Spaso-Andronikov Monastery

Moscow has many monuments and places associated with personalities who played a big role in the formation of the Russian state, which every patriot of his country should see and bow in memory of such people. Spaso-Andronikov Monastery belongs to such places, miraculously survived and survived all man-made and non-man-made cataclysms.

This is one of the few ancient buildings in Moscow that has come down to the present day without any changes and gives an idea of ​​the religious architecture of the 14th-15th centuries.

History of the monastery

The monastery was built under Metropolitan Alexy and at his direction. The Spassky Cathedral of the monastery was built first. There is no exact date of its consecration. There is only a version that the cathedral was consecrated, which means that services began to be held in it in 1356.

Metropolitan Alexy was a friend of Sergius of Radonezh. In the feature film "Horde" a Russian priest cured Khansha Taidula of blindness with prayers alone. This episode was taken from the life of Metropolitan Alexy and is a confirmed historical fact. He was an outstanding statesman of Russia under the three Grand Dukes of Moscow, on whom he had a great influence thanks to his mind and brilliant education received in Constantinople.

Near this monastery, the soldiers who fell on the Kulikovo field were buried, and then Prince Dmitry Donskoy visited it more than once.

It is believed that Andrei Rublev was a monk of this monastery, although there is no documentary evidence of this. However, it is known for sure that Andrei Rublev was buried at the local monastery cemetery. The Andrey Rublev Museum was founded and operates on the territory of the monastery.

The first time the monastery suffered during the invasion of the Poles during the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century.

In 1803, a bell tower was added to the Cathedral. And in 1812, the French plundered the Cathedral, and the entire monastery was seriously damaged in a huge fire in Moscow.
In the middle of the 19th century, the chapels of the Assumption of the Mother of God and St. Andronicus were added to the Cathedral.

The Spaso-Andronikov Monastery survived not the best of times during the formation of the young Soviet Republic. In 1918, services in it were stopped, the monastery was liquidated. Instead, there was a prison of the Cheka, then a colony for juvenile homeless children, and then the building was used as a hostel for one of the Moscow enterprises.

Before the war, the cemetery at the monastery was destroyed, and with it the grave of the icon painter Andrei Rublev, the bell tower was also destroyed.

Since 1960, a museum has been opened in the monastery. And in 1989 it was returned to the church. And although the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery is not yet fully established, services are regularly held here. For sightseeing, it is better to choose the time between church events.