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Intercession Monastery (Suzdal)

76 Pokrovskaya St., Suzdal.

The Eparchial Convent of the Intercession was established in 1364.

It was a place of exile for disgraced Russian empresses and members of noble families (Solomonia Saburova, wife of Vasily III; Eudoxia Lopukhina, wife of Peter I; and others).

Being founded in 1364, the Intercession Monastery (the Eparchial Convent of the Intercession) has preserved nothing of that time. Everything that we can see there was made in the first half of the 16th century and later. We should remember one human tragedy that resulted in quick and rich construction of the convent. This will help us to clearly understand the meaning of its monuments. The Moscow ruler Vasily III conceived an unheard-of violation of church rules. Being concerned about his future generations, he decided to divorce his wife Solomonia Saburova, who was blamed for sterility, make her to take the veil, and get married another woman. Feudal lords, who made their plans for the Moscow throne figuring on his childlessness, worried about the Vasily III's intentions. Very unfavourable for Vasily III talks and rumours were circulating around this.

Discrepant and full of burning witticisms sources that preserved some information about this murky history of royal everyday life say that Solomonia was a blooming, energetic, and clever woman. She held grimly to the Vasily III' plans. However, Vasily remained adamant in his decision that he intended since 1510–1518 and sent generous gifts to the highest church leaders in Constantinople and Athos to obtain consent to divorce and second marriage. During these years, he granted money to the Intercession Convent and built it up richly. Dedication of new temples to the Intercession, the Annunciation, and the Conception of St. Anna demonstrates connection of these constructions and Solomonia. Long before the fatal end, the black shadow of monastery walls hung over the poor woman. Apparently, Vasily had already selected a new wife, young beautiful Polish woman Yelena Glinskaya, who arrived to Moscow in 1507. However, the business was dragged out until Metropolitan Daniel of Moscow, a sly and unprincipled politico, finally approved the divorce, which was based on a dirty "investigative actions" on Solomonia's "sterility".

In 1525, Solomonia took the veil in the Nativity Monastery in Moscow. It was told, that she had hysterics tearing off a cowl and screamed about violence and treachery of her husband. Ivan Shigonya-Podzhogin, a boyar and henchman of Vasily III, who participated in the business, had to whip her because of that. Vasily got married to Yelena Glinskaya. The forced "aged nun Sophia" was exiled to the remote Intercession Convent that was ready to hide her behind its walls long ago. People responded to this bleak story with a sad song: "Уж что это у нас в Москве приуныло, Заунывно в большой колокол звонили? Уж как царь на царицу прогневился, Он ссылает царицу с очей дале, Как в тот ли во город во Суздаль, Как в тот ли монастырь во Покровский..." ("Why is it so cheerless in Moscow? Why does the big bell ring this mournful? The Tsar is angry with his Tzarina. He banished her out of sight to the town of Suzdal, to the Intercession Convent..." It is supposed that the Cathedral of the Monastery of the Deposition of the Robe was built by boyar Ivan Shigonya. He apparently prayed for forgiveness of his evil deeds to Solomonia and built a temple in the Monastery neighbouring to the Intercession Convent. However, it was not the end.

Rumours reached Moscow that Solomonia-Sophia gave birth to a son in the Convent and named him Georgy. Investigation was urgently started. Death threatened the baby. According to legend, Solomonia saved him. She gave her son to some faithful people and spread a rumour that he was dead. She even faked his "burial". This legend, quite an interesting fable, was unexpectedly confirmed archaeologically. In 1934, a burial vault in the basement of the Intercession Convent was dismantled. A small white-stone tomb of the 16th century was found near the Solomonia's shrine. A decomposed bundle of rags, which was evidently a neatly made doll dressed in an expensive silk shirt and wrapped in swaddling clothes embroidered with pearls, was found in a small wooden coffin... Such is a gloomy page in the history of "the Russian tsars and tsarinas' life" that was connected with the Intercession Convent. For an obvious reason, Ivan the Terrible, son of Vasily III and Yelena Glinskaya, was interested in this story too. He demanded archival documents relating to the case of the Solomonia's "barrenness", which disappeared afterwards.

The Intercession Convent played a dismal role of a female spiritual prison. Members of noble royal and boyar families only took the veils there. They died in the Convent and were buried in a burial vault under the cathedral or nearby. There were tombs of the Nogoys, Gorbatiys, Shuiskys, and others. Substantial contributions flowed in from all parts of the country; the Monastery's landholdings kept growing. By the 18th century, the Convent had 7,427 serfs. Even the Solomonia's tomb became a source of revenue: in an atmosphere of urban and peasant uprisings of the 17th century, the Church sought to support its popularity and created new "sacred things" and relics. In 1650, Patriarch Joseph proclaimed Solomonia a Saint, and her shrine began to "make miracles", which attracted ignorant people and brought money to the Monastery treasury.

The Convent's fence was partially made of stone as early as in the 16th century. However, the now existing one consists of parts built in the 17th and 18th centuries. Structure of the ancient fence fragments is common for regular defensive walls. It has dead arches on the inside that support a wooden battle passage along the wall. There is a brick parapet above with narrow loopholes. A structure section was reconstructed in the south-western corner of the fence by Alexey Varganov in 1957. Old tented-roof towers of the 17th century, which preserved in the northern part of the Monastery, are very strict, without any decorations. They did not play a battle role, but were purely architectural and ornamental elements of the fence. However, it is quite interesting that behind them, inside the Monastery, there is the second line of walls that makes an independent enclosed court. The 18th-century towers look much smarter: their octagonal columns are partitioned by horizontal moulding fillets. The upper tier features niches of narrow windows that make an impression of a band of blind arcades. Probably, it was an architect's wish to imitated rich decorations of the main tower of the Saviour Monastery of St. Euthymius. It may be that the 18th-century towers were originally completed with wooden tents, which connected them with old tented-roof towers.

The southern wall featured a main entrance to the Monastery through the Holy Gates with the Annunciation Church above it. The Gates were built to order of Vasily III in approximately 1518, as the other Monastery's buildings. It is one of the best and peculiar monuments of the 16th-century Suzdal architecture (reconstructed by Alexey Varganov in 1958). A big passage arch is shifted to the east a bit. There is a staircase leading upward in the mutual wall. A small church upon the gates covered with a cloistered vault rises in the centre. Its three-part facades, which are completed with zakomaras, with a dome elevated on a kokoshnik tier, rise above roofs of three narrow porches surrounding it and opening outward with their arches.

In the eastern parts of the gallery, there are side chapels that look like tiny churches, each with its own kokoshniks and domes. This toy-like homey temple was probably intended for private services with two or three people only. Three domes of the church upon the gates remind of the ancient three-dome Kremlin Cathedral. It is interesting that altar apses, a very significant element of a cult building, are almost undistinguishable inside and just marked out from the outside. The main, southern facade of the Holy Gates is decorated with curb belts to the very top, which are framed with bands and shirinkas of different sizes. They are placed very freely as if an architect did not brick them but carved out of wood. This remarkable decoration peculiarity imparts some intimate simplicity and ingenuousness to the building appearance. Those who entered the Gates could see all main buildings of the Monastery that were placed one after another in the yard centre surrounded with rows of cells. As early as 16th century, some of the cells were stone.

Some of the service buildings such as a brew house, a cellar, and an ice house were made of stone too. A brick building, which was built in the early 17th century and reconstructed by Alexey Varganov in 1957, has survived in the south-western corner of the Convent. It was named then "Trial" or "Writ" Chamber and featured an underground prison. Similar partially reconstructed civil building can be seen in the north-western part of the Convent. The Intercession Cathedral in a central building of the Convent ensemble. Until recently it has looked different. Its appearance changes as time goes. Short domes were heightened with additional drums with oblong onions of new light domes to properly fit the Convent into more complicated Suzdal landscape. The pyramidal roof hid the bases of the ancient domes. Then the gallery arches were bricked up and new porches with light tiled columns were added. All these changes significantly distorted the building of 1510–1518. In 1962, Igor Stoletov reconstructed the original appearance. The big four-columned temple with three massive apsis was elevated on a high basement floor, where a burial vault of noble nuns was. The Solomonia's shrine was situated in the south-eastern honourable part. The burial vault's facade is lacking in any decorations. Only small windows are visible on its white surface.

From the north-western and south-western corners, stairs go up to the gallery. Their corner arches are supported by massive round columns. Magnificent portals are well visible through the open gallery arcade. Over its roof rises a cubic temple body, which is separated by pilaster strips and decorated with a band of blind arcades resembling the old Cathedral of the Nativity. It seems that asymmetrical composition of a three-dome top was inspired by the same 13th century "sample".

Especially impressive is the middle dome that is elevated on a mighty cylindrical base with big kokoshniks. The greatness and austerity of the Cathedral contrast sharply with intimacy and smartness of the gate Annunciation Church. It is not only the main temple of the Convent and a spiritual prison for noble women, but their burial vault and a grand mausoleum first of all. Hence the manifest restraint of its decoration, bareness of its walls, and weight of its domes as if cut out of a huge rock. The interior with its mighty columns and wide vaults as if squeezing and compressing the still air is just as stern.

Reconstruction works unveiled some interesting details of the Cathedral's inner architecture. The floor was paved with black ceramic tiles. The walls were not painted. Small niches were made at the bottom of the walls. They were meant for prayer things of nuns. Each nun had its own well-defined place in the temple. Some unknown concerns made to prepare the Cathedral for defence. This is evidenced by loopholes under the windows in the eastern part of the temple, which were discovered by restorers. It seems that Vasily III, who built the Convent, supposed some troubles and prepared the Convent for armed resistance.

A hipped-roof bell tower is against the Cathedral's south-western corner. In the 18th century, a passage connected it with a porch. It is a very important monument in the history of Old Russian architecture. Its lower two-tiered part with wide corner pilaster strips with semi-columns, simple round-headed windows, and slit-like small windows resembling loopholes is very graceful and mighty. It is older than the upper part and dates back to 1515. The wide octagonal column of the lower part was also used as a burial vault, while the upper part had even more "toy-like" church than the one upon the gate. A superposed octagon with a belfry and quite a heavy tent was added in the 17th century. Its elements are different from the lower part. However, its staircase goes even higher. It seems that originally the column had a belfry too and probably was one of the oldest samples of a stone "under the belfry" type hipped-roof temple. There were three big and three small bells.

In the north-eastern facade side of the second tier, there is a niche for an independent small bell than hangs on a wooden beam. It was probably one of the small bells that could be rang from the ground and be a signal to start ringing all the other bells. North of the Cathedral, the Conception Refectory Church (reconstructed in 1958 by Yevgeny Arkhipov) replaced the wooden one in 1551. Its original appearance was significantly changed too. The Church is based on a wide square double-height refectory of a one-column chamber, which is situated upstairs. The smaller rectangular part of the Refectory Church itself (the present apse was added in the 17th century) adjoins it from the east.

A cellarer's chamber, which is symmetrical to the eastern part, is close to the refectory on the west. In this way, the building faced the inner yard of the Convent with its oblong facade. It seems that an original stair entrance went along this very side. The basement featured a bakery, a kitchen, and some other service rooms. The refectory is remarkable for a belt of cogged red rhombuses on the white background along the cornice. This was very unusual for Russian architecture and differed the refectory from all other Convent buildings. The other peculiarity was special brickwork and arching made of small bricks. Such belts can be seen in some Polish monuments. It is quite possible that the refectory was built by some Polish architect, who was invited through intermediary of Yelena Glinskaya and her foreign relatives. This fact indirectly proves that the Glinsky family was privy to the Solomonia's imprisonment.

A belfry (a clock tower with a bell) of a very rare shape was added to the south-western corner of the refectory in the 16th century. Its high lower rectangular volume does not turn into an octagonal as usually but irregular hexagon. A smaller hexagon with semi-columns in the corners, rosettes and shirinkas on the facets, flat arches of the belfry, and a short tent is above it. It is said in the 16th-century chronicle of the Convent, "the refectory has a bell, which is rang during the fast, and a clock." Hexagonal shape of a tower is known in the wooden serf architecture. It seems that an architect borrowed the technique from there. Somewhat rough brickwork of the belfry made of big bricks is very close to the masonry of the gate Annunciation Church.

It is highly probable that both buildings were built by local Suzdal architects, who were carpenters but studied brickwork and used their skills of wooden architecture while constructing. It comes out that the architectural ensemble of the 16th-century Convent was built by several architects or teams. Some built the Cathedral, the others — the Refectory Church, and still others — the gate temple and the belfry clock tower near the refectory.

Based on a book by Nikolai Voronin "Vladimir, Bogolubovo, Suzdal, Yuryev-Polsky. A Guide Book to Old Towns of Vladimir Region."

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Intercession Monastery



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