Saviour Monastery of Saint Euthymius

The Spaso-Yevfimiev monastery was founded in the 1350s and rebuilt in the seventeenth century as a fortress, with red brick walls of about 1.2 kilometres and twelve towers standing above the Kamenka - the most imposing thing in Suzdal, a town otherwise of low wooden houses and small churches. Inside, the Transfiguration cathedral holds frescoes by Gury Nikitin's Kostroma workshop from 1689, and the bell tower has a set of bells rung in short concerts several times a day, which is the reason the courtyard fills on the hour. Catherine II established a prison here in 1766 for religious and political detainees, and it operated in various forms into the twentieth century; the block is open, with an exhibition that sets out plainly who was held and why. The monastery is a museum rather than a working house, part of the UNESCO White Monuments group, and Pozharsky's tomb stands by the cathedral.

History

The monk Yevfimi, or Euthymius, came from Nizhny Novgorod at the invitation of Prince Boris of Suzdal and founded the monastery in 1352, high above the Kamenka, where it also served as a fortress guarding the town; its first buildings were wooden, he was its first archimandrite until his death in 1404, and it was then renamed after him. The Great Battle of Suzdal was fought right beside it, ending in the defeat of the Russians and the capture of Grand Prince Vasily II. A wooden Church of the Transfiguration rose over the saint's tomb in 1507-1511 and a white stone cathedral was built around it in 1594, and gifts from Vasily III, Ivan IV and the Pozharsky family paid for the brick walls of the 1670s and 1680s, with twelve towers, eleven of them round, and a 22-metre gate tower; the cathedral's frescoes by the school of Gury Nikitin date from 1689, and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky is buried by its wall (Wikipedia, Monastery of Saint Euthymius).

Highlights

• The fortress walls - about 1.2 kilometres of red brick with twelve towers.
• The 1689 frescoes - Gury Nikitin's workshop painting in the Transfiguration cathedral.
• The bell concerts - short ringings several times a day from the tower.
• The prison block - a detention facility from 1766, open with an honest exhibition.

When to go

May to September. Two to three hours. Check the bell concert times on arrival and plan around them.

What to expect

It is a museum complex, not a working monastery, and the ticket covers several separate exhibitions. Suzdal is very busy in summer and on holidays. The prison exhibition is sober material. An hour by bus from Vladimir.

Nearby

Suzdal's kremlin and wooden architecture museum are south; Kideksha is east.

Key facts