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Ensemble of the Ferrapontov Monastery
| Site number: | 982 |
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| Type of site: | Cultural | |
| Date: | 15-17th century | |
| Date of Inscription: | 2000 | |
| Location: | Eurasia, Russian Federation, Vologda region | |
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| Description: | The Ferapontov Monastery is located in the Vologda region in northern Russia. This remarkably complete and well-preserved Russian Orthodox monastic complex was built in the 15th-17th centuries, a period of vast importance in the development of the unified Russian state and its culture. The monastery’s architecture is marvelous in its resourcefulness and purity. The interior is adorned by brilliant Dionisy wall paintings, the supreme Russian artist of the late 15th century. --WHMNet paraphrase from the description at WHC Site, where additional information is available. | |
| The Ferapontov convent (Russian: Ферапонтов монастырь), in the Vologda region of Russia, is considered one of the purest examples of Russian medieval art, a reason given by UNESCO for its inscription on the World Heritage List. The monastery was founded by Saint Ferapont in 1398 in the inhospitable Russian North, to the east from the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, named after his fellow monk, Saint Kirill of Beloozero. The fame of the monastery started to spread under Kirill's disciple, Saint Martinian, who was to become a father superior of the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra in 1447. Even after Martinian's death, his monastery was protected and favoured by members of Ivan III's family. The most ancient structure, the Cathedral of Nativity of the Virgin (1490), was built in brick by the masters of Rostov. This edifice is the best preserved of three sister cathedrals erected in the 1490s in the Russian North. All the interior walls are covered with invaluable frescoes by the great medieval painter Dionisius. During the 1530s, they added a treasury, a refectory, and the unique Annunciation church surmounted by a belfry. At that time the monastery enjoyed special privileges conferred upon it by Ivan the Terrible, and possessed some 60 villages in the vicinity. The tsar himself frequently visited the monastery as a pilgrim. In the Time of Troubles, the monastery was ravaged by the Poles. During its recovery the last buildings — the tent-like church of Saint Martinian (1641), a two-tented barbican church (1650), and a bell-tower (1680) — were added to the complex. The belfry clocks (1638) are said to be the oldest in Russia. As the monastery gradually lost its religious inmportance, it was being turned into a place of exile for distinguished clerics, such as the Patriarch Nikon. It was abolished by Emperor Paul in 1798, reinstituted as a convent in 1904, closed by the Bolsheviks twenty years later, and turned into a museum in 1975. The museum constitutes a part of the Russian North National Park since 1991. --Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. | ||
| Source: | http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/982 | |
| Reference: | 1. UNESCO World Heritage Center, Site Page. | |