Monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Tolga
The Monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary of Tolga ( Russian Введенский Толгский монастырь ) is a Russian Orthodox nunnery ( Eparchy Yaroslavl-Rostov ) near the Russian settlement Tolga , a district of Yaroslavl . As the repository of the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Tolga , it is of national importance as a place of pilgrimage .
history
Founding legend
The monastery owes its existence to an iconic miracle, which has been handed down in countless copies of the so-called legend of the apparition of the icon of the Blessed Mother of Tolga (Сказание о явлении иконы Толгской Богоматери) from the 17th to 19th centuries. According to this, Trifon, the Metropolitan of Rostov , is said to have received a painted icon of the Mother of God in an aureole above the ground on a trip not far from his overnight camp at the mouth of the Tolga River into the Volga , 6 km north-north-west of Yaroslavl in 1314 . He understood the fact that the miraculous image always returned to the place of its appearance as divine instruction to build a church at this point, which formed the nucleus of today's monastery.
The data mentioned in the source are not secured and often contradict historical reality. A. does not match the year the monastery was founded with the documented reign of Metropolitan Trifon (1462–1467). Not least because of this, WW Gorschkowa put forward the thesis that the monastery was only founded in the 1430s or 1440s.
From the foundation to the October Revolution
The abbey buildings consisted almost exclusively of wood until the 17th century and were accordingly frequently destroyed by fires, most recently in the 16th century when the entire complex - with the exception of the famous icon - was destroyed by flames. On the occasion of the siege of Yaroslavl in 1609, Polish-Lithuanian troops looted the monastery and looted most of its valuable furnishings. Nevertheless, it played an important role in the popular uprising under Minin and Poscharski and thereby gained further reputation with the tsars, who endowed it with numerous donations and large land holdings. Under Igumen Gordian, building activity began in the last third of the 17th century, in the course of which almost all buildings were rebuilt on a large scale and in stone construction.
Soviet era
In 1929 the monastery was closed and in 1936 it came under the administration of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , which had a childcare facility set up on the premises in the 1950s. For this purpose, part of the building was rebuilt and the remaining parts of the interior were badly damaged.
Revival during perestroika
Only on the occasion of the millennium of the Christianization of Russia in 1987 was the monastery given back to the Russian Orthodox Church, which established a nunnery there. Today the facility is home to around 100 sisters again and has 254 hectares of agricultural land leased by the Russian state. As the repository of the oldest, supposedly miraculous version of the icon of Our Lady of Tolga, which has been in the monastery again since 2003, it is also an important place of pilgrimage that attracts thousands of pilgrims and tourists every year.
architecture
Main Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
The main church of Mariä Tempelgang , built in its current form between 1681 and 1688, stands on the site of the first wooden church from the 14th century and replaced a stone-built church from the 16th century that Ivan IV is said to have donated. With its five domes crowned cubic Naos high podklet , the encircling on three sides Narthex with Krylza and rich façade of submitted Łopatki , korbbogigen Sakomary profiled ledges and Schirinki with inserted condensed tiles it is a typical representative of Yaroslavians church architecture of 17 Century. For centuries, the basement served as the burial place of influential citizens and nobles as well as the Igumen of Tolga.
The walls and pillars of the church interior were decorated with rich wall paintings in the 1690s , which, according to the signature, came from the hands of well-known artists from Yaroslavl and Kostroma - among them Dmitri Semjonow , Fyodor Fyodorow and Vasily Osipow . As a result of later overpainting and decades of neglect (including a model of the Rybinsk Reservoir in the interior caused severe damage from moisture), however, the effect of these is e.g. Some of them are severely impaired and should be fully restored by 2014.
Bell tower
The monastery bell tower adjoins the north-west corner of the narthex of the main church. Its three lower floors are still from the Swonnitsa , donated by Prince Nikita Lwow in 1683–1685 , which was added two more floors in the classicist style with a new bell cage in 1826 ; the original, arched sound arcades were walled up.
Refectory and Church of the Exaltation of the Cross
A side wing with a passage in the basement and a closed gallery on the upper floor connects the church to the elevation of the cross with the elongated, two-story refectory with the church to the east. Although its core dates back to 1625, it was largely rebuilt in the 1670s and redesigned in the classical style in the 19th century. Like no other part of the monastery, the refectory suffered from misappropriation and renovations during the Soviet era. A. Steel girders were pulled in and partition walls were broken out, which destroyed all of the historical furnishings that were fixed to the wall; The current painting of the church was done in 2000-2002 by artists of the Russian Academy of Artists in the style of the Yaroslavl school of the 17th century.
Fortifications and gate church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
The monastery area is surrounded by a defensive wall with eight towers, which were built at the end of the 17th century. The south-western entrance to the monastery is the Holy Gate , which was built in 1672 with funds from the Yaroslavl merchant brothers Semjon and Ivan Swertschkow. This gate also contains a church dedicated to St. Nicholas .
Cedar Grove
A special feature of the monastery is the so-called "cedar grove" created in the 16th century under Igumen Feodossi (it is not actually cedars , but Siberian stone pines , which in Russian are called "kedr", literally cedar ). According to a legend, the icon of the Mother of God, which is kept in the monastery, miraculously hung on the branch of a "cedar" tree and survived the last devastating fire unscathed. Therefore, on the solemn feast of Our Lady of Tolga on August 21st of each year, cones from those trees that are said to have beneficial effects are distributed to the pilgrims.
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Горшкова, В.В .: К истолкованию противоречий "Сказания о явлении иконы Толгской Богоны Толгской Богокой Богомаймой Богомайм Богской Богомайми. . Материалы конференции 1991г, Ростов 1991, p 6-8, online manuscript on: Государственный музей Ростовский Кремль, Ростов 2000-2007 [1] ( page no longer available , searching web archives ) Info: The link is automatically marked as defective . Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Одну из древнейших русских икон вернули из музея в монастырь [20. August 2003], on: NEWSru.com - самые быстрые новости, o. O. 2007 [2]
- ↑ Свято-Введенский собор Толгского монастыря полностью отреставрируют [8. August 2007], on: Ярославия. Ярославская государственная телевизионная и радиовещательная компания, Ярославль 2001-2007 [3]
- ↑ Духовное возрождение. [Exhibition to mark the 250th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Artists in the exhibition halls of the Russian Academy of Artists in Moscow from March 20 to April 15, 2007], on: Российская Академия Художеств, Москва 2006 Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 27, 2009 in Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Горшкова, В.В .: К истолкованию противоречий "Сказания о явлении иконы Толгской Болгской Богомкой Богоманим Богоманим Богокованию противоречий", in: Рулоны Толгской Богоманимимя Богоманимев Истукой. Материалы конференции 1991г., Ростов 1991, pp. 6–8, online manuscript at: Государственный музей Ростовский Кремль, Ростов 2000-2007 [4] 2000-2007
Web links
- History and buildings of the monastery on Ярославская епархия (Russian)
- Brief history in Туристический Ярославль (Russian)
- Iconic miracles and monastic history on Русское Православие (Russian)
Coordinates: 57 ° 41 ′ 47.5 " N , 39 ° 49 ′ 39.9" E