Description of the attraction
Among other Moscow monasteries, Sretensky is one of the most ancient. Now it is located on Bolshaya Lubyanka, but was originally founded on the Kuchkovo field. Since 1995, the Sretensky Monastery has had the status of a stavropegic monastery and is directly subordinate to the patriarch. The architectural ensemble of the monastery is in the register of cultural heritage sites of Russia of regional importance.
Foundation of the Sretensky Monastery
The historical area of Moscow, called Kuchkov field, in the XII century belonged to the Suzdal boyar. In the possession of Stepan Ivanovich Kuchka there were several villages and villages, standing on both banks of the Moskva River. Initially, Kuchkovo Pole was a place where death sentences were carried out and murderers and robbers were executed. After they began to build huts in these places, it became necessary to build a temple. The first wooden church was consecrated in honor of Mary of Egypt in 1385.
Ten years later, next to the wooden church, a church was laid in honor of Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos … The construction was preceded by a miraculous event that happened on August 26, 1395. On this day, a procession with the Metropolitan Cyprian accidentally came across an icon that was being carried from Vladimir to Moscow. The procession took place in the name of assistance in the upcoming battle with Tamerlane. Surprisingly, the next day Golden Horde turned back and did not go to Moscow. Two years later, a monastery was founded around the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. Grand Duke Vasily I Dmitrievich he himself participated in the laying of the first stone and every year on August 26 he walked along with the procession, celebrating the wonderful event.
Historians disagree about the original location of the Sretensky Monastery. There is a hypothesis that it was founded exactly where the monastery is located today. Other researchers believe that the Sretensky monastery originally stood in Kitay-gorod next to the now-lost Nikolsky gate.
The monastery in the 15th-19th centuries
Ascended the throne in 1462 Ivan III paid enough attention to the development and prosperity of temples and monasteries. Under him, the churches of the Sretensky Monastery were rebuilt from stone. The temple in honor of Mary of Egypt was small, square in plan and single-domed. The iconostasis in it was replaced by an altar barrier, carved out of stone. In 1482, a third was built in the monastery. church in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker … The Sretensky Monastery was the first to meet the pilgrims walking in the direction of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. It also became a place of greeting and glorification of the soldiers of Ivan the Terrible who took Kazan and returned with victory.
Troubled years have become a heroic time for the Sretensky Monastery. Placed within its walls militia headquarters, a Dmitry Minin, wounded in the spring of 1611, received help at the monastery. After the end of the Troubles, the monastery met a new king from the Romanov family, who had returned from the Ipatiev monastery.
The monastery reached its peak in the 17th century, when the Romanovs made large donations to its treasury. At the monastery, a whole settlement, named Sretenskaya, and the main temple of the monastery was rebuilt anew in 1679. Then it was erected and gate bell tower, which had the traditional shape of "octagon on a quadruple" for such structures. At the beginning of the 18th century, the monastery received cells and abbot chambers.
The middle of the next century is mentioned in the annals of the Sretensky Monastery as a difficult time. At first, part of the monastery buildings died in Trinity fire in 1737, and three decades later, the Catherine's reform began, as a result of which church estates were confiscated. The monastery was transferred to self-sufficiency and only seven inhabitants were allowed to live in it.
The Patriotic War of 1812 caused an explosion of patriotism in the country, and monasteries throughout Russia did not stand aside. Sretenskaya monastery organized national procession and placed within its walls hospital for the wounded … After the retreat of the Russian army, Moscow was filled with French soldiers, and a infirmary for the Napoleonic army.
At the end of the 19th century, the temples of the monastery were restored, and the wall icons were restored in the cathedral church. The frescoes were cleared of layers and soot, the iconostasis of the church was decorated with carvings and covered with pure gold. By that time, the monastery was one of the most famous in the capital. The reason for this was his special bell ringing … The bells of the Sretensky Monastery, like that of the Danilov Monastery, were bought in the 1920s by an American businessman who transported them to Cambridge. A belfry was built for them at Harvard University.
Revolution and new time
After the revolution, the Sretensky monastery existed in the previous regime only until the fall of 1919, when arrests of its abbots and inhabitants … In 1925, the future Patriarch Pimen took monastic vows at the monastery, after which the monastery was closed, and some of its buildings were dismantled. The monastery lost the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the Church of Mary of Egypt, the Holy Gates with a bell tower and part of the abbot's building. The remaining buildings housed NKVD structures - according to a strange tradition, the communists preferred to use religious buildings as torture places and prisons.
The first restoration in the monastery began in the 50s of the last century, when the facade of the Cathedral of the Presentation of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was repaired. The interior of the temple was still in a deplorable state, and restoration was resumed only in 1995. At the same time, the monastery received the status of stauropegic, and in memory of the victims of repressions during the Soviet era, the monastery was established worship cross.
What to see in the Sretensky Monastery
Despite all the historical vicissitudes, the Sretensky Monastery survived and was revived.
An example of traditional Russian stone architecture of the 17th century, the main temple of the Sretensky Monastery - Cathedral of the Meeting of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God … The church was built in 1679 to replace the wooden one. The customer of the work was the sovereign Fedor Alekseevich … The architectural style in which the cathedral is built is called the Moscow-Yaroslavl style: in such traditions, temples were built in the era of the patriarch Nikon … The cathedral has a two-pillar structure, consists of three naves, and its shape on the plan looks like a regular square. The interiors of the temple are richly decorated with wall paintings, which were made at the beginning of the 18th century. icon painters from Kostroma … The cathedral is crowned with five domes, the light pours into the temple through the drum windows of the central chapter.
Cathedral of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at Lubyanka - the building is modern. It was erected as a "temple on blood" and consecrated in 2017. The idea of building the temple belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church, and the abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Tikhon, noted in his statement that Bolshaya Lubyanka is a place where "thousands of … new martyrs and confessors of Russia gave their lives and suffered for Christ." The Moscow authorities agreed with the plan for the construction of a new cathedral, and in 2012 one of the projects submitted for the competition was accepted. The construction of a new cathedral required the demolition of several monastery buildings, and therefore the idea caused a flurry of criticism. Yet six buildings were dismantled. The Cathedral of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at Lubyanka is crowned with five golden domes and decorated in Russian architectural traditions, into which elements of the Byzantine style are skillfully interwoven. The height of the cathedral is over 60 meters. The temple can simultaneously accommodate about 2000 believers. The cathedral consists of the upper church of the Resurrection of Christ and the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, the lower church in honor of St. John the Baptist and the Twelve Apostles, the Museum of the Turin Shroud, the refectory and other utility rooms … The area in front of the cathedral allows for open-air divine services and ceremonies. The temple is richly decorated with wall paintings, smalt mosaics and stone carvings.
Relics and relics are carefully kept in the monastery, which become the subject of pilgrimage for believers:
- The crypt on the lower floor of the main cathedral is built in the image of the cuvuklium of the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The white marble crypt contains copy of the Shroud of Turin, made in full size and consecrated by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II.
- Archbishop Illarion, who was the secretary and consultant of Patriarch Tikhon, who underwent imprisonment in the Butyrka prison, served as the abbot of the Sretensky monastery, was later arrested, sent to Solovki, and then - exiled to Central Asia, died in agony and was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. In 2000, Vladyka Hilarion was canonized. In the Cathedral of the Sretensky monastery are kept relics of Archbishop Hilarion.
- Priceless and revered for believers as well pieces of the relics of St. Mary of Egypt, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Seraphim of Sarov, Archbishop of Caesarea Basil the Great and John Chrysostom … The relics rest in the crypt of the Sretensky Cathedral.
The iconostasis of the main cathedral of the Sretensky Monastery was created in our time. In 1995, icons for the local and deesis rows were painted by contemporary artists L. Shekhovtseva, N. Denisyuk and A. Vakhromeeva. Hieromonk Alipy also took part in the creation of the iconostasis, having painted the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God for the Cathedral of the Meeting.
On a note
- Location: Moscow, st. Bolshaya Lubyanka, 19, building 3
- Nearest metro stations: Turgenevskaya, Lubyanka, Sretensky Boulevard, Trubnaya
- Official website: monastery.ru
- Opening hours: daily, 8:00 am - 8:00 pm
