Ferapontov Monastery

Interesting facts

Dionisius's murals have never been repainted, so the cathedral preserves the master's original paint layer, a rarity among Orthodox churches.

The paintings unfold several great cycles, including the Akathist hymn to the Virgin, the Ecumenical Councils and the Last Judgement.

Dionisius worked on the cathedral with his sons, at least two of whom, Vladimir and Feodosy, are known by name.

Ferapont came from the boyar family of Poskochin and took his vows at the Simonov Monastery in Moscow before following Cyril to the north.

Unlike its fortified neighbour, the monastery kept a wooden fence until the 19th century, which left it defenceless when raiders sacked it in 1614.

The clock on the belfry, made in 1638, is said to be the oldest tower clock in Russia.

The Nativity Cathedral is the best preserved of three sister cathedrals raised in the Russian North in the 1490s.

Cassian the Greek, a prince of Mangup in the Crimea who came to Russia with Sophia Palaiologina, took his monastic vows at Ferapontov.

The museum keeps the Siversky idol, a stone figure about a metre tall dated to between the 4th and 9th centuries, found in a nearby village.

In 2016 the cathedral hosted its first full liturgy in decades, on the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, to which it is dedicated.

Why it is worth it

The Ferapontov Monastery stands on a low hill between two lakes, Ferapontovskoye and Spasskoye, in the village of Ferapontovo in Vologda Oblast, about 20 km northeast of the town of Kirillov. It was founded in 1398 by the monk Ferapont, a companion of Saint Cyril, whose much larger Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery lies nearby. Ferapontov never grew into a fortress like its neighbour, and that modesty, together with its remoteness, is why it survives today almost as a 16th- and 17th-century monastery set in a landscape that has scarcely changed.

Its treasure is inside the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin, built in 1490 by masters from Rostov as the first stone church of the Beloozero region. An inscription by the north door records that its walls were painted by the icon painter Dionisius and his sons between 6 August and 8 September 1502. The result, roughly 600 square metres of painting in some 300 scenes, is the only mural cycle securely documented as the work of Dionisius, the leading painter of Muscovite Russia at the turn of the 16th century. The painting is admired for the tonal richness of its soft colours, and the cathedral is regarded as the last medieval Russian church whose walls survive fully painted.

The rest of the ensemble grew over the following two centuries. In the 1530s the monks added the Annunciation church with its belfry, a refectory and a treasury; after Polish-Lithuanian raiders sacked the monastery in 1614, recovery brought the tent-roofed church of Saint Martinian (1641), the paired gate churches and a bell tower. Grand Prince Vasily III and Ivan the Terrible both came here as pilgrims, and from 1666 to 1676 the monastery served as the place of exile of Patriarch Nikon. It was abolished in 1798, briefly revived as a convent in the early 20th century, and has been the Museum of Dionisius Frescoes, a branch of the Kirillo-Belozersky museum, since 1975. UNESCO inscribed the ensemble in 2000; church services have resumed in some of its churches.

Getting there

Ferapontovo lies about 20 km northeast of Kirillov and about 120 km northwest of Vologda; Sheksna is about 83 km away. The nearest airport is Cherepovets Airport (CEE), about 82 km in a straight line. Most visitors travel by road via Kirillov, combining the trip with the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery.

Ferapontov Monastery

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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