Russian North stories. Kirillo-Belozersky monastery.

Since I started talking about the road to the Russian north, I must tell you about the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery.

I was twice in this most interesting place. In this my second trip, I was in the role of a seasoned traveler. And if at the very first time everything was outlandish, then this, the second time I already knew exactly where to go and where to collapse.

The distance from the city of Vologda to the city of Kirillov is 128 kilometers. The road is good, although not very fast. In about 2 hours we reached the walls of an ancient monastery. On the road around you could look at the vast Russian expanses. The road goes along the big Kubensky lake.

From time to time along the road signs are visible to the places where very famous Russian outstanding personalities were born and lived. This very famous writer Gilyarovsky wrote a book about the customs of Muscovites, this is the pilot who first bombed Berlin in 1941. This is another hero of the Soviet Union, the pilot Klubov. He was the fighter. And a few more pointers to the villages in which scientists and noble sons of the fatherland were born.

So, two hours of the road were cognitive and flew by unnoticed. And here, already the index on the city of Kirillov.
This small provincial town was formed around the monastery. The monastery is the purpose of our trip.

The Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery

The Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery was founded in the summer of 1397 on the shore of the Siversky Lake by two monks of the Moscow Simonov Monastery Cyril and Ferapont.
After a while, Ferapont moved a little farther to the north and founded the Ferapont Monastery there. I have already made a report about visiting this important place for history and art.

At the time when Kirill came to the shores of Lake Siversky, he was about 60 years old. He built himself a chapel and lived alone at the lake, spending time in prayers.

This place began to attract other hermits. A real community - a monastery - was formed on the lake. Very strict ascetic practices were established in the new monastery: the monks had nothing personal, everything was common, only the wash-hand basin and books were in the cells. The novices communicated among themselves only on the topics of the Holy Scripture.

As the founder and spiritual landmark Kirill found universal love and veneration. He was told about legends that he could stop praying at the lake with a prayer, or feed the starving peasants in a bad harvest year from the seemingly endless cellars of the monastery.

The Monk Kirill Belozersky managed the monastery for 30 years and, despite the harsh conditions of life, died in 1427 at the age of 90, and 21 years after his death he was counted among the saints.

The cloister was enlarged, surrounded by walls, new temples and buildings were built. Funds for construction came even from the king. In 1528, Prince Vasily III and Princess Elena Glinskaya prayed here for the gift of an heir to them.
As a result, they had a son who became Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Ivan the Terrible did not leave the monastery in his memory for this event.
The money that came from the royal family of the monastery was spent on strengthening the walls and building temples. The walls of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery are so powerful that they could compete in defensive power with many large cities.
The width of the walls in some places reaches 7 meters.
But we are already at the walls of the monastery. I drove up to the monastery walls not by the central entrance. I stopped at the shore of the Siversky Lake, which could be walked along the walls and water. The beautiful weather, the blue sky and the sun decorated the landscape very much.

To be continued

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As a photographer I'm not good in writing. But I hope you'll like my photos from this place. You cansee on my photographs the walls of the monastery and Siverskoe Lake.

Mostly I make panoramic photos which contain several frames. This allows you to take a very high resolution photo and you can view individual, silent details on it. Probably, for the Internet it is not necessary, but the opportunity to make a large panel on the wall without losing details attracts.

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