Location: Suzdal
Constructed: 1364
Convent of the Intercession is a Russian Orthodox female monastery that was found in 1364 by Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich. The original complex of Convent of the Intercession consisted of wooden buildings and churches. Most of the current structures date back to the early 16th century when Moscow prince Vasily III donated large sums of money. It was apparently guilty conscience talking. Tsar sent his former wife Solomonia Saburova here after he accused her of infertility. She was followed by a number of other prominent women from aristocratic families who came here voluntary or were sent here by force by their husbands. The abbey was closed in 1923 by the Bolsheviks. After the fall of the Soviet Union religious life was revived in 1992.
Main buildings of the monastery include Saint Basil's Cathedral constructed in 1510- 1518. Holy Gate and the Gate Church of the Annunciation were erected in 1518. Conception Church along with refectory were constructed in 1551. Another major addition was Steepled bell tower in 16th century.
The date of foundation of the monastery is considered to be 1364, and
nothing has survived from its first wooden buildings. The greatest rise
of the monastery is associated with the name of Vasily III, who at the
beginning of the 16th century donated large funds to the monastery,
which were used for the construction of the Pokrovsky Cathedral and the
Holy Gates that have come down to us, and, apparently, the cells and the
fence that have not survived. One of the first prisoners of the
monastery was the wife of Vasily III, Solomonia Saburova, accused of
infertility, who was tonsured a nun in 1525 under the name of the old
woman Sophia.
Subsequently, a legend arose that Solomonia was
already pregnant during her tonsure and gave birth to Tsarevich George
in the Intercession Monastery. Allegedly, the boy was secretly brought
up somewhere in the forest, and when he grew up, he became the famous
robber Kudeyar. In 1934, during the reconstruction of the monastery, the
restorer A. D. Varganov opened the tomb of the alleged son of Solomon,
in which, according to him, he found only a child's shirt. However, the
historian Dmitry Volodikhin cites information that there is no record of
the opening of the tomb by A. D. Varganov in 1934, and the record of the
excavations carried out in the monastery in 1996 states that “there
could not have been a burial at this place due to the physical lack of
space for him, because the foundation is a single monolith.
The
names of other noble inhabitants of the monastery are preserved in the
tomb of the monastery, located under the building of the Pokrovsky
Cathedral. These are the daughter of Ivan III Alexander, the wife of
Ivan IV Anna Vasilchikova, the first wife of Vladimir Staritsky Evdokia
Nagaya, Evpraksia Pozharskaya, Princess Anastasia. The widow of Vasily
Shuisky, Tsarina Maria Buynosova-Rostovskaya, was also imprisoned here
(she moved to the Novodevichy Convent).
In 1551, after the death
of the one-year-old daughter of Ivan the Terrible, the Zachatievsky
refectory church was rebuilt, replacing the wooden structure of the 14th
century. The apse was added to it in the 17th century, at the same time
a kitchen appeared and the construction of the fence, begun in the 16th
century, was continued.
In 1923 the monastery was closed and
destroyed.
Starting from 1933, a military biological laboratory
(BON OO OGPU, Special Purpose Bureau of the Special Department of the
OGPU) was located in the monastery - a sharashka in which imprisoned
specialists engaged in the development of biological weapons worked. In
1934, the laboratory was transferred to the Biochemical Institute of the
Red Army. In 1935, imprisoned Nikolai Gaisky and Boris Elbert created
the world's first liquid vaccine against tularemia. The laboratory was
in the monastery until 1936.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the
monastery buildings were restored, and museum expositions were opened in
them. In the 1980s, a tourist and hotel complex with a restaurant and a
bar was located here. The cathedral had a concert hall.
Since
1992, monastic life has been revived in the ancient monastery. The
monastery is currently active. He owns a cathedral, an almshouse
building, outbuildings. The huts-cells were built anew in the 1970s on
the site of dilapidated old houses. On April 22, 2020, the command hut
was transferred to the gratuitous use of the Vladimir diocese - the last
building on the territory of the monastery that had not been transferred
until that time.
The central monument of the ensemble is the three-domed Intercession
Cathedral (1510-1518), built on the site of an older wooden church by
unknown craftsmen. The cathedral is a massive four-pillar structure,
standing on a high plinth and surrounded on three sides by a two-story
open gallery, to which two covered staircases lead. On the side facing
the river, the building adjoins a three-apse altar part, cut through by
high windows in deep niches. The apses are separated by smooth columns
and decorated with a carved cornice with a small pattern, which is also
repeated in the decor of the light drums topped with helmet-shaped
cupolas. The walls of the cathedral, decorated with an arched-columnar
belt and perspective portals with melons, are divided by shoulder blades
into three parts and end with keeled zakomaras.
Inside, the white
walls of the cathedral had no painting, and its floor was paved with
black ceramic tiles. The main decoration of the interior were
magnificent icons and works of artistic embroidery, some of which can
now be seen in the museum. Under the building of the Intercession
Cathedral there is a tomb where nuns and old women of the monastery are
buried: exiled queens, grand duchesses, noble women of the aristocratic
families of Rus'.
Over the long years of its existence, the
cathedral was repeatedly rebuilt, its original appearance was recreated
during the restoration of 1962.
To the northwest of the cathedral
is a hipped bell tower. Its lower part - the pillar-shaped Church of the
Origin of the Holy Trees of the Cross - was built in 1515. It had the
shape of an octagon and was crowned with a cupola. At the end of the
17th century, the church was built on with an arched tier, combined with
the nearby cathedral, and a high, pointed tent, decorated with three
rows of framed dormer windows. The covered gallery connecting the
cathedral and the bell tower is distinguished by its exquisite decor:
two arched openings are trimmed with rustication, and a number of
windows framed by elegant architraves are separated by rusticated
pilasters.
Another ancient monument of the monastery is the Holy
Gate with the Annunciation gate church built in 1515. These gates are
unique in their function: they served as both a powerful fortress tower
and a church. The three-domed church is located in the upper part of the
massive quadrangle, cut through by two arched openings, and the
composition resembles the Cathedral of the Intercession. Two small
aisles at the corners of the church are crowned with light drums with
helmet-shaped domes, and a massive central drum with narrow windows
rests on two tiers of keeled zakomaras. The facades of the four-tower
are richly decorated with intricate decor resembling wood carvings. Like
the Intercession Cathedral, the Gate Church was rebuilt several times.
Restoration in 1958, designed by A. D. Varganov, returned the monument
to its original appearance.
On the north side of the Pokrovsky
Cathedral is the Refectory with the Conception Church (1551), which is
more typical for Polish than for Russian architecture. The small Church
of the Conception adjoins the two-story building of the refectory,
marked on the outside only by a small dome. The powerful arches of the
refectory located on the second floor are supported by a pillar standing
in the center. The lower floor was intended for auxiliary utility rooms.
As almost the only decoration of the building, an unusual red brick
ornament in the form of rhombuses was used, enveloping the building
around the entire perimeter. On the western side, a hexagonal clock
belfry is attached, the tent of which rests on an arched tier and is
decorated with one row of dormer windows. Around the Refectory Church
there was once a number of outbuildings. One of them, a one-story
kitchen from the end of the 17th century used for cooking, has been
restored and is a rare example of monastic architecture.
In the
southwestern part of the monastery, another monument of Russian civil
architecture has been preserved - the Order's hut with the interior of
the early 18th century recreated in 1970. In the dungeon of the building
there is a stone bag where the prisoners of the monastery were kept.
The first stone fence appeared in the 16th century, but was later
rebuilt and restored in the 20th century by A. D. Varganov. The oldest
part of the fence with undecorated hipped towers of the 17th century is
located in the northern part of the monastery and forms a small closed
courtyard. The octagonal towers of the 18th century with hemispherical
domes are much more picturesque and, perhaps, originally also had a
hipped roof.
List of main buildings:
Intercession Cathedral
(1510-1518)
Tent belfry (XVI-XVII centuries)
Holy Gates and
Gateway Church of the Annunciation (1518)
Refectory chamber with the
Conception Church (1551)
Kitchen (XVII century)
Command hut
(beginning of the 18th century)
Stone fence with towers of the
17th-18th centuries
Saint Sophia of Suzdal, former wife of Vasily III, father of Ivan the
Terrible. Solomonia was revered as a saint already under the son of Ivan
the Terrible, Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich.
Prisoners of the monastery
Members of princely and royal families (burials)
Nun Alexandra (d.
1525) - Moscow princess, daughter of Ivan III from the 1st marriage.
Perhaps she was exiled after the defeat of her half-brother Ivan the
Young in intrigues with her father's second wife Sophia Paleolog. She
was buried in a tomb under the cathedral.
Nun Alexandra (Princess
Maria Volotskaya) is the widow of the last Volokolamsk Prince Fyodor
Borisovich, son of Prince Boris Vasilyevich (brother of Ivan III). The
Moscow prince confiscated the inheritance inherited from her husband and
imprisoned the heiress. She was buried in a tomb under the cathedral.
Princess Euphemia Shchematicheva and her daughters Evfrosinya and Martha
are the wife and children of Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shemyachich of
Novgorod-Seversky (grandson of Dmitry Shemyaka), who died in captivity
in Moscow. They were buried in a tomb under the cathedral.
Crown Nun
Sofya (Grand Duchess of Moscow Solomonia Saburova) is the wife of Vasily
III, exiled to a monastery for childlessness for the sake of concluding
a second marriage with Elena Glinskaya. Saint, relics from the end of
the 20th century rest in the cathedral.
Nun Alexandra (Anna
Vasilyevna Belskaya) is the cousin of Vasily III, the Ryazan princess,
the daughter of the Ryazan princess, the Moscow princess Anna Vasilyevna
and Vasily Ivanovich. The widow of the Lithuanian Prince Fyodor Belsky.
The reasons for the exile are not clear, perhaps she was involved in the
events of 1508-1510 that unfolded around Dmitry Vnuk, her nephew. Buried
in the western side near the cathedral, after the addition of the porch,
the burial was under the porch stairs.
Nun Evpraksia (Evdokia
Alexandrovna Staritskaya-Nagaya), the first wife of Prince Vladimir
Staritsky, cousin of Tsar Ivan IV. She ended up in a monastery after 4
years of marriage and the birth of 2 children, after which her husband
quickly remarried.
Irina Mikhailovna Nagaya, her niece, daughter of
Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich Nagoy. Their graves are in the tomb under
the cathedral building.
Nun Alexandra (Princess Evdokia Saburova) -
the first wife of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich, son of Ivan IV. Exiled to a
monastery, probably for infertility. The grave is located in the tomb of
the Intercession Cathedral.
Crown Queen Anna Vasilchikova - the next
wife of Ivan the Terrible, resigned a year after the wedding. Like a
queen, she was buried in a tomb under the Intercession Cathedral in
Suzdal.
Princess Anastasia Vasilievna (1610) - daughter of Vasily
Shuisky. An infant who died during the stay of his exiled mother in the
monastery.
(buried elsewhere):
Nun Paraskeva (Princess Theodosia
Solovaya) - the second wife of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich, exiled for
infertility (buried in the Ascension Monastery, Moscow)
Crown
Inokinya Elena (Tsaritsa Maria Buynosova-Rostovskaya) - wife of Vasily
Shuisky (she was buried in Suzdal, but later reburied in the Ascension
Monastery, Moscow)
Nun Olga (Princess Ksenia Godunova) - daughter of
Boris Godunov (buried in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra). According to some
instructions, she was kept in this monastery, among others
Crown
Inokinya Elena (Queen Evdokia Lopukhina) - wife of Peter I (buried in
the Novodevichy Convent, Moscow)
Others:
The wife of the governor
Alexei Dmitrievich Basmanov. Her name does not appear in any of the
lists of dead and exiled women in the Intercession Monastery. The burial
place was found by chance during excavations near the western wall of
the cathedral. Her name was not preserved on the tombstone, and perhaps
it was not mentioned at all. Perhaps she was exiled to Suzdal in the
year of her husband's execution, that is, in 1569-1570. She died,
judging by the inscription, on September 14, 1597.
Nun Alexandra
Princess Cherkasy. During excavations in the western part of the
cathedral, next to the northern wall of the porch, a tombstone was found
with a well-preserved inscription: “In the summer of 7094 (1586) May, on
the 5th day, in memory of the holy martyr Irina, the servant of God monk
Princess Alexander Cherkaska was introduced.” Thus, Alexandra
Cherkasskaya died in 1586 on May 5. Who is hiding under this name is
unknown. It can be assumed that she came from the Temryuk family and was
exiled during the period of repressions of Ivan the Terrible over the
family of the Cherkassky princes in 1572.
Shuiskys:
Marfa
Skopina-Shuiskaya, wife of Prince Fyodor Ivanovich Skopin-Shuisky, who
was sent into exile and died in 1557. Her grave is located under the
stairs of the western porch of the Intercession Cathedral.
Princess
Alexandra Gorbatova-Kislaya and her daughters Elena and Euphemia are the
wife and children of Andrei Mikhailovich Gorbaty-Shuisky-Sour. Her time
of exile is unknown; her husband was executed on February 1, 1565.
Alexandra was exiled shortly thereafter with her two young daughters,
Elena and Euthymia, who died in the monastery (the first on February 12,
1576, and the second on August 14, 1579). Probably, their relative
Anisia Kislykh was also exiled with them. Nun Alexandra died in March
1593 and was buried with her daughters on the west side near the
cathedral. After the addition of the porch, their graves ended up in the
understairs room of the western porch.
Princess Varsonofia is the
wife of Vasily Borisovich Gorbaty-Shuisky. She came from the
Yakovlev-Zakharyin family - the daughter of Vasily Petrovich Yakovlev,
who was executed in 1571. She was probably exiled at the same time.
Princess Ekaterina Grigoryevna Shuiskaya is the wife of Dmitry Ivanovich
Shuisky (the royal brother), the daughter of Malyuta Skuratov. She died
in Polish captivity with other Shuiskys, her remains were handed over
and buried in a monastery.
Princess Marfa Vasilievna Shuiskaya is the
wife of Ivan Ivanovich Shuisky Buttons, another royal brother. Sister of
Empress Maria Dolgoruky, Mikhail's first wife. Buried near the
cathedral.
Princess Marfa Ivanovna Tateva, born Princess
Golitsina. She had a violent character and was exiled "to humility" for
participating in a plot to divorce Irina Godunova from Tsar Fedor in
1587. In the Intercession Monastery, privileged conditions were created
for her. She was surrounded by numerous servants, clerks, who ruled her
possessions and economy. The year of her death and the place of burial
have not been established.
Nun Alexandra (Princess Anna Feodorovna
Nogteva) is the widow of Prince Daniil Andreevich Nogtev, daughter of
Marfa Tateeva. She voluntarily cut her hair after the death of her
husband in 1600.
Princess Marfa Vyazemskaya. Daughter of I. I.
Vyazemsky. The reason for the exile is not known, perhaps after the
execution of her father in 1570 in the case of Vyazemsky's accusation of
"treacherous deeds". She was exiled under the "strict beginning" of her
aunt Tarsila Tovarishcheva, who lived at that time in the monastery
(daughter of Ivan Ivanovich Vyazemsky "old"). In 1610, after the
occupation of the Prosoviet city by the Cossacks, the death of her aunt
and the overthrow of Shuisky, the princess fled from the monastery. She
was detained in April 1614 in Nizhny Novgorod riding a horse in men's
clothing. The Nizhny Novgorod governor Vladimir Ivanovich
Bakhteyarov-Rostovsky denounced her. She was caught and sent back to the
Suzdal Monastery. Further fate is unknown.
Nun Leonida (Princess
Daria Khovanskaya). Wife of Prince Nikita Andreevich Khovansky (who
married for the second time after her), sister of Dmitry Pozharsky. Her
restless disposition caused a lot of trouble in the monastery. Daria
Pozharskaya-Khovanskaya was tonsured on August 21, 1645 and died in
September 1646. Her body was transferred to the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery
(the family burial vault of the Pozharskys in the eastern part of the
Transfiguration Cathedral).
Jadwiga Danilovna Czestochowa - Polish
spy.
Relics of St. Sophia of Suzdal.
Icons of the Great Martyr and
Healer Panteleimon, the Holy Right-Believing Prince Peter and Princess
Fevronia, St. Luke of Crimea, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and the
Holy Blessed Matrona of Moscow with particles of their holy relics.