The Epiphany Monastery is not one of the ancient ones. There are two versions of his appearance. According to the first, it was founded in late XVI century Maria Nagaya, mother of Tsarevich Dimitri and the last wife of Ivan the Terrible. According to the second, Ksenia Shestova (nun Martha), the mother of the first tsar from the Romanov family, Mikhail Fedorovich.
Initially, the monastery was located in the southwestern part of the Kremlin, behind the pond. IN Time of Troubles Enemy troops broke into the Kremlin, destroyed the monastery and killed the nuns along with Abbess Anastasia. In 1661, when work began on the construction of new defensive fortifications in the Kremlin, the monastery was moved to its current location - on the Rostov road.
At first it was made of wood, and only in 1700 the first stone cathedral Church of the Epiphany appeared. In the 19th century, after the construction of a new cathedral, the church was reconsecrated in honor of the Smolensk Icon Mother of God. The architecture of the Church of Our Lady of Smolensk preserves features that have become traditional for Uglich temple architecture. The restorers were lucky enough to uncover and restore the previous decoration of the domes of the church - now, like many years ago, they are all covered with sparkling green tiles.
Particularly large construction began in the monastery in early XIX century. The buildings of fraternal cells, the Fedorovskaya Church (1818), and a stone fence are being built. The Church of the Fedorov Icon of the Mother of God is perhaps the most interesting Uglich monument of the 19th century. Its cruciform plan is unusual for Uglich. Most likely, this was influenced by the capital’s architecture of the second half of the 18th century, when centric churches with a cross-shaped plan began to be built in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The interior of the church is decorated with bright paintings. They were completed in 1822-1824. painter Epifan Medvedev, brother of Timofey Medvedev, who painted the Transfiguration Cathedral.
In 1853, construction of the new huge Epiphany Cathedral was completed. Its foundation is associated with a poetic legend. The place where it was placed was originally occupied by the orchard of the townspeople Butorins. In the spring, when the apple trees were in bloom, Praskovya Butorina came out onto the porch and saw that three swans had descended into the garden. This happened for several years. After the sale of the land to the monastery, the abbess took this event as a sign, and the altars of the cathedral were placed in the place where the swans descended.
The cathedral, an example of the official Russian-Byzantine style, was erected in 1843-1853. designed by architect K. Ton. The construction of the cathedral, despite the apparent prosperity of the monastery, became a real feat for the nuns. When erecting such a large building, they made the brick themselves, lifted it onto the walls, and collected donations. The abbess of the monastery Elikonida, who initiated the construction, put a lot of effort and effort into it.
The last church of the monastery was small church Icon of the Mother of God “It Is Worthy” (1886-1887), which was a two-story corner tower with a dome.
In the 1920s, the monastery was closed, and then its destruction followed. The interiors of churches and countless icons were destroyed, the bell tower and fence disappeared, and the “It Is Worthy” church was rebuilt into a residential building. The Epiphany Cathedral has been used as a warehouse almost to this day.
In 2003, the revival of two churches of the monastery began - the Fedorov and Smolensk churches. In 2005-2007 The facades of the Epiphany Cathedral were restored - for the first time in many years of destruction and neglect, the most noticeable temple of Uglich acquired a decent appearance.
Since 2010, the monastery has again operated as a convent.
In the early 1840s. The monastery acquired the neighboring estate of the merchant G.V. Butorin, where there were two houses and a luxurious orchard with apple and pear trees. There is an interesting story connected with this event.
In the book by A.N. Ushakov tells that Abbess Eliconida (Muratova) had the intention of building a new Epiphany Church, but there was no place for it on the territory of the monastery. The land occupied by the Butorins' estate turned out to be the most convenient for construction. The abbess, through the treasurer, Mother Margarita, repeatedly asked to sell the estate, but the owners were sorry to part with the family home and wonderful garden; in addition, they had three heir sons.
The treasurer made a proposal in the fall, and in winter, crows and jackdaws flew into the garden in huge numbers. The birds caused great concern to the owners and neighbors, and they could not be driven away in any way. In the spring, the Butorins saw that the trees had dried out. Attempts were made to replant the garden, but the trees did not take root. Then G.V. Butorin, fearing that misfortunes might transfer to himself, himself offered the monastery to buy the estate. At the same time, the hostess remembered that several times she saw three white swans landing in the same place and not flying away for a long time.
On October 19, 1843, a new Warm Epiphany Cathedral was founded on the acquired territory. The altars of his three thrones were placed in the places where the swans landed.
The construction of the temple was a real feat for the nuns of the monastery. The monastery did not have sufficient funds for such a large construction; there were no large contributions or outside help. Therefore, many sisters themselves were engaged in preparing rubble stone for the foundation, digging clay, molding and firing bricks, bringing materials to the construction site, developing and burning lime. Among them was the future abbess of the Izmaragda (Resurrection) monastery (at that time nun Alevtina), who spent seven years at a brick factory one mile from the city. Other nuns collected donations, which were used to hire workers. Over time, contributions and offerings began to appear.
On June 11, 1844, the masonry of the cathedral began, and in 1853 it was completed. On October 17, Archbishop Eugene consecrated high altar and the right chapel in honor of the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God, the next day, October 18, the left chapel in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and John the Merciful. The consecration of the latter was carried out by Archimandrite Nikodim, who later became the Bishop of Yenisei and Krasnoyarsk.
The cathedral was built according to the design of the largest Russian architect Konstantin Andreevich Ton, who built the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, a large number of other buildings, cathedrals, churches, who created albums standard projects for church and civil buildings, engaged in the restoration of ancient monuments.
The interior of the temple is a vast hall with four pillars supporting the vaults. The altar apses are located behind an additional pair of pillars that replace the eastern wall of the quadrangle. Leads to the temple from the west small room a porch, above which on the second floor there is a sacristy, accessible by a wide and convenient staircase inside the wall. Below the cathedral there is an extensive basement, which mainly has a structural value, strengthening the foundation of the building. It could also be used for economic purposes. Under the northern apse of the cathedral there was a chapel where the revered icon of the Mother of God “The Watching Eye” was located. The chapel had an entrance from Rostovskaya Street, completed with an iron canopy.
The Epiphany Cathedral was a warm church of the monastery, where divine services were performed in winter time. Four huge stoves lined with white tiles, which have survived to this day, were used for heating. Two are located at the side walls in the western part of the quadrangle, the other two are in the intermediate arches of the altars, behind the pillars.
The interior decoration of the cathedral was distinguished by luxury and wealth. The main decoration was a majestic four-tiered iconostasis gilded with red gold - one of the best in the city. It had rich fine carvings, many icons were covered with silver frames. Small iconostases, made in the same style, surrounded the four pillars of the temple part. To illuminate the temple, a huge four-tier chandelier was used, hanging under the central dome. The cathedral had a floor lined with patterned cast-iron slabs, the salt was separated by an iron grate, and the main altar was covered with silver vestments and gilding. In the temple part, at the right front pillar, there was a gilded case with a shroud, above which there was a bronze gilded canopy, elegantly finished, made at the St. Petersburg jewelry factory of Verkhovtsev, donated in 1871. At the left pillar there was a carved gilded canopy, under which was placed a tomb with particles of relics various saints, including in a separate ark - St. John the Merciful. Near the right pillar there was an abbot's place with carved decoration.
The interior of the temple was painted by the famous Uglich painter Dmitry Grigorievich Burenin and his son Pavel. It is more likely that the cathedral was painted under the construction of the cathedral, Abbess Eliconida (Muratova), i.e. until 1864
The right side of the temple was painted on the theme of miracles from the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God, and the left side - the miracles of Saints Nicholas the Wonderworker and John the Merciful. In the center of the vaults, on the dome, there is a temple composition “Epiphany”, below on the sails, obviously, there were images of the Evangelists. Above the right choir is the plot “Coronation of the Mother of God”. On the porch there are paintings on the theme of the Last Judgment.
Currently, the cathedral's paintings are in poor condition. The paintings on the upper part of the walls and vaults have mostly crumbled. There is loss, darkening and pollution everywhere.
The temple had external paintings. Above the western entrance, in a semicircular niche, there was an image of the Epiphany of the Lord, protected by a glazed frame. On April 23, 1888, icons of the Epiphany of the Lord, the Appearance of the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, made on zinc sheets, were installed in the niches of the altars. In 1889, in the tympanums of the kokoshniks of the temple, paintings were also made on zinc sheets with the image Holy Trinity, the Nativity of Christ, the Transfiguration of the Lord, the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord, the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the icons of the Theotokos of Feodorovskaya and Iverskaya.
The icons in the altar niches were lost soon after the church was closed, and the kokoshnik paintings were in a significantly damaged state, the zinc sheets disappeared. The wooden frames on which they were attached were removed during the renovation of the facades in 2006.
The heads of the cathedral were initially completely gilded - in this form the temple undoubtedly made a very strong impression, the shining domes towered over the entire city. But at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, unable to maintain the gilding, the chapters were painted blue and covered with gold stars. In this form, in a significantly dilapidated state, they remained until the end of the 1980s, when the chapters were restored and covered with copper sheets. Stars were also made, but they did not have time to install them.
The last church of the monastery was the small church of the Icon of the Mother of God “It is Worthy to Eat,” located next to the cells in the northwestern part of the territory.
The Dostoinovskaya - Mother of God Church was stone, two-story, warm, built in 1886–1887. under the abbess of Izmaragda of the Resurrection at the expense of willing donors; had one sanctuary in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “It Is Worthy.”
The church appeared in 1886-1887. and was a two-story corner tower with a dome. On the lower floor of the temple there were two cells for monastics. The reason for the founding of the temple was the following circumstance, testifying to A.N. Ushakov:
“The land on which the temple was erected belonged to the city and cut into the monastery, which is why the society turned to the current abbess Izmaragda with an offer to buy the land. And the monastery acquired it. On this land, the abbess began building a new stone two-story residential tower in the form of a chapel in such a way that it fit into the coal wall of the monastery. When the construction was completed, Mother Abbess Izmaragda more than once saw dreams and heard a voice that told her that she had forgotten the Kazan Mother of God. The religious and God-fearing abbess began to fervently pray to God and came to the conclusion that she was called to a good deed to build a temple in honor of the Kazan Mother of God. With this intention, Mother Abbess went to the city of Yaroslavl to ask Vladyka for a blessing. Vladyka noticed that there was already a temple in honor of the Icon of the Kazan Mother of God in the city of Uglich, but he did not reject the wishes of Abbess Izmaragda. Upon arrival in Uglich, the abbess received a letter from Athos that the image of the Mother of God “It is worthy to eat” was coming to her... This icon was transported first to Yaroslavl, then to Rybinsk to the chapel Epiphany Monastery and finally to Uglich. Then Mother Abbess became convinced that new temple should be in honor of the donated icon. We laid the foundation stone for the temple...” wrote A.N. Ushakov.
At the end of the 17th century, stone construction began in the monastery - in 1689-1700. Under Abbess Elena, Uglich craftsmen built the Church of the Epiphany with the chapel of the Smolensk Mother of God. On its lower floor there was a church in honor of the Apostles John the Theologian and St. Andrew the First-Called. In 1775, a chapel for St. John the Merciful and Demetrius of Rostov was built in a nearby tent. But “in 1840, due to various inconveniences and darkness, all these churches were abolished and a hospital was built in their place.” In October 1853, after the consecration of the new Epiphany Cathedral, the old Epiphany Church was abolished. The following year, 1854, its main altar was consecrated in honor of Smolensk icon Mother of God, and the northern aisle - in honor of the Exaltation Life-giving Cross The Lord's. (This limit has been abolished and is used as a sacristy.)
Smolensk Church is a typical five-domed refectory church, raised on a basement; in its forms it is close to the Church of the Hodegetria of the Resurrection Monastery and the Church of the Vvedenskaya of the St. Nicholas-Uleiminsky Monastery. Initially, the temple had a porch with two steps and a hipped bell tower. The former porch was replaced in the 19th century by another in the classical style, added with north side. Above its dome there was a completion in the form of a thin spire topped with a cross. On the south side, a small tent was built in place of the porch. (During the restoration of the church in 1970-1975, it was dismantled and two arches were laid in place of the opening, repeating the shape of the western gallery). The bell tower was tented, placed on a small tent, of which the lower part has been preserved. It was dismantled due to dilapidation and “as unnecessary” after the construction of a new bell tower near the Fedorovskaya Church. The deed signed by the monastery for the construction of the church in 1689 contains some information about the lost bell tower. The bell tower in its appearance could resemble those preserved at the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist “on the Volga” and at the Vvedenskaya Church of the St. Nicholas-Uleiminsky Monastery. We do not have any images of the bell tower at our disposal.
The interior of the temple originally contained a five-tiered gilded iconostasis; there were no paintings. When the church was restored in 1854, a new three-tier iconostasis was installed, the parts of which were gilded with polyment, and the smooth parts were covered with red varnish paint. Many previous icons, made in the 17th-18th centuries, were placed in the iconostasis. During this period, the church was painted - in the temple part there were paintings on the theme of miracles from the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God (in this moment the paintings have been lost), and in the Vozdvizhensky chapel on the vault is written an image of the Mother of God and the verse: “Every creature rejoices in You, O grace-filled one.” The painting of the temple part, which occupies most of the surface of the walls and consists of small marks enclosed in ornamental frames, is compositionally close to traditional church painting of the 17th-18th centuries.
Uglich Epiphany convent founded at the end of the 14th century by Grand Duchess Evdokia, monk. Euphrosyne, Dimitrievna, wife of the Moscow prince Dimitri Ioannovich Donskoy. The monastery was in the Kremlin in the northwestern corner of the former fortress. In 1611 the monastery was destroyed by the Poles. In 1620, according to a charter from the Great Antiquity Martha Ioannovna, the mother of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, it was restored to its original location. In 1661, according to a charter from Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, it was moved to its present location. The monastery has stone churches: 1) Smolenskaya, formerly called Epiphany, two-story, founded in 1689 with the help of voluntary donors; 2) Feodorovskaya Bogorodichnaya - one-story, cold, founded in 1805 using a raised sum; a stone bell tower was built at this church in 1837; 3) Bogoyavlenskaya - a warm cathedral, one-story, founded in 1848 using collected funds; 4) Dostoinovskaya Bogorodnichnaya, two-story, warm; established in 1886-87 at the expense of willing donors. There are 7 altars in the churches: 1) in Smolensk - two, the main one in honor of the “Hodegetria” of the Smolensk Mother of God, and in the northern left aisle in honor of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. There were two altars in the lower floor of this church: St. Apostles John the Theologian and Andrew the First-Called and Saints John the Merciful and Demetrius of Rostov were abolished in 1846; 2) in Feodorovskaya - one throne in honor of the “Hodegetria” of the Feodorovskaya (Uglich) icon of the Mother of God; 3) in the Epiphany Cathedral there are three altars: the main one in the name of the Epiphany of the Lord, in the southern right aisle in honor of the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God, and in the northern left aisle in the name of Saints John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria, and Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra; 4) in the Dostoynovskaya Church - one altar in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “It is Worthy to Eat”. 3 miles from the mountains. In Uglich, at the monastery dacha “village of Petrovskoye”, the assigned Innokentievskaya cemetery church, stone, one-story, warm, with a stone bell tower, was built in 1896. There is only one altar in it in the name of St. Innocent of the Irkutsk Wonderworker. The monastic capital in %% securities is 194.957 rubles, from which it turns out %% in favor of the church 2977 rubles. 24 k., in favor of the sisters 3676 rubles. 75 kopecks, and in favor of the clergy 1488 rubles. 71 kop. Kaz. sod. 337 rub. 43 k. Land 330 des. 1039 sq. soot Inside the monastery there are five stone, two-story buildings, one one-story stone building, four wooden houses and services. The monastery is surrounded by a stone fence with four towers. At the monastery - parochial school for girls with a handicraft class, a literacy school, a hospital with 10 beds and a hospice room for visiting pilgrims. There are three chapels: 1) under the Epiphany Cathedral Church; 2) at the Innocent Cemetery Church, established in 1898; and 3) in the mountains. Rybinsk in the 25th quarter, built in 1872.
