Pokrovsky Monastery — a former Orthodox monastery in the city of Balakhna, Nizhny Novgorod Region, situated to the southeast of the city's historic center in the block bounded by Lenin Street, Pionerskaya Street, Tyulenin Lane, and Revolution Avenue. The monastery was founded in the first half of the sixteenth century; tradition attributes its founding to the hieromonk Pafnuty. The architectural complex comprising the Pokrovskaya and Nikolskaya churches (Revolution Avenue, no. 17) is a heritage site of federal significance.[1]

History of the Founding

According to Archimandrite Makary (Mirolubov), one of the first scholars of religious architecture in the Nizhny Novgorod region, as early as the sixteenth century the monastery contained two churches: a wooden Pokrovskaya church and a stone tent-roofed Nikolskaya church with a chapel of Sergius of Radonezh, above whose altar stood a stone bell tower. In 1552 Tsar Ivan IV granted the monastery a charter; at the same time the stone tent-roofed Nikolskaya church was erected. The tent-roofed Nikolskaya bell tower connected the Nikolskaya church to the wooden cells and outbuildings by means of covered passages.[2][2] Tradition names the hieromonk Pafnuty as the monastery's founder; the fundamental work of V. V. Zverinsky, published at the end of the nineteenth century, likewise states that the monastery was founded by Pafnuty in the first half of the sixteenth century.

The monastery inventory of 1701 corroborates the early sixteenth century as the time of its founding, yet later documents record that the monastery was "built at an unknown date and by an unknown person." Materials from the correspondence of the Special Temporary Commission attached to the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Scholarly Archival Commission report that the founder Pafnuty "was buried beneath the Church of Nicholas the Wonderworker," above whose tomb lies a cast-iron slab.[1]

The earliest surviving documentary evidence of the monastery's existence is a charter granted by Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, dated 17 February 1614. In that same year the monastery was administered by Hegumen Antoniy, to whom a new tarkhan charter was issued. In the mid-seventeenth century the wooden Pokrovskaya church was replaced with a stone one.[2][1]

The Architectural Complex and the Monastery's Fate

A historical memorandum by A. I. Davydov (Research and Production Institute "Ethnos"), prepared on the basis of general plans of the city of Balakhna and of the monastery complex held in the Central Archive of Nizhny Novgorod Region (TsANO) and in the collections of the Balakhna Museum Historical and Fine Arts Complex, reconstructs the history of the monastery's development and construction. It identifies the locations of lost elements of the historic urban environment: the bell tower, the monastery enclosure wall, and a number of other structures.[1]

The Church of St. Nicholas underwent restoration in the 1960s, carried out by Gorky Special Scientific Restoration Production Workshop (GSNRPM); documentation of this work is held in the State Archive of Special Documentation of Nizhny Novgorod Region (GASDNO). The condition and preservation of the architectural complex fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of State Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites of Nizhny Novgorod Region. In the 18th century the monastery fell into decline as a result of the collapse of the salt industry, which had formed the economic foundation of Balakhna. In 1783 the monastery was dissolved. In 2017 the monastery was in the process of revival: on 14 October of that year, on the Feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos — the monastery's patronal feast — the Divine Liturgy was celebrated there before a large gathering of the faithful.

The prior of the reviving monastery in 2017 was Archimandrite Alexander (Lukin); the service on the patronal feast was led by the dean of the Balakhna deanery, Protopriest Mikhail Minyukhin. After the liturgy, a religious procession was made around the monastery with the reading of an akathist to the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos.[3][3][3][2][2][1]

The territory of the former monastery is separated from the Volga and the city's central square (Sovetskaya Square) by low-rise residential development laid out in a grid of small rectangular blocks.[1]

Sources

  1. nne.ru — In 2017 the monastery was in the process of revival: on 14 October of that year, on the Feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos — the monastery's patronal feast — it was (archive)
  1. opentextnn.ru — Davydov A.I. Balakhna Pokrovsky Monastery — OPEN TEXT (archive)
  2. culttourism.ru — Pokrovsky Men's Monastery — Balakhna — Cultural Tourism — In 1552 Tsar Ivan IV granted a charter to the monastery; at the same time a stone tent-roofed Church of St. Nicholas was erected. (archive)