Simonov Monastery

XIV — XVII Century

The monastery was founded in the 1370s by the Monk Fedor, nephew of St. Sergius of Radonezh , under the rule of Prince Dmitry Donskoy . According to another version, the monastery appeared during the reign of Simeon the Proud . The monastery was originally located on the left bank of the Moskva River , on the site of the existing parish church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary . According to legend, the land for construction was donated by the boyar Stepan Vasilievich Khovrin, who accepted the monasticism with the name Simon, from which came the name of the monastery ^{[1] [2]} .

In 1379, a stone church was laid in a new place in the name of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary , and around it - cells for the brethren. The five-domed cathedral was built for 26 years and was consecrated in 1405, after which the Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God was placed in it. Inside and outside he was painted with images of the saints of God and scenes from the Holy Scriptures . The five-tier carved iconostasis of the church was gilded with pure gold ^[3] .

The Monk Sergius of Radonezh considered Simonov Monastery a “branch” of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and always stayed there during his visits to Moscow. Famous church leaders were trained at the monastery: Cyril Belozersky , Metropolitan Jonah , Metropolitan Gerontius , Archbishop of Rostov John , Patriarch Joseph . In the sixteenth century, the monk Vassian and theologian Maxim Grek lived and worked in the monastery ^[4] .

In 1476, a church leader fell from a lightning strike. The top of the building was restored during the reign of Ivan III by a student of the Italian architect Aristotle Fioravanti ^[5] . In the 16th century, architect Fedor Savelyevich Kon built towers and walls of the monastery at the expense of Vladimir Grigorievich Khovrin. The monastery fortified under Boris Godunov repelled the raid of the Crimean Tatars Kazy Girey in 1591 ^{[6] [7]} .

In 1621, the princes of Mstislavsky in the Yaroslavl district gave the monastery a large land contribution: two graveyards , the village of Ivanovskoye, 94 villages, 13 wastelands and 6 mends with meadows. They also built the stone church of Hodegetria near the Assumption Cathedral ^[8] . At the end of the XVII century, the cloister belonged to almost 2500 peasant households and 20 thousand serfs ^[9] .

In the period from the 1630s to the end of the 1680s, the monastery re-erected walls and towers, built them with tents and renovated temples. The circumference of the fortifications was 825 meters, the height was about 7 meters. Along the walls erected stone buildings of cells, a room for workshops and Sushilo - an economic building ^{[8] [10] [4]} . In 1680, the New Refectory was laid down by the project of Parfen Petrov. However, the conceived style of construction was not approved by the monastery authorities. A lawsuit was brought against the master, and Osip Startsev finished the construction ^[11] .

XVIII — XIX centuries

In 1771, in connection with the secularization reform, the monastery was abolished by Catherine II . Due to the plague epidemic that had spread at that time , he was transformed into an isolation ward containing infected people. From the beginning of 1774, temples and iconostases were restored. In 1795, Afanasy Dolgov , head of the Merchants Society, sent petitions to St. Petersburg for the restoration of the monastery. By decree of the empress, her restoration began. Archimandrite Ignatius (Ushakov), who was displaced from the Bolshoi Tikhvin Monastery of the Novgorod Diocese, was appointed rector ^{[12] [13]} .

In 1812, during the French occupation of Moscow, the monastery was looted. The porch of the cathedral church and the tower was occupied by the stables, the soldiers settled in the monastic cells. For the restoration of the monastery in the 1820s, funds came from the treasury , organizations and individuals ^{[13] [14]} . The historian Vadim Passek wrote:

Soon, benefactors committed to the Simon monastery came to correct the necessary church and monastery needs, and provided benefits for the maintenance and establishment of the brethren; and the bounties of the Sovereign Emperor healed the wounds of the monastery: all the buildings that suffered from the fire were repaired and put in better order ^[15] .

In 1834, at the Assumption Cathedral, on the right side of the altar , at the expense of the merchant Vasily Terlikov, a chapel was built in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God , and on the left side there was a two-story sacristy ^[5] . In 1835-1839, thanks to the merchant I. Ignatiev, a bell tower was built. The original project in the classicism style was created by the architect Evgraf Tyurin , however, it was built in the Russian-Byzantine style according to the project of Konstantin Ton . The height of the building was more than 90 meters, a clock was installed on the fourth tier. At that time, work was underway on the restructuring of the New refectory with the construction of two aisles. The Znamenskaya Church was also reconstructed above the eastern gate, and the abbot and fraternal cells were repaired. At the end of the XIX century , the walls and towers of the monastery were restored ^{[16] [4]} .

After the Revolution

After the October Revolution in 1918, monastic values ​​were transferred to the Armory . In 1923, the monastery was closed, and in the Tikhvin Church with a refectory, a Museum of military-fortress defense was set up. Director Vasily Ivanovich Troitsky established relations with the church community: he allowed services in one of the churches of the monastery in exchange for the provision of guards and janitors. Three years later, they carried out repair and restoration work on the walls and towers under the guidance of architects of the Grabar Scientific Restoration Center - Nikolai Markovnikov , Nikolay Zhukov , Dmitry Sukhov . In 1928, the front porch of the New Refectory collapsed. In the same year, Moscow utilities destroyed the monastery cemetery, leaving several monuments to public figures ^{[17] [18] [19]} .

In 1929, the territory of the monastery was chosen for the construction of the Palace of Culture of the Proletarian District . On the night of January 21, 1930, the buildings of the monastery were blown up. Demolished five of the six churches, including the Assumption Cathedral, the bell tower, gate churches, the Watchtower and Tainitskaya towers with buildings adjacent to them. During the demolition, the southern wall with three towers, the refectory with the Tikhvin Church and some office buildings survived. On the site of the destroyed necropolis in 1937, the ZIL Culture Palace was erected according to the project of architects Leonid and Alexander Vesninov ^{[18] [20] [21]} .

Until the mid-1950s, the monastery buildings were used for domestic purposes, mainly as housing for workers at nearby factories ^[22] . In the 1960s, the buildings were converted to accommodate the workshop of the industrial fishery "Athlete-Athlete" ^[23] .

In 1991, the monastery was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church , which restored the collapsed New refectory, and in July 1992 the first service was held there ^[24] .

The Tretyakov Gallery contains four icons associated with the Simon Monastery:

• Our Lady of Hodegetria , circa 1397 (Moscow school), brought in 1397 to the Belozersky Territory by Cyril Belozersky from the Moscow Old Simonov Monastery and until 1917 was in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery . Entered the gallery in 1931 from the Central State Restoration Workshops ;
• Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God , the first half of the 16th century from the Cathedral of the Simonov Monastery, from where it entered the gallery in 1931;
• Our Lady of the Deesus , second half of the 16th century, received in 1930 from the fund of the Moscow Department of Education;
• a tricuspid fold from the sacristy of the Simonov Monastery (its description says that Sergius of Radonezh blessed the monks of Peresvet and Oslyabya before the Battle of Kulikovo with this folding; however, modern dating refers it to the middle of the 17th century, the Moscow school). Entered from the sacristy of the monastery in 1930. The centerpiece depicts Spas Smolensky with the adjoining Nicholas and Cyril Belozersky and two angels , on the wings the upcoming Mother of God and John the Baptist ^[25] .

Assumption Cathedral

The iconostasis of the cathedral was painted in 1404-1405 by Maxim Grek (icon painter) and Andrei Rublev . In the lower tier of the iconostasis were the icons: “Assumption of the Mother of God”, “ Life-Giving Trinity ”, “Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God”, “Simonov Kazan Icon of the Mother of God”. In the local row was the image of the " Savior Almighty ." A golden cross decorated with precious stones was kept in the temple - a gift from Princess Maria Alekseevna ^{[28] [29]} . The cathedral was dismantled in 1930 along with other buildings ^[21] .

In the records of the Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo , who visited the Simon Monastery with the Antiochian Patriarch Macarius in February 1656, the cathedral is described as follows:

We were led up to a tall church with one dome; in it we stood for hours and vespers. Having dressed our lord patriarch, we went to the narfeks and served the royal prayer ... This church is very high, with three iron doors. As for the royal gates, we have never seen people like them in their high value, for they are completely covered with gold, silver and precious stones ^[30] .

Belfry

It was built in the middle of the XVI century with two aisles in the name of the Archangel Michael and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker ^[31] . In 1835, it was completely disassembled and rebuilt according to the design of Konstantin Ton. The new five-tier bell tower did not preserve the former temple thrones. The Holy Gates were on the first tier, the temple in the name of Alexander Nevsky and John Tsaregradskago on the second, the bells on the third, the military clock on the fourth, and the round staircase to the chapter on the last. The height of the bell tower with a cross was about 100 meters ^[32] .

Church of the Savior over the Holy Gates

It was built in 1591-1593 in honor of the victory over the troops of the Tatar khan Kazy-Girey ^[33] . The temple was a pillarless quadruple with one chapter. In the lower tier were the gates, in the upper tier - the church without prizes . The completion of the temple was installed on a pyramid of three rows of semicircular kokoshniks ^[34] .

View of the church in the inventory of monastery churches, produced in 1783:

The stone church above the monastery gate from the Moskva River in the name of the origin of the honest cross of the Lord. In it the royal doors are ash columns, lined with silver gilt gilded ^[35] .

In the early 1820s, repairs were carried out in the temple. In 1823 they created a new iconostasis, ten years later they painted the western gate under the church and garnered the head ^[36] .

Other monastery buildings

The Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit was a two-story single-domed church. It was built around 1700 and consecrated in the name of Saints Xenophon and Mary. In 1796, it was rebuilt and re-consecrated in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit ^[37] .

The Church of Our Lady of Tikhvin at the refectory was erected in 1677. In 1840, the throne in the name of St. Sergius was re-blessed in honor of the Tikhvin Mother of God. Then, on the southern and northern sides, annexes were added. In 1982, the temple was the main building of the industrial complex ^[38] .

The church above the eastern gate of the Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded in the middle of the 17th century at the expense of the boyar Yuri Suleshov near the Assumption Cathedral ^[39] . In 1834-1843 it was rebuilt according to the design of Evgraf Tyurin and re-consecrated in the name of Nicholas the Wonderworker ^[40] .

New Refectory

The construction of the New refectory was begun in 1680 by Parfyon Petrov at the expense of Tsar Fedor Alekseevich . When constructing a new building, the architect used details of ancient Moscow architecture, which did not suit the monastery authorities. They brought a lawsuit against the master, and three years later the refectory was rebuilt anew in the Moscow Baroque style by the architect Osip Startsev. The new refectory became one of the most significant buildings of the late XVII century . The lavishly decorated building was brightly painted “in chess” - a painting style imitating faceted masonry ^[11] .

In October 1798, two chapels were arranged in the refectory at the expense of Athanasius Dolgov: the first in the name of Athanasius of Alexandria and the martyr Glyceria, the second in honor of the Monks Xenophon and Mary. In 1806, at the request of the wife of Valentin Platonovich Musin-Pushkin , the chapel was consecrated in the name of the holy martyr Valentine ^[41] .

In 1910-1911, at the expense of Anna Stepanovna Bakhrushina, they overhauled the building: plastered, decorated, made new ceilings and window sills. And in 1928, the front north porch collapsed. A year later, the board of the workers' palace "Proletarian Forge" requested permission "to re-equip the refectory of the Simonov Monastery with a theater for workers of the Lenin Settlement ." However, the petition was not accepted. After the explosion of the monastery, the refectory, like other surviving buildings, was used as housing ^[42] .

In the 2000s, the restoration of the New refectory was carried out. As of 2018, services are held in it ^[43] .

Fortress Wall and Towers

The fortress had five towers: the surviving ones - Dulo , Kuznechnaya and Salt, as well as the destroyed ones - Watchdog and Tainitskaya ^[44] . The fortifications were erected in the 17th century, presumably according to the project of Antip Konstantinov ^[45] . In the inventory of 1741 about the wall it says: “Around the monastery on a stone fence and on two towers and on the cells ... there are small shabby roofs, which must be assembled and covered again in two pieces, putting drank under the joints; the mentioned fence around a measure of 300 soot. , 4 arsh wide . , towers 10 arsh long., 6 arsh wide » ^[46] .

The authorship of the Dulo tower is attributed to Fedor Kon. She had four tiers of loopholes , on the second and third explosions were arranged to lift weapons and ammunition. In the second half of the XVII century, the tower was built up with a stone tent in place of the dismantled parapet wall ^[47] .

The forge tower is located between Dulo and Soleva, has a pentagonal plan. It was built at the same time with the whole complex of monastery fortifications and at the end of the XVII century it was built up with a stone tent covered with red tiles. After the monastery was closed in the 1920s, a repair shop was located in the lower tier. In the early 1930s, the span of the southern wall, adjacent to the Forge Tower from the east, was completely destroyed ^[48] .

Salt Tower is a nineteen-sided with lower and medium battles in arched niches ^[49] .

There were four gates in the fortress wall:

• Oriental (Meadow) - with the Gate Church of the Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
• Western - from the embankment of the Moscow River, with a gate church in the name of All-Merciful Savior.
• South (Lateral) - were located in the span between the towers of Dulo and Kuznechnaya.
• Vodynykh - located behind the preserved Treasury cells ^[50] .

Simeon Bekbulatovich , the baptized Kasimov prince, was buried in the monastery cathedral. In 1606, he was tonsured at Solovki and died in the Simon Monastery under the name of the schemnik Stephen. Here were buried the son of Dmitry Donskoy Konstantin Dmitrievich (Kassian) , the princes Mstislavsky , Temkin-Rostov , Suleshev , the boyars of Golovin and Buturlina ^[4] .

On the territory of the Simonov Monastery there was an extensive necropolis in which the poet Dmitry Venevitinov , writer Sergei Aksakov , his son Konstantin Aksakov , composer Alexander Alyabyev , collector Alexei Bakhrushin , associate of Peter I Fedor Golovin , as well as numerous representatives of ancient Russian noble families - Zagryazhsky , were buried. Olenins , Durasovs , Vadbolskys , Soimonovs , Muravyovs , Islenievs , Tatishchevs , Naryshkins , Shakhovskys , Petrovo-Solovovo ^{[4] [51]} .

In the 1930s, the necropolis was destroyed at the same time as the monastery. The remains of the poet Dmitry Venevitinov and writers Aksakovs were transferred from the ravaged cemetery to Novodevichye . A galvanic and then carpentry workshop was set up at the burial site. After the transfer of the monastery to the Church, during the construction work of the 1990s, some remains were found and reburied ^[52] .

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