Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
On the grounds of the former Andronikov Monastery, the Rublyov Museum exhibits icons
from days of yore and the present. Unfortunately, it does not include any work by its ac-
claimed namesake artist. It is still worth visiting, not least for its romantic location. Andrei
Rublyov, the master of icon painting, was a monk here in the 15th century. He is buried in
the grounds, but no one knows quite where.
In the centre of the monastery grounds is the compact
Saviour's Cathedral
, built in
1427, the oldest stone building in Moscow. The cluster of
kokoshniki
(gables of colourful
tiles and brick patterns) is typical of Russian architecture from the era. To the left is the
combined rectory and 17th-century Moscow-baroque
Church of the Archangel Michael
;
to the right, the old monks' quarters house the museum.
MONASTERY
NOVOSPASSKY MONASTERY
495-676 9570;
www.spasnanovom.ru
;
Verkhny Novospassky proezd;
7am-7pm; Proletarskaya)
Novospassky Monastery, a 15th-century fort-monastery, is about 1km south of Taganskaya
pl. The centrepiece of the monastery, the
Transfiguration Cathedral
, was built by the im-
perial Romanov family in the 1640s in imitation of the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral.
Frescoes depict the history of Christianity in Russia, while the Romanov family tree, which
goes as far back as the Viking Prince Rurik, climbs one wall. The other church is the 1675
Intercession Church
.
Under the river bank, beneath one of the towers of the monastery, is the site of a mass
grave for thousands of Stalin's victims. At the northern end of the monastery's grounds are
the brick
Assumption Cathedral
and an extraordinary
Moscow-baroque gate tower
.
HISTORIC BUILDING
ECCLESIASTIC RESIDENCE
Across the road running south of Novospassky Monastery is the sumptuous Ecclesiastic
Residence. It was the home of the Moscow metropolitans after the founding of the Russian
patriarchate in the 16th century, when they lost their place in the Kremlin.
