St. Yuriev Monastery is considered one of the oldest in Russia. In the distant past, it was a spiritual center, and nowadays it is a functioning monastery. It is located five kilometers from Veliky Novgorod near Lake Ilmen.
History of occurrence
According to legend, the monastery was founded in 1030 by Yaroslav the Wise, who was named after George in holy baptism . Hence the name of this spiritual center.
The first annalistic references to it date back to 1119. St. George Cathedral of St. George's Monastery, like all buildings, were originally wooden. But in the same year, at the behest of Prince Mstislav, a magnificent stone church was laid. St. George's Cathedral belongs to the works of the master Peter, who also created the Church of the Annunciation on the Settlement. This is the first Old Russian builder, whose name is mentioned in the chronicles.
Since the residence of Prince Mstislav was in Kiev at that time, the St. George Cathedral in Novgorod was built under the supervision of his son Vsevolod and Father Superior of the Kyriak monastery.
Work continued for eleven years. And before the end of its walls were completely covered with unique frescoes. On July 12, 1130, the church was consecrated in honor of St. George the Victorious. The ceremony was conducted by Bishop John, since hegumen Kiriak, who became the head of the construction, died two years before the St. George Cathedral of the St. George Monastery was completed. The frescoes, the decoration of the building, were destroyed in the nineteenth century.
Structural features
Majestic in size, St. George's Cathedral in Novgorod, although inferior to the church of St. Sofia, but also included in the treasury of medieval Russian architecture. The uniqueness of the temple reflects the most beautiful ideas of our ancient ancestors about harmony and beauty. After all, they did not build a structure, but, as the chroniclers write, "the image of the Church in its universal sense."
Architectural solutions
St. George’s Cathedral of St. George’s Monastery has very impressive dimensions: a length of about twenty-seven meters, a width of more than eighteen and a height of exactly thirty-two meters. Its walls have mixed masonry - a combination of stone blocks and bricks. At first, the original roof was made porcelain, covered with lead sheets, but later it was replaced by a four-slope roof. And it is in this form that it has survived to the present.
St. George's Cathedral of St. George's Monastery is crowned with three asymmetrically arranged chapters. The main dome is crowned with a middle cross, the second, inside which there is a special aisle for monastic service in seclusion, is arranged above a square staircase in the northwest corner, and the third is a small one - as if balancing the previous one.
Like other old Russian churches, St. George's Cathedral of St. George's Monastery near Novgorod is made as a large front building. In its northwestern part, the master Peter put up a rectangular tower of a sufficiently high height with an internal staircase leading to the steps of the cathedral. An outstanding Russian architect managed to achieve in this building an amazing expressiveness of forms, brought to the limit of laconicism, as well as strict proportions.
New solutions
Although the choirs of the cathedral are placed high enough, they do not look squeezed under the arches. The western and eastern parts of the structure are not equal, as, for example, in similar architectural monuments. In addition, the master, increasing the width of the small naves, which are three times larger than the thickness of the walls, the eastern one made it somewhat reduced.
In the temple, as if subconsciously, a certain subdivision is captured for the main room, intended for worshipers, and for a slightly smaller one - the altar.
Outside, St. George's Cathedral is as grand as it is from the inside. However, surprisingly equal dimensionality is felt here, manifested in an abundance of identical windows and niches located in belts. A certain academicism is felt in the composition’s accuracy, almost imperceptible due to the asymmetry of the three-dimensional structure and powerful masonry, not at all constrained by too strict lines.
Interior decoration
The modern appearance of the temple is quite close to the original, exactly the same as it was centuries ago, and tourists who come to Novgorod see it. St. George’s Cathedral of St. George’s Monastery has interior decoration, reflecting the nature and purpose of it as the main and at the same time princely church. To visit Mstislav and his son Vsevolod and their families, spacious choirs are arranged here. Here, according to Slavic custom, there are also “chambers”.
This cross-domed three-nave and six-pillar cathedral has three altar apse. Two chapels were made at the choirs there: in honor of the Annunciation of the Most Holy and two holy martyrs Gleb and Boris. Unfortunately, the ancient fresco painting, which the St. George Cathedral was famous for in the Middle Ages, is almost lost for contemporaries today. Only insignificant fragments of ornamental decoration of the slopes of the windows of the northwest tower have reached us.
Temple role
The status possessed by the St. George Monastery in the Novgorod diocese was exceptional. Founded by leading Russian princes, it has been revered for several centuries as the first in importance among local spiritual centers. At one time he was even called the St. George Lavra.
Since the end of the twelfth century, St. George’s Cathedral has served as the final resting place not only for Russian princes, but also for the abbots of the monastery and Novgorod posadniks.
In 1198, both sons of Prince Yaroslav, Rostislav and Izyaslav, who was the godson of St. Varlaam, were buried here. In June 1233, the remains of Theodore Yaroslavich, the elder brother of Alexander Nevsky, were also brought here. Eleven years later, in May 1224, their mother died - Princess Theodosius Mstislavna. A few years before her death, she accepted monasticism, so she was known as Euphrosyne in the Yuryev Monastery. The princess was buried near the south wall, next to her eldest son.
Before the revolution
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Yuriev Monastery was severely damaged by the hands of the Swedish interventionists who occupied Veliky Novgorod. St. George's Cathedral was completely looted. But in these terrible years of captivity, as the chroniclers testify, the Providence of God was accomplished a significant event not only for Novgorod, but for the whole of Russia. It was the acquisition of the relics of the Holy Prince Feodor Yaroslavich. This amazing event is surely told to tourists who come here on an excursion.
When in 1614 the Swedish soldiers, seized by unbridled madness to cash in, began to dig up graves, they hoped to find treasures or at least some precious attributes of the power of local princes. They opened almost all the burials in St. George's Cathedral. In one of them, soldiers found the imperishable remains of Prince Fedor. They pulled him out of the grave and put the corpse against the wall. It was incredible that the body, not destroyed by time, remained standing as a living person.
When in the nineteenth century, the only daughter of Count Alexei Orlov-Chesmensky Anna, who inherited her father’s great fortune, lost interest in social life and began to strive for a spiritual life, she spent most of her money on rebuilding St. George's Cathedral. The archimandrite of the St. George Monastery at that time was Photius, who later became her spiritual father. This period was the "golden" for the Novgorod cloister.
Not only St. George's Cathedral, but also other buildings were restored, three buildings were built. A little later the bell tower was erected.
After the revolution
During this period, which the chroniclers call the Way of the Cross, the St. George Cathedral of the St. George Monastery also shared the fate of all the other Russian monasteries. In 1922, when the seizure of church values began to take on the character of complete plunder, not only the rhiza and liturgical vessels removed from the icons were melted, but also the silver cancer of St. Theoktista.
And only a small fraction of the values was sent to Russian museum collections. When in 1929 the monastery was finally closed, its surviving fraternity was dispersed. The ruin lasted until 1935, when during the architectural restoration for unknown reasons its seven-tier iconostasis was destroyed.
And when in December 1991 the St. George Cathedral of the St. George Monastery as part of the monastery was returned to the Novgorod diocese, it was a very deplorable picture. The dilapidated temple, in which there is not a single icon, created a huge problem for the authorities: how to preserve and maintain this ancient monastery.
Cathedral today
In 1995, the monastic monastery in Yuryev was resumed. Through the efforts of the archimandrite of the St. George Monastery, the Archbishop of Starorussky and Novgorod, as well as the few brothers who came here to live and work, the monastery began to revive. Divine services began to take place, temples were rebuilt, icons were painted, and a farm was arranged.