Optina Pustyn

Optina was an ordinary small monastery until the early nineteenth century, when it became the centre of the elder tradition in Russia - startsy, monks who received visitors for spiritual counsel, sometimes hundreds a day, in a hermitage skete set apart in the forest behind the main enclosure. That made it a destination for the educated as well as the devout. Gogol came repeatedly; Dostoevsky came in 1878 after the death of his son and used what he saw for the monastery and the elder Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov; Tolstoy visited several times over decades, argued with the elders, and came here again in his last days in 1910 without going in. The buildings are white, with a domed Vvedensky cathedral and a bell tower, in pine woods above the river. The monastery was closed in 1923, the site used as a camp and then a sanatorium, and returned in 1987; three monks were killed here at Easter 1993.

What you actually see

• The elder tradition - the startsy who received visitors for counsel from the skete.
• The literary visits - Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and the source for Zosima.
• The forest skete - the separate hermitage in pine woods behind the main enclosure.
• The white cathedral - the domed Vvedensky church at the centre of the enclosure.

When to go

May to September. Two to three hours. Busy on major feasts and at Easter.

Honest expectations

An active monastery with strict dress rules; the skete itself is closed to women and largely closed to visitors generally. Photography is restricted. There is little for a visitor who is not interested in the religious history. Kozelsk has limited facilities.

Nearby

Kozelsk is a short way north; Shamordino convent is about 15 km away.