Danilovsky Monastery description and photos - Russia - Moscow: Moscow

2024 Author: Graham Hoggarth | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-09 10:26

Description of the attraction

Danilov Monastery is often called Danilov Monastery and St. Danilov Monastery. It is located in the capital of Russia on the right bank of the Moskva River and has stavropegic status, that is, it is directly subordinate to the patriarch. The monastery was founded in the 13th century. Today, the Danilovsky Monastery hosts meetings of the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church, called the Holy Synod.

The history of the founding of the monastery

V 1282 year conflict between Dmitry Pereyaslavsky and Andrey Gorodetsky was finally peacefully resolved. The brothers fought for the grand-ducal table in Vladimir. Their third and younger brother Daniil Alexandrovich reigned in Moscow and it was he who managed to reconcile the rivals. At the same time, Daniil Alexandrovich founded the monastery, later named Danilov.

The first building of the new monastery was built of wood. The church was consecrated in honor of the monk Daniel the Stylite … Soon farm buildings and residential chambers were built around the temple, and the territory of the monastery was surrounded by a powerful palisade, resting on an earthen rampart. At that time, monasteries in Russia often performed serf functions.

A few years later, the monastery was ravaged during raid of the Golden Horde … In 1303, in the cemetery at the restored monastery, its founder, Prince Daniil Alexandrovich, the youngest son Alexander Nevsky.

Ivan Kalita in 1330 ordered the transfer of the monastic brethren to Church of the Savior on Bor … Then the monks returned, but at the end of the 15th century they were again transported from the monastery. This time the monastic community settled on Krutitsky Hill - the prince decided that the spiritual place should be as close to his residence as possible. So the monastery turned out to be practically abandoned, and on its territory only the temple of Daniel the Stylite has survived.

Revival and prosperity of the Danilov monastery

In 1533 he ascended the throne Ivan the Terrible and under him the revival of the Danilovsky Monastery began. The new cathedral was finished in 1561 year … The temple was built next to the grave of Prince Daniel Alexandrovich, and consecrated in honor of Holy Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils … Cells appeared around, and outbuildings were located next to the monastery camps.

At the end of the 16th century, Moscow was approached troops of Kazy-Girey … The Crimean Khan planned to take the city, but the Russian soldiers, having set up a mobile camp near the walls of the Danilov Monastery, successfully repelled the enemy's offensive. The monastery underwent serious tests in 1610, when it was shelled detachments of False Dimitri II.

The construction of the monastery continued in the second half of the 17th century. After the discovery of the relics of Prince Daniel in 1652 a wooden tomb appeared in the monastery, and a few years later - a refectory with adjoining churches. One of them was consecrated in honor of the prophet Daniel, the second - in honor of the Protection of the Virgin. The churches were decorated with platbands and cornices, and tiles with images of the Evangelists were made for the monastery Stepan Polubes - a famous master painter. The bells cast for the bell tower of the Church of the Prophet Daniel were made by order Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich Chief Master of the Cannon Yard Fedor Motorin … In 1731, the temple of Simeon the Stylite was consecrated over the Holy Gates, built at the expense of the Kosarev merchant family.

Patriotic war of 1812 and revolution

During the war with the French, the monastery did not suffer too much: most of the valuables and rarities were taken to Vologda in advance. The Napoleonic soldiers got only the salary of the tomb of the founder of the monastery, Prince Daniel Alexandrovich. Raku was made again a few years after the end of the war.

In 1918, the property of the monasteries was nationalized, but the monastery continued to exist. In the 1920s, bishops temporarily lived in it., whom the new government did not admit to the cathedra in the diocese. In the monastery, there was a tough opposition to the new government, which was unofficially called the Danilov Synod. Soon the abbot Theodore was arrested, accused of anti-Soviet agitation, and the Danilovsky Monastery was closed, having arranged grocery warehouse in Trinity Cathedral … The bells of the cathedral were bought and taken to Cambridge by the American Charles R. Crane. There they were kept until 2008, in which Harvard University returned the bells to the Moscow monastery. In 1930, the monastery opened reception center for street children and juvenile delinquents, and the last straw in a series of measures to destroy and devastate the monastery was the erection of a monument to the leader of the world proletariat in the monastery courtyard.

Danilov Monastery returned to the Church in 80s of the last century, which was absolutely unprecedented for the era of stagnation. The temples and premises of the monastery, looted and dilapidated during the years of Soviet power, were restored and repaired over the course of several years. To the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus in 1988 year the iconostasis of the Church of the Holy Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils was recreated and monastery museum … Its exposition includes copies of old prints, rare old printed and handwritten books, personal belongings of monks and inhabitants, portraits and old photographs.

The architectural ensemble of the monastery

On the territory of the Danilov Monastery, you can see several architectural structures of different years, which are architectural monuments and are protected by the state.

- The oldest surviving building - Church of the Holy Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils … The structure consists of several parts. At the base is located Church of the Intercession, from the north to which is attached chapel of the prophet daniel … The summer temple, located on top of the Intercession Church, was built in 1729. It reflects the classic features of the architectural trend, called the Moscow Baroque. Another church of the second tier was consecrated in 1752 in honor of Daniel the Stylite … The Church of the Holy Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils is a unique monument of Moscow architecture, in which three churches are connected at once.

- The first half of the 18th century includes the church of Simeon the Stylite, built over the Holy Gates … The temple was consecrated in 1732. The construction was headed by the architect Ivan Michurin. The Baroque church is decorated with traditional elements of Russian stone architecture: low figured balusters and fly-wides - square recesses in the walls, inside which a small tile was placed. After the monastery was closed by the new government, the Holy Gates and the Temple of Simeon the Stylite served as a checkpoint for the reception center for minors, which was formed on the territory of the monastery.

- Trinity Cathedral Danilovsky Monastery was built in the first half of the 19th century. Moscow merchant families donated funds for the construction. The Kumanins were famous patrons of art and took care of, in particular, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. The Shustovs' surname was also well known in Moscow: they owned salt mines and carried out government orders for the supply of food for the needs of the Russian army. Trinity Cathedral was built by an architect Osip Bove, who worked in the style of classicism. The thrones of the temple are consecrated in honor of the Monk Alexy, the Conception of the Righteous Anna and the Nativity of John the Baptist. In the Trinity Cathedral, you can see sacred Orthodox relics - the icon of St. John Cassian the Roman, the image of the Mother of God called "Three-handed", and particles of the relics of the founder of the monastery, Prince Daniel, which were given to the monastery by the primate of the American Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Theodosius.

- In the park on the square of the Serpukhovskaya Zastava on the way to the Danilov Monastery there is chapel of Daniel of Moscow, assigned to the monastery and built in 1998. It is located on the site of a chapel that existed here at the beginning of the 17th century. The first chapel was built for pilgrims who went to the monastery to venerate the grave of its founder. The holy noble Grand Duke Daniel was not only the founder of the monastery, but also a schema monk in the last years of his life. There is a monument to Daniel of Moscow in front of the chapel.

- In the list of modern religious buildings of the Danilov Monastery - Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov, built in 1984. The temple contains a rosary and part of the mantle that belonged to the saint. Another church, erected on the territory of the monastery in 1988, is dedicated to All the Saints Who Shone forth in the Russian Land. It is located in the western part of the monastery on the second floor of the residence of the Holy Synod and the Patriarch and serves as a house church. The memorial chapel was designed by Yuri Alonov and brought to life in 1988.

Each of monastery towers, restored in 1990, has its own name. The monastic walls rest on the Aleksievskaya, Georgievskaya, Kuznechnaya, Nagornaya, Abbot's, Novodanilovskaya, Patriarch's and Synodal towers.

Iconostases of monastery churches

The iconostasis of the Church of the Holy Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils is the oldest in the monastery and the largest. In its local row are the most valuable images - icon of the Vladimir Mother of God, in the margins of which is written an akathist or a singing of thanks, and Kazan Icon of the Mother of God with stamps explaining the main plot and called "Tales". The upper rows of the temple's iconostasis are occupied by sixty-seven images created by Kostroma icon painters in the 17th century.

The iconostasis of the chapel in honor of the prophet Daniel in the Church of the Holy Fathers of the seven Ecumenical Councils are worthy of attention icons of the Savior Not Made by Hands and the image of the Virgin.

On the second tier of the church, in the chapel of St. Daniel the Stylite, you can see a magnificent four-tier iconostasis, in the center of which - Royal Doors, made by craftsmen in the 17th century … They were kept in the Moscow Kremlin Museums and were transferred to the Church after the monastery was reopened. The festive row of the iconostasis consists of images painted in the 18th-19th centuries, and in the Deesis tier one can see icons of the 17th century - the works of artists from the northern regions of Russia.

The iconostasis of the gateway church was designed in 1986 by the artist Sergiy Dobrynin … The icon painter compiled it from the faces that were brought to the church of Simeon the Stylite from the Pskov-Pechersk monastery. The icons were painted in the 17th-20th centuries.