St. Andrew's Monastery. St. Andrew's Monastery is a union of residents of the Gagarinsky district. Other buildings of the monastery

Rus' has always been famous for its centuries-old spiritual centers. Today there are 22 Orthodox monasteries in Moscow. All of them are active. Among them there are both male and female monasteries. Only residents of the capital know about some, while the whole country knows about others.

general information

Many monasteries have a glorious, centuries-old history and are a magnificent decoration of Moscow. Most of them were founded in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. The monasteries located in the center performed only a religious function, and those built on the outskirts also acted as defensive fortresses, so they were well fortified.

Of course, today their defensive significance has been lost. Several monasteries located in the capital, due to their rich history and the presence of significant Christian religions in them, deserve close attention. Many of them are visited by armies of pilgrims every year. In this article we will talk about the oldest religious building, St. Andrew's Monastery (photos attached).

Address

This holy monastery is located in one of the most beautiful corners of the capital, at the foot of the country’s famous Vorobyovy Gory natural reserve. St. Andrew's Monastery, intended for the male brethren, was founded, as legends testify, somewhere in the thirteenth century. It is impossible to name the exact date, but according to some data, it was founded three centuries after Christianity was adopted in Rus'. The address of the St. Andrew's Monastery: Andreevskaya embankment, building 2. You can get to it by metro, getting off at Vorobyovy Gory station.

The current status of St. Andrew's Monastery is stauropegial. It is assigned to those buildings or monasteries over which the cross was erected by the highest spiritual ranks. This is quite an honor. Moreover, the assignment of stauropegial status means that St. Andrew's Monastery, among others like it, is subordinate not to the local diocese, but directly to the patriarch himself and the highest synod.

According to ancient descriptions, the Preobrazhenskaya Hermitage Monastery was founded in Moscow Prisoners around the thirteenth century. It existed until the sixteenth century, and was later renamed St. Andrew's. The desert in Rus' was traditionally called the monasteries of monks, remote from human settlements. Such communities were not uncommon in Rus'.

Story

Today, St. Andrew's Monastery in Moscow is again operational, but this was not always the case. The monastery went through difficult times. The history of St. Andrew's Monastery is quite rich in significant events. As Christianity spread throughout Rus' as the main religion, the number of deserts gradually increased.

The Transfiguration Monastery was transformed into the St. Andrew's Monastery in the sixteenth century, when the male brethren living within its walls became quite numerous. Therefore, a temple was founded on its territory through the efforts of the “gracious husband.” This is what the contemporaries called Fyodor Rtishchev, a philanthropist, benefactor and highly moral person.

The main patron of the St. Andrew's Monastery was the holy martyr Andrei Stratelates. It is known that this famous warrior suffered cruelly for his faith. It was no coincidence that Rtishchev decided to build St. Andrew’s Monastery in this part of Moscow. The fact is that in 1591, Kyzy-Girey, the Crimean Tatar Khan, shamefully fled from here with his army. The Orthodox then believed that Stratilates, to whom they prayed so intensely, was involved in this miracle.

First Moscow Academy

St. Andrew's Monastery, located on the Sparrow Hills, in 1648 became the first refuge of the “Teaching Brotherhood”. This was the name of the spiritual and educational center, where the most literate monks of those times gathered and studied the available spiritual literature.

They also translated Christian books from Greek and created religious and educational texts. The ministers themselves said that they gather in the monastery for the sake of “book teaching.” At its core, St. Andrew's Convent was the first Moscow Academy.

Pre-revolutionary time

Tsar-Democrat Peter the Great needed educated people, so by his order, an orphanage was opened at the monastery, where street children, foundlings, and orphans were raised and educated. Unfortunately, this establishment lasted less than eight years. Subsequent Russian rulers also contributed to the fact that the temple somewhat lost its significance. Catherine the Second turned it into an almshouse, then the territory of the monastery complex was given over to a cemetery for well-born Muscovites and monks from other Moscow monasteries. The Sheremetevs and Pleshcheevs, as well as many other famous representatives of the nobility, found their last refuge here.

The beginning of the nineteenth century for the St. Andrew's Monastery was marked by the fact that new residential premises intended for an almshouse appeared in its courtyard. It was opened in 1806, and it was founded by the Moscow merchants.

The first quarter of the twentieth century became a time of great trials for St. Andrew's Monastery. The Bolshevik government completely closed this temple. Gradually, St. Andrew's Church began to fall into disrepair: buildings and other buildings were dismantled, some of them simply collapsed. Most of the necropolis, where burials took place from the thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries, was destroyed.

Soon the foot of the Sparrow steeps turned into an unsightly territory.

Recovery

The revival of St. Andrew's Monastery began only in 1991. It was at this time that the Patriarchal Metochion was established here, and churches began to be rebuilt and opened. St. Andrew's Church started working again. The Synodal Library was located in the monastery. And since 2013, the St. Andrew's Stavropegic Monastery (for the male brethren) begins to operate here.

Architecture

The main complex was built in the mid-seventeenth century. The construction was carried out by the architect Grigory Kopyl. A little later, a stone gate church of St. Andrei Stratilat, which was exquisitely decorated with tiles. They began to build a new one on the site of the already existing Church of the Resurrection. It was consecrated in 1703.

A bell tower was built on the territory of the monastery using funds donated by Count Sheremetev.

Today the territory of the monastery is shaped like a regular rectangle. On all sides it is framed by two- and three-story buildings of cells and educational buildings; there are many outbuildings that appeared in the last century. St. Andrew's Monastery looks especially beautiful from the fairway of the Moscow River. Muscovites and tourists passing by on pleasure boats can see the stone buildings and domes of its three churches.

The central place in the monastery complex is occupied by the Church of St. John the Evangelist with a three-tier baroque bell tower. It was erected in 1748 with funds donated by Count S. B. Sheremetev.

In 1997, the belfry was also restored, the bells for which were cast in the Bavarian town of Passau. The oldest church of St. Andrei Stratilata has a drum under the dome, and its quadrangle is decorated with beautiful “peacock eye” tiles made by Belarusian craftsmen.

St. Andrew's Monastery

m. Leninsky Prospekt
Andreevskaya embankment, 2

From the metro - to the left, to the underground passage, through the underground passage under Gagarin Square, exit to the "Big People" store, go around this building on the right side, on your right there will be the Third Transport Ring, on your left - the former building of a monstrous-looking research institute, which is now bank. The monastery is located by the river, behind the bank building (a couple of stairs between the bushes lead there). Above the monastery and the new residential area there is a good observation deck, from where you can clearly see the Sparrow Hills, a little of the Moscow River, the skyscrapers under construction in Moscow City, and even the golden domes of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the bell towers of the Kremlin. If you look closely, you can also see the bell tower of the Novodevichy Convent.

Legend says that the monastery was founded at the end of the 13th century, but was first mentioned in chronicles in the 14th century. Until the end of the 16th century, the monastery was called the Preobrazhenskaya Hermitage. In 1593, after the miraculous deliverance of Moscow from the raid of the Crimean Khan Kazy-Girey (in honor of this event, the Donskoy Monastery was also founded, see History of the Donskoy Monastery http://www.talusha1.narod.ru/travel/russia/moscow /moscow_02.htm#p2_1), which happened on the day of the martyr Andrei Stratilates, first a wooden and then a stone (1675) church was built in the monastery, and the monastery began to be called St. Andrew’s. It organically fits into the Southern defensive semiring of Moscow, which also includes the Novodevichy, Donskoy and St. Daniel monasteries.

The patron of the monastery in the 17th century was the boyar Fyodor Rtishchev, who created the first school in Moscow here, where Ukrainian scientists Epiphany Slavinetsky and Arseny Satanovsky taught - the prototype of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, which laid the foundation for the Moscow Theological Academy and Moscow University.

In 1731, the academy was transferred from here to the Zaikonospassky Monastery, and the St. Andrew's Monastery was turned into a shelter for foundlings and street children; in 1764, an almshouse was set up here - after dismantling the monastery wall and part of the cells. In 1924, the premises were used as residential, then as research institute offices. The monastery was returned to the church in 1992, although now it is not a monastery.

From the observation deck you can see that the monastery is a small square of buildings, inside of which are hidden 2 churches and another one - the gatehouse. The strong, high walls of the monastery were apparently dismantled back in the 18th century, and the very buildings of the almshouse were built from the resulting building materials.

We are greeted by the newly restored gate church of St. Andrew Stratelates (1675, rebuilt in 1805), which gave its name to the monastery. The dome, covered with dark tiles, “sits” on a turret covered with colored tiles, while the tile strip goes a little lower, giving the church a festive look. On the street side, several frescoes and a memorial plaque about the first educational institution in Moscow, founded here in 1648 by boyar Rtishchev, have been preserved.

Inside there is a booth for an attendant, who, however, does not react in any way to tourists wandering here. It is noticeable that the premises surrounding the territory of the monastery partly belong to the church (the Synodal Library), partly there is still something like a research institute - the roots of dusty folders, teapots and boilers are visible in the windows, and in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ there are several desks, tubs of flowers and fridge. The area is clean, flowers and several fir trees are planted, and at the foot of the bell tower there is someone’s grave.

In the center of the monastery stands the Church of St. John the Evangelist with a powerful three-tier bell tower (1748, rebuilt in 1848). I don’t know whether the bells are ringing or not, but the temple looks neglected - as if all the partitions inside have been demolished. The outside of the church has been recently painted, and the frescoes on the walls have been restored.

The third church of the monastery ensemble is the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, built in 1689-1701. in the Moscow Baroque style on the site of a stone church founded by boyar F.M. Rtishchev in 1648.

In front of it is a small rose garden, behind which three ancient gravestones and the windows of the dungeon are visible.

Perhaps the guilty were kept there, or were they warehouses? In the church there are several interesting-looking icons and a forged chandelier,

The iconostasis is clearly a remake, albeit a pleasant one. On both sides of the temple, typical “research institute” doors open onto the porches - full-wall glass in a metal opening, inside in the center there is a restored church, which is surrounded by a corridor with research institute furniture - there is no need to go there: when we were there, three aunts who immediately decided to check what was there in the corridor. A few seconds later the alarm went off, blaring piercingly for a good couple of blocks. The aunts quickly ran away, a security guard rushed in and turned off the alarm.

A tour of the St. Andrew’s Monastery will take at most half an hour; you can combine it with a walk through the Neskuchny Garden and, if desired, with a tour of the Donskoy Monastery.

Boring Garden

To get to the garden from the monastery, you need to go up again to the entrance to the research institute building, whose towers hang over the monastery,

cross the nominal square (the trees haven’t grown there yet, it’s true, but there are already paths and benches), and, going down to the road, walk along the garden trellis to the gate. True, the places here are abandoned: ravines, mud, fallen trees,

heaps of garbage and piles of bottles around the fireplaces, where the local proletariat had a cool rest. After a couple of hundred meters, the picture changes: clean asphalt paths along which mothers and grandmothers push strollers, birds sing. Even further, between the trees, a large gazebo, erected here in honor of the 800th anniversary of Moscow, gently whitens; grandfathers and grandmothers sit on benches around, harmlessly discussing some of their pressing problems.

They say that Neskuchny Garden was once a continuation of Gorky Park; now the park pavilion is used for filming the games “What? Where? When?" and sometimes Tolkienists can be found here, among whom the garden is known as "Eglador". If you want to see only the front side of the garden with its playgrounds, tennis courts, a pavilion where the peasants play dominoes and sedately move chess pieces, and the flight stage where the unforgettable Velurov from “Pokrovsky Gate” sang, then you should enter the garden from the side Leninsky Prospekt, 10-12 minutes walk from Leninsky Prospekt metro station.

The garden was formed from three estates belonging to the most famous families of Russia - the Golitsyns, Demidovs and Trubetskoys. Palace department in 1826-42. bought the territory and erected an imperial residence here, which received its name from the Trubetskoys’ pleasure estate “Neskuchnoye”. Several park houses have been preserved from that estate (Orlova, Okhotnichiy, a house with a rotunda) and an arched bridge.

The estate of the Trubetskoys' neighbors - the millionaire industrialists Demidovs - became the center of the created residence, and much more has been preserved from it: the front driveway, a courtyard with a cast-iron fountain in the center, the Maid of Honor and Cavalry buildings, the guardhouse building, the arena, the tea house, the domed pavilion and the romantic grotto. from large boulders. Now the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences is located here, and loitering tourists are not allowed here. If you get there, you will also see a fountain, moved here from Lubyanka Square in 1934, in the place of which a monument to Dzerzhinsky was erected.

If you still have some strength left after the walk, you can walk to the Donskoy Monastery http://www.talusha1.narod.ru/travel/russia/moscow/moscow_02.htm: along Leninsky Prospekt towards the center on the right side until the intersection with the street. Stasova, which will lead you straight to the walls of Donskoy. And there it’s not far from Svyato-Danilov http://www.talusha1.narod.ru/travel/russia/moscow/moscow_03.htm :)

Additions from plushevii_zaits

A good view of the monastery from the balcony-gallery of the Sky Lounge restaurant, located on the top floor of the Academy of Sciences.

Everyone is allowed into the territory of the academy's presidium freely, and they cannot refuse entry, since there is a functioning public mineralogical museum there in the building of the former estate arena. By the way, one of the oldest museums with a very rich, interesting and beautiful exhibition. Here he is:

The Presidium itself:

The famous Vitali fountain:

Moscow

Moscow estates

Church tradition dates the establishment of the men's monastery “at Vorobyovykh Kruchi, in Plennitsy” to the 13th century, but early documentary evidence about it dates back to the middle of the 16th century. Until the end of the 16th century, the monastery was called the Preobrazhenskaya Hermitage.

In 1591, Moscow was miraculously spared from the raid of the troops of the Crimean Khan Kazy-Girey. The battle, in which the city’s defenders were victorious, took place on the day of remembrance of the martyr Andrew Stratelates (284–305), and soon in the monastery, in gratitude to God for salvation, a wooden gate church was built in the name of the holy martyr.

St. Andrew's monastery experienced a special flourishing in the 17th century, when boyar Fyodor Rtishchev (†1673), a “close man” of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, set about establishing the first school in Moscow teaching Greek and Slavic languages.

In 1648–1649, educated scribe monks were invited to the capital from Kyiv, who founded a learned brotherhood, which Rtishchev placed in the monastery under his care, and also founded a library and a school for teenagers of different classes in the monastery. Members of the “Rtishchev Brotherhood” were such famous personalities as hieromonks Epifaniy (Slavinetsky), Arseny (Satanovsky), Damascene (Ptitsky) and Theodosius (Safanovich). In 1648–1654, under the leadership of the architect Grigory Kopyl, the initial complex of monastery buildings was built, in particular, the Resurrection Church was built. Construction work was financed from the royal treasury. In 1675, the wooden gate church of St. Andrew Stratilates was replaced with a stone one. One of the donors for its construction was Patriarch Joachim of Moscow and All Rus', who labored in this monastery at the beginning of his monastic path. The facades of the temple, which preserved polychrome tiles by the famous master Stepan Ivanov, nicknamed Polubes, are a wonderful example of decorative decoration in Moscow church architecture.

In 1689–1701, on the site of the previous one, the Church of the Resurrection of Christ (Slovushchego) was built in the Moscow Baroque style, consecrated in 1703 by the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Stefan (Yavorsky). The bell tower in the classical style was built in 1748, rebuilt in 1848, after which the “temple under the bells” was consecrated by St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, in the name of the holy Apostle John the Theologian (previously the church in the bell tower was consecrated in the name of the Archangel of God Michael).

According to the royal decree, learned people, as well as priests and deacons, were accepted into the monastery, “in the life, and rank, and in reading and singing the church, and the cell rule.” In 1652, Kyiv singers settled here with the regent and composer Fyodor Ternopolsky. The number of brethren in the monastery did not exceed sixty people, the learned elders were no more than ten to fifteen. The “Rtishchev Brotherhood” became the basis for the subsequently created Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, the first higher educational institution in Moscow. The learned brethren moved to the Zaikonospassky Monastery, where the academy was opened in 1687, and the St. Andrew’s Monastery itself was then assigned to the monastery of the All-Merciful Savior “behind the row of icons.”

The monastery was abolished for the first time in 1724, establishing a school for foundlings and street children. Under Empress Anna Ioannovna in 1730, the monastery was restored. In 1765, the monastery was again abolished, the churches were turned into parish ones. During the pestilence of 1771, noble citizens and inhabitants of Moscow monasteries began to be buried on the territory of the former monastery. The Andreevsky necropolis was finally formed in the 19th century; among its burials are the graves of members of the Pleshcheev, Shcherbatov, and Sheremetev families.

In 1803, at the request of the Moscow Merchant Society, with the “all-merciful permission” of Emperor Alexander I, the monastery was transferred to the establishment of an almshouse “for persons of both sexes.” Since 1805, at the expense of the Moscow merchants, the buildings of the almshouse were erected according to the design of the architect F.K. Sokolova. This institution existed for more than a century, in 1906 there were 956 people in it. The priests of the churches of the former monastery cared for both those in need and the residents of Moscow settlements located nearby.

In 1900, on the initiative of the rector of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, priest Nikolai Molchanov, a parochial school was opened, which existed until its abolition by the Soviet regime.

In 1918, the almshouse was abolished, and the communal houses of the 1st Moscow Goznak factory were placed in its buildings. In the 1920s–1930s, the churches of St. Andrew Stratelates, Resurrection, and St. John the Theologian were gradually closed, adapted for various institutions, and the necropolis was completely destroyed.

Since 1964, the Moscow State Control Laboratory for Measuring Equipment has settled in the complex of buildings of the former St. Andrew's Monastery, which was later transformed into the All-Union Research Institute of Metrological Service of the USSR State Standard. Restoration work began to be carried out for the needs of the institute.

On August 14, 1991, by the Decree of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', the Patriarchal Compound was opened in the former St. Andrew's Monastery. On March 8, 1992, services were resumed in the Resurrection Church of the monastery, and its consecration took place on April 22, 1992.

In 1993, the recently recreated Synodal Library of the Moscow Patriarchate, the main book depository of the Russian Orthodox Church, now bearing the name of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, moved into the monastery. His Holiness himself opened and consecrated the library reading room. Its funds number more than 140 thousand storage units and are constantly replenished. Publications of particular value are regularly received from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.

In December 1996, the Moscow government returned the complex of buildings of the St. Andrew's Monastery to the Church for free, indefinite use. In 1999, in continuation of traditions, a non-state secondary school was opened here with the teaching of a number of additional subjects - the Law of God, church choral singing, the fundamentals of Orthodox culture; At the same time, a Sunday school was established.

The Educational Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Synodal Department for Relations of the Church with Society and the Media, the Soyuz TV channel and other church and public institutions are located on the territory of the monastery.

By the determination of the Holy Synod of July 16, 2013, the Patriarchal Metochion was transformed into the St. Andrew's Stavropegic Monastery of Moscow. His Grace Bishop Theophylact of Dmitrov, vicar of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', managing the South-Western Vicariate of Moscow, was appointed vicar of the St. Andrew's Monastery. Currently, restoration work is being carried out in the monastery.

Until the end of the 16th century, the monastery was called the Preobrazhenskaya Hermitage, and after the miraculous escape of the troops of the Crimean Khan Kyzy-Girey from the walls of Moscow in 1591, on the day of memory of Andrei Stratilates, a wooden temple was built here in honor of this saint. In 1675 it was replaced by a stone gate church, decorated with multi-colored tiles. Since then the monastery has been called St. Andrew's.

The heyday of the monastery came in the middle of the 17th century, when, on the initiative of boyar Fyodor Rtishchev, the “Teaching Brotherhood” was opened here. It united the most educated monks of that time. Rtishchev summoned 30 learned monks from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Mezhigorsky and other monasteries and settled them on the Sparrow Hills. Here they were engaged in translations, teaching Slavic, Greek and Latin grammars, rhetoric, philosophy and other sciences to those interested. At the same time, a theological school, the prototype of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, appeared in the St. Andrew's monastery.

When the academy was transferred to Nikolskaya in the 18th century, St. Andrew's Monastery turned into an institution for keeping foundlings.

During the plague epidemic of 1771, a cemetery was built on the territory of the St. Andrew's Monastery for high-born townspeople. The Pleshcheevs, Shcherbatovs, Sheremetevs and inhabitants of Moscow monasteries were buried there.

In 1803, an almshouse was located on the territory of the monastery. Although, according to the English traveler William Cox, in St. Andrew's Monastery there were “loose women” who made ropes for the Admiralty. The almshouse buildings took many years to construct and were completed in 1878.

In 1918, the almshouse of the St. Andrew's Monastery turned into the House-commune of the 1st Moscow Gosznak factory.

In 1923, the Church of St. Andrew Stratilates was closed, part of the monastery buildings was dismantled and the necropolis was destroyed. A school was set up in St. Andrew's Church, and a club was set up in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ.

In the 1960s, the All-Union Research Institute of the Committee of Standards, Measures and Measuring Instruments worked on the territory of the monastery. People lived in the buildings of the almshouse.

Now the monastery is operating again. The Synodal Library is located here, and the general education “School at St. Andrew’s Monastery” operates.

Several churches have been restored: the Resurrection of Christ in the Moscow Baroque style built in 1689–1701, the gate temple of St. Andrew Stratelates and the Church of St. John the Evangelist, rebuilt in 1865 at the expense of the merchant Mikhail Setkin. And in the center of the monastery territory rises a baroque bell tower with the Church of St. Michael the Archangel, built in 1748 with donations from Count S.B. Sheremetev.

St. Andrew's Monastery in photographs from different years: