Wojnowo Old Believers' Convent

Old Believers split from the Russian Orthodox Church in the seventeenth century over liturgical reforms and were persecuted for it; from the 1820s and 1830s groups of them, mostly from what is now Lithuania and Belarus, were allowed to settle in the empty forest of Masuria by the Prussian authorities, and Wojnowo became their centre. They built a molenna, a prayer house without an altar, and in 1847 a monastery, later a convent, on the lake shore - a low wooden building with an onion dome, standing among trees, with a cemetery of Orthodox crosses beside it. The last nun died in 2006 and the buildings are now maintained as a museum, with the icons, books and the interiors kept. A small Old Believer community remains in the surrounding villages. The place is easy to miss and easy to underrate: it is a physical trace of a religious migration that most visitors to Masuria have never heard of.

What you actually see

• A wooden convent of 1847 - low buildings with an onion dome by the lake.
• A molenna - the prayer house form used by Old Believers, without an altar.
• Icons and books - kept in the interiors as the community left them.
• A cemetery of Orthodox crosses - beside the buildings among the trees.

When to go

May to September. Two hours.

Honest expectations

Opening is seasonal and can depend on the caretaker being there. It is small and quiet - an hour covers it. Interpretation is limited and largely in Polish. The village has no services.

Nearby

The Krutynia route passes close; Ruciane-Nida is south.