A Moscow merchant defrayed the cost of the great belfry, 330 feet high, and under the refectory is buried the renowned Field-Marshall Bruce; the sacristy is rich in vestments and some ornamental work of the Tsar Alexis’s Masterskaya in the Kremlin. The most famous inmate was Simeon Bekbulatov the converted Tsar of Kazan, whom Ivan Groznoi made Tsar of Moscow for twelve months; his tomb will be shown. The charm of the Simonov is derived from its stillness, its out of the world air, its roominess, the matured trees, the ample orchard, the long rampart walk, the excellent views of Moscow, the many quaint nooks near the old stores, the grateful shade of pleasant bosquets and the orderly negligence that suggests contentment—an ideal home for dreamers, for cheery mysticism and the inception of unhurried philosophies.
The Novo Spasski
The new monastery of the Saviour, so called because in the fifteenth century removed from the Kremlin to its present site, is pleasantly situated near the Moskva river not far from the Krasnœ Kholmski bridge. Its walls were of wood until the invasion of Devlet Ghiree, after which an attempt appears to have been made to turn all the outlying monasteries into fortresses for the better protection of Moscow. One peculiarity of the Spasski Monastyr is that the towers which flank the wall are all different, one is pentagonal, one round, one hexagonal, and so others vary—some are squat, others have tapering spires from the towers; the belfry is 220 feet high. Its claim to greatness is not due to the spirited defence it made to the Polish attack, but to the fact that within its Cathedral of the Transfiguration, one of the five churches within the walls, is a picture “Neruko-tvorenni,” not made with hands. “In the year 1645, in the town of Khlinov, in the porch of the Church of the Trinity, before the image of our Saviour not made with hands, Peter Palkin, blind three years, stood and worshipped and miraculously received his sight.” The Tsar Alexis ordered the picture to be brought to Moscow for the Spasski Monastery, and a copy of it to be sent to Khlinov, or Viatka. The church is also adorned with a set of fresco portraits illustrating the genealogy of the Tsars of Moscow, from Olga to Alexis: corresponding therewith, the portraits of the Kings of Israel. Behind the ikonostas are some extraordinary mural paintings of the Tsars Michael and Alexis, founders of the cathedral. The Church of the Protection, to the south of the cathedral, was built in 1673 to the memory of the Patriarch Philaret, and a third church, near the cells of the monks, was built in 1652 by Nicholas Cherkassky, to whose family Moscow owes several fine churches. The monastery was the favourite burying place of such noble Moscow families as the Yaroslavskis, Gagarins, Sherbatevs, Naryshkins and Romanofs, whose ancestors are mostly interred in a crypt here, the last being Vasili Yurivich Zakharin.
The monastery of St Andronievski was founded by St Alexis the metropolitan who made a vow, when in a storm at sea during his voyage to Constantinople. The relics of St Andronie are preserved in a silver shrine. All these monasteries were pillaged and profaned by the French, the Andronievski suffered perhaps more than the others since there some monks were shot.
Donskoi Monastery
This monastery is in no way connected with Dmitri Donskoi but owes its name to a picture of the Virgin Mary, presented by the Don Cossacks (Kazak = soldier) after the great victory over Khazi-Ghiree and his army of 150,000 Mongols advancing against Moscow in 1591: they were repulsed by the army raised by Boris Godunov and the miraculous intervention of the ikon of the Cossacks, and the grateful Theodore built the monastery on the field of their defeat as a fit shrine for the ikon, which had been set up as the standard of the defenders of Moscow. A church pageant on August 19th (old style) commemorates the victory. The white walls and red turrets are copied from those of the Novo Devichi. The principal church was founded in 1684 by Catherine, daughter of the Tsar Alexis, and differs from those of Moscow town in being of red brick. The smaller Church of the Virgin is the older, founded in 1592; the three others are of the eighteenth century.