Spaso-Preobrazhensky Vorotynsky Monastery

The monastery was founded by Prince Dmitry Fedorovich Vorotynsky , the owner of these lands, in the 15th century in honor of the main historical event of this region - the Great Stand on the Ugra River , held in 1480.

In the area of ​​the village of Spas, in which the monastery is located, they say there was a Tatar camp where Khan's wives lived. Perhaps the creator of the monastery was a student of the Monk Tikhon of Kaluga, the locally revered Saint Nicephorus of Medynsky (d. 1506).

The first written mention of the monastery dates back to 1511 in a letter from the Prince of Moscow Vasily III , who owned these lands to this period. The monastery was supported at the expense of the Vorotynsky , Khotetovsky, Streshnevy, Turgenev and other local noble families.

The monastery quietly existed until the 18th century reform , until it was abolished in 1764. Two churches that survived by the beginning of the 20th century were parish by this moment. They were closed in the 1930s, property was ravaged and, in addition , an ancient cemetery with ancient tombstones was destroyed .

The monastery has two temples. The first, Preobrazhensky, was erected in the middle of the XVI century. He is one of the rare ancient examples of tent architecture : “stone, single-throne, warm. The main bearing volume of the cathedral is a cube-shaped double-decker quadrangle, on which an octagonal tent is placed through a low octagon. A three-part altar adjoins the quadrangle from the east ” ^[1] .

Nearby is the Vvedensky church, even more interesting in configuration - it has two whole tents, only small ones. The monastery refectory also adjoins it. In front of the XVIII century a bell tower was added. From the description: “the temple with the monastery refectory chamber and the three-tier bell tower is a single, irregularly quadrangular two-story building. A small, rectangular in plan, elongated in width two-part part of the temple occupies its eastern half, complete this part with 2 small deaf tents. The refectory of the church, as well as the monastery refectory in the first floor, are single-pillar. In the decoration of the facades shovels, cornices, decorative kokoshniki were used ” ^[1] .

The complex included another stone building - a cell building (according to the inventory of 1763) ^[1] . All other buildings of the monastery were wooden and not preserved. Today the cloister is surrounded by a stone fence.

Although in Soviet times the monastery had the status of historical heritage, the buildings were in decline. At the beginning of the XXI century, half-ruins were transferred to the Church. The reconstruction of temples began. In 2007, the monastery was revived as a female - as a branch ( monastery ) of the Kaluga Kazan monastery .

The condition of the buildings was poor. There was a hole in the tent of the Transfiguration Church, along the arches cracked. The Vvedensky church did not have a roof, because of which the arches of the refectory collapsed, and faults crawled along the walls. In the wall of the first floor in the Soviet years, an opening was opened for cars to travel. In addition, both temples have grown almost a meter into the ground, because of which their graceful proportions are distorted. It took several years for restoration.

The Government of the Russian Federation, by Order No. 89-r of January 29, 2007, transferred the monastery buildings to the Kaluga Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.

• Official site of the Transfiguration of the Vorotinsky monastery (courtyard of the Kazan girl’s monastery in the city of Kaluga)