grew rich not only with the gifts of roy alty. It was located on the busy highway Moscow - Rostov, and therefore the monastery was visited by numerous pilgrims. First of all, people went to bow to one of the lists of the Mother of God of Vladimir. In the iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral of the monastery there is another icon representing St. Theodore Stratilates and the Great Martyr Agafya.
The reliquary cross was also considered a shrine of the monastery - a gift from the mother of Peter the Great, Tsarina Natalya, for miraculous deliverance of them and their son from the palace conspiracy. But, alas, under the Soviet regime, all these relics were destroyed. Even the tombs of princesses and queens exiled to the monastery were devastated. 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, allattractions of the Assumption Monastery in Alexandrov? The address of the monastery is quite simple: Museum passage, 20. But how to get to Aleksandrov, Vladimir region? This settlement is separated from Moscow by 122 kilometers. It is the fourth largest city in the Golden Ring of Russia. Therefore, getting to it is not difficult.
Electric trains depart from Moscow's Yaroslavsky railway station to Aleksandrov. From the VDNKh metro station, bus number 676 runs to the city, and from the Kazansky railway station - a minibus. If you are planning a trip along the Golden Ring by car, then to get to Aleksandrov, you need to go northeast 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 P75 for another 20 km.
