Danilovsky Monastery

From Moscowiki

Address: Danilovsky val ul., 22
Metro: Tulskaya, Paveletskaya

Danilovsky monastery was the first monastery to be founded in Moscow and the first one to be reopened after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

[edit] History of Monastery

This ancient monastery was founded in 1282 by Grand Prince Daniil of Moscow, future honoured saint. Danilovsky monastery is not the only great service that he rendered to his fatherland: Prince Daniil was the one who managed to turn Moscow into an independent principality.

His son, Ivan Kalita, transferred Danilovsky monastery to Kremlin, causing desolation and decline of the old cloister. It was not until the reign of Ivan III, that Danilovsky monastery, sunk into oblivion, was brought back to life. According to the legend, Ivan III saw the apparition of angry Prince Daniil; the Saint reproached him with having too much fun and not paying attention to his ancestors. Ivan was ashamed and quickly ordered to serve offices for the dead relatives and to give alms for the poor, trying to expiate his sins.

But only Ivan the Terrible moved Danilovsky monastery from Kremlin back to Zamoskvorechye. Ivan the Terrible also initiated the construction of the Cathedral of Seven Ecumenical Councils in 1555-1560 and presented the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, where portraits of the tsar, his elder son and metropolitan Makary were also painted. Tsar Ivan also ordered to build here fortifications turning this peaceful monastery into a powerful fortress. Later, in the 17th century, a new brick wall with towers was built around the cloister; Muscovites even thought that it deserved comparison with the Kremlin wall.

18th and 19th century are said to be the heyday of the ancient Danilovsky monastery. A bell-tower and new churches including the Trinity Church (Tserkov Zhivonachalnoy Troitsy) were erected then. The Trinity Church (1833) was one of the last creations of Moscow master of architecture, Osip Bove.

In 1771 Moscow survived a horrible epidemic of plague, and Danilovsky monastery organised a cemetery for the victims of the disease. Since then not only monks were buried inside the monastery wall, but laymen as well. Here founder of the Moscow Conservatoire Nikolay Rubinshtein, artist Vasily Perov and great writer Nikolay Gogol found their last refuge.

In 1812 Danilovsky monastery was occupied by French invaders, but their excesses were nothing compared to what happened after the revolution. The monastery was closed, relics of St. Daniil disappeared, Lenin’s statue “embellished” the inner garden and monks were replaced with young criminals (a prison for them was organised here). Famous cemetery was destroyed, and graves of Gogol and Rubinshtein were removed to the Novodevichy convent.

Only in 1982 Danilovsky monastery could celebrate the triumph of justice: first of all Moscow monasteries, it was returned to the Orthodox Church and later became the residence of the Patriarche. The divine sign was given: when workers tried to remove the monument to Lenin, all of a sudden it broke into small pieces. In 1988 a chapel in memory of 1000th anniversary of Russia’s christening was built on its place.

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