Polotsk Epiphany Monastery description and photos - Belarus: Polotsk (Topic)

Polotsk Epiphany Monastery description and photos - Belarus: Polotsk. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

The Polotsk Epiphany Monastery was founded in 1582 as an Orthodox and educational center. In terms of the level of scientific and spiritual training of its students, the Polotsk Epiphany Monastery successfully competed with the Jesuit collegium.

Not only religious disciplines were taught in the monastery. Here they taught the Old Church Slavonic, Greek, Latin, singing, mathematics, rhetoric. The monastic fraternal school had a large library and even its own theater. The monastery invited the best Orthodox teachers. Among them was Simeon of Polotsk.

The monastery complex was built of wood and burned several times. After one of the fires in 1761, a new stone church was laid, and later a residential fraternal building was built. Presumably the residential building was built by the famous architect Giacomo Quarenghi.

The Holy Epiphany Cathedral is part of the monastery complex. This beautiful temple, built in the Baroque style, is located on the picturesque bank of the Western Dvina River.

During the Soviet era, the monastery complex was closed. There was an art gallery here, so the buildings not only did not suffer from the barbaric actions of Soviet officials, but were also restored and maintained in good condition.

In 1991 the Epiphany Cathedral was returned to believers. The cathedral was reconstructed at the expense of believers. It now contains a list of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. In 2011, the cathedral celebrated its 250th anniversary.

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Topic: Polotsk Epiphany Monastery description and photos - Belarus: Polotsk.