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 a block bounded by Lenin Street, Pionerskaya Street, Tyulenin Lane, and Revolution Avenue. The exact date of its founding has not been established; it is believed the monastery arose in the first half of the 16th century. The architectural complex comprising the Pokrovskaya and Nikolskaya churches (Revolution Avenue, no. 17) is a federally protected cultural heritage site.[1]

History of the Founding

According to Archimandrite Makary (Mirolyubov), one of the first scholars of religious architecture in the Nizhny Novgorod region, as early as the 16th century the monastery contained two churches: a wooden Pokrovskaya church and a stone tent-roofed Nikolskaya church with Church of Sergius of Radonezh, above whose altar a stone bell tower had been built. In 1552 Ivan the Terrible; 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 monks' cells and outbuildings by means of covered passageways.[2][2] Tradition names the hieromonk Pafnuty as the monastery's founder; the fundamental work of V. V. Zverinský, published in the late 19th century, likewise states that the monastery was founded by Pafnuty in the first half of the 16th century. The 1701 monastery inventory confirms the early 16th century as the time of its founding, though documents from a later period record that the monastery "was built in an unknown year and by an unknown person." Materials from the correspondence of the Special Temporary Commission under the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Learned Archival Commission report that the founder Pafnuty "is buried beneath the Church of Nicholas the Wonderworker," above whose grave lies a cast-iron slab.[1]

The earliest surviving documentary evidence of the monastery's existence is a charter of Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, dated February 17, 1614. In that same year the monastery was administered by Abbot Antony, to whom a new tarkhannaya charter (tax-exemption grant) was issued. In the mid-17th century the wooden Pokrovskaya church was replaced by a stone one.[2][1]

The Architectural Complex and the Fate of the Monastery

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

St. Nicholas Church, carried out by the 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 protection of the architectural complex fall under the jurisdiction of the State Heritage Protection Authority of the 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.[2][2][1]

The territory of the former monastery is separated from the Volga and Soviet Square) by low-rise residential development arranged in a grid of small rectangular blocks.[1]

Sources

  1. Davydov A.I. Balakhninsky Pokrovsky Monastery – OPEN TEXT (opentextnn.ru) — Davydov A.I. Balakhninsky Pokrovsky Monastery — OPEN TEXT…
  2. Pokrovsky Men's Monastery | Balakhna | Cultural Tourism (culttourism.ru) — Pokrovsky Men's Monastery — Balakhna — Cultural Tourism — In 1552 Tsar Ivan IV granted a charter to the monastery; at the same time the stone tent-roofed Nikolskaya church was erected.