Rizopolozhensky monastery, Suzdal

Rizopolozhensky monastery is associated primarily with the name of St. Evfrosinya of Suzdal (1212-1250), the daughter of Prince Michael of Chernigov. In Suzdal, she was revered as a saint and wonderworker long before the official canonization.

The life story of Evfrosinya seems like a medieval novel: the fifteen-year-old princely daughter Theodulia, pious, educated and beautiful, was going to marry the prince of Suzdal, but her fiance suddenly died on their wedding day. The virtuous maiden took the veil under the name Evfrosinya in the very monastery where she was to be married. According to legend, she had the gift of healing and the gift of foresight, predicted the Suzdal earthquake of 1230, the death of Batu and the martyrdom of her own father, killed in the Horde. It is believed that thanks to her prayers, the Rizopolozhensky monastery remained intact. It is interesting that in the life the education of Evfrosinya is especially emphasized. Four centuries later, in 1698, Evfrosinya was canonized by Orthodox saints. Pilgrims are still going to the monastery, where a part of its relics is kept, to pray for healing.

Rizopolozhensky monastery is one of the oldest in Russia. It was founded at the beginning of the XIII century, but its first, wooden, temples and buildings have not survived to this day. The oldest of the monastery temples, the three-domed Rizopolozhensky Cathedral, dates back to the first half of the 16th century.

In addition to the cathedral, several buildings of different times have been preserved: the delightful two-tent Holy Gates (1688), the Rev. Bell Tower, which marked the victory over Napoleon, and the ruins of the Sretenskaya Church, erected in 1882 and burned down in 2001.

The 17th-century Trinity Cathedral, which belonged to the unsaved Trinity cloister for widows, successfully prospered until the 1930s — when it was blown up. There are photos: he was very beautiful.

Rizopolozhensky monastery survived the Tatar invasion, but did not avoid ruin in the Soviet era. He was shut down and used in such a way that it suggests a kind of black communist humor: instead of nuns, security guards of the local political prison and rabbits settled in the monastery. A power station was set up in the Rizopolozhensky cathedral, having destroyed its domes, in the Sretenskaya church there was a club of workers of the GPU and a cinema. The Holy Gates suffered greatly.

But in the 1960s, with the onset of the thaw and the rise of tourist interest in Suzdal, the Holy Gates were restored, at the same time the cathedral was restored, and the domes acquired the “historically correct” original form - not in the form of bulbs, but in the form of helmets. Now, some of the buildings have been transferred to a revived convent, and the rest are used for urban needs, for example, as the Rizopolozhenskaya hotel.

The 72-meter-long Rev. Bell Tower of the monastery, built in 1819, remains the tallest building in Suzdal. Means for its construction were donated by wealthy citizens. The three-tiered tower with a spire is made in the style of classicism and does not really fit into the overall appearance of the monastery. But it can be seen on the outskirts of the city. Nearby is a memorial sign in honor of the victory at Borodino.

And only red-brick walls remained from Sretenskaya church ...

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