Trinity monastery of Sergiyev Posad
Maybe some of you have heard about the small town of Sergiyev Posad, in can you don’t know it, it’s located near Moscow maybe two hours by train. Its previous name used to be Zagorsky, the most popular left attraction is the oldest Orthodox monastery with the highest rank, which has a similar complex to the Kremlin architecture with old medieval buildings.
The monastery got its name thanks to the monk St. Sergii of Radonezh, who brought numerous followers to a retreat in the forest around Moscow; he built a monastery and his followers were raised by the Tatars. After his dead, his body was canonized in 1422; therefore they built the Trinity Cathedral, where his tomb lies down.
The white stone building with gold dome became a blue print for the Russian church architecture and the Kremlin’s cathedral inspiration. In 1552, Ivan the Terrible assault successfully Kazan with the Abbot Bassyan’s advice, the head of the Trinity Lavra, and as gratitude the Tsar demanded the construction of the Cathedral of the Assumption, completed in 1585.
Although the Russian capital moved to St. Petersburg, the Trinity Monastery remained the centre of the Russian Church until 1920, when the monastery was closed by the Bolshevik government, and the monks were sent off to labour camps. Stalin permitted the reopening of the monastery as part of victory celebrations in 1946, and it was the seat of the Russian Patriarch from then until 1988, when the honor was bestowed on the more central Danilov Monastery.
Ever since St. Sergii founded the monastery in the 14th Century, it has been a hugely popular destination for pilgrims, revered by all from Tsars to Soviet pensioners. If you have the chance to make only one day trip out of Moscow, then this is certainly where you should go.
You can reach the place booking a tour, or take the train from Yaroslavl Station that goes every half an hour after 5 am and you can come back in the last departure before midnight. The monastery is open daily from 8 am to 6 pm, but the churches cannot be visited on weekends by tourists and the Lavra Museum is closed on Mondays.
