Trinity Monastery of Sergiev Posad
The Monastery of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius or the Troice-Sergiev Monastery or Troize Sergius Monastery ( Russian Свято-Троицкая Сергиева Лавра or Троице-Сергиева Лавра ) is a Russian-Orthodox men monastery km in the 70 north-east of Moscow- located city of Sergiev Posad (from 1930 to 1991 Sagorsk). It was founded around 1340 by Saint Sergius of Radonezh and has been one of the most important religious centers of the Russian Orthodox Church for centuries. The architectural ensemble of the monastery, which was built between the 15th and 18th centuries, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993 .
history
The beginnings
The full name of the monastery - " Lavra (= monastery of the first rank) of the (Holy) Trinity and Saint Sergius" - goes back to the founder of the monastery, Saint Sergius of Radonezh , who is widely venerated in the Russian Orthodox Church real name was Bartholomäus. He was the younger son of a Rostov boyar, who had moved with his family to Radonezh , a town about 15 km from today's city of Sergiev Posad, which Sergius later gave his spiritual name. As emerges from the biography ( Schitije ) of Sergius of Radonezh, which was written by his later pupil Epiphanius the Wise , Sergius was a devout believer almost from childhood, who aspired to a hermit life. After the death of his parents, he put this wish into practice: Together with his older brother Stefan, he went into the forests that surrounded Radonezh and began to build a pen on a hill that was then remote and washed by the Konchura river - initially only consisting of a simple wooden church and a hermitage. Sergius had the church consecrated to the Holy Trinity , which later gave the monastery its name.
The exact date when Sergius founded the monastery is no longer known, but it must have happened between 1340 and 1345.
While Sergius found fulfillment in the meager and privation-rich hermit life, Stefan could no longer withstand it and moved to the (now defunct) Moscow Epiphany Monastery. After a few months, however, more monks, who were also looking for seclusion, arrived at Sergius' monastery. Gradually a monastery developed from the small hermitage, of which Sergius became the ruler. As a charismatic personality who, with her hard work, abstinence and piety, was a great role model for the other hermits, Sergius von Radonezh soon gained widespread fame, which attracted more and more monks to the Trinity Monastery and also brought the monastery the first donations. In addition - as the life story of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh describes - a series of miracles and prophecies that promised the hermits the future transformation of their monastery into one of the most respected and richest monasteries in Russia. Accordingly, Sergius had seen a figure of light who is said to have announced to him: “Just as the number of birds that have now come to you is increasing, the number of your apprentices will also increase, and they will follow your tracks after you too . "
Towards the end of the 14th century, that is, while Venerable Sergius was still alive, he had already had a considerable influence in the spiritual and also in the secular life of Russia. Among other things, he campaigned widely for the reconciliation of the previously hostile Russian principalities and their connection to the Moscow Grand Duchy . In 1380 Sergius blessed Grand Duke Dmitri Donskoi for the upcoming battle against the Mongols at Kulikowo Pole and prophesied victory, which was actually achieved. Sergius' extremely high reputation in Russian countries also helped his pen to prosperity and fame, especially through numerous donations from various strata of the population. After Sergius' death and especially after his canonization in 1422, the monastery increasingly turned into a place of pilgrimage. Believers, who often saw the liberation of Russia from the centuries-long Mongol-Tatar invasion as a miracle performed by the Venerable Sergius, venerated it in a special way as a symbol of patriotism and the wealth of Russian souls.
The monastery in the 15th and 16th centuries
Despite the prosperity of the Trinity Monastery - or perhaps because of it - it was to experience difficult times well into the 17th century. Since all monastery buildings were originally made of wood, as was customary in Russia at that time, and the complex was initially barely fortified, it was not only hit by fires several times, but was also an easy target Tatar raid completely devastated. Thanks to the continued flow of donations, which in addition to money also included numerous land transfers and donations of valuable works of art, the facility could soon be rebuilt, and the first stone structures were built there from that time. Above all, this includes the oldest building in the monastery that has survived to this day - the Trinity Cathedral , consecrated in 1422 , which was built over the tomb of Venerable Sergius.
At the beginning of the 16th century the monastery in Russia enjoyed such a high status that the tsars and their relatives also made pilgrimages there and often sought advice from the monastery rulers. It is known, for example, that Ivan IV "the terrible" , who was baptized in the Trinity Cathedral at the time, worshiped the manslaughter of his son, which he committed in a fit of anger , in the Church of the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit , built in 1476 - a secret that he told him The head of the monastery was one of the few people who ever confessed. It was also Ivan IV who donated the Dormition Cathedral (also: Uspensky Cathedral ) of the Trinity Monastery, completed in 1585 . The reason for its construction was, as is widely assumed, the victory of the tsar over the Tatar khanate Kazan in 1552 - the same event to which Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral owes its creation.
Another well-known building that was built within the monastery walls in the 16th century is the Nikon Church , built in 1548 and rebuilt in 1623 , which was erected over the grave of the monastery chief Nikon, the immediate successor of Venerable Sergius. The fortifications of the monastery were also completely renewed in the 1550s and a new, 1284 meter long stone protective wall with 11 defense towers was built around the site in place of the previous wooden fence. Six decades later, this would play a crucial role in defending the monastery during the most momentous raid in its history.
The siege 1608–1610
In the middle of the 16th century the Trinity Monastery was still one of the outposts of Moscow in the event of attacks from the east due to its location near the then northeastern borders of Moscow. The fortification, carried out in the 1550s, was therefore also initiated by Ivan the Terrible, who resided in the Moscow Kremlin , and who had made a generous donation for this purpose. However, a serious case of defense did not arise until the so-called Smuta at the beginning of the 17th century, when large parts of the Russian territories, including cities north-east of Moscow such as Yaroslavl or Suzdal , were captured by Polish-Lithuanian interventions. When they stormed the Trinity Monastery, they took a particularly persistent approach, as they suspected large amounts of treasures in the wealthy monastery.
As the invaders approached, the residents of the neighboring villages set their houses on fire and mostly found refuge behind the monastery walls. Together with them and a troop sent here from Moscow, the defense of the monastery numbered around 3,000 men, whereas the invaders had about ten times as many contingents - an imbalance that initially led the attackers to believe in a quick victory. However, the attempts at storming failed one after the other, as the monastery walls, which were up to six meters high and three meters thick, withstood artillery shots. The attackers then tried to dig a secret mine tunnel under one of the defensive towers, only to detonate it and tear down the wall. But that too failed after a group of defenders made a sortie at the cost of their lives and blew up the attacker's gunpowder supply.
In the end, the Polish-Lithuanian siege of the monastery lasted around 16 months, whereby the winter months in particular brought extreme hardship to the monastery inmates - the hunger, the cold and the epidemics are said to have claimed more lives than all the attacks by the Polish-Lithuanian troops put together. According to a contemporary witness, a total of 2,125 people are said to have lost their lives in the monastery during the siege, not counting women and children. The attackers tried again and again to storm the fortress, but each time it failed. Relief for the inmates of the monastery did not come until January 1610, when the besieging troops were defeated by a detachment from Moscow and finally gave up the monastery.
The heyday (17th to 19th centuries)
Long before the siege, thanks to its founder, the Trinity Monastery was regarded as one of the epitome of the heroic patriotism of the Russian people, but this reputation became even stronger after the siege, which had been overcome with great difficulty. Numerous donations were made soon after the end of the war, which meant that the structures damaged during the siege could be quickly restored. In addition, the fortifications, including the monastery wall, were expanded even better in the early 17th century than they were before the siege, although there has been no case of defense since 1610. Not only were old buildings rebuilt from the donations, but new ones were also built, most of which are still standing today. The part of today's monastery ensemble, which was built in the 17th century, includes the hospital rooms (1635–1638), the refectory building (1686–1692), the chapel above the Assumption Fountain (mid-17th century) and the Johannes Church of the Baptist (1692–1699).
The end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries were the time for the Trinity Monastery when the monastery assets reached their absolute peak through more and more donations and gifts: the monastery had its own properties and villages in almost all of Tsarist Russia , as well as monastery courtyards, shops, Inns and even industrial companies. All of the possessions of the Trinity Monastery, which are documented in a monastery property register that has been kept specially since the 1640s, are said to have been comparable in terms of dimensions to the possessions of the Tsar. Over the centuries the monastery has also collected art treasures, including precious icons , paintings from different periods, jewelry, objects of applied art, unique handicrafts. The names of the donors were recorded in the donation book kept by the monastery at the time. It was often the case that the value of the gifts was determined by the severity of the sin, as rich people wanted to buy a place in paradise by donating to the monastery of the Holy Trinity. In addition to donations, much of what was left of the old, destroyed churches was given to the Trinity Monastery.
The enormous wealth of the monastery at that time and the streams of pilgrims also contributed significantly to the development of today's city of Sergiev Posad : In addition to the surrounding villages, several artisan settlements were built in front of the monastery walls, in which icon painters , wood carvers and toy makers were particularly well represented. These crafts were particularly lucrative in the area's heyday of the Trinity Monastery, as it was a must for every pilgrim to buy an icon or a wooden toy as a souvenir after visiting the monastery - icon painting and wood carving are still traditional trades today in Sergiev Posad and the surrounding area. By 1782, the artisan settlements then merged to form a posad , as a town primarily inhabited by artisans and merchants was called at that time in Russia.
In addition to the material wealth, the social prestige of the Trinity Monastery also reached its peak in the 17th century, which led in particular to the fact that the connection between the monastery and the Tsar's court became ever closer. The monastery rulers usually attended the coronation ceremonies of the tsar and other state celebrations, and in every war the rulers made a pilgrimage to the monastery before the start of the campaigns and afterwards. In 1682 the Trinity Monastery offered the future Tsar Peter I "the Great" with his half-brother Ivan and sister Sofia refuge from the rebellious Strelizi , and seven years later Peter saved himself again from the renewed Strelizi revolt, which this time was supported by Sofia the secure monastery walls and after its suppression returned to Moscow as tsar.
In 1744 the Trinity Monastery was awarded the honorary title of Lavra by decree of Tsarina Elisabeth , which in the Russian Orthodox Church means the monastery of the first rank and which only very few pens are allowed to carry. Since then it has had its current full name: "Lavra of the Trinity and Saint Sergius".
The later 18th and 19th centuries brought ambivalent changes to the monastery: During the reign of Catherine II “the great” , a large part of the monastery's land holdings were nationalized by tsarist decree of 1764, which affected all Russian monasteries, and the monastery instead a fixed annual amount from the treasury was awarded for his entertainment. Although this reform diminished the wealth of the Lavra, it did not affect its social standing and relations with the state power: it still served as a pilgrimage site for the tsars, and under Catherine the great, their confessor, the Moscow metropolitan Plato, was also head of the church of the Trinity Monastery. During this period, the current architectural ensemble of the monastery was largely completed: In addition to the Trinity Cathedral, which was still the center of the complex, and the buildings from the past two centuries, there were monumental structures that are also representative of the architectural styles prevailing in Russia at the time are: The Smolensk Church (1748), the completely rebuilt Metropolitan Apartments (1778) and the tallest building in the monastery ensemble, the bell tower (1741–1770), should be mentioned.
At the end of the 19th century, the Lavra was the center of the now developed city of Sergiev Posad and, despite the great expropriation of 1764, was not only one of the wealthiest ecclesiastical institutions in the Russian Empire , but also had an overwhelming influence both economically and Also in Sergiev Posad's political life: In fact, no important decision by the city administration was possible without the involvement of the monastery board. At the beginning of the 20th century, the monastery, which at that time housed around 400 monks, included a printing works, two hotels and a number of tenement houses, shops and factories in Sergiyev Posad. Since 1814 the monastery has also served as the location for the oldest university in Russia, the Moscow Spiritual Academy .
The monastery in the 20th century
The political and social upheaval in Russia as a result of the October Revolution in 1917 put an end to the spiritual life of Lavra for the time being, as was the case in other churches and monasteries of the Russian state: In January 1918 a decree of the government of Soviet Russia came into force which made all the monasteries in the country state property. The monks and other staff of the monastery were expelled on the night of November 2nd to 3rd, 1919, and quite a few of them had to flee and hide. Some of the Sergiev Posad monks found shelter in the old walls of the nearby Chernigovsky Skit monastery , which was also once part of the Lavra property. The spiritual academy was also closed when the monastery was nationalized.
A large part of the monastery buildings was misused by the new rulers as residential or farm buildings, some particularly striking structures - including the Trinity Cathedral - were officially declared a museum, which means that the former treasures of the monastery could now be viewed by the general public for the first time. However, this could not prevent many of the ensemble's historic buildings from being neglected by the Soviet state and from lingering in a threatening condition towards the end of the 1930s. Only after the Lavra received the status of a “state museum reserve” in 1940 - the highest monument protection status in Russia, which the Moscow Kremlin or the former tsar's residence in Kolomenskoye in Moscow enjoyed in a similar form - the buildings were able to be renovated through extensive renovation measures that took place during the 1940s - Years have been carried out to be saved from expiration.
In addition, religious life in the Lavra of the Holy Trinity could be resumed to a limited extent in 1946 after parts of the monastery complex were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church . In 1948, the Spiritual Academy resumed teaching on the monastery grounds. Today the brotherhood of the Trinity Monastery has around 170 monks (as of 2020).
In 1993, the Trinity Monastery of Sergiev Posad was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the first monuments in Russia . This was made possible not least by extensive restoration work that was carried out in the 1940s and 1960s and which gave a number of architecturally valuable monastery buildings their original appearance, which in the meantime had become old or had been disfigured by unskillful innovations.
The monastery complex
The structure of the Trinity Monastery is reminiscent of a fortress to this day - a remnant from the 16th and 17th centuries, when the monastery was in great danger of attack, and once in its history, from 1608 to 1610, even a 16-month period Had to repel siege. A total of eleven defense towers along an almost 1,300 meter long protective wall offered the monastery inmates protection against attackers at that time. Above the Holy Gate, the main entrance to the monastery, frescoes document this history. There are nine church buildings within the walls. a. the 88-meter-high bell tower, the refectory, the hospital rooms, the metropolitan rooms, the former tsar's palace and several buildings with the monk's clauses. All buildings are now under monument protection . The monastery is open to visitors and pilgrims every day from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., around the clock on the most important religious holidays and on the feast day of St. Sergius. The northern part of the monastery, where most of the monks' caves and buildings of the spiritual academy are located, is generally not open to the public.
Trinity Cathedral
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The Trinity Cathedral ( Троицкий собор ) is the oldest building of the monastery that has survived to this day and is considered the central element of the monastery ensemble. It was built in 1422, shortly after the death of St. Sergius , at the behest of his successor Nikon. According to tradition the cathedral was at the time of Swenigoroder Prince Yuri Dmitrievich donated, a son of Dmitry Donskoy - that grand prince, therefore, who caught in 1380 in the Trinity Monastery the blessing of Venerable Sergius before his decisive battle against the Tartars.
Although the cathedral is considered to be the main building of the monastery, its external furnishings are comparatively simple and functional and, characteristic of Russian sacred buildings of the time, is crowned by a central onion dome with a gilded dome . The cathedral was built of white stone, a common building structure in the Moscow principality at the time.
Another rather modest vestibule is followed by the church interior with a magnificent iconostasis that separates the altar from the parish. The rows of icons there - most of them were created in the 15th century by the monk and icon painter Andrei Rublev and his students - tell the biblical story in pictures, read from top to bottom and from left to right. The central component of the series - the icon of the Holy Trinity , at the same time the most famous work of Andrei Rublev - can now be seen in the original in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow . In the 1420s, the central church interior was additionally decorated with frescoes, many of which were also by Andrei Rublev. However, the original paintings have not been preserved. Today's painting of the inner wall of the Trinity Cathedral consists of replicas, most of which were created in the 1630s.
The right of the iconostasis is the main sanctuary of the Trinity Cathedral: the silver reliquary shrine in which lie the remains of St. Sergius. The Trinity Cathedral with the Sergius Shrine is the main destination of pilgrims and is also the place where monks of the Trinity Monastery are ordained. Services are celebrated in the cathedral several times a day.
Nikon Church
The Nikon Church ( Никоновская церковь ) was built in honor of Venerable Nikon, a disciple of Sergius of Radonezh and his successor as head of the monastery, who was also canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. Originally built in 1548, its current form dates from 1623 and is built directly onto the south side of the Trinity Cathedral. For this reason, architecturally, it also looks like a smaller copy of the Trinity Cathedral - this was intended to express Nikon's spiritual bond with his teacher.
Similar to the Trinity Cathedral, the Nikon Church was originally decorated with frescoes that have no longer been preserved. Today a gilded iconostasis, recreated in the 20th century, and the wooden shrine with the relics of Venerable Nikon form the center of the interior of the church. Services are celebrated in Nikon Church on November 30th every year on the memorial day of the namesake.
Church of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
The Church of the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit ( Храм во имя Сошествия Святого Духа на апостолов ), also called the Holy Spirit Church or Pentecostal Church, is located a little further east of the Trinity Cathedral. It was built in 1476 and is one of the oldest buildings in the Lavra. The most important feature of the Holy Spirit Church is the fact that it was built and designed by master builders from Pskow , an old Russian city that at that time did not belong to the Moscow Grand Duchy, but formed its own state. It can be assumed that by inviting Pskov architects to help shape the Trinity Monastery, they wanted to set an example for the spiritual and cultural unity of the Russian principalities - a matter for which Saint Sergius was particularly committed at the time.
Externally, the facade shape of the church is similar to many other Russian Orthodox sacred buildings. However, it has a characteristic for the Pskov of the time, but rather unusual for Moscow: the church bells are not, as usual, in a separate bell tower, but in the lower part of the church tower under the dome. The bells were operated in the usual way in Pskov, by setting them in motion from below with a rope that did not act on the bell itself via a clapper, but rather a movable bar. For centuries, the church tower served the monastery and residents of the surrounding villages as an observation point in the event of an attack, with the bells sounding as an alarm signal.
Dormition Cathedral
In the central part of the monastery grounds is the Assumption Cathedral ( Успенский собор ), often called Uspensky Cathedral after the Russian-language name . It was built on the model of the cathedral of the same name in the Moscow Kremlin . The Uspensky Cathedral towers above its Moscow counterpart and is also the largest of the nine church buildings in the monastery. The architectural style of the 16th and 17th centuries, which both buildings share, consists in particular of the symmetrical five-domed construction: the central, higher church tower symbolizes Jesus Christ , the four around it stand for the four evangelists .
Construction of the cathedral began in 1559, under the reign of Ivan IV "the Terrible" , who also commissioned and financed the construction and who attended the laying of the foundation stone with his family. It is believed that the victory over the Tatar Khanate Kazan in 1552 by the army of Ivan was the reason for this. The erection of places of worship to commemorate an important military victory was a widespread tradition in Russia at that time - for example, St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow was also donated by Ivan IV on the occasion of his victory over Kazan. However, the construction of the Assumption Cathedral took longer than that of St. Basil's Cathedral, because Ivan IV is said to have soon lost interest in the construction project and stopped funding. Therefore, the cathedral could not be completed until 1585, after his death.
The interior of the church and parts of the facade were painted with numerous frescoes by masters from Lavra and Yaroslavl about a hundred years after its completion , which, unlike those from the Trinity Cathedral, have survived to this day. The iconostasis of the Uspensky Cathedral dates from the early 18th century and includes original works by the Moscow icon painter Simon Ushakov .
Hospital rooms
The building at the north-western end of the monastery territory represents the time shortly after the siege of the monastery by Polish-Lithuanian troops, both in terms of its architecture and its original purpose. It is the former hospital rooms ( Больничные палаты ), which originally actually served as a monastery hospital and could have been used as a military hospital in the event of an attack . The building was constructed between 1635 and 1637, a quarter of a century after the siege. It not only consists of the actual hospital, but also includes a small church building - the Church of Venerable Sossim and Savvati ( Церковь преподобных Зосимы и Савватия Соловецких ), which was consecrated on those two saints of the Solovetsky Islands . This is a unique combination of a sacred building and a civil facility in the ensemble of the monastery.
Since masters from the Solovetsky Monastery were involved in the construction of the church and the hospital rooms - a cathedral that no longer exists today could possibly have served as an architectural model - it is considered to be a model for northern Russian architecture among monastery buildings. A particular characteristic of this church is that it is the only tent roof structure within the Trinity Monastery.
Refectory, Sergius Church and Michei Church
The building complex in the southern part of the monastery, which opens to the visitor a few meters after the entrance gate on the left, includes the refectory ( Трапезная палата ), the Venerable Sergius Church ( Церковь преподобного Сергия. ) Next to one of the small entrances to the refectory Michei Church ( Михеевская церковь ).
The refectory , built between 1686 and 1692, has several special features that make it one of the most famous buildings in the monastery ensemble. With its facades, which are unusually richly decorated even by old Russian standards, the painting of which is somewhat reminiscent of a chessboard, the refectory building is considered to be of the Moscow Baroque style . Also because the building has remained almost unchanged in its original form, it is considered one of the best examples of this type of construction, which was widespread in Russia in the late 17th century. The interior of the refectory, which is around 510 square meters in size and - still quite unusual for its time - has no intermediate supports despite its size, is also very splendid. Particularly noteworthy are the paintings on the walls and vaults, which were carried out in the 1770s on the order of Catherine the Great .
While the refectory was originally used as a ballroom for celebrations and important receptions, its interior now serves entirely as a prayer room for the Venerable Sergius Church, which was consecrated to the monastery founder. Church services are held there regularly in the winter months. On the upper floor of the refectory under the church dome is the monastery library, which was one of the largest book collections in Russia when the building was built.
The Michei Church, which stands in front of the right entrance of the refectory, was inaugurated in 1734 and decorated in the 19th century with the facade ornaments that can be seen today. It was consecrated to the canonized head of the monastery Michei, who was one of the spiritual heirs of Sergius von Radonezh. The relics of Michei also rest there.
Gate Church of John the Baptist
The gate church of the birth of John the Baptist ( Надвратная Церковь Рождества Иоанна Предтечи ) is also counted as part of the Moscow Baroque and was built almost at the same time as the refectory - in the years 1692 to 1699. It represents an essential part of the complex around the main entrance of the monastery. Until the middle of the 16th century, when the monastery wall was moved a few meters to the east as part of its expansion, the church was located directly above the gate in the wall, which you also brought the name " gate church ". Today it complements the Holy Gate , and the portal in the base of the church serves as a passage to the monastery. In addition, the church is also used as a place of worship, in particular here confessions are made from the faithful .
The funds for the construction of St. John's Church were donated by the merchant Grigori Stroganow, one of the most famous representatives of the Stroganov family of industrialists . Along with other churches in the Trinity Monastery, the majority of which were donated by tsars, boyars or aristocrats, this is a special feature. On the other hand, it also underlines the fact that the church was built at the time when business was developing in Russia was able to assert itself more and more socially alongside the nobility and sometimes had close ties to the court of the tsars. The church, which is painted red and decorated with numerous facade ornaments, has a five-domed construction, similar to the Dormition Cathedral, which, however, was kept in a completely different, somewhat “European” style.
Smolensk Church
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Immediately to the right of the former hospital rooms is the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God ( Церковь Смоленской иконы Божией Матери ). It was built between 1745 and 1748, making it one of the comparatively young parts of the monastery ensemble. It also belongs to the Baroque style, which was also the preferred style of its architect Dmitri Uchtomski , during the reign of Tsarina Elizabeth, the main architect of Moscow. The church was consecrated on the icon of the Blessed Mother of Smolensk , venerated by Russian Orthodox believers , whose authorship is attributed to the evangelist Luke . Count Alexei Rasumowski , who was also known as the lover of Tsarina Elisabeth, is considered to be the founder of the church .
The almost round, light blue painted facade of the church is separated at regular intervals by several pairs of white pilasters and is complemented at the front by the wide railing of the two-flight access stairs. At the top, the building is crowned by a mighty dome structure, the top of which is a gilded onion dome. The Smolensk Church is architecturally considered to complement the neighboring bell tower, which was designed by the same architect. The iconostasis inside the church was created in 1748 and originally comes from the no longer preserved Church of St. Praskewia in the old Moscow merchant district of Samoskvorechye .
Assumption fountain with chapel
In the monastery courtyard between the Assumption Cathedral and the bell tower there is the so-called Assumption Fountain ( Успенский кладезь ), which donates water, which is considered "holy water" by the faithful. It is believed that this water cures diseases and is good for mental and physical well-being. To this day, people come from near and far to fetch water from the Assumption Fountain. The chapel that houses the fountain was built around the mid to late 17th century. Its shape resembles a small four-story church and is striking because of its abundant decorative elements on the facade, which give the chapel an extremely neat and solemn appearance.
Bell tower
The Lavra bell tower is the tallest building in the monastery at 88 meters. It is located on the "Cathedral Square" in the immediate vicinity of the Trinity Cathedral, the Assumption Cathedral and the Smolensk Church. The main architect of the bell tower was Empress Elisabeth's court builder Dmitri Uchtomski , who also had the Smolensk church built - the foundation stone for the latter was laid almost at the same time as that for the bell tower, even if the latter was not completed until 1768.
Both because of its towering height and due to its construction, the Sergiev Posad bell tower is probably the most striking building in the Trinity Monastery. Painted in the same light blue color as the Smolensk Church, it consists of a broad, roughly cube-shaped base section, followed by four floors, each of which has its own bell room. The upper floor is closed off by a gilded decorative roof structure, which is crowned by a cross visible from afar. Between the third and fourth floors there is a tower clock, which was originally made by masters from Tula in 1784 and replaced in 1905.
The bell rooms of the tower once housed up to 50 bells of various sizes, some of which were particularly magnificent pieces, like much in the Trinity Monastery, came from donations - for example the Lebed bell (in German "swan"), which was cast in 1594 and donated by Boris Godunow has been. The heaviest bell at around 64 tons was the tsar bell , which should not be confused with the masterpiece of Russian foundry art of the same name from the Moscow Kremlin. In the 1930s, over two dozen of the Lavra bells were destroyed or remelted, including the Tsar bell. Since 2003, however, a replica of her that weighs around 72 tons has been hanging on the bell tower.
In 1792, an obelisk adorned with a sundial was erected in the square next to the bell tower . Four memorial plaques were attached to it, reminding of the glorious past of the monastery, including its heroic defense against the interveners.
Family crypt of the Godunovs
On the west wall of the Cathedral of the Assumption, the Godunov family crypt is probably the most famous burial on the monastery grounds. It was originally built into one of the cathedral's rooms; Since its renovation at the end of the 18th century, when this room disappeared, the crypt is now outside, in a small tent-like structure.
In addition to Tsar Boris Godunov , who was one of the main donors of the monastery during his reign - in addition to donations of money, he donated bells and works of art of immense value, among other things - his wife Maria and son Fyodor , both of whom were in the turmoil of the Smuta of supporters , rest there Wrong Dimitri were murdered. Godunov's daughter Xenia, who died a nun in Suzdal in 1622 , was also buried here.
Metropolitan chambers
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The building between the refectory and Nikon Church once served as the Metropolitan Chamber ( Митрополичьи покои ), the residence of the Metropolitan during his visits to the Trinity Monastery during the important celebrations. Today this house is the residence of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, who also holds the rank of monastery head. Since the building is on a hill, it has two floors on the north side and three on the south side. It was built between 1687–1692 on the basis of the older rooms from the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1778 it got its present appearance in the course of a renovation, whereby the main facade on the north side, which opens up to the visitor of the monastery, was kept in the baroque style. Its central part is dominated by a large balcony with decorative cast iron railings supported by eight columns at the entrance portal. On the upper floors of the apartments there is a small church, which was consecrated to Saint Philaretos in 1949 , as well as parade halls with vaults also painted in Baroque style in 1778.
Tsar's apartments
The fact that the Trinity Monastery was already a pilgrimage site for grand dukes and later for tsars of the united Russian czarism (since the 18th century: Russian Empire ) also explains that there is a special place there for the accommodation of the tsarist family and gave residence built for her retinue. The building of the former tsar's chambers ( рарские Чертоги ), which has been preserved to this day and completed in 1692, fulfilled this function in the 18th century. It is a two-storey building in the northern part of the monastery, which is palatial in size. Since it was built at the same time as the refectory, it is not surprising that the two structures share a number of architectural similarities. In particular, the southern facade of the tsar's chambers, which faces the center of the monastery, has received a similar “checkerboard” ornamentation. The western facade of the palace was designed only 1745-1748 and contains a number of reliefs that Peter I "the Great" are dedicated and his war campaigns. In the eastern part of the building, the Church of the Protection and Intercession of the Mother of God ( Церковь Покрова Божией Матери ) was built in 1870 .
Since the transfer of the Moscow Spiritual Academy to the Trinity Monastery in 1814, the former tsar's chambers have been part of the academy's building complex.
sacristy
The sacristy ( Ризница ) or treasury was built in 1782 and is one of the newest structures in the Trinity Monastery. According to the time of its construction, the architecture of the building is to be assigned to the early classical style. The sacristy is directly adjacent to the Trinity Cathedral and today houses many of the art treasures that were presented to the Trinity Monastery from the 14th to the 18th century. The collection can be viewed as part of a group tour.
Monastery wall and defense towers
The current wall of the Holy Trinity Monastery essentially dates back to the early 17th century when it was last expanded and fortified after the siege by Polish-Lithuanian interventions. The wall is a total of 1284 m long and, similar to the old Russian Kremlin , has several defensive towers built into it, some of which in turn have an entrance and exit gate to the monastery. Most of the towers were built in the middle of the 16th century. Eleven towers have been preserved to this day, three of them with gates.
The central defense tower is the so-called Red Tower ( Красная башня ), whose gate - called the Holy Gate ( Святые ворота ) - also serves as the main and parade entrance of the monastery. The 14 m high tower is built into the eastern side of the wall, which faces the road to Moscow and Yaroslavl and the parallel railway line. Like most of the fortified towers of the Trinity Monastery, it dates from the middle of the 16th century, with its upper part, which was stylistically based on a church tower and crowned with an onion-shaped dome and a cross, was added in 1856. The arched Holy Gate, which every visitor of the monastery passes through, is decorated inside with frescoes, which, among other things, have the life of Saint Sergius as their theme.
One of the most famous defense towers is also the duck tower ( Уточья башня ). Legend has it that this name came about from the fact that Peter the Great , who was not yet crowned tsar at the time, was hiding in the monastery at the time of the Streliz uprisings and shot ducks from this tower at the nearby pond to pass the time. Later, to commemorate this, the top of the tower is said to have been decorated with a duck figure, which has been erected there to this day. The duck tower has a height of 22 m.
The other two towers with gates are the water tower ( Водяная башня ) on the southwest corner of the wall and the gate tower ( Каличья башня ) on the northern section of the same. The water tower gate dates from the 16th century and once served to supply the monastery with water from the nearby cellar master's pond ( Келарский пруд ). The actual tower, which has an octagonal profile with a diameter of 18 m and a height of 25 m, was built in its current form in the early 17th century, after the siege by Poland-Lithuania. The gate tower was built in its current form in the years 1759–1772 and is probably named after its gate, which apart from a small gate mostly remained closed.
The other defensive towers in the monastery wall are: the Friday storm ( Пятницкая башня ) on the southeast corner of the wall, the onion tower ( Луковая башня ), which owes its name to an onion garden located in front of it, the beer tower ( Пивная ) баш were further the cellar master tower ( Келарская башня ) of Zimmermann tower ( Плотничья башня ), the bell tower ( Звонковая башня ) and the drying tower ( Сушильная башня ).
See also
literature
- T. N. Manushina, S .V. Nikolayeva, O. I. Zaritskaya: Sergiev Posad. Museum reserve. ART-Rodnik, Moscow 2001, ISBN 5-88896-077-2 ( text of the Russian version online ( memento of April 13, 2005 in the Internet Archive ))
- Z. I. Pastuchova, E. N. Ponomarëva: Drevnerusskie goroda . Pp. 196-209. Rusič, Smolensk 2006, ISBN 5-8138-0470-6
Web links
- Official website of the Sergius Trinity Monastery (Russian, German )
- Russiajournal.de: Sergijew Possad (German)
- Golden Ring of Russia: The City of Sergiev Posad (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Complete text of the Shitije (Russian)
- ↑ The official website of the city of Sergiev Posad names 1342 as the year of foundation
- ↑ Awraami Palitsyn's Tale of the Siege , Chapter 35
- ↑ https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/orthodoxe-kloester-vom-corona-virus- Betroffen- 16764803.html
- ↑ E. Golubinskij: Prepodobnyj Sergius Lavra Radonežskij i sozdannaja in Troickaja
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Coordinates: 56 ° 18 ′ 37 ″ N , 38 ° 7 ′ 46 ″ E