Description of the attraction
The Sviyazhsky John the Baptist Monastery is located on the island of Sviyazhsk, 25 kilometers from Kazan. The monastery was founded at the end of the 16th century. It was a convent at the Church of the Nativity of Christ. In historical documents, it is called both Rozhdestvensky and John the Baptist. After the reform of 1764, a period of prosperity began in the history of the monastery. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 400 nuns in the monastery. It became the second largest in the Kazan diocese after the Kazan Mother of God Monastery.
The architectural appearance of the monastery has been well preserved to this day. It includes buildings left over from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, buildings of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
The oldest attraction of the monastery is the Trinity wooden church built in 1551. This is the only monument left from the original wooden city - the fortress of Sviyazhsk. In the 19th century, there were minor alterations in the church. It ceased to be hipped, an iron roof and a dome appeared. Outside, the church was sheathed with boards.
In Soviet times, the interior of the church was damaged. Valuable icons of the 16th and 17th centuries were taken out of it, but the structure of the carved iconostasis is well preserved.
The second temple of the monastery - the church in the name of St. Sergius of Radonezh - was built of stone in 1604. The temple is a single-domed church with a bell tower added later. Inside there is a one-pillar refectory church. To the right of the entrance is a covered porch with a well-preserved fresco plot, which depicts the Old Testament Trinity with the upcoming saints - Sergius of Radonezh and Alexander Svirsky. The fresco was painted during the construction of the temple and is of great interest. Art critics believe that this is a copy of Andrei Rublev's "Trinity", only enlarged and transferred to the wall.
The third temple of the monastery complex is a cathedral in the name of the icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow". It was built between 1898 and 1906 by the architect Malinovsky. The murals in the cathedral date back to 1914. This is the largest and latest building of all the temples of Sviyazhsk. The multi-domed temple was built of red brick in the Russian-Byzantine style and looks monumental.
The monastery has preserved a tower-chapel built in 1901 and residential buildings of the monastery, built in 1820 - 1890.
Today it is the courtyard of the male Sviyazhsky Assumption Monastery.
On a note
- Location: Sviyazhsk, Zelenodolsk district, Tatarstan, Russia.
- How to get there: Motor ships - from the river station of the city of Kazan, travel time is about two hours. Cars - along the M7 highway towards Moscow, go to the village of Isakovo, where the direction indicator to Sviyazhsk is installed, the travel time is no more than one hour.
- Official website: svpalomnik.ru
- Opening hours: Monday-Friday from 9.00 to 18.00.
