Vysoko
Petrovski Monastery
Vysoko
Petrovski Monastery
The
Vysoko Petrovski
Monastery is near metro station Chekhovskaya Pushkinskaya on Ulitsa
Petrovka. The Monastery is easy to get to and offers tours to the
general public. The buildings and grounds suffered damage during the
Soviet era and proceeds from tours are being used to fund restoration
work.
The
Vysoko-Petrovski Monastery was founded in the 14th Century go
Metropolitan Peter, Archibishop of Kiev and All Russia. The original
monastery was dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul, but later, when
Metropolitan Peter had been added to the company of the saints in 1327
(or 1329) its name was changed to the Petrovski Monastery.
Between 1505-1509 the name was again
changed to Vysoko-Petrovski (High Peter). The addition of Vysosk is
variously explained as referring to the monastery's elevation, the name
of the hamlet which once stood on the site, or from the vision of a
high mountain seen on this spot by Grand Duke Ivan Kalita.
The
monastery has been rebuilt many times since its inception. Until the
beginning of the 16th Century all of the buildings were made of wood,
including the church dedicated to Moscow's first saint, the
miracle-worker Peter. After one of the many fires a column-shaped brick
church was built in 1514-1517 by Italian architect Aloys Friasin. This
is one of the earliest examples of a column-shaped church in Russian
architecture. It still stands as the focal centre of the whole monastic
complex in the great court. In the last quarter of the 16th century the
monastery acquired the status of a "State Chapel".
To
mark the birth of the Tsarevich Peter (25 May 1672 old calendar) his
grandfather, K. P. Naryshkin, presemted Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with
an estate adjoining the couthern cloister. This property was added to
the monastery with the result that its territory was almost doubled. In
1684 the Church of the Veil (wooden) and other wooden buildings at the
northern side were demolished and in their place a church was erected
dedicated to the Bogolubsky Icon of the Mother of God (first icon above
right). In the following hundred years the funerals of 18 members of
the Naryshkin family took place in this church, which became their
family shrine.
In the 1690s, by order of Peter I
(Peter the Great) the remaining wooden buildings were replaced with a
church dedicated to St Sergei Radonezh. Also at this time the present
building of the holy gates with the church above them dedicated to the
Veil of the All-holy Mother of God, and the bell town above it, were
built on the north side of the main courtyard.
At the end
of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th a brick wall was built
around the site. It has blind arches on the courtward side which
continue the arches of the cloister. In the first half of the 18th
century the church dedicated to the Tolgsky Icon of the Mother of God
(1747-53) (image above) and the church dedicated to St Pachomius the
Great (1750-55) was here built. These were designed in the restained
baroque style to harmonize with the Moscow-barocque style of the
earlier buildings.
The
monastery suffered considerable damage in the Patriotic War of 1812
when its holy places were prophaned and looted by Napoleon's troops.
After the occupying forces had been driven out, services were not
resumed in the church of the Veil for 50 years and in the church of St
Pachomius the Great for almost 100 years.
In the late 19th and
early 20th century another spate of building took place. In 1905 at the
southern approach to the holy gates, a chapel was placed, dedicated to
the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. After this no further additions
were made. The monastery was closed immediately after the October
revolution. The last church on the grounds, the chapel of the Kazan
Icon of the Mother of God, was closed in 1928.
The
complex of the
Vysoko-Petrovski Monastery as a whole is outstanding for its
architectural excellence and is without doubt a jewel in the centre of
historic Moscow.
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This page was updated on 26 November 2007.Contact me at: patti.primeau@sympatico.caThis site was edited using Nvu and Style Master. |