Description of the attraction
The Vasilievsky Monastery stands on Vasilievskaya Street to the east of the Torgovaya Square. According to legend, the foundation of the monastery is associated with the name of Prince Vladimir Red Sun, as well as the baptism of the inhabitants of the Vladimir-Suzdal land. In 990, an oak church was built on the eastern outskirts of Suzdal, where the people of Suzdal converted to Christianity.
Vasilevsky Monastery existed already in the 13th century, this is evidenced by the record of Princess Maria of Rostov about the lands transferred to the monastery. The Vasilievsky Monastery was located on the road that ran from the Suzdal Kremlin to Nizhny Novgorod and Kideksha, therefore it was one of the important outposts of the city fortress. In 1237-1238 the monastery was plundered by the Tatar-Mongols, but was restored anew.
The Suzdal scribal book says that in 1628-1630 the monastery had a wooden fence and five monastic cells. In the 17th century, he owned estates with peasants and arable lands, which were cultivated for the needs of the monastery, and also leased.
In 1764, as a result of the secularizing reform of Catherine's, the monastery was seized from its possessions in favor of the state treasury. The Suzdal Vasilievsky Monastery was transferred to the category of supernumerary ones, i.e. he had to support himself, living on donations from the people and at the expense of the lands adjacent to the monastery, cultivated by the monks' own forces.
In 1923, the Soviet government abolished the Vasilievsky monastery, and in 1995 the revival of the monastery began with the blessing of the Archbishop of Vladimir and Suzdal, Eulogius. Currently, there is a hotel at the Vasilievsky Monastery where you can stay to see the city's sights.
The modern architectural ensemble of the Vasilievsky Monastery, which was built in stone in the 17th century, consists of a fence, Basil the Great Cathedral and the Sretensky refectory church.
The cathedral church was built in 1662-1669 on the site of a hipped wooden church. The temple is a cuboid volume, which is completed with an octahedron, topped with a bulbous cupola. Initially, the cathedral was conceived as three-domed, as evidenced by the presence of the bases of two more drums, which have survived under the roof. Narrow window openings, small portals, modest decor - all this gives the temple an ascetic and austere look. The decoration of the facades by zakomaras, which reproduce the corrugated vaults with their outlines, does not correspond to the two-pillar internal structure of the building.
In the 19th century, a three-tiered bell tower, decorated with cornices and pilasters, was added to the Vasilievsky Cathedral. Unique city panoramas open from its top.
Sretenskaya church (12th century) was built in two tiers and has one chapter. On its first floor there were: a bread, a cookery, and other utility rooms, on the second floor there were: a refectory and a church with an altar. In the refectory, a pillar was installed in the middle that supported the vaults. The Sretenskaya church is covered with an eight-pitched roof, which is quite rare for Suzdal, and is crowned with an onion dome. Three semicircles of the altar rest on the rectangular walls of the first floor.
The Vasilievsky Monastery is surrounded by a stone fence with low Holy Gates.
Today, almost all the premises have been returned to the monastic community. Only one two-storey building near the monastery wall belongs to the public utilities service.
