In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Kirillov-Belozersky Monastery in the small lakeside town of Kirillov, 130km northwest of Vologda was the largest monastery in northern Russia and one of the most powerful in the country.
Founded in 1397 by a monk from Moscow, the monastery grew from a cave in the ground to magnificent grounds comprising 12 churches, mighty three-storey fortress walls and the glorious centrepiece Assumption Cathedral.
Buses connect Kirillov and Vologda (R275, 2¾ hours, up to six daily).
The wealth of the monastery was made possible by wealthy patrons including the Romanovs and Ivan the Terrible. Ivan had a personal room within the monastery, planning to take his own vows here. However, things did not go quite as planned, with the tsar becoming disenchanted with what he saw as the ‘lecherous’ goings-on within the cloister. A prolific and polemic letter-writer, Ivan penned a no-holds-barred epistle to the abbot of the time, blasting the lack of asceticism within its walls: ‘Today in your cloister Sheremetyev sits in his cell like a tsar; Khabarov and other monks come to him and drink and eat as though they were laymen, and Sheremetyev – whether from weddings or births, I don’t know – sends sweets and cakes, and other spiced delicacies around to all the cells, and behind the monastery is a courtyard, and in it are supplies for a year.’
Entry to the grounds is free, but if you wish to see the icons and other treasures displayed in the churches and exhibition rooms, pay individual entry fees or buy a combined ticket.
