Monistary

Today we visited the village of Kirillov and saw the monastery of St. Cyril. It was one of the largest and most important monasteries. We saw the inside of the white building, which contained many icons, including some incredibly beautiful icons painted in Moscow. You can peruse these pictures of the outside of the monastery.

Toumbstone Paving

The Monks wanted to pave the path to a new Church, but Catherine the Great had confiscated the liquid assets of all monasteries, as she felt she needed the money and the monks should be focused on praying. The monks decided to use build the path with graveyard tombstones. People could read the names of deceased monks and pray for them while they walked to the Church.

Village Homes

I included a picture of some of the houses in the village. These wooden structures are supposed to be typical of Russian village homes today.

Monistary Entrance. You can see the stuco painting on the entrance wall. The thickness of these walls is for defence against attackers.

Monistary Church