Sergiev Posad – orthodox center of the gold ring
Sergiev Posad is the only city in the Moscow region included in the route of the Golden Ring of Russia. Thousands of pilgrims and tourists from all over the world come here every year. The city received its name from the name of Saint Sergio de Radonezh, the founder of the largest monastery in Russia: the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. We offer you to know the main attractions of Sergiev Posad.
The Holy Trinity Monastery was founded near Moscow by Saint Sergio de Radonezh in 1337. The life-giving Trinity monastery was attacked more than once: in the 13th century it was sacked by the Golden Horde khan Edigey, in the 15th century the monastery resisted the siege of the 30th army of Polish interventionists. In 1744, the Trinity Monastery received the title of laurel. For several centuries, pilgrims from all over the world visit this place as one of the most revered Orthodox sanctuaries.
In the Trinidad-Sergio Lavra there is a rare collection of manuscripts and early printed books. Since the beginning of the 19th century, the Moscow Theological Academy, one of the largest religious educational institutions in Russia, is located in the territory of Lavra, in the former Royal Chamber. Among the most valuable sanctuaries of the monastery are the relics of Saint Sergio of Radonezh, Maxim the Greek and Anthony of Radonezh, the icons Tikhvin and Chernihiv of the Mother of God.
Academician Dmitry Likhachev called this museum the hermitage of Russian culture from the 14th to the 20th centuries. The Sergiev Posad Museum-Reserve is one of the largest museums in the Moscow Region, it houses an ancient collection of fine and applied art from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In the center of the exhibition are the works of masters of the Moscow art school of the fourteenth – seventeenth centuries.
Art in the Monastery Museum
The museum contains one of the largest collections of Russian folk art in Russia: painting and wood carving, metal processing, printing, peasant costumes. The local history collection of the reserve presents the history of Sergiev Posad, the architectural aspect of the city and its famous residents.
In the 40s of the 19th century, three kilometers from the Trinity-Sergio Lavra, Monk Anthony founded the Gethsemane Monastery of Chernigov, a separate monastery for hermit monks. A secluded and picturesque place has become a refuge for more than 400 monks. Anthony ordered to keep the monastery with simplicity and severity, even the church utensils were made of wood. St. Filaret of Moscow wrote: “Simplicity … is the hope of the monastery. Yes, have this for the Lord. “After the revolution, the monastery was closed, the monastic life here resumed only in the 90s of the twentieth century.
The Chernigov monastery is named after the miraculous icon of Chernigov of the Mother of God, brought to the monastery at the end of the 19th century and Gethsemane, in honor of the Garden of Jerusalem, where the Mother of God is buried. To this day, the monastery has preserved cave temples, monastic cells, a sacred fountain and ancient buildings of the monastery.
Abramtsevo Museum-Reserve
On the banks of the Vori river, not far from Sergiev Posad, is the Abramtsevo Reserve-Museum. In the mid-18th century, a mansion appeared here, which became a source of inspiration for famous writers and artists. In 1843, writer Sergei Aksakov acquired the property: writers Nikolai Gogol and Ivan Turgenev, actor Mikhail Shchepkin and historian Mikhail Pogodin liked to visit him. In 1870, the patron Savva Mamontov bought the house, then the Abramtsevo art circle was formed, which included artists Konstantin Korovin, Ilya Repin, Valentin Serov, Vasily Polenov, Victor Vasnetsov and others.
After the revolution, a museum was opened on the estate, however, the traditions of the Mamontov circle did not stop: in the twentieth century, artists Pyotr Konchalovsky, Igor Grabar, Ilya Mashkov, sculptors Boris Korolev and Vera Mukhina worked in Abramtsevo. Today in the collection of the Abramtsevo Museum more than 25 thousand exhibits are stored: photographic archives and personal belongings of the former owners of the estate, graphics, paintings, sculptures and works of popular art.
On the Kelarsky pond in one of the old Sergiev Posad mansions since 1980, the Museum of Toys and Pedagogical Art has been located. This is the first museum of its kind in Europe: it was founded in Moscow by artist and collector Nikolai Bartram in 1918. In the 1920s, the museum was the second most visited in the country after the Tretyakov Gallery.
The museum’s collection contains toys from past centuries of the Alexander and Livadia palaces, the Stroganov school and private collections. Among the most valuable exhibits are the toys of the children of Emperor Nicholas II. The permanent exhibitions work here: “Russian folk toy”, “New Year and Christmas toy”, “Toy of the Eastern countries”, “Russian and Western European toy of the 19th century – beginning of the XX”. The exhibition “Portrait of children” shows little known works by Russian and foreign artists of the 17th-21st centuries.