Donskoy Monastery

The Donskoy Monastery is an outstanding architectural ensemble located in the central part of the capital. Founded more than four centuries ago, this Orthodox monastery preserves a rich historical and cultural heritage. On its territory there are over 30 architectural monuments, including majestic 17th–18th-century churches, fortress walls with towers, and the famous noble necropolis.

History of the Monastery’s Foundation

The Miraculous Deliverance of Moscow from Invasion

In the summer of 1591, the troops of Crimean Khan Kazy-Girey II approached the walls of Moscow. The main forces of the Russian army were at that time fighting the Swedes near Veliky Novgorod, and there was a catastrophic shortage of defenders for the capital. The city faced inevitable devastation. On the fourth of July, a series of mysterious events began. Russian spies infiltrated the khan’s camp disguised as prisoners and spread a rumor about the approach of a 30,000-strong German-Polish army. At the same time, a false alarm was sounded in the Russian camp, and the gunners opened fire. The powerful cannonade caused panic among the Tatar warriors — they decided that an attack by fresh enemy forces was beginning and fled. Church chronicles explain the victory as divine intervention. Before the enemy troops arrived, a religious procession with the Don Icon of the Mother of God was held around Moscow, after which the icon was placed in a field chapel on the southern outskirts of the city. Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich prayed before the holy image, and it is this prayer that is credited with the miraculous salvation of the capital. In 1592, a stone church was erected on the site of the field chapel — the first building of the future monastery.

From the Time of Troubles to Revival

In the early 17th century, the monastery endured severe trials. During the Time of Troubles, the church was looted by Polish invaders and remained in desolation for a long time. Restoration began only under the first tsars of the Romanov dynasty. The monastery’s heyday occurred at the end of the 17th century, when, during the regency of Tsarevna Sophia Alexeyevna, a new magnificent cathedral was built. From 1686 to 1711, stone walls with towers were erected, turning the monastery into a genuine fortress. In 1770, a plague epidemic changed the monastery’s fate. The authorities banned burials within the city limits, and the nobility began building family mausoleums outside it. The Donskoy Monastery, then located beyond the city boundary, became the most prestigious burial place. Until the early 20th century, family chapel-mausoleums were erected here for the noblest families: Golitsyns, Bagrationi, Zubovs, Pervushins.

Trials of the Soviet Era

In 1929 the monastery was closed. The main churches housed the Museum of Anti-Religious Culture; other buildings were used as sewing and leather workshops, a boarding school, and even a dairy farm. Until the 1970s, residents lived in the wall towers, and the monastery gardens were turned into vegetable patches. From 1935, a museum of Russian architecture operated on the territory. Fragments of monuments destroyed during the reconstruction of Moscow were brought here: sculptures from the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, window surrounds from the Sukharev Tower. Revival began in 1990, when the monastery was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. Today it is one of the most important spiritual centres of the capital.

Architectural Ensemble

The Small (Old) Cathedral

The first church on the monastery grounds was called the Small in comparison with the monumental Large Cathedral. Historians believe that the legendary architect Fyodor Kon, creator of the Smolensk fortress and the walls of the White City in Moscow, supervised its construction. Originally it was a square building with a pyramid of kokoshniks and an onion dome. The architecture that has survived to this day dates from the late 17th century, when southern and northern side chapels, a refectory, and a bell tower were added to the main structure. Unique feature: The Small Cathedral is the only place in Russia where holy chrism — fragrant oil for baptism — is prepared. In Soviet times it was the monastery’s only functioning church; services resumed here immediately after the Great Patriotic War.

The Large (New) Cathedral

The main church of the monastery was laid in 1684 under Tsarevna Sophia and completed in 1698 under Peter I. Churches in which smaller towers are attached to the main volume are rare in Russian architecture. Researchers believe that Little-Russian (Ukrainian) masters, brought up in different architectural traditions, built the cathedral. The outstanding architect V. I. Bazhenov, creator of Tsaritsyno, the Pashkov House, and other iconic Moscow buildings, worked on the design of the frescoes. The frescoes were painted by the Italian artist Antonio Claudio in 1786 and have survived in excellent condition. The pearl of the church is the seven-tier iconostasis, a vivid example of Moscow Baroque of the 17th century. Only slightly rebuilt, it has preserved its original appearance and contains the monastery’s most valuable icons.

Fortress Walls and Towers

The massive stone enclosure began to be built simultaneously with the Large Cathedral. By the mid-17th century the threat of attacks on Moscow had passed, so the defensive function of the walls became symbolic — they represented the separation of monastic life from worldly vanity. The walls form an almost perfect square with twelve towers — four round corner ones and eight square frontal ones. The white-stone completion of the towers and the machicolations give the complex a resemblance to ancient Russian fortresses.

Church of the Archangel Michael

A small church at the monastery hospital was built in 1714. In 1806–1809 it was radically rebuilt and turned into the mausoleum of the ancient princely Golitsyn family. Legendary burial: in the church crypt rests the ashes of Natalia Petrovna Golitsyna, who, according to legend, served as the prototype for the countess in Alexander Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades”. Her son Dmitry Vladimirovich, who governed Moscow as governor-general for more than a quarter of a century, is also buried here. The church is an example of the Empire style popular in the early 19th century. At the same time, the porch is executed in the Russian style and resembles fairytale architecture.

Seraphim Church

One of the youngest churches of the monastery was consecrated in 1914. In 1926–1927 the church was rebuilt beyond recognition into a crematorium — the first not only in Moscow but in the entire USSR. The building acquired constructivist features: instead of a light tent roof, a heavy cube with decorative windows appeared. Tragic pages of history: from 1937 to 1941, the crematorium burned 4,500–5,000 bodies of victims of political repressions. In one of the common graves at the New Donskoy Cemetery lie the ashes of writers Isaac Babel and Mikhail Koltsov, director Vsevolod Meyerhold, marshals Mikhail Tukhachevsky and Vasily Blyukher. The last cremation took place in 1982. In the 1990s the furnace was dismantled and the façade was partially restored to its original appearance.

Shrines of the Monastery

The Don Icon of the Mother of God

The monastery’s main treasure is brought here only once a year — from August 31 to September 2, on the days commemorating its foundation. The rest of the time the icon is kept in the Tretyakov Gallery, where better conditions for preservation have been created. It is believed that the icon was painted in the 14th century by Theophanes the Greek or another Byzantine master or his Russian disciple. One legend claims that St. Sergius of Radonezh blessed Prince Dmitry Donskoy with this very icon before the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. According to another version, the icon was presented to the prince by the Don Cossacks before the battle.

Relics of Patriarch Tikhon

The story of the discovery of the saint’s relics resembles a detective novel. Patriarch Tikhon (in the world Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin), whose ministry fell during the years of the fiercest persecution of the Church, died on April 7, 1925 at the age of 60. The brethren buried the hierarch in the Small Cathedral without leaving exact coordinates of the burial. For many decades the burial place was considered lost. In 1992, after a fire in the church, restoration work began. Priests together with archaeologists opened the slab over the supposed grave — the crypt turned out to be empty. Excavations continued, and at great depth beneath the crypt an oak coffin with the saint’s body was found. Probably, the priests deliberately “hid” the coffin to deceive NKVD officers and protect the patriarch’s remains from desecration. Today the relics are kept in the Large Cathedral.

Historical Necropolis

Almost half of the monastery’s territory — 2.5 hectares — is occupied by the Old Donskoy Cemetery of the 17th–20th centuries. It is a real open-air museum with ancient tombstones, columns, and sarcophagi. Here rest:

• representatives of the princely families Golitsyn, Dolgorukov, Volkonsky
• nobles Naryshkin and Glebov-Streshnev
• historian Vasily Klyuchevsky
• architect Osip Bove
• publicist Pyotr Chaadayev
• founder of aerodynamics Nikolai Zhukovsky
• painter Vasily Perov (ashes transferred in the 1930s)
• Decembrist Pyotr Svistunov (re-buried)
• White general Anton Denikin (transferred in 2005)
• philosopher Ivan Ilyin (transferred in 2005)
• Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn (buried in 2008)

On the cemetery one can even find the gravestone of Darya Saltykova (“Saltychikha”) — a wealthy 18th-century landowner who went down in history as a serial killer and sadist. Outside the monastery walls lies the New Donskoy Cemetery with 20th-century burials, including the graves of actress Faina Ranevskaya and avant-garde artists El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko.

Bas-Reliefs from the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

In the central part of the eastern wall there are six high reliefs and sculptures from the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, created in 1847–1849 by outstanding masters: Pyotr Klodt, Alexander Loganovsky, Nikolai Ramazanov, and Alexander Terebenev. The reliefs are dedicated to the defence of Russia from the enemy and biblical scenes:

• “Dmitry Donskoy Visiting Sergius of Radonezh before the Campaign against the Tatars in 1380”
• “Warrior George”
• “The Meeting of David, Victor over Goliath”
• “Melchizedek Meets Abraham with the Kings Captured by Him”

Fragments of the Triumphal Arch and of the Church of the Assumption on Pokrovka are also preserved here.

Practical Information

Location and How to Get There

Address: Moscow, Donskaya Square, 1–3 Nearest metro stations:

• “Shabolovskaya” — 1.2 km on foot
• “Leninsky Prospekt” — 1.2 km on foot
• MCC “Ploshchad Gagarina” — 1.2 km on foot

Public transport:

• Trams No. 14, 39 to the stop “Donskoy Monastery”
• Buses No. 111, 196, 297, m1, m16 to the stop “Hospital of St. Alexius” (from Leninsky Prospekt side)

Opening Hours

The monastery is open daily:

• May–September: 6:00–21:00
• October–April: 6:00–20:00

The Old Necropolis is accessible during the same hours. New Donskoy Cemetery:

• May–September: 9:00–19:00
• October–April: 9:00–17:00

Admission is free

Facilities at the Monastery

• Sunday school
• Icon-painting workshop
• Restoration workshop
• Icon shop (daily)
• Book shop (daily)
• Educational centre with missionary guided tours

Conclusion

The Donskoy Monastery is an outstanding monument of Russian history and architecture. This ancient monastery hides many amazing treasures: majestic churches with unique frescoes and iconostases, shrines of all-Russian significance, bas-reliefs of the lost Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, a necropolis with the burials of outstanding figures of culture and science. To gain a deep acquaintance with the history and architectural heritage of the monastery, it is recommended to visit the monastery accompanied by an experienced guide who will reveal little-known facts and help you feel the special atmosphere of this prayer-soaked place. The Donskoy Monastery is one of the main attractions of southern Moscow, where every stone keeps the memory of bygone centuries.