Tikhvin Assumption Monastery

The monastery was founded in 1560 by Ivan IV around the Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God, which tradition holds appeared over Lake Ladoga in 1383 and which had become one of the most venerated images in Russia. The complex has walls, towers, the Assumption cathedral of 1515 and a bell tower, on flat ground beside the Tikhvinka. The icon's twentieth century is the story: taken by the German occupiers in 1941, it passed to Riga, then Bavaria, and was brought to the United States by Archbishop John Garklavs, who kept it in Chicago and left instructions that it should return to Russia only when the monastery was restored and functioning. His adopted son honoured that, and after the monastery reopened and was rebuilt the icon came back in 2004, fifty-five years after leaving. Tikhvin is also the birthplace of Rimsky-Korsakov, whose house is a museum a short walk away.

What you actually see

• The icon - returned in 2004 after fifty-five years in the United States.
• The condition set - a keeper's instruction that it come back only to a working monastery.
• The Assumption cathedral - the 1515 church at the centre of the complex.
• The Rimsky-Korsakov house - the composer's birthplace museum in the town.

When to go

May to September. Two to three hours. Three to four hours by train or bus from St Petersburg.

Honest expectations

A working monastery with dress rules; the icon is venerated and queues form on feast days. Photography is restricted. Tikhvin is a long way from St Petersburg with limited transport. Restoration is incomplete in places.

Nearby

The Rimsky-Korsakov house museum is in the town; St Petersburg is west.