Novospassky Monastery

View of the monastery, 1810s

It was founded in 1490 with the name of the Savior of the New, Grand Duke Ivan III , who transferred the fraternity of the Kremlin monastery of the Savior on Bor to the city. The latter arose around 1330 under the Grand Duke Ivan Kalita .

The first stone Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Savior was built in 1494 ^[1] . The monastery began to enjoy royal favor and acquire a modern look after the Romanovs came to power, whose ancestral tomb has long been in the Novospassky monastery. In 1646-1649, the future Patriarch Nikon was the archimandrite of the Novospassky Monastery.

Stavropegial Monastery from the Moscow River (until 1917)

The monastery was closed in 1918, and in the same year a concentration camp was organized on its territory. Monuments of the monastery, which had museum significance, were attributed to the museum of the Simonov Monastery . In the 1920s, the architect Sergey Rodionov restored the monastery buildings ^[2] . In 1925, the Second Women's Correctional House occupied the territory of the monastery. The monastery cemetery was demolished in 1927-1930.

Since 1935, the territory of the monastery was in charge of the economic department of the NKVD . All the monastery buildings were converted for household needs or for housing. The eviction of tenants began in 1960. In 1968, it was decided to organize on the basis of the monastery a "museum of history and modern practice of restoration in the USSR."

Restoration work dragged on for many years. The cathedral planned to open a Museum of the history of restoration. A large restoration center on the territory of the monastery existed from 1985 until the end of 1990, when it was decided to return the monastery to the Moscow Patriarchate.

The revival of monastic life began in April 1991. In July of the same year, the male choir of the Novospassky Monastery was created .

In 1995, the ashes of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich , who was killed 90 years earlier by the terrorist Ivan Kalyaev , was transferred here. A memorial cross was erected on the territory of the monastery, recreated according to the surviving project of Viktor Vasnetsov , an exact copy of the monument that existed in the Kremlin .

In February 2014, Patriarch Kirill consecrated the 16-ton “Romanovsky” bell , which was cast to replace the historic bell destroyed in the 20th century ^[3] .

On February 5, 2015, the relics of the Holy Great Martyr Dimitry of Solunsky , the imperishable right hand, were brought to the monastery from Greece. Bringing the ark with the relics of the saint is dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the victory over fascism: in Russia the memory of St. Demetrius of Solunsky from ancient times was associated with military feat, patriotism and the defense of the Fatherland ^[4] .

On April 18, 2013, the journalist of the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets , Eva Merkacheva, reported that parishioners had received a call from the Synodal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate and that parking, tire fitting and a pawnshop were operating in the stavropegic monastery ^[5] .

April 24 parishioners andthe monastery’s inhabitants made an official appeal to the newspaper’s editors, where they noted that “The entire content of the article is reproached and insinuated to the monastery,” which “it seems strange that the journalist MK“ E. Merkacheva did not file an official written request (like this was made in other instances) to the governor of the monastery in order to get some kind of clarification ” ^[6] . Regarding the incident, the authors of the appeal stated ^[6] :

Today, by the grace of God, a part of the monastic land located in close proximity to the monastery has been returned to its rightful owner. The Moscow Arbitration Court ruled in favor of the Church and the land, where there has been a parking of motor vehicles for many years, has been transferred to the Novospassky Monastery. What is shameful in that those who put their cars on the monastic land, make their contribution to the improvement of the monastery and its restoration? Such donations allow the monastery to conduct social, charitable and educational activities, which is the duty of every Christian. It is not so important whether cars are being repaired or documents drawn up, if only this work was honest with God. The result of this work is the splendor of our monastery, its willingness to receive worshipers in simplicity and order. And of course, all this does not mean that the monastery is engaged in commerce.

The main buildings and structures of the Novospassky Monastery:

• The six-pillar Transfiguration Cathedral , huge for its time; was built in 1645-1649. the dependency of Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich ; Guriy Nikitin was invited for painting from Kostroma.
• Intercession Church with a refectory (1670s)
• Walls and towers of the monastery 1640-1642 buildings ^[7] .
• Fraternal cells with St. Nicholas Church.
• Rector chambers of the turn of the XVII and XVIII centuries.
• The bell tower 78 meters high, one of the highest in pre-revolutionary Moscow, was built in 1759-1785. on the site of an ancient belfry, built in 1622 by Patriarch Filaret .
• Znamenskaya Church (1791-1795, architect E. Nazarov ).

See also: Category: Buried in Novospassky Monastery

In the basement of the Transfiguration Cathedral, the boyars of Zakharyina-Koshkina, the ancestors of the Romanov’s tsar’s house, their relatives, the princes Sittsky , as well as Cherkassky , Yaroslavl , Obolensky , Troekurov , Trubetskoy, Naryshkin and other representatives of the highest nobility of pre-Petrine time were buried. The monument on the grave of V. D. Novosiltsev , designed by V. I. Demut-Malinovsky, was considered a masterpiece of memorial sculpture.

The Znamenskaya Church, standing nearby, is the family tomb of Count Sheremetev , princes Kurakin and Lobanov-Rostovsky . In 1742, State Chancellor A.M. Cherkassky was buried in the basement of a previously standing temple in this place in the presence of Empress Elizabeth.

Within the monastery walls in the XVIII-XIX centuries a necropolis was formed with a large number of aristocratic burials. Here were buried the artist F. A. Rokotov , the mayor N. A. Alekseev , the historian P. P. Beketov , the theater I. A. Gagarin , the Decembrist P. P. Titov ^[8] .

The grave of priest Peter Venyaminov, who did not give out the treasures of the monastery to the soldiers of the Napoleonic army and was killed by the French, was of historical interest. An epitaph was knocked out on his tombstone: "Here, the altar minister, the hero who tasted death, was modestly buried - for faith, for the king." There are also allegations that it was on the territory of the Novospassky monastery that the last refuge of the nun Dosifei , the former Princess Tarakanova , found the last refuge.

In the late 1920s, like other noble necropolises, the cemetery of the Novospassky Monastery was routed . The most valuable monuments from an artistic point of view were transported to the Donskoy Monastery ; some of them were later turned into scrap metal ^[9] . A small number of preserved tombstones are now on display in the monastery courtyard.

Tomb of the Romanovs

In the basement of the Transfiguration Cathedral there are a number of graves, among which are the burials of the Zakharyin-Romanov boyars.

In 1497 or 1498, Vasily Yuryevich Koshkin-Zakharyin (son of boyar Yuri Zakharyevich ) was buried here, at the end of the 16th century - Vasily Yuryevich Zakharyin (cousin of Anastasia Romanova ) and Nikita Romanovich Yuryev-Zakharyin (in the monasticism of Nifont, father of the patriarch ) ^10] . In 1607 , during the reign of False Dmitry, the remains of the brothers of the patriarch Filaret were transferred here, three of whom died earlier in exile, having suffered during the time of Boris Godunov .

Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin (d. 1543), who gave the name to the whole Romanov family, and the mother of the first king of this kind, nun Martha (d. 1631), are also buried here. In 1902, the tomb of the Romanovs with the church of St. Roman Sladkopevts was rebuilt by the architect S.U. Solovyov .

After the monastery was closed in 1918, the tomb was ravaged, tombstones were destroyed, some of the tombs were lost. Only a few remains were transferred to the underground chamber of the southern extension of the Archangel Cathedral . The tomb was restored in the late 1990s; a church was recreated in it in honor of the Monk Roman the Sweet singer , consecrated on March 10, 2002 .

On June 1, 2017, the Bank of Russia issued a commemorative silver coin with a face value of 25 rubles “Novospassky Monastery, Moscow” (mass of precious metal clean - 155.5 g, alloy sample - 925, catalog number 5115-0132) of the Monuments of Architecture series Of Russia. ” On the coin there are images: below - the ensemble of the Novospassky monastery in Moscow, above - engravings with a panorama of the monastery ^[11] .

• The official site of Novospassky Monastery
• Novospassky Stauropegial Monastery on the MP official website
• Novospassky Monastery on the site "Temples of Russia"
• Novospassky Monastery in the 20th century
• Novospassky Monastery Choir - Official Site