Situated a short walk from the Luzhniki Sports Stadium, the Convent's leafy gardens are a pleasure to stroll in during the summer months and a welcome retreat from the bustle of the city.
April 10, 2006 (Press Release) --
The red and white crenellated walls and golden domes of Novodevichy Convent make it one of Moscow's most attractive monasteries. Situated a short walk from the Luzhniki Sports Stadium, in a tranquil southern suburb of Moscow, inside a bend in the Moscow River, the Convent's leafy gardens are a pleasure to stroll in during the summer months and a welcome retreat from the bustle of the city. Most of the capital's monasteries were built between the 13th and 16th centuries, not merely as religious centers but as fortified structures with the express purpose of defending the city from Tatar and Pole attacks.
With this aim in mind, many of Moscow's larger convents, including the Novodevichy, Donskoy, Danilov, Simonov, Novospassky and Andronikov Monasteries, were protected by thick, high walls and towers that together formed a defensive half-ring around the city.
Novodevichy, or "New Maidens Convent" in English, was founded by Vasily III in 1524 to commemorate the recapture of Smolensk from the Lithuanians in 1514. The convent's main cathedral was consecrated in honor of the Smolenskaya Icon of the Mother of God Hodigitria, which according to legend was painted by St. Luke himself. The icon was brought to Rus from Greece in 1046 by Tsarina Anna Monomakh and was later taken to Smolensk and Moscow before it was returned to Smolensk in a ceremony held on the present-day site of the monastery.
The convent is rather like a miniature Kremlin and the magnificent 5-domed Smolensky Cathedral was built in 1525 in the same style as the Kremlin Cathedral of the Assumption, probably by the Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin. In the early 17th century, during the reign of Boris Godunov, the walls of the cathedral were ornamented with frescoes representing historic episodes in the struggle for the formation of a centralized Russian state. In the 1680s a team of Russian artists and craftsmen, including K. Mikhailov and O. Andreyev, created one of the finest ornamental works of the period - a multi-tiered iconostasis, carved from solid gold.
The floor of the cathedral was made of ornamental cast-iron plates. The other structures in the convent complex- the refectory, the gateway churches, the Irminskiye and Lopukhinskiye Chambers, and the cells were also built in the 1680s. The convent's bell tower, similar to the famous Bell Tower of Ivan the Great in the Kremlin, was erected between 1689 and 1690, and consists of six octagonal stepped tiers crowned with a gilt cupola. Each tier is decorated with a balcony and parapet supported by ornamental balusters. The convent's fortified walls and crenellated towers were added earlier at the end of the 16th century.
Source: http://www.google.com/www.moscow-taxi.com
With this aim in mind, many of Moscow's larger convents, including the Novodevichy, Donskoy, Danilov, Simonov, Novospassky and Andronikov Monasteries, were protected by thick, high walls and towers that together formed a defensive half-ring around the city.
Novodevichy, or "New Maidens Convent" in English, was founded by Vasily III in 1524 to commemorate the recapture of Smolensk from the Lithuanians in 1514. The convent's main cathedral was consecrated in honor of the Smolenskaya Icon of the Mother of God Hodigitria, which according to legend was painted by St. Luke himself. The icon was brought to Rus from Greece in 1046 by Tsarina Anna Monomakh and was later taken to Smolensk and Moscow before it was returned to Smolensk in a ceremony held on the present-day site of the monastery.
The convent is rather like a miniature Kremlin and the magnificent 5-domed Smolensky Cathedral was built in 1525 in the same style as the Kremlin Cathedral of the Assumption, probably by the Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin. In the early 17th century, during the reign of Boris Godunov, the walls of the cathedral were ornamented with frescoes representing historic episodes in the struggle for the formation of a centralized Russian state. In the 1680s a team of Russian artists and craftsmen, including K. Mikhailov and O. Andreyev, created one of the finest ornamental works of the period - a multi-tiered iconostasis, carved from solid gold.
The floor of the cathedral was made of ornamental cast-iron plates. The other structures in the convent complex- the refectory, the gateway churches, the Irminskiye and Lopukhinskiye Chambers, and the cells were also built in the 1680s. The convent's bell tower, similar to the famous Bell Tower of Ivan the Great in the Kremlin, was erected between 1689 and 1690, and consists of six octagonal stepped tiers crowned with a gilt cupola. Each tier is decorated with a balcony and parapet supported by ornamental balusters. The convent's fortified walls and crenellated towers were added earlier at the end of the 16th century.
Source: http://www.google.com/www.moscow-taxi.com
Email
Print
SPAM
LEAVE A COMMENT
