Description of the attraction
The stone cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the northernmost temple of pre-Mongol Rus, the main church of the Old Ladoga Holy Dormition nunnery.
The Assumption Church was built from alternating rows of limestone slabs and plinth bricks. On the supporting arch of the building, a scratched heraldic sign of the Rurikovich was found, which belonged to one of the descendants of the family of Vladimir Monomakh (Svyatopolk or Rostislav Mstislavich) who reigned in Novgorod in the 1500s. During this period, in all likelihood, the church was built.
Initially, all the walls of the temple were decorated with frescoes. Until now, about 30 square meters of murals have survived, in particular, the image of St. Cyricus in the altar.
In the 15th century, the Assumption Church was the center of the Mother of God at the end of Ladoga. Until the 16th century, no written evidence giving an idea of the external appearance of the cathedral was preserved. At the beginning of the 17th century, during the Swedish offensive, the Assumption Cathedral, like other Ladoga churches, was badly damaged. Despite this, already in 1617 the temple was restored and re-consecrated.
In the period from 1718 to 1725, Evdokia Lopukhina (the first wife of Emperor Peter I) was exiled to the Holy Dormition Monastery, and from 1754 until her death, Evdokia Andreevna Hannibal (the first wife of Abram Hannibal) lived here.
In 1823, a new stage of construction began in the monastery. Several stone buildings appeared here: the western Holy Gates with a fence, a two-storey cell house, a refectory and others.
Over the centuries-old history, the Assumption Cathedral has undergone many repairs. Due to later renovations, the fresco painting of the ancient church was almost completely lost. The frescoes of the temple suffered a fate common to many monuments, the ancient Russian painting of which from the 17th to the beginning of the 19th centuries was mercilessly destroyed.
In 2007, the restored Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (supervised by the architect A. A. Draga) was transferred to the renewed monastery.
The architectural appearance of the Assumption Cathedral is notable for its simplicity and asceticism: magnificent forms are not characteristic of the Christian beginning of life. According to the main external features, the temple is close to St. George's: one-domed, three-apse, cubic, but has a larger volume. In their original form, stone side-altars were added to the main volume from the western and northern facades, which covered the portals up to almost half of the building. Among the unique features of the cathedral are decorative relief crosses - the Golgotha "Passionate" and the Greek four-pointed - under the semicircles of the zakomar on the western facade. In the semicircle of the main span, a shallow niche for painting has survived. The dome ends with a flourishing cross. In the church building, in the western part, deep semicircular recesses are made - arcosoliums for burials. The staircase leading to the choir is located in the thickness of the western wall.
