Description of the attraction
The Dormition Knyaginin Monastery was founded in 1200 on the territory of the so-called New City, near the lines of ancient ramparts facing the Lybid River by the Vladimir prince Vsevolod. The emergence of the monastery is associated with the name of Vsevolod's wife - Maria, who was the daughter of the Ossetian prince Shvarnovna. Maria Shvarnovna was a faithful assistant to her husband and a selfless mother who raised twelve children.
In 1198, after the birth of her last son, the Grand Duchess fell ill and for 7 years resignedly endured suffering. During her illness, she made a vow to found a monastery, and in 1200, Vsevolod, at her insistence, founded the Dormition Princess Monastery. In 1206, the Grand Duchess became a nun under the name Martha. After she was tonsured, Mary died and was buried in the monastery.
In the name of Princess Mary, the monastery was named Knyaginin. Then the main temple of the monastery became a family tomb. The princess's sister Anna is buried here, Elena is the daughter of Mary, two wives of Alexander Nevsky, as well as his daughter and other noble women. In a later period, the sister of Admiral M. P. Lazarev, the discoverer of Antarctica, - V. P. Lazarev.
The organizer of the monastery was an image of Russian holiness. Her descendants were also glorified as saints. Among them are her sons Yaroslav, Georgy, Konstantin, Svyatoslav Vsevolodichi, grandsons Theodore and Alexander Nevsky, Vasilko, sons of Georgy, Daniel of Moscow and others. Princess Maria herself is also glorified in the cathedral of saints who shone in the land of Vladimir.
The monastery has suffered more than once from the Tatar-Mongol and Horde raids. In 1411, during the invasion of Vladimir by the Tatars under the control of Tsarevich Talych, the monastery was ravaged. The revival of the monastery began only in the 16th century. Among those who participated in the restoration of the monastery are Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich, Ivan the Terrible, Mikhail Fedorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich. The wife of Ivan the Terrible's son, Pelagia Mikhailovna, was in the monastery for some time. Since 1606, the daughter of Boris Godunov, Ksenia, lived here, who later took monasticism.
In the 17th century. in the monastery there were special tsarina's mansions, their contents were monitored by the Vladimir governor. From the beginning of the 18th century. during the times of Peter the Great and the reign of Catherine II, the Knyagin Monastery experienced some decline. The revival of the monastery began only in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1876, a hospital for the poor was established at the monastery. And in 1889 a handicraft parish school for girls was opened here.
In 1923 the monastery was forcibly closed by the repressive Soviet authorities. The liquidation of the monastery took place within 8 months and was accompanied by the plundering of the monastery property. The nuns were expelled from their cells. The premises were inhabited by responsible workers of the Communist Party and the leadership of the Soviet government. Due to the closure of the monastery and the creation of a settlement for the Soviet bureaucratic elite, the monastery cemetery was also liquidated. In 1923 the monastery as a territorial unit was renamed into the village of. Vorovsky.
In 1992 the Knyaginin monastery began to revive as a monastic women's monastery in the Vladimir diocese. The abbess of the monastery was nun Antonia (Shakhovtseva).
On the territory of the Knyagininsky Monastery there are two stone churches: Kazan and Assumption Cathedral. The Assumption Cathedral is a magnificent example of early Moscow architecture. In Vladimir, this is the only building in a similar style. The outer walls of the temple end with zakomaras. Above them in two rows are keeled kokoshniks, which are the basis for a drum with a helmet-shaped head. Flat blades dividing the façade into spinners and narrow slit windows attract attention to the smooth forms of the building's silhouette. The walls of the Assumption Cathedral are painted from the inside with frescoes (1648), which were made by Moscow isographers by order of Patriarch Joseph. The masters were supervised by Mark Matveev.
The temple in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God has two side-chapels: one - in honor of John Chrysostom, the other - in honor of the martyr Abraham. The Kazan Church is distinguished by the ancient royal gates with virtuoso carvings from the 16th century.
One of the few pre-Mongol icons that have survived to our time is located in the Assumption Cathedral. The icon of the Bogolyubskaya Mother of God, which is miraculous, was written by order of Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky in honor of the miraculous appearance of the Mother of God to him. In addition to the icon of the Mother of God, the shrine of the monastery is the particles of the relics of torment. Abraham the Bulgarian. Saint Abraham was from the Volga Bulgars, he professed Islam, and then converted to Orthodoxy and began an active missionary activity. Abraham's brothers in the Muslim faith persuaded him to renounce Christ, but he was adamant in his new faith and chose martyrdom. In 1230, the Prince of Vladimir Georgy Vsevolodovich transferred the relics of Abraham to the Assumption Cathedral, where numerous miracles of healing began to take place.
