To the east of Torgovaya Square, on Vasilievskaya Street, are the old buildings of the Vasilievsky Monastery. Legends connect the foundation of the monastery with Prince Vladimir the Red Sun and the baptism of the Vladimir-Suzdal land.
Short story
As if here, on the eastern outskirts of Suzdal in 990, an oak church was built, in which the Suzdal people adopted Christianity. It has been reliably established that the Vasilevsky monastery already existed in the XIII century, as evidenced by the record of the Rostov princess Maria (in monasticism Marina) about the lands granted by the monastery.
St. Basil's Monastery from a bird's eye view
Situated on the road leading from Suzdal Kremlin to Kideksha and Nizhny Novgorod, the Vasilevsky monastery was an important outpost of the city fortress. In 1237 - 1238 hordes of Tatar-Mongols plundered the monastery, but later it was restored again... The scribal book of Suzdal indicates that in 1628-1630 the monastery had five monastic cells and a wooden fence.
In the 17th century, the Vasilievskaya monastery owned arable land, estates inhabited by peasants, the land was cultivated "for the needs" of the monastery and was rented out. In 1764, during the secularization reform of Catherine II, who seized church holdings in favor of the state, the Vasilievsky Monastery in Suzdal was transferred to the category of supernumerary ones, that is, "left to be fed".
General view of the St. Vasilievsky Monastery
The state monasteries were supposed to exist either on voluntary donations from the people, or at the expense of uninhabited lands adjacent to the monastery, cultivated by the monks on their own. In 1923, the Vasilievsky Monastery was abolished by the Soviet government, and in 1995, with the blessing of the Vladimir and Suzdal Archbishop Evlogy, the revival of the monastery began. Today, at the Vasilievsky Monastery in Suzdal, there is a hotel where you can stay overnight, planning to see the sights of the city.
The architectural ensemble of the St. Vasilievsky Monastery
The modern ensemble of the Vasilievsky Monastery, erected in stone in the 17th century, consists of the Cathedral of Basil the Great, the Sretensky refectory church and the fence. The cathedral church in honor of Basil the Great was built in 1662-1669 on the site of a wooden tent-roofed church.
Basil the Great Cathedral with a bell tower
In plan, the temple is a simple cuboid volume, completed with an octahedron with a bulbous cupola. Initially, the cathedral was conceived as three-domed, as evidenced by the foundations of two more drums preserved under the roof. Small portals, narrow windows and modest decor give the temple an austere, ascetic look. The decoration of the facades with zakomaras, reproducing in their outlines the corrugated vaults, does not correspond to the internal two-pillar structure of the building. In the 19th century, a three-tiered bell tower decorated with pilasters and cornices was added to the Vasilievsky Cathedral. From the top of the bell tower amazing panoramas of the city open. The one-domed Sretenskaya Church (17th century) was built in two tiers: the ground floor housed a cook, bread and other utility rooms, and the second floor was occupied by a church with an altar and a refectory (dining room) with one pillar in the middle supporting the vaults.
Church of the Presentation of the Lord
The Sretenskaya church is covered with an eight-pitched roof, rare for Suzdal, and crowned with an onion dome. Three altar semicircles rest on the rectangular walls of the first floor. The Vasilievsky Monastery in Suzdal is surrounded by a stone fence with low Holy Gates. By now, almost all the premises have been returned to the monastic community. Only one two-story house at the very wall of the monastery belongs to the communal services.
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