Sergiev Posad.

Sergiev Posad - the city (since 1919) in the Moscow region of Russia, administrative center of Sergiev Posad district of Moscow region, one of the centers of Russian Orthodoxy, one of the main railway station on the line Moscow - Yaroslavl Moscow railway. The city is a monument of culture and art included in the UNESCO World Heritage List - the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

The major attraction of the city and the historic city center is the ensemble of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Remarkable also Vvedenskaja and Pyatnitskaya church (both - 1547), Ascension (1766-1779), Assumption (1769) and Elijah (1773) Church, Monastery Hotel (1823, in the classical style), trade rows (beginning of XX century.) Pyatnitsky well (room XVII - Mr. XVIII centuries).

Sergiev Posad is named in honor of St. Sergius, the founder of the largest monastery in Russia. In 1919 the town was renamed in Sergiev, and in 1930. - In Zagorsk, in honor of a revolutionary VM Zagorsky. But in 1991 the city was finally returned to the historic name. Home town put Trinity Monastery. Glory of St. Sergius, and he founded a monastery resulted in the monastery the monks and pilgrims. Gradually began to settle near the monastery and the peasants. The first settlement became the basis of the future of cities, villages were Kokuevo, Panin and Klementevo.

Trinity monastery has always been a major landowner. Belonged to the monastery lands were great public benefits, thus contributing to the development of trade and crafts. In the area around the monastery gradually created sloboda mechanic people. So there icon and Povarskaya, Konyushennaya and Telezhnaya, Pushkarskaya and Streletskaya sloboda.
In 1355 the first time in the Trinity monastery in north-eastern Russia had been introduced "obschezhitiyny" statute, which led to the restructuring of the entire monastery. The monastery became like a small wooden town, which consists of three parts: public, residential and defensive. For a solid fence - Rectangle cells inside of which - the church and the refectory. Curiously, this layout of the monastery carried through all subsequent centuries and preserved to our days.

Reverend Sergius died in 1392 In 1422 a canonization of Reverend Sergius and bookmark the white Trinity Cathedral on his grave.

In the monastery received the baptism of Ivan the Terrible, in the years of which was attached great importance to transform the monastery into a powerful fortress, which had an important significance on the approaches to Moscow. Instead of a wooden fence in the 1540-1550gg. has built a strong wall with towers of brick and stone. In the 1608-1610 biennium. Monastery Sixteen months before the siege of the Polish-Lithuanian interventionists. Podvig defenders of the monastery has become widely known and have led to the credibility of the monastery.

When Peter I the monastery was still maintained the importance of the imperial fortress. In 1689 during a riot in Moscow Fire King Peter took refuge outside the monastery. In 1744 the decree of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the monastery was awarded the honorary title of Lavra, which emphasizes the primacy of the monastery, among other church institutions.

From 1919 to 1946 he worked. the monastery was closed. Temples were seized from the monastery, the monks dispersed, or repressed.

Today, Laura - current monastery, the spiritual center of Orthodox Russia. At the monastery in Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary, as well as museum-reserve. They are all on his own serve as the preservation of spiritual traditions, history and monuments of this wonderful place where the soul is alive in Russia. Numerous Lavrskaya buildings erected during the XV-XIX centuries best artists of Russia, represent a unique guide to the history of Russian architecture, open-air museum. The architectural ensemble of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra is included in the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Video: