Description of the attraction
The Ivanovsky Monastery or St. John the Baptist Convent is located in the center of Moscow. It is believed that it was founded in the 15th century, in the area of modern Solyanka, on the site of the abandoned grand ducal estate with the Vladimir Church. A convent was founded to the south of this church.
Noble patrons donated funds for the maintenance of the monastery. The monastery also received funds from the state treasury. In 1700 there were 37 peasant households at the monastery, in 1744 there were 713 peasants. Since 1654, “woolen fairs” have been held near the walls of the Ivanovo monastery. The monastery put up for sale woolen yarn, various wool products, silver and gold embroidery. In 1700, the descendants of Prince Pozharsky donated the village of Safonovo and the village of Yuryevskoye in the Moscow district to the Ivanovsky monastery.
The monastery burned in 1688 and 1737, and in 1748 it ceased to exist after a severe fire. In 1761, by order of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, work began on the restoration of the monastery.
For many years, it was the Ivanovo monastery that was the place of imprisonment of objectionable women of the royal house. In the monastery was imprisoned Tsarina Maria Petrovna - the wife of Vasily Shuisky and Pelageya - the second wife of Tsarevich John, the eldest son of Ivan the Terrible. The Ivanovo monastery was used as a prison. It contained the eldress Taisiya, a participant in V. Golitsyn's conspiracy against V. Shuisky in 1610. From 1768 to 1801 Saltychikha was kept in the monastery - D. M. Saltykov - for the murder of 139 of his serfs.
After a great fire in 1812, the monastery ceased to exist. In 1859 the monastery was revived. A school for orphans was opened there. A hospital for nuns, a nursery for foundling children, and an icon painting school for the sisters of the monastery were organized.
In 1861-1878, the architect M. Bykovsky rebuilt the Ivanovsky monastery. The merchant's wife Makarova-Zubacheva donated funds for this.
The style of the ensemble of the Ivanovsky monastery is consonant with the Italian architecture of the heyday of the Renaissance. In the center of the territory there is a monumental cathedral with a huge faceted dome. The Cathedral of the Beheading of John the Baptist dominates the development of the area surrounding the monastery. On the side of the façade facing west, two bell towers were erected. The Holy Gates are located between them. On the east side of the cathedral there is a hospital building with the Church of Elizabeth attached to it. A cell building and a refectory are located in the northwestern part of the monastery.
In 1918 the monastery was closed. In 1941, a correspondence school of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR was opened on the premises of the monastery. In the 1980s, the monastery's cathedral housed the Central State Archives of the Moscow Region, the Mosenergo organization was located in the cell building, the clergy's house had a sewing factory and residential apartments. The new history of the Ivanovsky Monastery began in 1992.
Today the Ivanovsky Monastery is active. The main cathedral of the monastery, the Beheading of John the Baptist, was restored. Several premises of the monastery were transferred to the Brotherhood of the Holy Prince Vladimir. In the Church of Elizabeth, built in 1879 and rebuilt in 1995, services have been resumed. An almshouse was opened in the hospital building. A gymnasium has been opened in the clergy's house.
Filmmakers love the picturesque view of the Ivanovsky Monastery. He appears several times in the frames of the famous film "Pokrovskie Vorota".
