Alexander Svirsky Monastery
History of Alexander Svirsky Monastery
The Holy Trinity Alexander Svirsky Monastery was founded in the late XV - early XVI century by the monk Alexander, who came from Valaam Monastery.
There are a few original buildings which date back to the time when the monastery was founded. One of them is the stone Intercession Church with a refectory chamber.
In XVII - XIX centuries the monastery was a significant center of the Russian Orthodox Church. It played an important role in the development of the local education, which could help the Orthodox Church to win minds and hearts in competition with Lutheran Church and Old Believers religious dissenters.
The monastery was also an important center of commerce and social life. It hosted the Trinity Fair, popular among merchants from different parts of Russia and from abroad. Nowadays, the "Trinity Fair" festival is regularly arranged in the village of Staraya Sloboda next to the monastery.
In the Time of Troubles (Smuta) at the beginning of the 17th century, the monastery was frequently invaded by Polish-Lithuanian troops. In 1612 or 1613 they ravaged the monastery, burned churches and killed the Father Superior and many of the brethren. There is a legend, that the locals united, killed and buried the invaders in burial mounds which still can be found nearby.
Russian Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, the first Tzar of the Romanov dynasty, renewed the monastery and patronized it until his death in 1645.
In 1677, the construction of a stone monastery fence began, and in 1694 the Trinity Cathedral was started.
Peter the Great paid frequent visits to the monastery on his way to the Olonets shipyard (now Lodeynoye Pole) and to the Martial Waters (Russian health resort in the north). Many other members of the Royal Family stayed in the monastery, in particular, Tzar Alexander II and his family in 1858.
At the end of the XIX century, the monastery became a popular place of pilgrimage.
Following the revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks closed the monastery. In Soviet times it was used for different purposes, e.g. as a Gulag prison and a mental hospital.
In 1997, many monastery buildings were given back to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Architecture
Alexander Svirsky Monastery consists of two parts: Troitsky (Holy Trinity) and Preobrazhensky (Transfiguration).
The most remarkable buildings of the Trinity Complex are the following: the 16th-century Intercession Church with the refectory chamber, the three-dome belfry and the Trinity Cathedral of the late 17th century, the vaults of the Cathedral contain impressive mural paintings.
The Transfiguration Complex is located 250-300 meters away from the Troitsky one. The mental hospital was located there until 2009. The most noteworthy buildings of that complex are as follows: the chapel at the place of the appearance of the Holy Trinity to Alexander Svirsky, the Transfiguration Cathedral with the relics of Alexander Svirsky and the bell tower in the Byzantine style.
Admission hours of Alexander Svirsky Monastery
