Location: Kostroma Oblast Map
Found: 1330 by Tatar Christian prince Chet
Ipatiev Monastery is located in Kostroma Oblast of Russia. It is of a most important Russian Orthodox Monasteries that played an important role in Russian history.
Ipatiev Monastery (Ипатьевский монастырь) was originally found in 1330 by Tatar Christian prince Chet. According to historians he deserted Golden Horde and defected to the Russian prince Ivan Kalita of Moscow. Tatar prince converted to Christianity started a family that became known as Godunovs. It was quickly fortified by oak timbers against invasions from the Golden Horde. In the second part of the 16th century more durable stone walls were erected to defend monks and pilgrims who lived here. Aristocratic family of Godunov greatly helped Ipatiev Monastery by providing money and working hands during its construction. Boris Godunov later became Russian tsar. His death coincided with Polish invasion that was headed by man who claimed to be son of Ivan the Terrible- Dmitry. Some sources claim that he was a former monk Grishka Otrepev. Regardless of his true identity his arrival to Russia with the help of Polish army resulted in the death of Boris' son Fedor and several years of chaos and anarchy that came to be known as the Troubled times.
The monastery was first mentioned in chronicles in 1432, but it was
probably founded much earlier. Information about the original appearance
of the monastery has not been preserved. Most likely, it contained
wooden monastic cells, a church, various outbuildings, and fortress
walls for protection.
Its territory consists of two parts: the
Old and the New City. Both sites are surrounded by high stone walls. The
old city has the shape of an irregular pentagon. The compositional
center of the monastery is the monumental five-domed Trinity Cathedral;
there is a belfry nearby.
In the post-war period, monuments of
wooden architecture were brought to the walls of the monastery from all
over the Kostroma region and an open-air museum was created. Behind him
lies the Ipatievskaya Sloboda, which in the old days belonged to the
monastery; the five-domed church of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian
(XVII century) has been preserved there.
Foundation of the monastery
According to legend, the monastery
was founded around 1330 by the ancestor of the Godunov and Saburov
family, Tatar Murza Chet, who fled from the Golden Horde to Ivan
Kalita and was baptized in Moscow under the name Zakharia. In this
place he had a vision of the Mother of God with the forthcoming
Apostle Philip and Hieromartyr Hypatius of Gangra. The result of the
vision was his healing from the disease. In gratitude for the
healing, a monastery was founded on this place. Modern researchers
consider Murza Chet a mythical figure, and the "Legend of Prince
Chet" a genealogical legend, designed to give princely status to the
Godunov family.
Stepan Veselovsky attributed the foundation
of the monastery to the end of the 13th century. Initially, the
Church of the Holy Trinity was built, then the Church of the
Nativity of the Virgin, several cells and a powerful oak wall.
Surrounded by residential and commercial buildings. All buildings
were wooden.
According to one version, the monastery was
founded by Prince Vasily Yaroslavich, brother of Alexander Nevsky,
who had already become the Grand Duke of Vladimir, but preferred to
live in Kostroma. The deeds of Vasily Yaroslavich are also
attributed to the legendary prince of the 13th century, Vasily,
nicknamed Kvashnya. According to another version, the monastery was
founded by Novgorodians, since St. Hypatius was revered in Novgorod
as the patron saint of posadniks, and the Kostroma River has long
served as one of the ways for Novgorodians to advance to the Volga.
After the death of Prince Vasily and the abolition of the
Kostroma Principality, the monastery came under the patronage of the
Godunov family, who rose to prominence in the middle of the 16th
century, and since that time information about the monastery has
become more complete. The Godunovs, like some other noble boyar
families (Zakharyins, Velyaminovs, Saburovs, Sheins), considered
Zakharia (Cheta) their ancestor. Its representatives became patrons
of the Ipatiev Monastery. On the territory of the monastery there is
a tomb of this ancient and famous boyar family, including the graves
of the father and mother of Boris Godunov.
During this period
there is a rapid development of the monastery. Only from 1586 to
1591 the monastery received 1000 rubles and several villages from
the Godunovs. As a result, the monastery's land fund quadrupled, and
by 1600 the monastery became the fourth among all Russian landowning
monasteries, owning more than 400 villages.
At the expense of
Dmitry Godunov, the uncle of the future Tsar Boris Godunov, stone
walls with six towers were erected around the monastery and the
Trinity Cathedral was laid with side chapels in the name of the
Apostle Philip and the Hieromartyr Hypatius of Gangra. In 1564, the
construction of the winter church of the Nativity of the Most Holy
Theotokos with a chapel of St. John Chrysostom was completed. Over
the Holy Gates in 1595-1597, a temple was erected dedicated to the
Hieromartyrs Theodore Stratilates and Irina - the heavenly patrons
of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich and his wife Tsaritsa Irina Feodorovna,
sister of Boris Godunov; stone belfry, cells of the abbot and the
monastery steward. In addition, the Godunovs donated many church
books and utensils. A painting workshop and a large library of books
and manuscripts were created in the monastery.
Thanks to the
efforts of the Godunovs, by the end of the 16th century, the
monastery gained special significance in the political and spiritual
life of medieval Rus'. Contemporaries often called the monastery
"The Preeminent Lavra", and in 1599 the abbot of the monastery,
hegumen Jacob, was granted the rank of archimandrite, which
emphasized the special church and state significance of the
monastery.
Church of Birth of Mother of God (1910). The Church was destroyed in 1934 by the Commies. The color is not a modern enhancement. This is an original color picture by Sergey Prokudin- Gorsky.
During the Time of Troubles, the monastery experienced a period
of decline: after Tsar Vasily Shuisky applied for financial
assistance for the war with Ivan Bolotnikov and the Tushino
thief, the monastery's archimandrite Theodosius and Abbot of the
neighboring Kostroma Epiphany Monastery Arseniy went to Tushino
in October 1608, where they took the oath to False Dmitry II.
Since that time, the monastery was in the hands of supporters of
False Dmitry II and Patriarch Filaret.
At the end of
February 1609, the inhabitants of Kostroma revolted, killed the
Tushino garrison and laid siege to the Ipatiev Monastery.
However, it was not possible to take it right away - it was a
strong fortress surrounded by powerful stone walls, on which 27
guns were installed. At the end of April, the army of Vasily
Shuisky, led by the Mangazeya governor Davyd Zherebtsov,
approached the monastery and began siege work. In May of that
year, Alexander Lisovsky, having removed part of the troops from
under the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, tried to unblock the Ipatiev
Monastery, but failed. Nevertheless, the Kostroma citadel was
captured by Zherebtsov only in September 1609.
In the
cells of the monastery, built in 1583, from the autumn of 1612,
young Mikhail Romanov lived with his mother, nun Marfa. On March
13, 1613, an embassy from the Zemsky Sobor, which elected
16-year-old Mikhail as Tsar, arrived at the monastery, headed by
the Archbishop of Ryazan Theodoret, the cellar of the
Trinity-Sergius Monastery Abraham Palitsyn and the boyar Fyodor
Sheremetev. On March 14, in the Trinity Cathedral of the
monastery, a solemn ceremony of calling Mikhail Romanov to the
kingdom was performed, which put an end to the Time of Troubles.
Cradle of the Romanov dynasty
The royal dynasty of the
Romanovs began with the rite of calling to the kingdom in the
Ipatiev Monastery and ended with the execution of the royal
family in the Ipatiev House (in Yekaterinburg).
Under the
Romanovs, the monastery as the “cradle of the dynasty” occupied
a privileged position, the history of the Godunov family
monastery was closely intertwined with the history of the
reigning house of the Romanovs, who became generous patrons of
the Ipatiev monastery. Members of the royal family revered the
Ipatiev Monastery as their family shrine. Upon accession to the
throne, each of the kings considered it his duty to visit the
monastery and make generous contributions.
By decree of
Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the New City was built along the
western wall. It was surrounded by high walls with two gates and
three towers: two on the corner and one above the gate, the
middle one between them. The latter (also known as "Green" - the
color of the tiled roof) with an octagonal stone tent was laid
in the place where on March 19, 1613, the procession stopped,
accompanying Mikhail Fedorovich to Moscow after his election to
the kingdom.
However, the explosion of the powder
magazine, which destroyed the Trinity Cathedral in 1649, left
little of the inlaid icons of the previous time. The newly built
cathedral was much larger than the lost church. In 1685, it was
painted by an artel of art masters led by Gury Nikitin. The
frescoes of the cathedral are one of the remarkable works of
fresco painting of the second half of the 17th century, unique
in their execution, composition and variety of subjects.
In 1767, for the arrival of Empress Catherine II in Kostroma,
the Catherine Gates were built in the northern section of the
fortress wall, which became the main entrance to the monastery.
Elegant and bright in form, the building in the Baroque style is
decorated with triumphal arches. On the outer façade, at the
base of the high attic, there is a molded cartouche with the
monogram of Catherine II. From the side of the Old City, the
gates are decorated with a pediment with a relief image of the
“all-seeing eye”.
In 1839, in the center of the Old City
on the monastery square, a memorial column was erected in memory
of famous events and persons who left their mark on the history
of the Ipatiev Monastery.
In 1837-1863, under the
leadership of the architect Konstantin Ton, a large-scale
reconstruction of the monastery was carried out. Along the walls
along the low bank of the Kostroma River, the so-called. "stub"
- a dam structure that protected monastic buildings and
fortifications from flooding during spring floods. Ton
redesigned the façade of the monastery, designed the tent church
of the Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria over the Holy Gates
(from the side of the Kostroma River) and the five-domed
Byzantine-Russian-style Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy
Theotokos connected to the Trinity Cathedral (destroyed in
1934). At the same time, under the guise of restoration, the
Romanov Chambers were built on and the “royal staircase” was
erected with a wide march to the second floor. The walls of the
second floor are painted "checkered" on the outside. The
interior of the building was decorated with tiled stoves
designed by Fyodor Richter. In 1867, Fyodor Verkhovtsev made a
new riza with a salary for the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of
God.
In May 1913, the monastery became the center of the
celebration of the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty. During
the celebration of the anniversary, the emperor visited several
iconic cities, including Kostroma. Here Nicholas II visited the
monastery and lived in a wooden house specially built for him,
erected outside the walls of the monastery.
After the October Revolution, in 1919, the monastery was
abolished, and its material values were nationalized. Most of
the monastery vestry was taken to Moscow by the commissions of
the Gokhran, the rest was deposited in the Kostroma Museum of
Local Lore.
The monastery buildings were adapted for the
workers of the Kostroma textile enterprises, an orphanage and
military barracks were located right there, a stadium and a
dance floor were arranged. During the mass destruction of
Kostroma churches in 1934, the Church of the Nativity of the
Most Holy Theotokos was destroyed.
In the mid-1950s, the
dormitories in the monastery buildings were settled, and in 1958
the Kostroma State Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve
was created in the Ipatiev Monastery. The work carried out by
the Kostroma restoration workshop made it possible to free the
ancient buildings from later distortions.
In the
mid-1950s, when the Kostroma lowland was flooded, the Church of
the Transfiguration of the Savior from the village of Spas-Vezhi
and four baths (the village of Vederki) were transported to the
New City of the monastery, which became the first exhibits of
the new museum of wooden architecture. In the late 1960s, the
museum complex expanded significantly in the area to the south
of the monastery, on the cape formed by the confluence of the
Kostroma River into the Volga. Built along the left bank of the
Igumenka River, churches, residential buildings and all kinds of
outbuildings form the compositional core of the museum complex.
In the 1980s, filming took place around the monastery more
than once. The architectural ensemble can be seen in films such
as "Cruel Romance" by Eldar Ryazanov and "Black Eyes" by Nikita
Mikhalkov. In 1986, an auto-pedestrian bridge across the
Kostroma River connected the territory of Ipatievskaya Sloboda
with the central part of the city.
On November 23, 1989, the first divine service after the closure
of the monastery took place; in 1991, the Holy Trinity Hypatiev
Monastic Community was registered. In 1993, despite protests
from the museum-reserve and the public, the territory of the New
Town was transferred to the use of the monastic community.
In September 2002, as a result of the negligence of the
inhabitants, the main exhibit of the museum of wooden
architecture inside the New City burned down - the Church of the
Transfiguration of the Savior built in 1628, brought from the
village of Spas-Vezhi.
On December 30, 2004, the Federal
Agency for the Management of Federal Property of the Russian
Federation, in accordance with the instruction of Russian
President Vladimir Putin dated December 20, 2003, signed Decree
No. 1555-r on the transfer of buildings and structures of the
Holy Trinity Ipatiev Monastery in the city of Kostroma to the
Kostroma diocese. On December 31, the Kostroma diocese and the
territorial branch of the Federal Agency for Federal Property
Management of the Russian Federation signed an agreement for
gratuitous use and acceptance certificates for the entire
complex of buildings of the Holy Trinity Ipatiev Monastery. In
2005, the Kostroma diocese became the legal user of the ensemble
of the Ipatiev Monastery in the city of Kostroma. This decision
aroused indignation among journalists, since the museum-reserve
actually ended up on the street.
The archimandrite of the
monastery is Bishop Ferapont (Kashin) of Kostroma and Galich,
and Hieromonk Peter (Eryshalov) is his viceroy.
The
monastery was visited by all the presidents of the Russian
Federation during the period of their powers:
On June 19,
1998, President Boris Yeltsin visited the monastery.
On March
24, 2005, President Vladimir Putin visited the monastery.
On
May 15, 2008, President Dmitry Medvedev visited the monastery;
The new city is a fraternal territory closed to outsiders. The
old city with the Trinity Cathedral is the territory of the
Church Historical and Archaeological Museum. Entrance to it is
paid. Parishioners dressed appropriately can enter churches free
of charge during services.
Trinity Cathedral Church (1650-1652).
Belfry (1603-1605)
Bishop's Corps (XVIII century) with the Holy Gates and the Gate
Church of the Great Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria (mid-XIX
century)
Chambers of the Romanov boyars (XVI century,
reconstructed in the middle of the XIX century)
Governor's
Corps (XVI century, reconstructed in the middle of the XIX
century)
Fraternal Corps (XVIII century)
Cells above the
cellars (XVI-XVIII centuries)
Refectory building (XVI-XVII
centuries)
Candle case (XIX century)
Walls and towers of
the Old Town (Blacksmith, Powder, Water, Wax, Kvasnaya)
(XVI-XVII centuries)
Walls and towers of the New City (XVII
century)
In 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, during a
visit to the monastery, gave the order to restore the Church of
the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in its original form. By
the beginning of 2015, the main construction work was completed.
On July 19, 2015, Patriarch Kirill performed the rite of great
consecration of the restored church.
Miraculous Tikhvin Ipatiev Icon of the Mother of God (revered
locally);
Reliquary with a particle of the Lord's Robe;
Icon with a particle of the relics of Hieromartyr Hypatius,
Bishop of Gangra;
part of the head of blessed Simon, Christ
for the sake of the holy fool, Yurievets;
a stone from the
execution room of the Ipatiev House (the site of the murder of
the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers in 1918)