 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Donskoy Monastery" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Order | Orthodox |
| Established | 1591 |
| Disestablished | 1918 |
| Reestablished | 1992 |
| Diocese | Moscow |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Feodor I of Russia |
| Site | |
| Location | Moscow, Russia |
| Coordinates | 55°42′52″N37°36′7.5″E / 55.71444°N 37.602083°E /55.71444; 37.602083 |
Donskoy Monastery (Russian:Донско́й монасты́рь) is a majormonastery inMoscow, founded in 1591[1] in commemoration of Moscow's deliverance from the threat of an invasion by the CrimeanKhanKazy-Girey. Commanding a highway to theCrimea, the monastery was intended to defend southern approaches to theMoscow Kremlin.
The monastery was built on the spot whereBoris Godunov's mobilefortress andSergii Radonezhsky's fieldchurch withTheophan the Greek'siconOur Lady of the Don had been located.Legend has it thatDmitry Donskoy had taken this icon with him to theBattle of Kulikovo in 1380. TheTatars left without a fight and were defeated during their retreat.
Initially, thecloister was rather poor and numbered only a fewmonks. As of 1629, the Donskoy Monastery possessed 20 wastelands and 16 peasanthouseholds (20 peasants altogether). In 1612, it was taken for one day by the Polish-Lithuanian commanderJan Karol Chodkiewicz. In 1618, theBattle of Donskoy Monastery [uk] took place between RussianCavalry andUkrainian Cossacks ofPetro Konashevych, which ended in Cossack victory.
In the mid-17th century the monastery was attached to theAndreyevsky Monastery. In 1678, however, its independence was reinstated and the cloister received richdonations, including more than 1,400 peasant households. In 1683, the Donskoy Monastery was elevated to thearchmandrite level and given 20 desyatinas of the nearby pasturelands. Vidogoshchsky, Zhizdrinsky, Sharovkin, and Zheleznoborovsky monasteries were attached to the Donskoy Monastery[2] between 1683 and 1685.
Since 1711, the Great Cathedral's vault was used for burials ofGeorgiantsarevichs of theBagrationi family andMingrelian dukes of theDadiani family.
In 1724, the monks and the property of the Andreyevsky Monastery were transferred to the Donskoy Monastery. By 1739, it had already possessed 880 households with 6,716 peasants, 14 windmills, and a fewfisheries. In 1747, the authorities wanted to transfer theSlavic Greek Latin Academy to the Donskoy Monastery, but the cloister confined itself to paying salaries to the academic staff from its owntreasury.
ArchbishopAmbrose (Zertis-Kamensky) was killed within the monastery walls during thePlague Riot in 1771. In 1812, theFrench army ransacked the Donskoy Monastery,[3] the most valuable things having been moved toVologda prior to that. There had been 48 monks and 2 novices in the monastery by 1917.
_33.JPG)
After theOctober Revolution, the Donskoy Monastery was closed. In 1922–1925,Patriarch Tikhon was detained in this cloister after hisarrest. He chose to remain in this monastery after his release. Saint Tikhon's relics were discovered following his canonization in 1989. They are exhibited for veneration in the Great Cathedral in summer and in the Old Cathedral in winter.
The Soviet authorities moved remnants of many monasteries andcathedrals they had destroyed or used for other purposes to the Donskoy Monastery. The items came from various places in the Soviet capital: the dynamitedCathedral of Christ the Savior, the Church ofSaint Nicholas the Wonderworker in Stolpy,the Church of the Assumption on Pokrovka Street, theSukharev Tower, and others.
In 1924, some of the facilities of the Donskoy Monastery were occupied by apenal colony for children. A more notorious use was the unmarked burial of those shot and cremated by the secret police between 1934 and the 1950s. Only after 1985 were such unmarked burials remains finally marked.[4]
After the collapse of communism and the establishment of theRussian Federation, the Monastery was returned to theRussian Orthodox Church in 1992. Over the next ten years full lists were finally compiled of those buried in the monastery graveyard and other locations in and around the Russian capital.[5]
When the monastery was established, Boris Godunov personally laid the foundation stone of its cathedral, consecrated in 1593 to the holy image of Our Lady of the Don. This diminutive structure, quite typical for Godunov's reign, has a single dome crowning three tiers ofzakomara. In the 1670s, they added two symmetrical annexes, and arefectory leading to a tented belltower. Itsiconostasis, executed in 1662, formerly adorned one of Moscow churches demolished by the Communists. From 1930 to 1946, the cathedral was closed for services and housed a factory.
The New (or the Great) Cathedral, also dedicated to the Virgin of the Don, was started in 1684 as a votive church of TsarevnaSophia Alekseyevna. After she fell into disgrace, its construction was funded by private donations. The masons and artisans were invited from Ukraine, which explains some of the cathedral's unusual features. For the first time in Moscow, the five domes were arranged according to the four corners of the Earth (as was the Ukrainian custom). TheOld Believers felt offended by this and called the cathedral "Antichrist'sAltar". Eight tiers of its ornate baroque iconostasis were carved by Kremlin masters in 1688–1698. The iconostasis' central piece is a copy of the Virgin of the Don, as painted in the mid-16th century. The cathedralfrescoes are the first in Moscow to be painted by a foreigner. They were executed by Antonio Claudio in 1782–1785.
.jpg)
_10.jpg)
_15.jpg)
_15.jpg)
_04.jpg)
_05.jpg)
After the monastery lost its defensive importance, its walls were reshaped in the red-and-whiteMuscovite baroque style, reminiscent of theNovodevichy Convent. Eight square and four circular towers with red-blood crowns were put up in 1686–1711. The Holy Gates of the monastery (1693) are topped with the Tikhvin church (1713–1714), noted for its wrought iron grille. A lofty belfry was erected over the western gates from 1730–1753 after designs sometimes attributed toPietro Antonio Trezzini.
Several families of high aristocracy chose the Donskoy monastery as location of theirburial vaults. TheAlexander Svirsky Church, for instance, was constructed in 1796–1798 as a sepulchre of PrincesZubov. PrincesGalitzine were buried in the Archangel Church (1714–1809), whereas the Church of St. John Chrysostom (1881–1891) marks the Pervushin family vault.
Theold necropolis in the south-eastern part of the monastery is remarkable for its ornatetombs, executed by some of the best Russian sculptors. They mark the graves of the poetsMikhail Kheraskov andAlexander Sumarokov, the philosophersPyotr Chaadaev andIvan Ilyin, the historiansMikhail Shcherbatov andVasily Klyuchevsky, the criticVladimir Odoyevsky, the architectOsip Bove, the painterVasily Perov, the courtierAlexander Dmitriev-Mamonov, the notorious murdererDaria Saltykova, and the aviatorNikolay Zhukovsky.Tikhon of Moscow is interred underneath the oldkatholikon. Some of the tombs were transferred by Soviet authorities to theShchusev Museum of Architecture, where no one can see them now.
Since no Communists were buried in the old necropolis inside the monastery, the relatives of some notableRussian Whites decided to move their remains from foreign cemeteries to the Donskoy Monastery. Among the notable people reburied in this way areIvan Shmelyov (2000),Vladimir Kappel (2007),Anton Denikin (2005), andIvan Ilyin (2005).Soviet dissidentAleksandr Solzhenitsyn also asked to be buried there, rather than at theNovodevichy Cemetery, with its Communist associations.
A large new necropolis was inaugurated in 2010 just outside the monastery walls. It contains threemass graves of thecremated ashes of executedpolitical prisoners fromJoseph Stalin'sGreat Purge. SeeNew Donskoy Cemetery for details.
Media related toDonskoy Monastery at Wikimedia Commons| Downtown |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Outer ring | ||
Destroyed monasteries are in italics | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| Geographic | |
