Location: 75 km (47 mi) Northeast of Moscow Map
Tel. 8254 45356
Trinity Cathedral:
Open: 6am- 5pm daily
Museum:
Open: 10am- 5pm Wed- Mon
Grounds: Open: 5am- 9pm daily
Sergius of Radonezh
Trinity by Andrey Rublev
The Trinity-Sergius Lavra (usually the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra
in church literature) is the largest male monastery of the Russian
Orthodox Church with a long history. Located in the center of the
city of Sergiev Posad, Moscow Region, on the Konchura River. Has the
status of stavropegic. The largest center of educational and
publishing activities of the Russian Orthodox Church. Location of
the Moscow Theological Academy. In the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the
Lavra are the relics of the founder of the monastery, St. Sergius of
Radonezh.
The date of the foundation of the Holy Trinity
Hermitage is considered to be the settlement of St. Sergius of
Radonezh on Makovets Hill (70 km northeast of Moscow) in 1337. After
several years of solitary asceticism of St. Sergius, new inhabitants
came to Makovets, and the hermitage turned into a separate
monastery. Some historians believe that this happened in the early
1340s, and more precisely in 1342. After 10-15 years (according to
other studies, 20-30 years), Sergius introduced a cenobitic charter
in the monastery.
In the Middle Ages, the monastery played a
prominent role in the political life of North-Eastern Rus'; was the
backbone of power and people. According to accepted historiography,
he took part in the struggle against the Tatar-Mongol yoke; opposed
the supporters of the governments of False Dmitry II, False Dmitry
III, the Seven Boyars, the Polish-Lithuanian troops in the Time of
Troubles (see Trinity siege, Second militia), supported Peter I in
confronting Princess Sophia.
Since 1688 the monastery has
been stauropegial. On July 8, 1742, by decree of Empress Elizabeth
Petrovna, the monastery was given the status and name of a Lavra; On
June 22, 1744, the Holy Synod issued a decree to Archimandrite
Arseny on naming the Trinity-Sergius Monastery Lavra. It was closed
on April 20, 1920 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars
"On applying to the Museum of Historical and Artistic Values of the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra"; resumed in the spring of 1946.
In 1337, Bartholomew (Sergius of Radonezh) and his older brother
Stefan, a monk of the Khotkovo Intercession Monastery, settled on
Makovets Hill, ten miles from Khotkovo. This event is considered the
date of foundation of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage. Soon the
brothers erected a small wooden church in the name of the Holy
Trinity (it was consecrated in 1340). The first monastic buildings -
the Church of the Holy Trinity and several cells - occupied only a
small part of the modern territory of the Lavra, located in its
southwestern corner.
After Stefan left for the Epiphany
Monastery in Moscow, the Monk Sergius labored alone for several
years, but over time, other monks began to settle around his cell.
Around 1340, the hermitage turned into a separate monastery. In his
first (1353-1354) or second (1364-1376) patriarchate, Patriarch
Philotheos of Constantinople blessed St. Sergius to introduce a
communal rule. The territory of the monastery was divided into three
parts - residential, public and defensive. In the center of the
monastery there is a new wooden church of the Holy Trinity and a
refectory surrounded by cells on four sides; behind the cells were
vegetable gardens and household services. The entire monastery was
surrounded by a wooden fence (tyn). Another wooden church was built
above the gate - in the name of Demetrius of Thessalonica. The plan
of the monastery, established then, in general terms has survived to
this day. The abbot of the monastery at first was Mitrofan, who
tonsured Bartholomew a monk under the name of Sergius. After the
death of Mitrofan, St. Sergius of Radonezh became hegumen of the
monastery.
Soon the Trinity Monastery became the spiritual
center of the Russian lands, supported by the Moscow princes. Here,
in 1380, St. Sergius blessed the army of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich,
who was going to battle with Mamai. On September 8, 1380, during the
Battle of Kulikovo, on the battlefield, in violation of the charter
of Orthodox monasticism, with the blessing of St. Sergius, the
monks-bogatyrs of the Trinity Monastery - Peresvet and Oslyabya -
went out. In 1392 Saint Sergius reposed and was buried in the Church
of the Holy Trinity; six months before his death, Sergius handed
over the leadership of the monastery to his beloved disciple Nikon
of Radonezh.
In 1408, the monastery was plundered and burned down by the Tatar
Khan Edigey, but the next 200 years of its history passed almost
without clouds. The Trinity Monastery was rebuilt, developed, and
became one of the main Russian shrines. The monastery has been the
cultural and religious center of the Russian state for several
centuries. Chronicles were compiled in the monastery, manuscripts
were copied, icons were painted; in the 15th century, the "Life of
St. Sergius of Radonezh" was created here, one of the largest
monuments of old Russian literature, a most valuable historical
document.
In 1422, on the site of a wooden church (which was
moved to the east), hegumen Nikon of Radonezh laid the first stone
building of the monastery - the Trinity Cathedral, built by Serbian
monks from Kosovo, who found refuge in the monastery after the
Battle of Kosovo Field. During the construction of the cathedral,
the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh were found. Outstanding icon
painters Andrei Rublev and Daniil Cherny participated in the
painting of the temple, the famous Rublev’s “Trinity” was painted
for the iconostasis of the cathedral. The Trinity Cathedral was
revered by the Moscow princes: prayers were performed here before
campaigns and after their successful completion (as, for example,
Vasily III celebrated a successful campaign against Pskov in 1510
with a prayer service, and Ivan IV the Terrible performed a prayer
service in honor of the successful capture of Kazan in 1552), By
"kissing" contracts were sealed, the heirs to the throne were
baptized.
One of the most dramatic events of internecine wars
in Muscovite Rus' is connected with the Trinity Monastery. In 1442,
in the monastery at the tomb of Sergius, the reconciliation of
Vasily II with his cousin Dmitry Shemyaka took place, which ended
many years of civil strife. However, two years later, Dmitry broke
this oath; Shemyaka's people seized Vasily, who was praying at the
tomb of Sergius, and sent him under escort to Moscow, where two days
later Vasily was blinded and exiled to Uglich. The clergy of the
Trinity Monastery condemned the actions of Dmitry Shemyaka (the
first in the church condemnation of Shemyaka is the signature of the
Trinity abbot Martinian), and Vasily II, released from imprisonment
in 1450-1462, gave the monastery a number of letters of
commendation.
Trinity Cathedral for a long time remained the
only stone structure of the monastery. In 1469, under the guidance
of the Moscow architect Vasily Yermolin, a stone refectory was built
on the central square. It was a two-story building, consisting of
two chambers: the "small refectory of the fathers" (refectory for
the brethren) on the first floor and the "royal chamber" on the
second floor. The type of a one-pillar chamber, first used in the
Trinity Monastery, was subsequently used by the builders of the
Faceted Chamber in Moscow, after which it became widespread. In the
18th century, a modern bell tower was built on the site of the
refectory. A stone kitchen was built near the refectory according to
Yermolin's project. In 1476, near the Trinity Cathedral, Pskov
craftsmen built the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit.
In 1530, the sacrament of baptism of the long-awaited son of
Prince Vasily III, the future Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, was
performed in the Trinity Cathedral. In 1547, as soon as the
magnificent celebrations on the occasion of the wedding of Ivan IV
ended in Moscow, the young tsar and his wife went on foot to the
Trinity Monastery, where he spent a week praying daily at the tomb
of Sergius. Subsequently, the tsar often visited the monastery,
performed prayers on the occasion of the largest victories of the
Russian troops; during his reign, Ivan IV invested at least 25
thousand rubles in the development of the monastery. Under Ivan the
Terrible, the monastery was replanned. Since the 1540s, white stone
walls have been erected around the monastery. In the 1550s, a belt
of walls in the form of an irregular quadrangle, about one and a
half kilometers long, was built. It was then that the monastery
territory acquired its current size. Simultaneously with the
construction of the walls, dams were built in three ravines adjacent
to the monastery, and a large pond was dug out on the south side.
Trinity Monastery turned into a powerful fortress. In 1561 he
received the status of archimandrite.
In 1559, in the
presence of the tsar, a new large cathedral was laid, which received
the name of the Assumption. The construction of the temple dragged
on for many years; in 1564, it was interrupted due to a major fire,
during which “the Trinity Sergius Monastery burned out, the meals
and treasuries of the monastery in the chambers, and many bells
spilled and cook everything, and host the courtyard, and serve the
courtyards ...”. The consecration of the cathedral took place after
the death of Ivan the Terrible, in 1585, in the presence of the new
Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. After that, in 1585-1586, at the behest of
the royal couple, extensive artistic work was carried out. This was
due to the fact that Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich and Tsarina Irina
Feodorovna Godunova had no children, although the wedding took place
in 1580. This was not an isolated case - famous monasteries and
temples of the state were presented with expensive gifts "in prayer"
for childbearing. In the Assumption Cathedral there is a chapel of
Theodore Stratilates and the Holy Great Martyr Irina, who were the
namesake saints of the royal couple.
By the end of the 16th
century, the Trinity Monastery had become the largest monastery in
Russia; in his property there were 2780 settlements, active trade
was carried out - merchant ships of the monastery went to foreign
countries
During the Time of Troubles, the Trinity Monastery withstood a
16-month siege by the Polish-Lithuanian invaders led by Sapieha and
A. Lisovsky. The Polish-Lithuanian troops, who approached the
monastery in September 1608, fired at the fortress with 63 guns and
repeatedly attempted to storm it; at the end of 1609, scurvy began
in the besieged monastery, during the epidemic, more than two
thousand people died. All the dead were carried to the Assumption
Cathedral. By the end of winter, less than 200 people remained
capable of defending the monastery with weapons in their hands.
Despite all the difficulties, the monastery staunchly defended
itself, according to the characteristics of the Poles themselves, it
was armed with “people, iron and courage”. During the successful
sorties of the besieged, the Poles also lost a large number of
people; during one of the sorties, the son of Lisovsky, Stanislav,
died. Having learned about the digging under the Pyatnitskaya Tower,
the defenders erected a second wall opposite the digging, and then,
during a successful sortie, they blew up the digging. On January 12
(22), 1610, the siege was lifted by Russian troops led by Mikhail
Skopin-Shuisky. The monastery became one of the strongholds of the
Second Militia of Minin and Pozharsky; a great contribution to the
liberation was made by Archimandrite Dionysius, who helped the Home
Guard with large donations and supported the spirit of the army. The
damage done to the monastery is described in the Tale of Avraamy
Palitsyn:
... from undermining and from rumors, the walls of the
city were scattered, and in other places the buildings were not much
more: in the monastery of service and the cells of the fraternal
without cover, the former and many cells and services in the
monastery burned down.
However, the authority of the
monastery, which became one of the symbols of the courage of the
Russian people, grew, and with it, donations to the treasury also
increased. The monastery fortifications were quickly restored (at
the same time, the walls were built on in height and increased in
width, and the towers acquired the appearance that has survived to
this day), the construction of new buildings began. A large bell
tower was erected next to the Spiritual Church, and the church of
Mikhail Malein appeared at the eastern wall of the refectory. The
walls of the refectory were decorated with bright paintings. On the
site of the wooden palace of Ivan the Terrible, royal mansions were
built. Around 1640, a stone two-story building of cells was built.
Among other large monastic buildings of the 17th century are the
Church of Zosima and Savvaty, the Hospital Chambers.
The last
time the monastery saw an enemy under its walls was in 1618, during
a campaign against Moscow by the Polish prince Vladislav. The time
has come for the prosperity of the monastery; the number of peasant
households belonging to the monastery reached 16.8 thousand,
exceeding the number of peasant possessions of the tsar and the
patriarch. The monastery's own brick factories ensured the
continuous construction work. In the ponds surrounding the
monastery, the monks bred fish, orchards were created along their
banks, and windmills were set up.
In 1682, during the
Streltsy rebellion, the monastery served as a refuge for Princess
Sofya Alekseevna, Princes Ivan and Peter. In 1689, Peter I, who fled
from Moscow, took refuge in the monastery. It was in the
Trinity-Sergius Monastery that Sophia's supporters were tortured,
from here Peter left for Moscow as a sovereign ruler. Under him, a
magnificent baroque refectory with a church of St. Sergius of
Radonezh, the so-called Refectory Church, appeared in the monastery.
With the construction of a new refectory, the formation of the
architectural appearance of the central square of the monastery was
almost completely completed. Over the eastern wall of the monastery,
at the expense of the Stroganovs, in 1699 the gate church of the
Nativity of John the Baptist was built.
At the beginning of
the 18th century, construction on the territory of the monastery
stopped. Russia entered the Northern War (Peter I took 400 thousand
rubles from the monastery treasury for military needs); then the
construction of the new capital of Russia - St. Petersburg - began -
in connection with which the tsar introduced a ban on the
construction of stone buildings throughout Russia. Only in 1708,
construction work was launched near the walls of the monastery: due
to the threat of the Swedish army penetrating deep into Russia, it
was decided to strengthen Moscow and nearby fortresses, including
the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Stone bridges were built at the
Assumption and Red Gates; deep ditches and bastions appeared under
the monastery walls. The moats existed until the 1830s, and the
earthen fortifications near the corner towers remain to this day.
The successors of Peter the Great on the Russian throne did not
show much interest in the fate of the monastery; there were even
plans to move the monastery closer to the new capital, but they were
not destined to come true. In 1738, the monastery management system
changed: it became subordinate to the Spiritual Council.
After the accession to the throne of Elizabeth Petrovna, a new
period of prosperity for the monastery began. On October 1, 1742, by
decree of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, a theological seminary was
opened in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery (later, in 1814, the Moscow
Theological Academy, one of the largest religious educational
institutions in Russia, was transferred to the monastery). Soon (in
1744) the Trinity-Sergius Monastery was awarded the honorary title
of Lavra; The head of the Lavra was the Metropolitan of Moscow.
Elizaveta Petrovna often visited the Lavra. Each of her visits
was accompanied by a celebration - fireworks, cannon fire and
sumptuous meals. In the summer, amusements were held in the
monastery; outside the monastery walls was built a magnificent
pleasure palace of Korbukh, surrounded by greenhouses and a park in
the French style. Construction also unfolded on the territory of the
monastery itself. Back in 1738, Moscow architect Ivan Michurin was
commissioned to draw up a master plan for the monastery territory.
The plan was drawn up and sent to St. Petersburg, but was approved
only in 1740; along with the plan came the project of a new
monastery bell tower, developed by the court architect Schumacher.
Petersburg architect proposed to place the bell tower in the
geometric center of the main square. However, Michurin believed that
in this place the bell tower would be obscured by other structures
and “from such a small distance ... it cannot be seen by many
people”; Michurin managed to achieve the transfer of the
construction site to the north. In 1741, the laying of the bell
tower took place; construction stretched for almost 30 years and was
completed only in 1770. For the new belfry, a king-bell weighing
4065 pounds was cast right on the territory of the monastery.
Many buildings of the Lavra were to be rebuilt; the
architectural style of the monastery buildings was planned to be
brought into line with the tastes of the middle of the 18th century.
In 1745, an album of restructuring of the entire Lavra territory was
drawn with a detailed description of the buildings of the monastery.
The strong fire that happened in 1746, which destroyed all the
wooden buildings of the monastery, contributed to the acceleration
of the reconstruction. A global reconstruction of the Lavra began in
accordance with the album of 1745; work continued until 1789. The
new appearance of the monastery buildings resembled the external
decoration of the palaces of that time. The buildings were painted
in bright colors that emphasized the beauty of the white and gilded
stucco details. To match the external decor, the interiors of the
buildings received a magnificent appearance. The most luxurious
decoration was found in the Tsar's palaces (stucco molding and
painting on the ceiling, typesetting parquet, tiled stoves, silk
upholstery of the walls). The original decor of many old buildings
has been lost; for example, buildings along the western wall of the
monastery, including the Hospital Chambers, acquired a single facade
with identical windows and a gallery on pillars. Some buildings
(including the forge and armory) were dismantled. The architecture
of a number of buildings in the album was pretentious; The
architects Ivan Michurin and Dmitry Ukhtomsky, who supervised the
restructuring, managed to make a number of significant changes to
the project (for example, the decision to build two-tier figured
roofs over the monastic buildings according to the Dutch model was
canceled). The restructuring also affected the ancient temples of
the monastery; thus, the heads of the Trinity Cathedral and the
Spiritual Church were replaced with onion ones, and the vaulted
porch of the Trinity Cathedral was replaced with a high porch. The
heads of most temples were gilded. On the territory of the Lavra,
paths paved with white stone appeared, and the main alley - from the
Holy Gates to the Trinity Cathedral - was decorated with forged
gratings. Finally, in 1792, an obelisk with medallions was erected
on the main square, the text in which tells about the history of the
monastery; The obelisk was used as a chronometer - a sundial was
placed on its three sides.
In the XVIII-XIX centuries, the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra became one of the richest monasteries in
Russia, one of the largest landowners (in 1763, on the eve of a
major confiscation of church lands, the Lavra owned more than 100
thousand souls of peasants). Active trade (grain, salt, household
items) contributed to the increase in the wealth of the monastery;
his financial situation in the XVII-XVIII centuries. distinguished
by great strength; Great were the donations of the monastery in
favor of the Russian army (in 1812 - about 70 thousand rubles), the
militia (see Dionysius of Radonezh). The significance of the Lavra
as a cultural center also increased; in 1814, the Theological
Academy was transferred here from Moscow, located in the building of
the Royal Palace. In connection with the placement of the academy, a
number of buildings were rebuilt, new buildings appeared - all this,
according to some researchers, led to a violation of the integrity
of the architectural complex.
On January 10, 1895, the Lavra
Printing House was opened. By the beginning of the 20th century, the
Lavra was in charge of a printing house (it printed the works of
philosophers, clergy - P. A. Florensky, Kliment Ohridsky and
others), two hotels on the territory of Sergiev Posad (old and new),
workshops (production of toys, candlesticks, crosses etc.,
woodcarving), shops, horse yards. There was a brisk trade near the
walls of the Lavra, near the monastery there were shopping arcades,
hotels and tenement houses. In the 1910s, more than 400 monks lived
in the Lavra. Some small monasteries and sketes were assigned to the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
The shrines of the monastery: the
relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh (in the Trinity Cathedral), the
relics of St. Nikon and Micah of Radonezh, St. Serapion of Novgorod,
Metropolitan Joasaph, Archimandrite Dionysius, Saint Maxim the
Greek, the icon of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity by Andrei Rublev
(now in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) attracted thousands of
pilgrims from all over Russia.
Representatives of noble
Russian houses are buried in the Lavra: Belsky, Vorotynsky, Glinsky,
Obolensky, Odoevsky and others; figures of the Time of Troubles:
Prince Dmitry Trubetskoy and Prokopy Lyapunov, Prince Andrei
Radonezhsky, representatives of the Godunov family; many Moscow and
other bishops: Macarius (Bulgakov), Leonty (Lebedinsky), Sergius
(Lyapidevsky), Nikon (Rozhdestvensky), Sergius (Golubtsov),
Patriarchs Alexy I and Pimen. Numerous treasures are stored in the
sacristy - these are unique objects of decorative and applied art,
offerings of kings and wealthy people to the monastery. The Lavra
library has a significant fund of manuscripts - Russian chronicles,
handwritten books of the 15th-17th centuries, and unique samples of
Russian early printed books (for 1908 - about 10,000), historical
documents are stored here.
The most famous abbots of the
Lavra in the 19th century were Metropolitan Platon (Levshin), who
led active construction, St. Philaret of Moscow, who corresponded
with A. S. Pushkin and founded the Gethsemane Skete near the Lavra,
and St. Innokenty (Veniaminov), who was the first Orthodox bishop of
America.
In the first years of the 20th century, construction continued on
the territory of the monastery, new cells and buildings,
outbuildings, and shopping arcades were built.
On July 5-13,
1909, the All-Russian Monastic Congress was held in the Lavra, at
which an extensive program was developed to eradicate the main vices
of monastic life.
After the revolutionary events, 1918 marked
the beginning of a difficult period in the history of the Lavra.
According to the Decree on the separation of the church from the
state and the school from the church on January 20 (O.S.), 1918, the
Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the Lavra, like other
monasteries in Russia located on the territory controlled by the
Bolsheviks, was legally turned into a labor artel, however monastic
life continued on an ad hoc basis until October 21, 1919, when the
monks were resettled in the Chernigov and Gethsemane sketes.
On November 10, 1919, the Presidium of the Executive Committee of
the Sergievsky District decided to close the monastery due to an
acute shortage of premises for hospitals, schools, and children's
institutions. In March 1919, the Moscow Theological Academy was
dissolved, and its premises were given to electrical courses; On
April 11, the relics of St. Sergius were opened. On April 20, 1920,
despite a number of messages from Patriarch Tikhon to the Chairman
of the Council of People's Commissars Vladimir Lenin with a request
to cancel the order to close the Lavra, the Council of People's
Commissars issued a resolution "On applying to the museum of
historical and artistic values of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra." The
Trinity Cathedral was closed immediately, and the brethren were
evicted and found a place for themselves in labor communes; the last
divine service in the Trinity Cathedral was performed on May 31,
1920. In the same 1920, a historical and architectural museum was
organized on the territory of the Lavra. In 1929, the last sketes
near the Lavra were closed and most of the Lavra bells were
confiscated for remelting (the Swan bell of 1593 and the oldest,
Nikonovsky, of 1420 survived). Until 1953, the Zagorsk Teachers'
Institute (Zagorsk Pedagogical College) was located on the territory
of the monastery.
By the end of the 1930s, some monuments of the Lavra were partially
rebuilt and adapted for housing and other household needs that were
not typical for them.
The first commission for the protection
of monuments of art and antiquity of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra was
created back in 1918, but the restoration work carried out under its
supervision was not systematic, there was no single restoration
project. The initiator and organizer of systematic restoration work
was the director of the Zagorsk Museum of History and Art S. A.
Budaev, the customer was the Zagorsk Museum, in 1938 a young
architect Ignaty Trofimov was invited. He was instructed to develop
a decree of 1920, signed by Lenin, on the appeal of the ensemble of
the Trinity-Sergius Lavra to the museum, to prepare a substantiated
report to the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR on the
allocation of funds for the scientific restoration of the monuments
of this historical and artistic ensemble. In the next two years, he
prepared a certificate on the historical and artistic significance
of the architectural ensemble of the Lavra and a program for its
scientific restoration, a general plan for restoration and
restoration work, defective acts, inventories of work and estimates
for fifteen objects. On the basis of these materials, on February 1,
1940, a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars was
adopted, according to which the entire complex of monuments of the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra within the boundaries of the fortress walls
was declared the Zagorsk State Historical and Art Museum-Reserve.
Trofimov was appointed supervisor and chief architect of these
works. For their production, a special research and production
construction site was organized and an Academic Council was
established, approved by the State Committee for the Arts; The
government allocated 6 million rubles for the planned work.
Academician Ivan Rylsky was appointed chairman of the council,
Vasily Zubov was appointed scientific secretary, and architect
Nikolai Vinogradov was appointed representative from the customer,
the Zagorsk Museum. The council included architect academician Ivan
Zholtovsky; engineer Pavel Shchusev; archaeologist Doctor of
Historical Sciences Artemy Artsikhovsky; historian Sergei
Bakhrushin. At various times, academicians A. V. Shchusev and I. E.
Grabar were invited as consultants, since 1940 he had supervised the
restoration of painting; Lieutenant General, Hero of the Soviet
Union D. M. Karbyshev; experts in applied art and painting N. N.
Sobolev, D. I. Kiplik, F. Ya. Mishukov; historians - A. G. Novitsky
and A. G. Gabrichevsky. There were not enough restorers, and in 1945
an arts and crafts school was opened with a three-year training
program that trained white masons, sculptors, carpenters and other
masters of restoration work.
The ensemble of the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra took shape over four centuries, from the 15th
to the 18th centuries inclusive, and along with the development of
the ensemble, the appearance of its individual buildings also
changed. The task of the restorer was to find the artistic optimum
for each monument, that is, the moment of its highest artistic
flowering - for this reason, the start of work was not preceded by
the creation of design documentation, during the creation of the
project, natural disclosures were carried out. The goal of the
restoration was not to return the ensemble to any particular
“optimal year”, but, on the contrary, to show it as an integration
or synthesis of all artistic development.
His father, the
artist V.P. Trofimov, took a great part in the work of I. V.
Trofimov. Picturesque canvases by Vikenty Pavlovich “The refectory
of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra”, “View from the bell tower of the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra”, “In the former Trinity-Sergius Lavra” and
others make it possible to see the monuments immediately after
restoration.
Despite the numerous difficulties of the war and
post-war period, it was possible to eliminate the emergency state of
a number of monuments, to carry out a major restoration of the
Hospital Chambers with the Church of Zosima and Savvaty of
Solovetsky of the 17th century, the Church of the Descent of the
Holy Spirit of the 15th century, the white stone base of the Bell
Tower, the eastern part of the mound of the Refectory Church of the
late 17th century c., the Metropolitan's chambers, partly the Royal
chambers and significant sections of the fortress walls and towers.
Particularly significant work was carried out on the Hospital
Chambers, built up with new buildings and literally returned from
oblivion (however, the dismantling of the refectory of the 17th-18th
centuries, attached to the church of Zosima and Savvaty, was
considered insufficiently justified). At that time, these were the
largest restoration and restoration works in the USSR. Around the
walls of the monastery, a 30-meter security zone was organized that
was forbidden for construction.
After 1950, restoration work,
carried out mainly on the monuments transferred to the Moscow
Patriarchate, began to be carried out by the former student-intern
of Trofimov V.I. Baldin, who in 1963, together with A.G. During the
restoration in 1956-1959, all the buildings and structures of the
monastery were freed from foreign institutions that occupied them.
By 1970, the bulk of the restoration work was completed. The results
of the restoration carried out by Baldin were assessed ambiguously,
in particular, Trofimov noted the fundamental errors and damage
caused to individual buildings and the entire ensemble of the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra as a whole. Restoration continued in the 1970s
- a number of objects were recreated under the guidance of
architects Yu. D. Belyaev and Yu. N. Shakhov.
In 1993, the
architectural ensemble of the Lavra was included in the UNESCO World
Heritage List in Russia.
In the 1990s and 2000s, a number of
buildings were restored to the original color of the walls, the
roofs of the temples were repaired, and the murals were restored;
The bell tower was extensively restored. In the spring of 2004, a
newly cast Tsar Bell was raised to the bell tower, the ringing of
which the parishioners first heard on May 30 of the same year, on
the feast of Pentecost.
The revival of the monastic life of the Lavra dates back to the
beginning of 1946. Patriarch Alexy I became the rector, the first
governor upon opening was Archimandrite Guriy (Egorov). The
Trinity-Sergius Lavra remained the main residence of the patriarchs
until 1983, when the residence was transferred to the Moscow Danilov
Monastery.
In the memoirs of the Archbishop of Yaroslavl and
Rostov Mikhey (Kharkharov), it is indicated that the head of St.
Sergius of Radonezh, hidden for the period of the closing of the
Lavra, was returned to his relics by Schema-Archimandrite Hilarion
(Udodov), who kept it from 1941 to 1945 in the altar of the Church
of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in Vinogradov.
The
relics of St. Sergius were handed over to the vicar on the evening
of April 20, 1946 and transferred to the Assumption Cathedral, which
was returned to the Patriarchate in the same year. The first liturgy
was performed in the Assumption Cathedral on the night of Easter,
April 21, 1946. In the memoirs of one of the eyewitnesses to the
revival of the Lavra, Protodeacon Sergius Boskin, there are many
references to Father Hilarion, who, together with Archimandrite
Guriy, led the first divine services after a 26-year absence from
the monastery of monastic life. According to Archpriest Vladimir
Zhavoronkov, the first liturgical cry after the opening of the Lavra
was made by Father Hilarion.
In August 1946, Archimandrite
John (Razumov) became governor.
On November 21, 1946,
Patriarch Alexy I re-consecrated the Refectory Church of St. Sergius
of Radonezh, which had been closed for worship since 1921.
At
the end of 1946, the laurel was shown to the son of US President
Franklin Roosevelt, Elliott Roosevelt and his wife, who were met by
the vicar, Archimandrite John, and the brethren. In the following
years, before the collapse of the USSR, such demonstrations of
freedom of religion in the USSR became a common practice.
In
December 1947, the building of the former Tsar's chambers (the
rector's building of the Moscow Theological Academy), the
Metropolitan's quarters and the gate church of St.
In October
1948, the Moscow Theological Academy, which was recreated in 1946,
resumed its activities within the walls of the Lavra.
In
December 1954, the patriarch turned to Georgy Malenkov with a
request to transfer several more buildings of the monastery to the
Church. But only after the Council for the Affairs of the Russian
Orthodox Church appealed to the Central Committee of the CPSU, the
Council of Ministers of the RSFSR approved in August 1956 the
resolution “On the transfer of buildings and structures located on
the territory of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in the city of Zagorsk to
the Moscow Patriarchate”, which ordered “to transfer in 1956 —1958
buildings and structures located on the territory of the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra for free and indefinite use by the Moscow
Patriarchate ... Oblige the Moscow Regional Executive Committee, the
Ministry of Education of the RSFSR, the Ministry of Culture of the
RSFSR and the Gosstroy of the RSFSR to vacate the premises of the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra occupied by institutions subordinate to them,
as well as residents ... Oblige Moscow Regional Executive Committee:
to build in 1957-1958. in the city of Zagorsk residential buildings
... for the resettlement of tenants in the amount of 1150 people
living in buildings located on the territory of the TSL. (Most of
the "residents of the Lavra" of the 1920s - early 1950s huddled in
"unsanitary and fire-prevention conditions" in the niches of the
fortress walls, turned into "living quarters"). According to the
American scholar S. Kenworthy, in practice, all the costs of
implementing these decisions had to be borne by the Patriarchate.
On November 15, 1959, Patriarch Alexy I blessed the new Charter
of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
Local Councils of the Russian
Orthodox Church were held in the Lavra in 1971, 1988, 1990.
Metropolitan Macarius (Nevsky) († 1926), Patriarchs Alexy I († 1970)
and Pimen († 1990) were buried in the cave church under the
Assumption Cathedral. The relics of Metropolitan Macarius after his
canonization were transferred to the Assumption Cathedral. On August
31, 2016, they were transferred to Gorno-Altaisk and laid in the
church of St. Macarius of Altai (Glukharev) (before the construction
of the cathedral was completed).
During the Soviet period,
after the resumption of divine services, the supervision and control
of the state bodies remained over the Lavra. For example, Trushin,
authorized representative of the Council for the Affairs of the
Russian Orthodox Church in the Moscow Region, reported in 1958 that
“anti-Soviet” monks who “incited religiosity in communication with
pilgrims” and “urged them to visit the Lavra more often, pray more
to God, etc.” , were removed from the Lavra "through the Patriarch".
In March 1961, the police arrested believers in the Lavra church.
Holy Trinity Cathedral, 1422–1423 The relics of St. Sergius of
Radonezh are in a shrine in the southern part of the cathedral.
Things of St. Sergius: schema, staff and two wooden liturgical
plates.
Icons of the local row of the iconostasis: St. Sergius of
Radonezh with an act (XV century), “Holy Trinity” (XVI century, to
the left of the Royal Doors), icons “The Savior Not Made by Hands”
(1674) and “The Savior on the Throne” (1684) by the icon painter
Simon Ushakov.
Church in honor of the Descent of the Holy
Spirit upon the Apostles, 1476–1477 Relics of Saints Maximus the
Greek and Anthony (Medvedev) (in coffins)
Assumption
Cathedral, 1559-1585 Relics of St. Innocent of Moscow (in cancer).
The wooden coffin of St. Sergius of Radonezh (until 1585, the relics
of St. Sergius rested in it).
Icons of the 16th century of
the local row of the iconostasis: the temple image "Assumption of
the Blessed Virgin Mary", "Holy Trinity with Being" and
"Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary"
Church of St. Nikon
of Radonezh (southern aisle of the Holy Trinity Cathedral), 1623
Relics of St. Nikon of Radonezh (under a bushel).
The venerated
list of the icon of the Mother of God "Quick to Hear", part of the
stone of the Holy Sepulcher
Temple of the Monks Zosima and
Savvaty of Solovetsky, 1635-1637 Icon of the Monks Zosima and
Savvaty of Solovetsky, coming to the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos
"The Sign".
Church of St. Sergius with the Refectory Chamber
(the so-called Refectory Church), 1686–1692
Church of the
Nativity of St. John the Baptist, 1693–1699
Church of the
Appearance of the Most Holy Theotokos with the Holy Apostles to St.
Sergius of Radonezh (Mikheevskaya Church), 1732–1734 Relics of St.
Micah of Radonezh (under a bushel).
Church of the Smolensk
Icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria, 1746–1753 A revered copy of
the miraculous stone carved icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk
Hodegetria is on the outer eastern wall of the church.
Serapion's tent (western vestibule of Nikon's church), 1783 Relics
of Saints Serapion of Novgorod, Joasaph of Moscow and St. Dionysius
of Radonezh (all under a bushel).
A piece of the robe of the Most
Holy Theotokos, the right hand of the first martyr Stephen, the
reliquary of St. Sergius are a gift from Patriarch Philotheus of
Constantinople to Sergius of Radonezh.
The icon "The
Appearance of the Mother of God to St. Sergius", which took place in
the cell of St. Sergius, according to legend, was in this place, and
other shrines.
Assumption chapel above the well (storehouse),
late 17th century
The earliest building in the monastery is the four-pillar
cross-domed Trinity Cathedral made of white stone, built in
1422-1423 on the site of a wooden temple of the same name; one of
the few surviving examples of Moscow white-stone architecture of the
14th-15th centuries (the closest buildings in time are the
Assumption Cathedral on Gorodok and the Nativity Cathedral of the
Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery in Zvenigorod, as well as the Spassky
Cathedral of the Andronikov Monastery in Moscow). Around the Trinity
Cathedral, the architectural ensemble of the Lavra gradually formed.
The cathedral was built by the successor of the founder of the
monastery Nikon "in honor and praise" of St. Sergius of Radonezh,
and was founded in the year of the latter's glorification in the
saints. Trinity Cathedral - a four-pillar temple with three apses
and one dome; the white stone walls of the temple are completed with
semicircles of keeled zakomars, the outlines of which repeat the two
rows of kokoshniks located above. The temple is crowned with a
tower-shaped drum with a helmet-shaped dome. The walls of the
cathedral are made of blocks of white stone; the only decoration of
the facade are three ribbons of "wicker" ornament. A feature of the
cathedral is the inconsistency in the division of the facades of the
organization of the internal space (for example, the portals are not
placed along the axes of the central zakomara, the drum is shifted
towards the altar); according to Viktor Baldin, the builders went to
the violation of the architectural canon to create the most
convenient room for the temple. The temple is characterized by the
unity of space and a pronounced aspiration upwards.
Thanks to
the use of optical corrections in the construction, a strict
regularity in the construction of each element (the main
articulations of the cathedral are related to each other in height
as 3:5:8, which corresponds to the proportions of the golden
section), the steep shape of the arches and vaults gives the
impression of a greater height in the temple than in real. Above the
arches of the portals, the walls slope inward, reaching 45 cm.
Famous Russian icon painters Andrei Rublev and Daniil Cherny
worked on the iconostasis of the cathedral; for this iconostasis,
Rublev painted the icon "Holy Trinity". At present, the iconostasis
of the cathedral consists of five tiers, and 40 icons placed in the
middle tiers have been preserved since the construction of the
temple. The original murals of the cathedral have not been
preserved; in 1635, the original murals were completely knocked
down, and the murals of the 17th century were repeatedly updated. At
the same time, the main compositional lines of the original wall
painting were preserved by the masters who renewed the cathedral
wall painting in the 17th century. In 1949-1952, when trying to find
fragments of Rublyovskaya murals in the upper part of the cathedral,
a fragment of murals of the 17th century with an area of 650 m² was
uncovered; this fragment was fixed during the restoration, and the
missing sections were added in the spirit of murals of the 17th
century. In the premises of the cathedral an important place is
occupied by icon cases on the sides of the dome vaults (1835) and a
silver canopy over the shrine of Sergius (1737). The shrine itself,
hidden under the canopy, is also a major work of Russian chasers; it
was made in the 16th century at the behest of Ivan the Terrible.
From the south, the Trinity Cathedral adjoins the pillarless,
single-domed Nikonovskaya Church (1552), built over the grave of
Sergius' successor, hegumen Nikon of Radonezh. To the western half
of the southern wall of the cathedral, in the place where, according
to legend, was the cell of St. Sergius, Serapion's tent was built
(the current one was built in 1783, it received its current
appearance after 1826) - over the relics of Archbishop Serapion of
Novgorod, who died in the monastery; Metropolitan Joasaph
(Skripitsyn) and Archimandrite Dionysius of Radonezh are also buried
here.
The second oldest Lavra church, Duhovsky (or the Church of the
Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles), was erected in 1476.
According to the testimony of Moscow chroniclers, the temple was
erected by architects from Pskov. It ends with a low blue-domed bell
tower (the type of temple is “like under the bells”). The temple is
decorated richer than the Trinity Cathedral; notable is the
patterned frieze, covered with glazed tiles with colored glaze. The
apse of the temple is decorated with vertical plaits-semi-rolls, in
the upper part connected by white stone garlands with inserts in the
form of "crabs" or "bugs". The wall painting of the temple was made
in 1655.
The largest building of the monastery - the
Assumption Cathedral - was erected in 1559-1585 on the model of the
Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The cathedral is
distinguished by laconic forms and simplicity of wall decor,
decorated only with an arcade-columnar belt characteristic of
Vladimir-Suzdal architecture. The blades dividing the northern and
southern walls into lobes resemble buttresses. The cathedral is
crowned with a massive five domes. Extensive work on the arrangement
of the church was carried out at the behest of the royal couple -
Tsar Theodore Ioannovich and Tsarina Irina Feodorovna Godunova. They
were held in 1585-1586, at that moment the chapel of Theodore
Stratilates and the Holy Great Martyr Irene, who were the namesake
saints of the royal couple, were arranged. Simon Ushakov took part
in the work on the iconostasis, the frescoes were made in 1684 by
Dmitry Grigoriev and others. The murals of the Assumption Cathedral
are subject to a strict canon and are unusually solid; all the
paintings are united by a common background color, a calm
lilac-violet gamut of the picture. In the 18th century the cathedral
was partially rebuilt; so, the domes were replaced with onion ones,
the windows were expanded.
The graves of Boris Godunov and
his family adjoin the northwestern edge of the cathedral, over which
a tent tent was built in 1780 (not preserved). From the
south-western side, the so-called Nadkladeznaya chapel, built in the
Naryshkin style (end of the 17th century), adjoins the Assumption
Cathedral. Near the western wall of the Lavra are the treasury and
hospital chambers, the latter with the church of the Solovki Zosima
and Savvaty, the only tent temple of the monastery. Behind the
temple are the Fortress and Kelar chambers (XVI-XVII centuries). On
the eastern side of the Assumption Church, after entering the Holy
Gates, above a wide arched opening that serves as a continuation of
the solemn entrance to the monastery, there is the five-domed gate
church of the Nativity of John the Baptist (1693-1699) of the
Stroganov direction of the Moscow baroque style; built at the
expense of the Stroganov merchants on the site of the old gate
church in the name of Sergius of Radonezh. The architecture of the
church has the features of many Stroganov's buildings: a free
interpretation of classical forms, complex baroque decor.
Semi-columns divide the walls of the quadrangle at the bottom into
three parts, and at the top into two. The church is also decorated
with octagonal windows framed with carved white stone inserts. After
the fire of 1746, when the church was badly damaged, the exterior
decoration was only partially restored, and the decorative elements
of the facade were covered with gold leaf (subsequently, a single
red color was chosen for the walls). In 1806, the four domes of the
originally five-domed temple were removed.
The walls of the
monastery were built in the 16th century and built on in the 17th
century; Their appearance has hardly changed to the present day. The
walls have three combat tiers, on the outside of the third tier
there is a narrow parapet with vertical archers; between the archers
there are holes for hinged machicolators. The high corner towers of
the fortress, octagonal in plan, were laid out in the 17th century
on the site of the original towers. The remaining towers were built
on in the 17th century, they are lower and rectangular in plan; in
their lower part, these towers retained elements of the 16th century
towers. Noteworthy is the architecture of the corner Utya tower; on
the octagonal base of the tower, in the second half of the 17th
century, a decorative superstructure was built, which is crowned
with a spire with a stone bird. The red-brick tower is decorated
with a large number of white-stone details.
One of the
architectural dominants is the monastery refectory (Refectory
Chamber) with the Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh (built in
1686-1692), the so-called Refectory Church, in the southern part of
the Lavra, is revered as one of the best examples of Moscow Baroque.
This is a long (over 85 m) building on a high basement surrounded by
ambush, that is, on the second floor. The walls of the Refectory
Church are exceptionally richly decorated: almost the entire surface
is occupied by patterns, semi-columns and complex cartouches, made
in 1778-1780. The masters who created the exterior decoration of the
Refectory Church chose bright blue, yellow, green and red colors to
paint the building. Adjacent to the Refectory Church on the western
side, the refectory hall with an area of 500 m² was intended for
ceremonial receptions; it also has a rich decor. The hall is covered
with a semicircular vault almost 10 m high, decorated with relief
inserts with floral ornaments. The paintings inside the refectory
date back to the 19th century. After the opening of the monastery in
1946, the refectory room began to be used as a continuation of the
Refectory Church. It is separated from it by a lattice gate. The
carved gilded iconostasis (XVII) in the St. Sergius Church was
erected in 1948 from the destroyed Moscow church of St. Nicholas the
Great Cross, near the Ilyinsky Gate. In 1956, side-chapels were
consecrated in the Refectory: the northern one in honor of St.
Joasaph of Belgorod and the southern one in honor of St. Seraphim of
Sarov. In the basement of the building in 2006, a huge two-pillar
chamber was reconstructed, which is now a fraternal refectory. There
is also a cookery and prosphora.
The royal palaces (second
half of the 17th century) near the northern wall of the monastery
were built on the site of the wooden chambers in which Tsar Alexei
Mikhailovich lived during his visits to the monastery. The halls,
like the Refectory Church, are a richly decorated building. The
walls of the chambers are decorated with glazed tiles. The interior
of the building is based on two enfilades (one of the first examples
of such an arrangement of rooms in Russia), which received finishing
- typesetting floors, tiled stoves, stucco molding - by the middle
of the 18th century. Initially, the palaces, as well as the
refectory, were surrounded by an abyss (dismantled in 1814). The
fraternal cells in the south-east of the monastery (1640,
Predtechensky and Varvarinsky buildings) and the Economic building
also belong to the 17th century.
A number of interesting structures were created on the territory of
the Lavra in the 18th century. This is a small Mikheevskaya church
next to the Refectory, erected in 1734 over the burial place of
Mikhey of Radonezh. Another building of the 18th century is the
octahedral Baroque Church of Smolensk (Church of the Hodegetria),
built probably by the architect Ukhtomsky in 1746-1748 at the
expense of Count A.G. stone stairs located along the perimeter, and
stone balustrades. The iconostasis in the Church of Smolensk,
erected after the restoration of the Lavra, comes from the destroyed
Moscow church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa on Pyatnitskaya Street.
The three-story Metropolitan's chambers, the former residence of the
Moscow bishops, were completely rebuilt in 1778; they received
decoration in the form of pilasters, cartouches and figured
architraves; the balcony of the building is surrounded by an elegant
forged lattice. The architecture of the Metropolitan's quarters,
characteristic of civil structures of the mid-18th century, has
survived to this day unchanged. The architecture of the Horse Yard
built at the end of the 18th century was also noteworthy. This
building with powerful walls and a spacious courtyard, which
appeared on the banks of the White Pond, resembled a medieval
castle. The towers at the corners of the Horse Yard were crowned
with high spiers with images of horsemen. Household services
(stables, carriage sheds, etc.) were located on the sides of the
courtyard, which was rectangular in plan. The original appearance of
the Horse Yard has not been preserved: the building was subjected to
numerous reconstructions, in 1909 the second floor was built on.
The five-tiered Lavra bell tower, built in 1741-1770 (Dmitry
Ukhtomsky), is considered one of the best monuments of Russian
architecture of the 18th century. The bell tower is decorated with
graceful white columns, white-stone cartouches of a complex pattern
in the pediments of the first tier, as well as a finial in the form
of a fancy golden bowl. The original project, created by the court
architect Johann Schumacher, involved the construction of a
three-tiered bell tower opposite the western entrance to the
Assumption Cathedral. However, the Moscow architect Ivan Michurin,
who oversaw the construction for the first seven years, changed the
location of the bell tower. As construction progressed, more and
more shortcomings were discovered in the St. Petersburg project; as
a result, the project was handed over to the architect Dmitry
Ukhtomsky. Ukhtomsky completely revised the project and decided to
make the bell tower five-tiered. In the pediments of the first tier,
the architect proposed to place portraits of Russian tsars, and near
the parapet - 32 sculptures glorifying human virtues ("Reason",
"Loyalty", "Love for the Fatherland", etc.). This part of the
project could not be realized, instead of sculptures on the parapet,
vases were placed. Upon completion of construction, the bell tower
became one of the highest buildings in Russia of its time (for
example, its height, together with the cross - 87.33 m - is 6 m
higher than the height of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in Moscow).
By the beginning of the XX century. the belfry of the Lavra had 42
bells, and the Tsar Bell placed on the second tier was the largest
bell operating in Russia at the time of installation. Most of the
bells were broken in 1929-1930. In 2002-2004, new bells were cast
and raised to the bell tower, including the Tsar Bell weighing 72
tons. In 1784, a clock with chimes, created by the Tula master Ivan
Kobylin, was installed on the third tier of the bell tower. The
clock worked properly until 1905, when the monastery management
decided to replace it with newer ones. Near the bell tower there is
an obelisk erected in 1792 in memory of the glorious deeds and
events that took place in the monastery.
In connection with
the relocation of the Theological Academy from Moscow in 1814, some
of the buildings were rebuilt. Thus, the building of the Royal Halls
lost its outer stairs, and vaults were pierced for communication
between floors. There were also new buildings for the needs of the
academy: a hospital, a canteen, a bathhouse and a library; a
three-story educational building was attached to the building of the
Royal Palaces. The fortress walls and towers were now also used for
household needs: they housed workshops and living quarters. At the
same time, the tops of the towers were converted from tented into
spherical ones, the loopholes were hewn into large windows. The
fraternal cells lost their outer galleries, in some places they were
built on. The ancient Lavra cathedrals were hidden by the newest
additions. As a result of numerous reconstructions of the 19th
century, the harmony of the architectural ensemble of the monastery
complex was violated. From the end of the 19th century and for 20
years, Alexander Latkov was the architect of the Lavra. He built
numerous buildings: the Hospice House (1892), the Hospital Building
(1890s, now used as the premises of the Moscow Theological Academy),
as well as the toy factory (Hospital for the Contagious),
(1894-1896), the smithy of the horse yard (1890 years), a
residential building (Rental House) (1910-1914), shopping malls
(1902), trading shops (1894, 1906), Pafnutiev Garden (early 20th
century).
From 1742 until the beginning of the 19th century, the Trinity Lavra
Theological Seminary operated on the territory of the monastery.
In 1814, on the basis of the Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy,
the Moscow Theological Academy was opened, which was located in the
building of the "Royal Palace". In 1870, an academic Intercession
Church was built in the eastern part of the "halls". In the 19th
century, additional buildings were built near the “halls” for the
Moscow Theological Academy with the Church and Archaeological Office
(classroom, inspection, library, refectory, hospital). At the end of
1917, the Moscow Theological Academy in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra
was closed.
From 1885 to 1918, the School of Icon Painting
functioned at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
Since 1949, the
Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary, opened in Moscow in 1946,
were transferred to the Lavra and began to occupy their historical
premises. Since 1989, the Moscow Theological Seminary has been
located in the building of a former hospital, located to the west of
the walls of the Lavra and connected to the Lavra by a passage.
In the mid-1980s, a new assembly hall of the academy and a
wooden dormitory building were built. The fire on September 28, 1986
destroyed the wooden building, caused the collapse of the ceiling of
the assembly hall and threatened the building of the "halls".
However, buildings of pre-revolutionary construction managed to be
defended from fire. Five pupils of the Moscow Theological Seminary
became victims of the fire.
The brethren of the Lavra number about 200 monks.
Since 2020,
the abbot of the Lavra has been Bishop Thomas (Demchuk), who
replaced Bishop Paramon (Dove). According to the Charter of the
Russian Orthodox Church, the Holy Archimandrite of the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra is the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.
The collegial governing body is the Lavra's Spiritual Cathedral
(since 1897).
The monastery has an Orthodox publishing house
(the Patriarchal Publishing and Printing Center of the Holy Trinity
Sergius Lavra) and a pilgrimage center, and excursions for visitors
are regularly held.
Hermitages and courtyards of the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra
At various times, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra
owned several sketes and farmsteads:
Hermitage of the Holy Paraclete
Skete of Kinovia
Spaso-Bethana
Monastery
Temple of Sergius of Radonezh on the Kulikovo field
Chernihiv Skete
Andrew's Skete
Church of the Holy Trinity
(Antarctica)
Trinity Compound - Moscow Compound of the Holy
Trinity Sergius Lavra
Compound in St. Petersburg (embankment of
the Fontanka River, 44). The building currently houses the Public
Library. V. V. Mayakovsky.
Church of the Beheading of John the
Baptist (Soloslovo, Gorki-8, Odintsovo district, Moscow region)
Resurrection courtyard. Church of the Resurrection of Christ with a
chapel of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Sergiev Posad (built
in 1820 in memory of the heroic defenders of the Trinity Monastery
during the siege of 1608-1610), on the street of the 1st Shock Army,
17.
The Church of the All-Merciful Savior in Sergiev Posad is a
wooden church built in 2013-2014. Consecrated on July 27, 2019 by
the vicar of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Bishop of Sergiev-Posadsky
Paramon (Dove)
Tomb of Godunov dynasty including that of Boris and Feodor Godunov. According to some accounts head of the corpses were stolen during the Russian Revolution by the local boys.