When in 1591, the armies of the Crimean khan Kazy-Girei approached
Moscow and took Kotly, the Russian warlords brought their forces up
to this location, placing themselves between the attackers and the
city walls: "His excellence the tsar (Feodor Ioanovich) ordered the
boyars and war lords to bring up all their regiments along the
Moscow river on the meadows under the Kolomenskoye and Danilov
monasteries." Next to the Danilov they set up "Oboz," a mobile
fortified camp (gulai gorod). The khan sent against the oboz his
sons, "tsars," but "would not directly engage us and his regiments
he did not deploy," retreating to Kolomenskoye and holding both
sides of the river.
The Russian armies remained in camp - "and from the fortified camp
oboz they did not set out." - However during the night alarm was
raised, the canoniers opened fire, and were supported by heavy
artillery from the Moscow walls. The sudden cannonade scared the
Crimeans, and the armies of Kazy-Girei panicked and ran from the
Russia's lands.
The monastery was built beginning in 1593 to commemorate the victory
on this field with the miraculous help of the Presviatoi Bogoroditsy
(the saintly virgin), the icon which was presented to the great
prince Dmitrii Ivanovich by the Don Cossaks, which Muscovites
believed saved their city in 1591 from the attack of the Crimean
Tatars of Kazi Girei. The Monastery was to serve as a defensive
bastion for the Kaluga gates of the city.Most of the
fortification was not built until 1684-1733. The Virgin of Tikvin
gate church is over the north entrance. It contains seven stone
churches; the Old Cathedral of the Donskaya Virgin was the first to
be built, in 1593, and its domes are capped by half-moon crosses
that signify Christianity's triumph over Islam. It has two chapels:
Sergei Radonezh and Fedor Stratilate. The church was built when the
monastery was founded on the site, where stood the camp church of
the Tsar Fedor Ivanovich at the time of the attack of the Crimeans,
and the chapels where added in 1659. The New Cathedral of the
Donskaya Virgin was erected at the order of the Regent Sophia in in
1684-1693. Inside are frescoes painted by the Italian Antonio
Claudio. It was later sacked during the Time of Troubles and
restored by the Romanovs. It was again damaged by the French in
1812. It was one of the richest monasteries and has a famous
cemetery, adorned with pyramids, temples and sarcophagi, that
contains some of the most famous names in Russian history, including
the philosopher Peter Chaadayev, writer Turgenev, aviator Nikolai
Zhukovsky and a number of Decembrists.
In the XVIIth century, the monastery was named in honor of the
Saintly Mother of God "Donskoi, "Chto v oboze." In the monastery was
kept the genuine Icon of the St. Virgin of Don painted in 1392 by
Theophanes the Greek which had been preserved in the Kremlin's
Annunciation Cathedral, Blagovechenskiy sobor, now in the Tretyakov
Gallery). The icon was taken by Dmitrii Donskoi on his campaign
against Mamai. Russian tsars in the XVIIth century prayed for
victory over their enemies and carried her to battle in the Sergei
Radonezhskyi campaign church. |
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