Donskoy Monastery (Moscow)

Russia / Moscow / Moscow / Donskaya ploshchad, 1
 place with historical importance, monastery, interesting place, Russian Orthodox Church

Donskoy Monastery is a major monastery in Moscow, founded in 1591, in commemoration of Moscow's deliverance from an imminent threat of Khan Kazy-Girey’s invasion. In the mid-17th century the monastery was attached to the Andreyevsky Monastery. In 1683, it was elevated to the archmandrite level and given 20 desyatinas of the nearby pasturelands. Vidogoshchsky, Zhizdrinsky, Sharovkin, and Zheleznoborovsky monasteries were attached to this monastery between 1683 and 1685 and Andreyevsky Monastery in 1724. In 1812, the French army ransacked this monastery, the most valuable things having been moved to Vologda prior to that. After the October Revolution, the Donskoy Monastery was closed. In 1934, the Donskoy Monastery was transferred to the Museum of Architecture of the Soviet Academy of Architecture. The Soviets moved the remnants of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker in Stolpy, Church of the Assumption on Pokrovka Street in Moscow, Sukharev Tower, and others to this Monastery.

Foumdation stone of its cathedral was laid by Boris Godunov, consecrated in 1593 to the holy image of Our Lady of the Don. This dimunitive structure has a single dome crowning three tiers of zakomara. From 1930 to 1946, the cathedral was closed for services and housed a factory.

The Great Cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin of the Don, was started in 1684 as a votive church of Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna.The five domes were arranged according to the four corners of the Earth. The cathedral frescoes are the first in Moscow to be painted by a foreigner. They were executed by Antonio Claudio in 1782–1785.

After the monastery lost its defensive importance, its walls were reshaped in the red-and-white Muscovite baroque style, reminiscent of the Novodevichy Convent. Eight square and four circular towers with red-blood crowns were put up in 1686–1711. The Holy Gates of the monastery built in 1693 are topped with the Tikhvin church (1713–1714), noted for its wrought iron grille. A lofty belfry was erected over the western gates from 1730–1753 after designs by Pietro Antonio Trezzini and other prominent architects.

Several families of high aristocracy chose the Donskoy monastery as location of their burial vaults. The Alexander Svirsky Church, for instance, was constructed in 1796–1798 as a sepulcher of Princes Zubov. Princes Galitzine were buried in the Archangel Church (1714–1809), whereas the Church of St. John Chrysostom (1881–1891) marks the Petrushin family vault.

An old necropolis in the south-eastern part of the cloister are the graves of the poets Mikhail Kheraskov and Alexander Sumarokov, the philosophers Pyotr Chaadaev and Ivan Ilyin, the historians Mikhail Shcherbatov and Vasily Klyuchevsky, the critic Vladimir Odoyevsky, the architect Osip Bove, the painter Vasily Perov, the courtier Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov, the actress Faina Ranevskaya, the general Anton Denikin, and the aviator Nikolay Zhukovsky. Some of the tombs were transferred by Soviet authorities to the Tretyakov Galleryand disallowed for public viewing.

A new necropolis was inaugurated in the 20th century outside monastery walls. Valentin Serov and Sergey Muromtsev were among the first notables to be interred there. The former church of St. Seraphim, situated at this cemetery, was reconstructed into the first crematorium in Moscow in 1927.
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Coordinates:   55°42'52"N   37°36'7"E
This article was last modified 15 years ago