Pilgrim tourism

Holy-Assumption monastery

    
    The Assumption (Uspenskaya) church was built in 1834-1843 by a project of Vladimir province architect B.L. Petrov on the old village cemetry territory. In 1933 the cathedral was closed. On the place of the cemetry it was arranged a rest and culture park of Melanzhevy group of factories. Later there was an enterprise “Ivgorelectroset” in thee cathedral. In 1995 there were resumed divine services in the cathedral. In 1998 it was arranges a monastery there. Now the cathedral of the Assumption is restoring. On the territory of the former cemetry there is building a new cathedral in honour of Russian Neo-martyrs. It is supposed to build all over the perimeter fraternal residental buildings. The monastery has a farm (podvorye) at the church of the Resurrection in Tolpygino village of Privolzhsky district.

St. Introduction (Svyato-Vedensky) nunnery

     In May 21, 1901 it took place a ceremonial laying of a foundation-stone for the church of the Introduction. The church building was carried out with the help of charity donations of Ivanovo-Voznesensk merchants, factory owners, collectives of industrial and office workers. On June 21 , 1907 the church was finished and consecrated by Vladimirsky archbishop Nikolay. The altar was devoted to Introduction into the church of the most holy Virgin/ side altars to to a Consecrator and Miracle Man Nikolay Mirlikiysky and to a Great-Martyr Fedor Tiron. The first prior of the cathedral was a priest Mikhail Stepanovich Kokhomsky. In 1938 the church was closed. The decorations and icons were plundered and in the emptied building it was located the Regional State Archives. During the war in 1942 it was made an attempt to open the church. Believers gathered signatures, wrote numerous petitions. But the authorities had decided: “ for opening the church there are no grounds”. Only in 1990 the church was transferred to a believers’ community. There began works on repair and restoration of the church, clergy house of parish and house-hold buildings. In 1991 it was received blessing from the most Hole Patriarch Aleksy II for for foundation of a nunnery. In the same summer one opened the roof over a one-storey building from the east side and began to build the second storey for future cells. At the same time one began build a big nunnery refectory over the garage. All construction works were carried out acc. to the project under the supervision of architect Elena Antarinova. On November 5, 1991 Sovereign Amvrosy performed the first taking of vows and made a nun nine sisters and made a monk deacon , father Evgeny In August of 1993 the town and the nunnery were visited by the Most Holy Patriarch Aleksy II. To his coming it was completed the new refectory and finishing works in the sisters’ building, the nunnery territory was laid with asphalt. Before Patriarch’s coming on July 31, 1993 there were brought relics of God’s saints: non-apotheosized yet by church - St. Vasily Kineshemsky and “God’s fool” Aleksey Yelnatsky. The first church service at relics on August 13 , 1993 on the day of St. Vasily held Ivanovsky and Kineshemsky archbishop Amvrosy. The nunnery was growing very rapidly. It is growing the number of sisters. In 1991 yet it was given for the nunnery a lot of ground with semi- destroyed church in the Doronino village. of Teykovsky district where it was grounded a small and secluded monastery and a farm garden. The church in honour of the God’s Transfiguration built in 1798 was begun to repair and on the patron saint’s day in August 1994 there was held the first church service. In 1993 it was given to the nunnery another lot of land in the village Zlatoust of Lezhnevsky district. Formerly it was an estate of the Romanovs’ family. Therefore the skit (small and secluded monastery) began to name Romanovsky. A two-storey building was in a very neglected state: it had only walls. After building repair it was arranged a home church in honour of the Most Holy Virgin’s Intercession. Since the Christ Christmas of 1998 there are held church services every day there. During the nunnery existence there were built a bell-tower, priests’ building, brick fence, a new 3-storey sisters’ building and a two-storey nunnery inn. The sisters’ number now exceeds 200 persons. Since 1993 the nunnery has been publishing ecclesiastical literature and a paper “A word of consolation”. Sisters together with father Amvrosy broadcast at the orthodox radiostation “Rodonezh”. visit military units , prisons and colonies.

Archangel Mikhail’s church in the Mikhailovskoye village.

    Relics of St. Leonty Mikhailovsky. Healing spring opening near his grave.. Here the last life years of St. confessor Leonty (Stasevich) passed. (+ 1972, memory on February 10, of our era ). Wonder which not once took place through his prayers are continuing to our days.

Makaryev-Reshemsky monastery

    
    The monastery was founded at the close of the XXIV century near a large village Reshma within twenty kilometres from Kineshma on the right high bank of the Volga river by a monk of Pechersky Nizhegorodsky monastery , Reverend Makary Unzhensky and Zheltovodsky miracle man. Men’s abode was named in the name of the God’s Epiphany (has become known under the name of Makaryeva Hermitage). According the legend Reverend Makary and his disciples dug out under the mountain a well. The water therefrom is considered the healing one.
    At the beginning of the XVII century the monastery was ravaged during the Polish-Lithuanian intervention. Restored at the tsar Mikhail Fedorovich.
    Since 1764 - downgraded. It found itself in a grievous state. In 1767 it was built instead of the old ramshackle wooden church in the name of Life Giving Trinity a stone one with a hipped bell-tower, three altars, ancient painting, fretwork tsar’s gates , ancient icons. In 1883 it is enclosed with a stone fence with turrets. It was subject to natural calamities: (storm in 1844, fires in 1854-2955), Since 1901 it is a nunnery., it has begun the renewal of the abode.
    After 1917 the nunnery existed as an agricultural artel. On the 13.03.1929 the rest of the nunnery property was turned over to working parish Christ’s Christmas church. In 1940 the last working church was closed. On the place of the wrecked church of the Trinity it was built a school., in the two-storey cells it was located an educational corps of the boarding school. There were wrecked other nunnery buildings.
    In 1991 it was opened in Reshma a , by some miracle remained, Nikolskaya church.
    In 1992 some settlers of Kiev-Pecherskaya Lavra came here. Round the parish church it began to revive a monastic life. In 1994 St. Nikolsky parish was renamed to Makaryev-Reshemskaya monastic commune and in 1998 it was changed to the monastery. In the monastery there are kept particles of holy relics of Reverend Makary Zheltovodsky and of many other saints. The monastery is involved in an enlightenment work : it is opened an orthodox school named after Reverend Joan Kronstadtsky , it is published an almanac “Light of orthodoxy, there are given lectures, settlers study liturgy, orthodox pedagogy.

St. Nikolsky nunnery

    The Nikolskaya church in Privolzhsk was built in baroque traditions of in 1779 by Kostroma masters on the place of a wooden church with hipped roof known acc. documents since 1523. Situated in the town centre on a small trade square. Dominates among surrounding buildings, it is seen well at the great distance from it at the entrance on the Ivanovo- Plyos motor car road.
    The church was closed in 1939 and used as a store-house. In 1989 there began to solicit for church restitution to believers what provoked authorities’ protest. But the question was decided unexpectedly: in the hipped roof of the bell-tower it struck the lightning and the next day the bell tower crashed down inwards and wrecked arches. In such condition it was transferred to the community. In the same 1989 it was conducted the first in the Soviet period a religious procession in the central streets of the town. In 1993 it was created at church a Nikolayevskaya monastic community of the Resurrection which united Privolzhsk Nikolskaya church and Voskresenskaya church of the village Tolpygino. In 1997 it was opened at the Nikolskaya church an asylum for girls-orphans and an orthodox school. The next year the community was reorganized. In Privolzhsk it was set up a Nikolsky nunnery and the church of the Resurrection became a podvorye of the Ivanovo monastery of the Assumption.
    The Nikolskaya church which is a distinctive symbol of Privolzhsk is restored now , cupolas, hipped roof, inner decoration are renewed.

Fedorovsky monastery of the Ascension

    
     He monastery is managed by Father-Superior Georgy (Ilyin).
    It was founded in 1881 by a rich landowner Shubina A.N. on the base of an estate which she bought at her uncle - landowner Markov N.N. A.N. Schubina had broad relations in Petersburg with the tsar’s court and higher priesthood. Blessing for cloister foundation she received from Joan Kronstadtsky.
    To her village which was named then Voskresenskoye-Sergiyevo she invited a community from Nizhegorodskaya province. At the beginning it was built a house with a church of the Fedorovskaya icon of the God’s mother, therefore the community became to be named Voskresensko-Fedorovskaya by the name of the village and the church. In 1889 the community was transformed to f cloister. In 1897 A.N. Shubina died, her grave is remained. The old estate house was adapted for the Mother-Superior’s building and the situated not far former church of Archangel-Mikhail became a cloister one. The abode became to be named St. Voskresenskaya (by the village name) and Fedorovskaya (by the church name). Since 1889 it is a nunnery. At first it was given the church of Archangel-Mikhail (in the Voskresensko-Sergiyevo village) and in 1987-1905 it was erected by the project of architect Begen a big cathedral in honour of the God’s Mother’s Assumption with two side altars: the right one in honour of the God’s mother icon - Serafimo-Ponetayevskaya “Znameniye” (“Signs”) and the left one in honour of the St. martyr – tsarina Aleksandra , divine patroness Aleksandra Shubina.
    There were built a stone fence, a bell tower, a refectory, residential buildings, house-hold buildings. In the nunnery there was an orphan-asylum. Many nuns busied themselves with painting therefor it was built a spacious “painting” building. There were not only painted icons and chased settings for icons but also were busy with a secular art : painted portraits, landscapes, went for painting sketches in the nunnery vicinities. Some nuns taught painting in Petersburg, in Serafimo-Diveyevsky nunnery. o its 25th anniversary in 1914 it was a wellbeing nunnery. The number of nuns and sisters exceeded three hundred persons. Since 1915 the Mother-Superior had become a nun Arseniya. In the Soviet period she succeeded in saving for a time the nunnery having reorganized it to an agricultural artel. During three years a well-known Metropolitan Serafim who was canonized lived there. In December 1929 the cloister was closed. There was located a colony of criminals under age. The Voskresenskaya church was destroyed, the Voskresensko-Sergiyevo was renamed to Sergiyevo. In 1953 the cloister premises were transferred to the Shuya agricultural technical secondary school. in the church of the Assumption it was located a repair shop. In the Archangelsky church - a dining-room. The refectory was changed to a club, the communion bread-room - to a shop.
    On the 24,08.1994 churches were transferred to the Russian orthodox church. I began cleaning the nunnery and the churches. In Archangelskaya church there began to hold regular God’s services. Since 1997-1998 God’ services have been holding also in the church of Assumption, Restoration and renewal of churches are continued.. On the 8-9.04.1998 the monastic community received the status of the monastery.

Saint-Assumption nunnery

    
    The nunnery is managed by an abbess - Mother-Superior Olga (Sokolova), Grounded at the end of the XVII century in the Dunilovo village in flood-lands of the Tesa river by a boyar F.F. Lopukhin as a an all-residential men’s hermitage of the Assumption. There were built wooden churches: of the Assumption and of the Most Holy Virgin’s Intercession. In 1725 it was attached the Yuryev-Podolsky Archangelsky monastery and later was transferred under the authority of the St. Nikolo-Shartomsky monastery. In 1764 following the church reform it was abolished. Its property was turned over to the Dunilovsky nunnery of the Annunciation and wooden buildings were soon burnt. On the place of the closed hermitage it was built a summer church of the Assumption in 1819 and a winter church of the Intercession in 1849. After 1917 the churches were closed (in total there were 12 churches and 3 abodes. In the postwar years there was a psycho-neurological boarding house on the territory of the former abode. The church of the Intercession was used as patients’ room. The church of the Assumption - as a store-house. In 1991 it was grounded an all-residential nunnery on the territory of the former hermitage of the Assumption in honour of the God’s Mother’s Assumption. At an active sisters’ participation there were carried out restoration and renewal works in the summer church of the Assumption and in the winter church of the Intercession. In November 1995 all churches of the Dunilovo village were turned over by the order of Ivanovo and Kineshma Archbishop Amvrosy into the possession of the nunnery of the St, Assumption. Restoration works began in the church of the Exaltation of the Cross in 1996, in one of the most ancient Dunilovo monuments - in the nunnery of the Annunciation and its churches in 1998. The nunnery of St. Assumption is closed with a fence with corner turrets. It is opened an orphan-asylum with nunnery gymnasium for deserted children. There are organized icon-painting and gold-embroidery shops, a Sunday’s school’ a library. There is a sewing workshop, a farm, a granary and vegetable store, a hospital.

Nikolo-Shartomsky monastery

    
    The monastery is managed by Ivanovo and Kineshma Archbishop Amvrosy, his deputy archimandrite Nikon. It is grounded in honour of consecrator Nikolay , archbishop of the Lickiysky communities . The cloister received its name by the river which name before was the Shartoma. It was grounded before 1425 (there is a written evidence bearing on this year) in the Vvedenye village within 12 km from the Shuya town at flowing the Molokhta river into the Teza river. Acc. to a legend, the monastery was founded in the connection of an appearance in this place of the St. Nikolay - miracle man icon in the years of governing of a grand duke Vasily the Dark. In 1619 the monastery was ravaged by Polish-Lithuanian troops , in 1624 it was attacked again and in 1649 was burnt. In 1650-1651 a former wooden monastery was erected in stone. In 1650 it was built a cathedral church of St. Nikolay - miracle man , in 1678 - a church of the God’s Mother’s Kazanskaya icon , in 1696 was laid (sanctified in 1813) an above-gates church of the Transfiguration. The church of St. Grigory Akragantiysky was known by its ancient fretted holy gates. Under the supervision of the monastery there were nine small cloisters of the Vladimir diocese.
As a result of the 1764 canon reform the monastery was turned over into the 3d category one, its subordinated cloisters were turned over into parish ones. In the monastery there were kept : the Ostrovskaya Bible (published in 1580), the Ivan’s the Terrible manuscript Gospel, other valuable manuscripts and books. At the beginning of 1920-s years the monastery was closed , the values were requisitioned. In the following years the monastery buildings were used for house-hold needs. It was renewed on the 20.07.1990. The monastery carries out an spiritual enlightenment work, having a monkish existence visit schools visit schools, technical schools , organizations. Are engaged with building - repairing and agricultural works. Has built in Ivanovo a church of All-Grievings. Gladness (on the place of the church with the same name which was blown-up in 1976).
    The monastery has podvoryes in Ivanovo town (the church of the Most Holy Sergy Radonezhsky, and in Shuya town (the cathedral of the Resurrection and the church of the Most Holy Aleksiya – the God’s man) in Palekh (the church of the Exaltation of the Cross)

Resuscitating Cross (Holy place)

    The place where pilgrims gathered from places located beyond of hundreds and thousands kilometres. It is delivered that this miraculous crucifixion had f healing power.
    The Nikolskaya church in the grave-yard near the Jesus’ Cross (1776). Before there stood one after another wooden churches.
    There is a legend that in 1423 herdsmen who grazed herds and flocks could see the alive crucified Christ coming in the cross out of the heavens. The vision was accompanied with herdsmen’s talk with Nikolay-the miracle man who ordered to erect on the place of the miraculous appearance a church which he ordered to name by his name. Carpenters tried to erect the church on a dry place and not on the swamp. But they failed to do this as on the it appeared by a miraculous way a hill and all materials and tools were carried there. Therefore this place is named resuscitating. In chronicles of the churches there are registered 17 miraculous of pilgrims recoveries.
    At present pilgrims from Moscow, Zagorsk visit holy places on the religious feasts. Near the resuscitating cross there is restored the monastery.

St. Nikolo-Tikhonov monastery

    
    It is within 5 km to the north-east from the Lukh settlement. Situated on a hill near the road Lukh-Vichuga-Kineshma on the right bank of the Lukh river at the flow it into the Vozopol river.
    Grounded in 1498 (at the support of prince Belsky-owner of Lukh and its adjoining territories) by a monk – hermit Tikhon Lukhovsky. He grounded it in a lonely swamped place among forests on the bank of the Lukh river and all his life he devoted to the God’s service. Was canonized and is considered as a protector of neighbouring lands, In 1571 Lukh lands were turned over to the monastery under which authority they were up to 1764. In 1571 there were two wooden churches in the monastery.: one of Nikolay, the miracle man and another of Dmitry, thee great martyr as well as there were fraternal and priory churches. In 1998 St. Nikolo-Tikhon monastery was 500 years old. In one of the oldest sacred places of the Russian land it has begun a sacred life again. Now the monastery is the main sightseeing of the Lukh land and of all the textile land.

Complex of the church Znameniya (Signs)

    Situated near the entrance to the village on a hill slope over the motor car road Shuya- Palekh on the place of the grave-yard existing here since the XVII century with a wooden church. Erected of bricks on means of landowner P.N. Baryshnikov in 1804. It is possible that in the first quarter of the XIX century there were added a church porch and porticos from the north and south. It can be that at the same time there were erected a tracery metal fence on brick pillars and main southern gates. In the south-western fence corner there is a priest’s house. A picturesque group of buildings with especially smart southern façade form a complex which is the main composition accent of the village panorama and is very well blended with the surrounding scenery. Church of the Exaltation of the Cross (podvorye of the Nikolo-Shartomsky monastery) Palekh Ivanovo region, Palekh settlement, Bazarny bystreet , house 1 The church of the Exaltation of the Cross is built in 1774 in the traditions of the old Russian architecture of the XVII century. It consists of four parts: the main one under five-headed composition (of Cross Exaltation). To it there are built two side parts (Kazansky and Nikolsky), the fourth one, upper (of Mikhail Archangel). The bell tower is connected with the church through a church-porch. The bell tower base is a tchetverik, on it there is an elongated octahedron which ended by a dome. on the outer eastern wall there is a composition “The Exaltatiom of the Cross” made by brothers Salapiny in the middle of the XIX century. On the western wall there is inlaid with bricks an inscription with the builder’s name : Yegor Dubov. The church decoration : the works of the old Russian painting there created its glory already at the beginning of the XX century. And wall-paintings in the church professor of art study A.V. Bakushinsky named “the last great wall-painting closing a development cycle of an old Russian religious painting tradition. The church of the Cross Exaltation was painted in 1807 by Palekh icon-painters .The painting was conducted by Moscow artists - brothers Sapozhnikovy. In wall-painting a picture painting manner is combined with an icon painting manner . In 1992 the Cross Exaltation church was transferred to the Ivanovo diocese and became a part of the Nikolo-Shartomsky monastery. There is a possibility to receive to 6 pilgrims in the house of the podvorye. The church has a motor car parking for ten motor cars., approaches with asphalt surfacing.