Description of the attraction
The Krasnogorsk Bogoroditsky Orthodox monastery is located near the village of Pinega, Pinezhsky district, Arkhangelsk region (it is not operating now). The monastery was founded in 1603 on the banks of the Pinega River, about 16 kilometers from the Penezhsky portage. According to legend, Abbot Varlaam had an icon of the Vladimir Mother of God. In his old age, he decided to give the icon to his friend. One Sunday in 1603, after the service, Barlaam fell asleep. He dreamed of a "light-like wife" who ordered to give the icon to Priest Myron, take it to Black Mountain and build a monastery there. After awakening, Barlaam thought: he had heard about the Black Mountain, but he did not know who priest Myron was. And then the first miracle happened. In the same 1603, on the occasion of the collection of church tribute, the priest Miron arrived in the village of Kevrola, who served in the Yurolsk parish about 2 kilometers from the Black Mountain. In 1604, in the summer, only a cross was erected on the mountain in an ordinary fence.
The mountain on which the Krasnogorsk Monastery is located forms 2 hills: upper and lower. In 1606, Varlaam and Myron decided that the monastery would stand on the upper hill. Myron is tonsured a monk and takes the name Macarius.
At first, the monastery was called Montenegrin, after the name of the area "Black Mountain". And this place was called so, because there was a dense, impenetrable forest. The erected monastery soon came under the care of a wealthy merchant Yegor Tretyak Lytkin from Yaroslavl. He had trade relations in Persia and sent his goods there with the salesman S. Lazarev. Once he had a dream that the clerk Stephen had brought a holy icon from Persia. And the merchant Lytkin heard a voice from above, commanding him to take the icon to Red Mountain in the Dvina land. After a while, a clerk arrives from Persia and accurately brings an icon decorated with gold, silver and precious stones. Patriarch Filaret advises the merchant to immediately go to the designated place. And in August 1629 he delivered the miraculous Georgian icon of the Mother of God to the Krasnogorsk Monastery. In 1695 the monastery was damaged by fire.
In August 1723, Archpriest Job of Kholmogory laid the foundation of the stone church of the monastery of the Krasnogorsk Monastery. In 1735, under the direction of Hieromonk Theodosius, the erection of the main church of the miraculous icon of the Georgian Mother of God was completed and consecrated. The Krasnogorsk monastery acquired great fame at the beginning of the 18th century, when Prince Vasily Golitsyn, an associate of the disgraced princess Sophia, who was exiled to Pinega by the decree of Peter I, often came here. In 1714, according to his will, he was buried in the monastery cemetery. The tombstone from his grave is now in the local museum of local lore, and a modern copy of it can be seen near the walls of the temple. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 3 churches in the monastery, surrounded by a stone fence. The monastery was widely known and was often visited because of the two miraculous icons.
In 1920, the monastery was closed and plundered, and the miraculous icons (Georgian and Vladimir) were confiscated and irretrievably lost. For many years, until the end of the 1960s, the church stood covered and in fairly good condition, until lightning hit the cathedral dome. The roof broke down and collapsed, and today you can see picturesque ruins with remnants of frescoes. The buildings of the monastery housed a commune, then - a children's recreation camp and until the 1990s - a hospital for the mentally ill.
In 2006, the residential building of the monastery, the adjacent buildings were revived and the area around it was equipped: mainly for the operation of the Krasnaya Gorka tourist complex. The bell tower at the monastery is gradually being restored.
The Mother of God Monastery is located at the highest point of the Belomoro-Kuloi plateau. This place offers a beautiful view of the picturesque surroundings.
