Andronikov Monastery

Direction:
Spaso-Andronikov Monastery – Moscow, Andronievskaya Square, Building 10

Metro station:
Ilich square, roman

Not one of the oldest surviving cloisters in Moscow rises along the river. Yauza Spaso-Andronikov Monastery. After having existed for more than six and a half centuries, he saw many historical events and kept many secrets.

Today, a museum is located on the walls of the monastery, and church services are held in Spassky Cathedral. If we talk about the secret, the authentic burial place of icon painter Andrei Rublev is still unknown. Scientists have not yet discovered. Presumably, it was near the walls of Spassky Cathedral or at the site of the destroyed bell tower or necropolis.

The foundation of the monastery and the pages of its history.

The appearance of the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery is inextricably linked to the name of the Moscow metropolitan Alexy. The surviving tradition tells an episode that played an important role in the foundation of the monastery. On the road from Constantinople, the ship in which the lord was in a severe storm, St. Alexy prayed tirelessly and promised to erect a church in honor of the saint, venerated by the church the day the ship arrives safely on land.

The metropolitan did not take long to fulfill his vote, and in 1360 the monastery was founded, its rector was a student of Sergei Radonezhsky called Andronic. To found the monastery, the steep shore of Yauza was chosen at the confluence of the Golden Horn stream, the place where the important routes to the Golden Horde and Constantinople passed. This strategic position played an important role for the monastery in the historical and military events of Russia.

Dmitry Donskoy’s squadrons passed their walls to fight in the Kulikovo camp. Here they also met warriors from the battlefield. The warriors led by Prince Vasily Dmitrievich went to battle with Tamerlan on the same route.

The monastery had to survive the invasion of the troops of Khan Tokhtamysh and Devlet-Girey, the Polish troops and no ruin. After the raids and destruction, the monastery was rebuilt from the ashes again, grew, rebuilt

In Soviet times, the monastery was threatened with demolition. But despite all the ups and downs of history, as well as thanks to the efforts of architect and restorer P. Baranovsky and artist I. Grabar, who tried to preserve the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery, he survived. Although part of the buildings was still destroyed. This destination fell on the bell tower of the door, was dismantled in the 30s of last century, the necropolis, which was the eternal resting place of many famous noble families, was also destroyed.

In 1947, the Spaso-Andronikov monastery acquired the reserve status and the preserved buildings were included in the architectural complex:

Spassky Cathedral, built in 1420, is considered the oldest stone church outside then Moscow. Icon painter Andrei Rublev participated in the painting of the cathedral. Today you can only see a small part of the fragments of grass ornaments left on the altar, the remaining frescoes died in a fire in 1812.

Church consecrated in the name of Archangel Michael. On the initiative of Tsarina Evdokia, the construction of a three-level church began in the 90s of the 17th century. However, the queen’s misfortune and exile affected the suspension of work, and only in 1739 the church was consecrated. The temple was restored in 1960, it houses the family tomb of the Lopukhins.

The building of the fraternal building built in 1763.

At the beginning of the 19th century, a building was built for a religious school in the territory of the monastery.

In 1960, a museum of ancient Russian culture and art was opened in the territory of the monastery. The exhibition is located in the restored part of the Refectory and the Church of the Archangel Michael. The abbot’s building is reserved for the exhibition hall.

The museum’s collection includes thousands of works of ancient and applied Russian art. This collection of icon paintings, the rarest copies of manuscripts and old books, articles of church utensils, copies of murals belonging to Theophanes the Greek, Andrei Rublev, Dionysius and many other oddities.