The ancient city of Sergiev Posad, whose history dates back to the distant fourteenth century, is known not only to almost every inhabitant of our country, but also to most foreign tourists who come to Russia to see its sights. Located just fifty kilometers from the capital, it enters the Golden Ring. The city is convenient enough for visiting. Moreover, many are eager to come here due to the fact that travelers need just one or two days to visit the main attractions of Sergiev Posad.
This town received its name on March 22, 1782 by the decree of Catherine II in honor of the founder of the local settlement Sergius of Radonezh. And although in the Soviet years (from 1930 to 1991) the town was renamed to Zagorsk in honor of the revolutionary V.M. Lubotsky-Zagorsky, after it its original name was returned.
Of course, the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is considered to be the main attraction of this settlement by right - a man’s monastery, which to this day is functioning. At the mention of Posad, many people have associations with this beautiful temple, with its snow-white walls, gilded domes. They are striking already at the entrance to the city. But not only Sergius Lavra made this small town famous. The city is famous for its many shrines, which are visited annually by about five hundred thousand pilgrims. Each of them has its own fascinating exciting story. And one of them is the Savior-Bethany monastery (Sergiev Posad).
History
It is located in the southeast of the city, about four kilometers from Sergius Lavra. The Savior-Bethany monastery in Sergiev Posad is a place that is necessarily included in each sightseeing tour. He is also known as "Russian Bethany."
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in a surprisingly beautiful scenic area among forests in the very outskirts of Sergiev Posad, several monastic hostels were founded in its eastern part. They were subordinate to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The hostels were intended for those who preferred prayer seclusion, which was unattainable in a crowded Lavra with many pilgrims.
The first of them was the Spaso-Vifansky monastery. Unfortunately, only a few buildings that have been preserved since then today form the central part of the small village of Pticegrad. Only the attentive eye of a specialist observes a certain consistency in the location of these “fragments” of the once rather large architectural complex, which was widely known as the Savior-Bethany Monastery. Sergiev Posad has changed a lot since then. Today there are many interesting places in it, which tourists primarily seek to get to, but then Bethany near Moscow was considered the second most important attraction of the city.
Construction
It is believed that it was the then abbot of the Lavra, Archbishop Plato (worldly name Peter Levshin) founded the Savior-Bethany monastery (Sergiev Posad). Photos stored in the city museum indicate that this place used to have a watershed. It was a large piece of land between the Torgash river and a fairly large pond, in which fish were bred, used for the needs of the Lavra.
The place chosen for the monastery was called Corbusch. Before the railway embankment was built here, domes of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra were viewed from the territory on which the Spaso-Vifany monastery was built. A new desert was built for four years: from 1783 to 1787. It was a long rectangle stretched from east to west. The monastery was named after the Palestinian Bethany, the place where the miraculous resurrection of the righteous Lazarus took place. The development project was led by eminent architects V. Yakovlev and N. Odoevtsev. They were invited from Moscow specifically for the construction of a new monastery.
Completion of work
Unfortunately, few people know for sure what the Savior-Bethany Monastery looked like (Sergiev Posad). Photos, few of which are preserved in the local museum, indicate that the Holy Gates crowned the central compositional axis. They ended with a bell tower. On the territory of the monastery there were also the Transfiguration Cathedral, the Spiritual Church House, four fraternal buildings, the house in which Archimandrite Plato himself lived, and several guest cells.
According to the project, there was a necropolis on the general plan, as well as a stable and a horse carriage. The entire territory on which the Spaso-Vifansky Monastery was built was surrounded by a powerful stone fence.
In 1787, when all construction work had already been completed, the abbot of the Lavra Plato was elevated to the metropolitans. Almost at the same time, the especially revered shrine was transferred from the Trinity Monastery to the newly built Spaso-Vifany Monastery, the photo of which is presented below. This is a wooden coffin, in which for almost two centuries were the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh.
Seminary
After the ceremony of his coronation in 1797, Emperor Paul I was in transit in Sergiev Posad. He, having first visited the Lavra, then went to the Bethany monastery. Here he was received by Metropolitan Plato. The emperor was so pleased with the condition of this monastery that he immediately established by decree to open a seminary in the monastery. In addition, he secured a significant area of land for the Temple of Bethany. By another decree, the Savior-Bethany monastery received the right to income from three mills, which were leased. In memory of the visit to the monastery by Emperor Paul, Metropolitan Plato erected an obelisk.
In 1800, a special building began to be erected for the seminary. And on the sixth of August it was solemnly opened. The two-story building with four towers was built in the shape of the letter “P” - in honor of Emperor Paul. Young men, mainly children of clergymen, began to be admitted to this new educational institution. Seminary education was available at one of the three available departments. These were grammatical-rhetorical, theological or philosophical directions. Metropolitan Plato personally knew every student. He, according to the chroniclers, so carefully cared for the students of the seminary that every day he watched the conditions of their residence. Apparently, therefore, the Savior-Bethany monastery, many began to call "school."
There were a lot of people wishing to enter the Bethany Seminary, in which teaching was excellently delivered. Therefore, over time, it expanded. Already in the thirties of the nineteenth century, it was a magnificent building, created in the style of classicism.
After the death of the Metropolitan
At the end of 1812, after Napoleon’s troops, retreating from Moscow, began to leave the Russian land, Metropolitan Plato ended his earthly journey. His burial took place in the Transfiguration Cathedral. And after his death, Theological Seminary, which became the dear “brainchild” of the abbot, continued to develop. The monastery itself underwent changes. On its territory were built several stone buildings intended for monks, novices and priors, as well as buildings intended for the almshouse, and a hotel.
In the sixties of the nineteenth century, a fairly large five-domed church was erected on the site of the Dukhovskoy monastery. He began to be called Tikhvin. There were five thrones in the temple. At the beginning of the twentieth century, along with the Lavra and the Chernigov monastery, the Spaso-Vifansky Monastery began to gain popularity. How to get to it today, you can see on the official website of the monastery.
Address
Today, all tourists who come to Sergiev Posad must be taken to the Savior-Vifansky Monastery. The address of Russian Bethany is Masliev Street, building 25. It is located only three kilometers south from the Chernigov Gethsemane Monastery.
Savior-Bethany monastery, which every believer living in Sergiev Posad knows how to get to, annually hosts a huge number of pilgrims. Many of them come here by train or train. To reach the monastery from the train station is not difficult. This distance can be overcome on foot.
To do this, moving along the embankment to the north towards Alexandrov, at the second railway crossing, turn right and exit onto Vifanskaya Street. And along it, and along Ptitsegradskaya you can go directly to the Savior-Bethany monastery.
How to get by transport
You need to go to the monastery from the capital by car along the Yaroslavl highway. Before reaching the sign for Sergiev Posad, you should turn right in the direction of Yaroslavl along the M8 highway. On it you should get to the sign "turn on the vine." Then you need to get off the road. Having not reached the vine, you should, turning left, go along the main road to the monastery.
Many travelers who study the Golden Ring route on their own are interested in the Savior-Bethany Monastery (Sergiev Posad). How to get to it, any resident of the city will say. To do this is simple: you need to turn from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra from the Red Army Street to the right onto Karl Marx Avenue. And then drive to the monastery on Ptitsegradskaya.
In the Soviet years
After the revolution, the history of the Savior-Bethany monastery changed dramatically. Monks were allowed to remain in the monastery only in the status of members of the agricultural labor cooperative. However, seven years later, the monastery was still closed, however, the ministers lived in some rooms even before 1929. Most of the monastic buildings were given to the orphanage, and in the house owned by Metropolitan Plato, expositions owned by the Sergiev Posad Museum of History and Art began to be kept.
In the early thirties of the twentieth century, the territory of Bethany was given over to a poultry farm. They began to call it Pticegrad. The Bolsheviks did not particularly spare the old buildings. Some of them were disassembled allegedly due to dilapidation, while others because of building material, for example, very strong brick. So the Transfiguration Cathedral was destroyed. The same fate befell the building in which Metropolitan Plato lived, as well as the monastery fence, the Holy Gates, the gateway to the stone belfry and the fraternal necropolis.
He was beheaded and placed at the disposal of the House of Culture and the Tikhvin Temple. It was even used at one time as an incubator, and after that - as a cinema hall and dance floor. Dermatovenerologic dispensary was opened in the seminary building. Only two or three surviving buildings were reminded of the once flourishing monastery in those years.
Rebirth
In 1998, part of the monastery was transferred to the management of the Lavra. From this moment, its rebirth began. The surviving buildings were repaired, and the destroyed ones were rebuilt again. It must be said that restoration work continues today. To restore many elements, the few surviving old photographs, drawings and sketches are used.
Savior-Bethany monastery today
The monastery is again surrounded by a fence with the Holy Gates. Above them stands a stone bell tower. Performed in a pseudo-Russian style, it is a real decoration of the newly revived ensemble.
The central place in the monastery is occupied by the newly built Transfiguration Cathedral. This oval-shaped remodeled temple was created in the likeness of the cathedral that existed previously. It has two thrones. The lower one is sanctified for the glorious resurrection of Lazarus, and the upper one is the Transfiguration of the Lord.
In the temple, its interior decoration, which was planned by Plato, was restored. The throne is made at the altar. The believers gathered inside for prayer see it as a small cave, like the one in which Lazarus was buried and above which Mount Tabor towered. In the temple, the wall lined with marble slab rises to the upper semicircular throne. It, decorated with flowers, plants and animal figures, imitates a mountain.
Currently, partial repairs have been made in the Spirit Church, where services are held. The restoration of the memorial house in which Metropolitan Plato resided continues. At the fence, next to the newly built Holy Gates, in 2012, a monument was erected to the founder of the monastery.
Mode of operation
Savior-Bethany monastery is active. Life in it flows according to a strict charter. Since 2002, part of the territory of the monastery was transferred to the monastery monastery. You can get to the monastery any day of the week from half past six in the morning to eight in the evening. Morning services begin at 5.30 and 6.30, and evening - at 16.40. Sunday school provides classes for children from families of parishioners.
Own wine is the pride of the monastery. They are treated to everyone who comes to the Savior-Bethany monastery. Sergiev Posad, reviews about the visit of which are left not only by our compatriots, but also tourists from many European countries, amazes with an abundance of attractions. One of them is Russian Bethany, which has a small courtyard supplying the monastery with eggs and milk.