The Novodevichy Convent in Moscow is located? The history of the monastery

One of the main Russian architecture pearls is considered to be the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow. Since the 16th century the monastery-museum occupies a place in the bend of the Moscow River, in a historical place called the Maiden Field, and never ceases to attract the endless stream of tourists and pilgrims with its beauty and centuries-old history.

The Novodevichy Monastery is covered with secret events and legends. In Moscow, where the ancient monastery is located, during the Tatar yoke Russian people collected tribute to the Golden Horde. Tribute to the Tatars was paid not only with gold coins and furs. It was here that Russian beautiful girls were brought, whose destiny was predetermined by the time of enslavement. Since then, the field was called Maiden, and the land here, seeing endless grief, remained impregnated with tears. Here, the Novodevichy Convent was laid in Moscow, the history of its foundation goes back centuries, by the time of strengthening the might of Russia.

It's time to unite the Moscow lands

Novodevichy Bogoroditsa-Smolensky monastery begins its history from 1524, and its appearance is due to a landmark event for Rus - the completion of the unification of the Moscow state. The great Moscow Prince Vasily III, called "the collector of the lands of Russians," personified the inheritance of the Byzantine emperors, and the protection of Orthodoxy from the Gentiles.

The great unification of lands in Russia ended with the liberation of Smolensk, a city of strategic importance for the Russian state, from the Lithuanian rule. The historic battle took place in 1514, and 10 years later, fulfilling the promise given before the march to Smolensk, the prince founded a monastery with a temple consecrated by the icon of the Smolensk Mother of God Hodigitria ("Guide").

The Great Path of the Smolensk Icon

The icon of the Smolensk Mother of God came to the Russian land in the 11th century, before the appearance of Muscovy. According to legend, written during the life of the Mother of God by the apostle Luke, she went a long way from ancient Jerusalem to the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, and then to the Russian prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich. She was destined to become a shrine of the kind of Russian princes. And for a long time the miraculous image was carefully preserved in the Smolensk temple of the Assumption of the Virgin. Since that time, it was called the icon of the Smolensk Mother of God, and the city was now protected from troubles by the Most Holy Theotokos. In the annals of the XIII century, the miracle created by the icon was especially described when it saved Smolensk from the invasion of Batu's army.

Since 1398 the miraculous image was in Muscovy. She was brought by Sofya Vitovtovna, the wife of the Moscow prince Vasily I. During her visit to Smolensk to her father, the Lithuanian prince, Sophia received the blessing of her parent and the instruction to keep the icon in her home. The place she was identified in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kremlin.

For many years the ambassadors from Smolensk applied to Vasily III for the return of the icon. But only the decision to unite the Russian lands and the desire to attract the inhabitants of Smolensk to the side of the Russian prince allowed this event to happen.

Before sending the shrine on a long journey to Smolensk, at the behest of the prince from the icon they removed the exact list that was left in the Annunciation Cathedral. In the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow, where today is the list of icons, he was in 1525.

In Smolensk, the shrine was escorted by the procession from the Kremlin walls to the Savvin Monastery. And only after a great prayer service she moved along the Smolensk road.

This significant event has since been celebrated annually by festive services and the procession to the place where the Novodevichy Convent is today. Moscow, Russia, all the Orthodox Russians glorify on July 28 an icon of the Smolensk Mother of God. At this place, after the victorious battle for Smolensk, the first wooden church of the new monastery was laid.

As the name of the monastery appeared on the Devichi Field

The monastery received its name "Novodevichy" not casually. By the beginning of the XVI century, Moscow already had two women's monasteries - the oldest Zachatievsky monastery, then called the Old Believers, and Voznesensky, located on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin. The original name of the monastery on the Maiden Field, mentioned in the chronicles of 1598, is the Virgin Virgin Hodigitria New Devichy Monastery.

There is another version of the appearance of the name. The abbess of the monastery was dedicated to the Schemonahina Elena, the elder and ascetic of the Suzdal-Pokrovsky monastery. From Suzdal to the new monastery abbess wrote and 18 nuns, who faithfully served her in all endeavors. The life of nuns in the monastery was based on the principles of the old hostel and was subject to strict regulations. Until now, a unique handwritten document compiled by the abbess of the Novodevichy Convent has survived: the charter and the schedule of the women's monastery at the beginning of the 16th century.

Staritsa Elena was known as an "all-encompassing teacher of the virgin rank" and had the nickname Devochkin among the parishioners because of special attention to the guardianship of the girls. The love and care for them by the abbess was so great that it was entrenched in the old Moscow name of the shelter for women.

From the history of the Novodevichy Convent it is known that during the time of Peter the First there was organized a shelter for infants-girls born illegally. Nuns raised and brought them up in rigor, instilling in them obedience and obedience. It was Peter I who thought of teaching novices of the monastery to weave lace in Dutch manners. The orphanage became the first prototype of the future Moscow educational home for girls of high estates.

The history of the monastery for women and the orphanage for orphan girls was later continued by the Resurrection Novodevichy Convent, founded by the order of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in 1746. At that time, she decided to transfer the experience of Moscow nuns to St. Petersburg. And the monastery was especially popular in the heyday of monasticism among women in the XIX century.

One of the versions of the reasons for the foundation of the monastery

Historians almost unanimously agree that one of the reasons for the founding of the new convent was the personal drama of Vasily III. A parallel is held between the construction of the monastery and the divorce proceedings of the prince. The chosen Solomoniya Saburova for 20 years of marriage could not give the prince to the heir. Fearing his brothers, claiming to rule, he obtained permission from the church to remarry. Unable to cope with his conjugal duty, Solomon's wife Vasily III was forced to take tonsure and exiled her to the Nativity Monastery. In 1525, she was christened Sophia.

Many historians believe that the Novodevichy Monastery in Moscow, where the list of the Smolensk icon is located, was intended for Solomon. And Vasily III, the "pioneer" from the monarchs in the forcible separation of his wife behind the walls of the monastery, tried to soften his guilt.

From the Kremlin to the Novodevichy Convent there were only three versts. But to move to a picturesque place near Moscow, the nun Sophia could not, after spending her days in Suzdal, outside the walls of the Intercession Women's Monastery. With her righteous life she deserved to be included in the saints, and today she is revered as believers as Sofia Suzdal Reverend.

Godunovs in the Novodevichy Convent

Ivan Ivan the Terrible continued the sad practice of referring personalities of royal families. He hid the widows of his brother and his own son here. The monastery also received the widow of Fyodor I Ioanovich, Irina Godunova, who protects her brother Boris from death. Her decision to leave for the monastery after the death of her husband was then equivalent to abdication. But here the nun-queen continued state works, making the monastery the royal residence. It was here that the boyars came three times to bow, asking Boris for the kingdom.

Particular attention and patronage of the Novodevichy Convent began to be rendered by Boris Godunov, who took power in 1598. For his sister Irina Fedorovna, he built new spacious cells, a house church and a refectory. Subsequently, they will be called the Irininsk Chambers. In addition, funds have been allocated for the full renovation of the Smolensk Cathedral, the paintings and the iconostasis have been restored, and the miracle-working images were clothed in new salaries with precious stones.

Captive royal family

The series of the inhabitants of the monastery from the families of the boyars and princes was endless. There were among them those who found themselves behind strong walls not of their own free will.

Continued imprisonment of relatives and Peter I. In 1689, the princess Sophia Alekseevna, the sister of the monarch and instigator of the Strelets' uprising, was hid here. The fate of her companions was sadly known. They were executed opposite the Novodevichy Convent, and their heads were strung on the stone battlements of the walls of the monastery. Here, the first wife of Peter I, Lopukhin Evdokia, who according to tradition cursed the city he loved on his heart on the Neva, was exiled.

"Novodevichy monastery in Moscow, where there are many people of noble family, the richest and destined for individuals of the highest" - witnessed Patriarch Nikon. As in the old days in Starodovichy, so here came the wives of kings, widows, daughters and sisters of boyars.

To the untold riches received by the monastery at the base, the jewels of the future nuns were constantly added, and donations for ownership of their lands were added.

Abode or fortress?

At the behest of Basil III the monastery was to become a miniature copy of the Moscow Kremlin. The court architects and painters labored not so much over the defense of the walls as over their beauty. Turn the walls of the monastery into serfs decided Boris Godunov, starting after climbing the throne of the architectural transformation of the monastery. New stone sturdy walls with new towers and loopholes surrounded the territory of the monastery. Their height has now increased to 13 meters, and the length is almost up to a kilometer. To carry the guard on the territory of the monastery housed a streltsy garrison of 350 sabers, by the XVII century the monastery had become a real guard fortress on the border of Moscow.

Engravings with views of Moscow and Novodevichy monastery tell us about the times of the Great Troubles, when the fate of the monastery fortress was tragic. Standing at the turn of the city, she was subjected to numerous raids by foreigners, rioting squadrons of streltsy and ordinary robbers. By 1612 the walls of the monastery were practically destroyed, and the monastery was plundered. It was under the ruined walls of the Novodevichy Convent that a historic battle took place with the Polish army, after which Prince Pozharsky led the troops to the Kremlin.

New life of the monastery: restoration and flourishing

Restoration of the Novodevichy monastery began with the advent of the first Romanovs to rule. Mikhail Fedorovich, who freed the monastery from taxes, by 1650 cleared the monastery from the traces of war, restored and fortified the walls. He made a place from the monastery for the prayers of the royal persons. Since then the Novodevichy Convent was located outside the city, under its walls were broken tents, where they stayed at night, "so as not to miss the morning prayer." Thanks to the monastery, Moscow received the name of the street of Prechistenka - the present symbol of the old city. It is for her parishioners on holidays.

The custom of festivities near Novodevichy came to life Muscovites from those times. And today thousands of people are striving to get to the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow. How to get to the place where festive festivities are held?

Festive festivities in the historical center

Over time, the place of folk festivals was moved from the walls of the monastery to Presnya and Maiden Field. The first public festivities were arranged only on church holidays. The appearance of the famous Prechistenka Street is also associated with the Novodevichy Convent.

The road along which the believers annually walked from the Kremlin walls to the monastery existed before. But the royal command of 1658, she began to be called the name of the Virgin, the miraculous face of which accompanied every holiday.

Gradually, in this historic place, worldly important events began to be celebrated. Until the XVIII century, the territory of the Virgin's Field remained unbuilt. Here gardens blossomed and apothecary gardens were broken. The nobility's houses on this place began to appear only by the end of the century.

Today the territory of the Maiden Field is fully built up, and the main streets of this historic center are considered to be the Great Pirogovskaya, Malaya Pirogovskaya and Pogodinskaya. Folk festivities are held in several places, within walking distance from each other, so these streets will serve as a guide for locating their places.

How to get to the Novodevichy Convent

None of the tourist routes of the capital does not ignore the Novodevichy Convent. Moscow is the starting point for those wishing to travel along the Golden Ring.

As a monastery the monastery lasted until 1922. It was preserved by the Soviet government as an architectural monument until the 1930s, when the decision of the People's Commissariat of the building of the monastery complex was given to the State Historical Museum (branch). Even before the end of the war, spiritual schools began to revive in the territory of the convent. And only in 1994 the monastic life in the monastery was revived.

Tourist guidebooks always provide information for those who wish to visit the Novodevichy Convent. Address and how to get there They indicate In all details with the schemes. It will be difficult to get lost.

Since today it is the historical center of the capital, and many sights are located a short distance from each other, it is better to take a 10-minute walk from the Sportivnaya metro station on the street. 10-th anniversary of October.

The territory of the monastery complex is limited to Novodevichye Embankment, Luzhnetsky Proezd and Khamovnichesky Val. In addition to viewing the architectural complex, tourists and admirers of many great people are interested in visiting the Novodevichy Cemetery. It also refers to the special sights of Moscow. Many outstanding figures of our country are buried here: military commanders, vivid representatives of science and culture, and politics.

The legacy of Russian history and the spirituality of faith united in itself a landmark for Russia - the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow. Address: metro "Sportivnaya", Novodevichy proezd, 1.