Description of the attraction
The Monastery of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is located away from the road, between the Trubezh River and the Yaroslavl Highway. Near it stands the Smolensk-Kornilievsky temple, left over from the Borisoglebsky monastery.
The Nikolsky monastery as a man's monastery was founded in about 1350 by the Monk Dimitri Prilutsky. In 1382, during the invasion of the Tatar hordes led by Khan Tokhtamysh, the monastery was ravaged, like the whole city. It was restored only in the 15th century. Until the Time of Troubles, the monastery flourished, receiving considerable donations. The Polish-Lithuanian army once again ravaged it, and in 1613 the elder Dionysius came here and threw forces to revive it.
At the end of the 17th century, the Korsun cross was delivered to the monastery, which became its main shrine (today it is kept in the local historical museum).
In 1704, the future Archimandrite Pitirim arrived at the Nikolsky Monastery, who, with the support of Peter the Great, began to fight the schismatics (until 1738). During the reign of Pitirim, the now demolished and reconstructed in a new form, St. Nicholas Cathedral Church, was built, founded in 1680 during the reign of his predecessor Varlaam, who collected considerable funds for the construction of a new high hipped bell tower.
In the 18th century, the monastery was completely rebuilt with stone buildings. It took a long time to build the main St. Nicholas Church (1680-1721) - a high five-domed cathedral with three far-set apses and wide windows. In 1693, the cathedral hipped-roof bell tower appeared. Both of these buildings have not survived: in 1923 the monastery was abolished, and the main cathedral and bell tower were destroyed. For a long time there was a livestock base here.
After the monastery was handed over to the believers, a new St. Nicholas Cathedral was built on the old foundation, which was not at all similar to the previous one and did not achieve this, but became one of the main landmarks of the city. The previous bell tower was replaced by a massive three-span belfry. The temple and the belfry were built in a new style according to the plan of the architect Izhikov, not because no drawings have survived from the old buildings, but for reasons of giving the monastery "more classical forms", since the former cathedral was erected in a Baroque style, which is not typical for Russia.
One important event in the fate of the monastery is very interesting. It was founded as a male monastery, but, according to the citizen of Pereslavl A. Varentsov, in 1899 it turned into a female monastery, due to the fact that the number of brothers by the end of the 19th century had decreased to a few people, and the monastery was completely desolate. A small women's community, headed by Abbess Antonia, restored the old buildings and built new ones. Now there is also a women's monastery here.
Of the old churches in the monastery, two have survived: the Peter and Paul Gate Church and the Annunciation Church with a refectory.
The Peter and Paul Gate Church was built with funds donated by the Moscow merchants brothers Kholshchevnikov in the 1750s in the Baroque style; over time, it probably lost some details of its decor, but otherwise it remained in its original form. The stately and upward aspiration of the temple is given by the elongated dome, completed by a narrow high drum with a small gilded cupola. On four sides of the dome, there are rather large windows-lucarnes, similar in design and size to the windows of the four, on which the dome rests.
The Annunciation Church with a low refectory was built instead of the burnt down Kazan Church in 1748, also in the Baroque style. It was erected with donations from Moscow citizens of the Shchelyagins. Its roof, like the dome of the Church of Peter and Paul, is extended upward and decorated with a high narrow drum topped with a small cupola. At the corners of the quad, drums of a slightly smaller size are installed, with exactly the same heads.
The monastery is surrounded by a low brick wall (1761) with decorative turrets, some of which have already been restored.
Not only churches have been restored, but also old stone cells and other outbuildings built in 1902, in which monastic life flows.
