Nilow Monastery
The Nilow Monastery ( Russian : Нило-Столобенская пустынь / Nilo-Stolobenskaja Pustyn) is a Russian Orthodox monastery on the island of Stolobny in Lake Seliger in the Valdai Heights 300 km northwest of Moscow .
Nilus from the Seligersee
Saint Nilus vom Seligersee (also Nile von Stolobny) was born at the end of the 15th century to a peasant family near Veliky Novgorod . Raised in the Krypezki monastery near Pskov , he lived as a hermit in the Valdai heights on the Seremlya river and in a cave on the island of Stolobny. He took the name "Nilus" in honor of Saint Nilus the Elder (from Sinai ), who worked in Egypt around AD 400 .
In total, Nilus spent 27 years on the island of Stolobny. Before his death, he decided that a monastery should be built at this point. He died on December 7, 1554.
history
In 1555 the monastery was founded. Most of the monastery buildings were built in the 18th and 19th centuries in the classical style. The construction of a dam to the island was completed in 1812. The Nilov Monastery was one of the largest and most prosperous monasteries in the Russian Empire .
At the beginning of the 20th century it was the most visited Russian shrine in terms of the number of pilgrims and the second in the world after the Church of the Holy Sepulcher . The monastery had up to 1000 permanent residents. There was even a hospital on the monastery grounds.
In 1919, after the October Revolution , the monastery was expropriated. It was closed by the Soviet government in 1927 and subsequently used for various purposes. From 1927 to 1939 it was a labor camp for underage criminals. From September 1939 to July 1941, the Ostashkov special camp of the military-organized Soviet secret police NKVD was set up in the monastery complex . Its total of around 16,000 Polish inmates were taken prisoner by the Soviets after the invasion of the Red Army as a result of the Hitler-Stalin Pact . Around 6,300 of them were murdered in Kalinin in April and May 1940 and buried near the village of Mednoye , a crime that coincided with the Katyn massacre . Polish officers, lawyers, police officers, teachers, doctors and other members of the intelligentsia were among those killed . From 1941 to 1945 there was a military hospital in the building complex, and from 1945 to 1960 there was again a camp for minors and orphans. From 1960 to 1971 the monastery was a retirement home and from 1971 to 1990 a hostel for tourists.
In 1990 the building complex was handed over to the Russian Orthodox Church . A monastery has been located here again since 1995.
description
Apparition Cathedral
The start of construction of the Apparition Cathedral is dated to 1671, the completion of the work including the furnishing in 1833. The restoration of the facade was completed in 2006. The paintings inside the church are completely lost.
Gate church of St. Peter and Paul
Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul
Exaltation of the Cross Church
The Church of the Exaltation of the Cross stands just outside the main monastery complex. Baptism rituals took place in this church.
Gate Church of Saint Nilus
The gate churches above the main entrances are characteristic of Russian monasteries.
All Saints Church
The All Saints Church , one of the oldest buildings in the monastery complex, used as a hospital since 1833, has been almost completely destroyed.
Church of John the Baptist and Mary Protection and Intercession
The church was built on the spot where the hermitage of St. Nilus was located. It was destroyed in the 1920s; the bricks were used to build the dam connecting the island with the mainland. Excavations are currently being carried out where the church was located.
Web links
- Official Website (RU)
- www.liveinternet.ru: Nilov Monastery, photos
- Voronezhsky-Borisoglebskaja Eparchy, Nilo-Stolobenskaja Pustyn, Нило-Столобенская пустынь (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate Leipzig, St. Nile von Stolobny ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Russian Orthodox Churches in Tver Oblast, Nilo Stolobensky Monastery ( Memento from January 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Russian)
- ↑ Claudia Weber : War of the perpetrators. The Katyn mass shootings. Hamburg 2015, p. 34.
- ^ Tadeusz Pieńkowski: Droga Polskich Żołnierzy do Katynia, Miednoje, Piatichatek i ...? Warszawa 2000, pp. 5-7.
Coordinates: 57 ° 14 '5 " N , 33 ° 3' 49" E