The Youngest and The Oldest

Last Saturday I visited 2 monasteries: Danilovsky and Donskoy.

Danilovsky was built in the late 13th century, making it the oldest monastery in Moscow. It is now the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church, but it served as a factory and a detention center during the Soviet period.

This is me in front of one of the gates:

This is me in front of the main church, the Church of the Holy Fathers of the 7 Ecumenical Council.

This is me in the courtyard: the pink tower is the main gate (St Simeon Stylite Gate-Church) and there is small chapel on the left.

I had a delicious potato piroshki there, made by the sisters of the monastery. The monastery is close to a research supplier where I will have focus groups in 3 weeks, so I will certainly go there to buy more piroshkis.

After visiting Danilovski, I took a tram to Donskoy, which is the youngest monastery in Moscow. It was built in the 1500's to house an icon which is credited with the victory in the 1380 battle of Kulikovo. The icon is now at the Tretyakov Gallery, so I'll check it out when I go there.

This picture is outside the monastery.

This is me by the New Cathedral.

This is me by the Virgin of Tikhvin Church, which is supposed to be one of the finest examples of Moscow Baroque.

This is the Old Cathedral, one of the original buildings dating back to the 1500's.

The crescent moons below the some of the crosses are supposed to symbolize the defeat of Islam, but my Russian teacher told me some people also say they symbolize a saucer where Christ's blood was gathered. Who knows the truth... here's a pic anyway:

During the plague of 1771, burials were prohibited in central Moscow, so the monastery became a cemetery for the nobility. Here are some pics in the graveyard: