Church of the Transfiguration
Village of RadonezhStory. The Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the Empire style was built in 1834-1840. financed by parishioners and donations. The brick building with the use of white stone in details has a composition characteristic of its time.
The pillarless single-apse quadrangle of the temple, with side porticoes of the Doric order, is crowned with a domed rotunda. Adjacent to it from the west is a refectory and a three-tiered bell tower, completed with a cylindrical tier of bells.
The interiors are decorated with wooden carved iconostases: the main five-tier one is from the 1890s, the two-tier side one is from 1862. The walls and vaults are covered with oil paintings from the 1870s. The brick church fence was restored in 1969 according to the model of the previous one (1855).
The village of Radonezh on the Pazhe River has an ancient history and is widely known due to the fact that it was here that the exploits of St. Sergius (Bartholomew), who received the nickname of Radonezh, began. The parents of little Bartholomew moved to Radonezh from their estate near Rostov the Great, from where they were forced to leave by constant oppression from the governors of the Moscow prince Ivan Kalita. Boyar Kirill with his wife Maria and sons Stefan, Bartholomew and Peter, at the invitation of the Radonezh governor Terenty Rtishch, who promised great benefits to the settlers, moved to Radonezh. Later, Cyril and Maria took monastic vows at the nearby Khotkovo Monastery, and Bartholomew went with them to look after and help their elderly parents.
In the 15th century, Radonezh became a real town with a fortress, earthen ramparts and three churches, the center of an appanage principality, which was owned by Prince Andrei Menshoi. The ramparts have survived to this day, but from the three temples only the wooden royal doors have survived. The cathedral church of the fortress was called Preobrazhensky. Under Ivan III, the fair was transferred to Radonezh from the Trinity Monastery. In the 17th century, Radonezh became the patrimony of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. By this time, the village (or, as indicated in the documents, “the city of Radonezh”) was devastated in Time of Troubles, and there is not a single temple left in it. The monastic authorities decided to convert the tower of the fortress into a tented church. The temple was consecrated in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord, and in the attached refectory two chapels were consecrated - Sergius of Radonezh and Mikhail Malein.
In the 18th century, the village acquired a new name – Gorodok. A new church in the village was built with funds from the parish mid-19th century in the Empire style. Initially, the main volume of the temple was placed separately from the bell tower, and they were combined with a refectory in the 1860s. The main volume is quadrangular, the sides are decorated with high porticoes in four columns, and a high light rotunda is placed on the lower tier. A five-tiered iconostasis was placed in the main part of the temple, and a small two-tiered iconostasis in the chapel of Sergius of Radonezh in the refectory. In the 1870s, the temple was painted, and some of these paintings have survived.
The three-tier bell tower is decorated with paired columns and topped with a spire. In 1855, the temple was surrounded by a new brick fence with metal bars. This fence was partially destroyed in Soviet time, restored in 1969.
An ancient village with early XIX century has attracted the attention of researchers. Largely due to the fact that back in the 1820s it was possible to restore the history of the village, in the 1960s a decision was made to preserve its monuments, including the Church of the Transfiguration. In 1974, the temple was placed under state protection. In 1988, a monument to Sergius of Radonezh was erected next to the temple, designed by sculptor V.M. Klykov and architect R.I. Semerzhiev.
In 1989, the village of Gorodok was renamed Radonezh. Now many pilgrims flock here, visiting places associated with the life of one of the most revered and famous Russian saints - St. Sergius of Radonezh.
The village of Radonezh is located in the southern part of the Sergiev Posad district, between the 59th km of the Yaroslavskoe highway and the Abramtsevo platform of the Northern railway. Geographically, Radonezh is located at the base of the southern slope of the Klinsko-Dmitrovskaya ridge, on the left bank of the Pazhi River. Its surroundings are characterized by gentle hills with flat tops, the slopes of which are dissected by large and small ravines. The village is surrounded on all sides by small fields. Behind them darkens a dense forest of spruce, aspen, birch and alder. IN selected places There are groups of pine trees, the edges of the ravines are framed by bird cherry trees. To the north of the village there are several dozen oak trees. In the past, they, together with linden, formed the basis of forests near Moscow.
From the nine-century history of the settlement, one can distinguish the periods of its existence as the village of Radonezh, the town of Radonezh and the village of Gorodok.
Village of Radonezhskoe
Radonezh was founded presumably in the 11th century. Slavs who settled along the Volga-Oka interfluve. This is evidenced by its name, which is the possessive form of the personal Slavic name Radoneg. Settlements with the name Radonezh existed in the past in the Smolensk land, in the upper reaches of the river. Oka (at the junction of modern Kursk and Oryol region) and in the middle reaches of the river. Kirzhach (Vladimir region). The Slavs also founded Khotkovo on the territory of the Sergiev Posad region (the name comes from personal name Khotoneg or Khotobug) on the river. Page, above Radonezh, and Velenezh (from the personal name Veleneg) on the river. Kozelka, the left tributary of the river. Traders. The name of the latter also presumably comes from the Slavic name Utrogost (Utrogost-Utorgosh-Torgosh).
Around the middle of the 12th century. Radonezh became part of the territory of the Rostov-Suzdal principality, and in the first quarter of the 13th century. - part of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir.
After the Tatar-Mongol invasion of 1237-1240. principalities North-Eastern Rus' became part of the Golden Horde state. Khan's officials conducted a census of the population and imposed tribute on it. The Baskaks began to be in charge of collecting tribute and supervising the subject territory. These khan's governors sat, in particular, in Radonezh. This is evidenced by the names of the Khanskaya and Baskakova wastelands, which were located in the vicinity of the settlement. In addition, information about the White Gods temple, in which the Baskaks prayed, has been preserved in the people's memory. It was located on a hill rising east of Radonezh.
The presence of the Baskaks in Radonezh was caused by the fact that the Pereslavl road passed next to it. Based on the analysis of documents and field surveys of the area, it was possible to localize part of this one of the ancient roads of North-Eastern Rus' in the space between the Klyazma and Dubna rivers. According to modern toponymy, the road from the village. Zvyagina of the Pushkin district of the Moscow region, lying between the Klyazma and its tributary Ucha, reached the village of Talitsa and then went to the village. Rakhmanova approximately in the same direction in which the so-called Old Yaroslavl Highway goes. Then it went north to the village of Novoselki, Sergiev Posad district, here it crossed the river. Voryu, turned east and, leaving Radonezh from the west, crossed the river. Page. Further, having passed Radonezh, the road again went north, passing between the villages of Ryazantsy and Morozov and through the eastern outskirts of the village. Semkhoz went to the village. Blagoveshchensky. From here it went between the villages of Deulino and Buzhaninovo to the sources of Dubna.
In the second quarter of the 14th century. Radonezh became part of the Moscow Principality formed in 1263. The Baskaks were replaced by princely governors. They were now involved in tax collection and legal matters. For themselves, their assistants and servants, a large estate was built with a church dedicated to the feast of the Nativity of Christ. Muscovy was sparsely populated, so the duties of the governors also included attracting people to the territory under their jurisdiction by providing various benefits. Perhaps, seduced by these benefits, in 1332 the Rostov boyar Kirill moved to the Radonezh “whole” with his family and relatives. Epiphanius the Wise wrote about the latter: “This... servant of God Kirill formerly owned a large estate in the Rostov region, he was a boyar, one of the glorious and famous boyars, owned great wealth, but towards the end of his life in old age he became impoverished and fell into poverty.” Probably, the boyar and his wife Maria founded the first hermit-dwelling monastery of the Intercession in the history of the Moscow region in the second half of the 1330s on Khotkovo. After their death, which supposedly occurred in 1342, their second son Bartholomew also decided to begin a monastic life. Together with his older brother Stefan, who had already taken monastic vows due to the death of his wife, Bartholomew went to the river. Konchura, which flows 15 km north of Radonezh. Brothers are here “...they made a bed and a hut and built a roof over it, and then they built one cell and set aside a place for a small church, and they cut it down... the church was consecrated in the name of the Holy Trinity...”. Stefan, seeing “that life in the desert is difficult”, soon left for Moscow. Bartholomew, left alone, “... studied all monastic affairs and monastic orders, and everything else that monks require.” Only after this he called Abbot Mitrofan, probably the abbot of the Intercession Monastery, who “he tonsured him into an angelic image”, giving him the name Sergius. This event took place on October 7, 1342. The monastic life of St. Sergius consisted of physical labors, humble meekness, beneficent and non-wrathful miracles, mystical visions and participation in the political life of the Moscow principality (G. Fedotov).
A feature of the Trinity Monastery during the time of St. Sergius was the desire for contemplation and silence. A similar monastery, which was a school of spiritual work, was later founded by Kirill Belozersky (?-1429), the saint’s interlocutor. After him, the Sergius direction in northern monasticism was continued by Dionysius Glushitsky (?-1437), and after him by Nil Sorsky (?-1508) and Cornelius of Komel (?-1537). The last representatives of this trend were Diodorus Yuriegorsky (?-1633) and Elizar of Anzersky (?-1656).
Trinity Monastery was founded on the territory of the Radonezh volost. In view of this circumstance, the nickname “Radonezh” was assigned to St. Sergius. The volost was located between the river. Vori, its left tributary Torgosha and the upper reaches of the river. Veli, a tributary of the Dubna. To the west of it was the Beli volost, bounded by the upper reaches of the Vori, river. Podmash, the left tributary of the Yakhroma, and the upper reaches of the river. Kokotka, one of the right tributaries of the Vyaz. Adjoining it from the south was another Moscow volost, Vorya, whose borders were the middle reaches of the river of the same name and the upper reaches of the river. Skalby, the left tributary of the Ucha. To the north and east of the Radonezh volost were the Pereslavl lands, and to the north-west were the Dmitrov lands.
The Radonezh volost became part of the Moscow lands no later than the reign of Ivan Kalita (1325-1340). Initially, it was the possession of the Moscow prince, and after the death of Ivan Kalita, for over a hundred years it was part of various fiefs. Its transition from one owner to another was associated with the peculiarity historical development North-Eastern Rus'. Moscow princes, like the rest of the Rurikovichs, looked at the lands they inherited or acquired in some way as their ancestral possession. Starting with Ivan Kalita, they divided between the heirs not only personal property, but also the territory of the principality. The lands allocated to individual male representatives of the clan from the share of the clan property (allotment) then turned into the property of their heirs and began to be divided between them. Women of the clan were given land for lifelong use, and after their death they were usually distributed among the men of the family or clan.
By the time of the founding of the Trinity Monastery, the Radonezh volost with 15 other volosts was part of the inheritance of Princess Ulyana. She received them according to the will of her husband, the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan Kalita, who died in March 1340. The widow princess herself died no later than 1374. Two-thirds of her possessions passed to the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich, and the one-third, which included, in particular, the volosts of Beli and Radonezh went to the latter’s cousin, Prince Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky. Now the prince's governors, sitting in the village of Radonezh, ruled two adjacent volosts.
Vladimir Andreevich, probably, while touring his new possessions, met the Trinity abbot and fell under the influence of this extraordinary personality. He ordered that in future the monastery be allocated part of the food supplies that were collected by the Radonezh governors as a tax in kind (a similar order was made in 1506 by the Grand Duke Vasily III regarding the Khotkovsky Intercession Monastery). In addition, he captured the Monk Sergius at the princely congress in Pereslavl, where he baptized Prince Yuri, the son of Dmitry Donskoy. After the congress, Vladimir Andreevich persuaded the elder to go with him to Serpukhov. “Honest Elder Sergius, come to Serpukhov and fall in love with the place on Vysokoye and lay the church with your own hands for the Conception of St. Anna, when the Holy Mother of God was conceived and build a monastery.” In 1380 year he, according to legend, blessed Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy and Vladimir Andreevich for the Battle of Kulikovo. Thus, thanks to the appanage prince of Serpukhov, the Monk Sergius of Radonezh became involved in the political life of North-Eastern Rus'.
Town of Radonezh
The Serpukhov prince died in May 1410. He divided his possessions between his five sons and his wife. His fourth son Andrey got “Radonezh with tamga and with myty. Beli, Chernogolovl... from the village and from the side... and with all duties, Yakovlya Slobodka, Kishkina Slobodka, Tukhachev.” In addition, he and his brother Vasily were allocated joint ownership of the city of Uglich with the camps.
Probably, under Andrei Vladimirovich, the village of Radonezh had its own Kremlin, in other words, a fortress, and since then it began to be mentioned in documents as a town. A site in the Pazha bend was used to construct the fortification. At a distance of approximately 10 m from its edge, a sand embankment was made along the entire perimeter, the base of which was 5 m and the height was 3 m. Then the embankment was lined with turf. They placed it on top wooden walls. A ditch was dug on the north-eastern floor side of the site, narrowing the passage into the fortress to three meters. The location of the Radonezh fortress on a part of the base of the hill that protrudes far towards the river valley indicates, in particular, that it was used primarily as a refuge.
It is known about Prince Andrei of Radonezh that he was married to the daughter of the Moscow boyar Ivan Dmitrievich Vsevolozh. In January 1414, he, together with his brother Vasily, took part in the campaign of his second cousin, Prince Yuri Dmitrievich Zvenigorodsky, against the Nizhny Novgorod prince Danila Borisovich. In July 1422, with the participation of Andrei Vladimirovich and Yuri Dmitrievich, the local canonization of St. Sergius of Radonezh was carried out. It was probably at their expense that the white stone Trinity Cathedral was built in the monastery, for which Andrei Rublev wrote his famous “Trinity”.
Prince Andrei of Radonezh died, like his brothers, in the plague of 1426-1427. The lands of Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky, having lost their owners, passed to Vasily Yaroslavich, his grandson from his third son. Almost the entire reign of Vasily Yaroslavich fell on dynastic war 1425-1453
This war was fought between Grand Duke Vasily II and his uncle Yuri of Zvenigorod, and then the latter’s sons Dmitry Kosy and Dmitry Shemyaka. In February 1446, the Grand Duke went on a pilgrimage to the Trinity Monastery. At this time, his then opponents, princes Dmitry Shemyaka and Ivan Mozhaisky, with the help of the conspirators, calmly entered Moscow, captured the mother and wife of Vasily II, plundered his treasury and the houses of his supporters. Ivan Andreevich Mozhaisky went to the monastery to capture Vasily II himself. A certain Bunko warned the Grand Duke that he was in danger of falling into the hands of his enemies. Vasily II did not believe him and, remaining in the monastery, only ordered to set up a guard barrier on the Pereslavl road. The Grand Ducal Guard was stationed on high mountain near the monastery, where the eastern outskirts of the village currently lie. Semkhoz. Ivan Mozhaisky became aware of the barrier, and he resorted to a trick. The prince ordered to get a sleigh, hid a pair of warriors in them, and ordered another one, under the guise of a driver, to walk next to the sleigh. The guard of Vasily II, who showed carelessness, was without special effort disarmed by the people of the Mozhaisk prince. Vasily II was captured, taken on a sleigh to Moscow and blinded. Then he was sent to Uglich, which he received as an appanage prince. In this war, which ended in 1453 with the victory of Vasily II, Prince Vasily Yaroslavich invariably remained faithful to the Grand Duke. Nevertheless, when a conflict broke out between him and the Trinity Monastery in 1456, Vasily II ordered the Serpukhov prince to be captured and thrown into prison. Vasily Yaroslavich died in the winter of 1483, having been in captivity for about 27 years. Immediately after his arrest, Vasily II annexed his possessions to his lands. Thus, from 1456, Radonezh with its subordinate volosts again, and now forever, began to belong to the great Moscow princes.
Under Vasily II, the Principality of Moscow from the ancestral patrimony of the Danilovichs turned into the patrimony of the grand ducal family. His son Ivan III sought, in turn, to turn the principality into the fiefdom of one grand duke. Vasily II annexed the lands of his cousins to his possessions. Ivan III began to annex the lands of his brothers. In 1472, the childless Prince Yuri Vasilyevich Dmitrovsky died. Ivan III, contrary to customary law, did not allocate any parts of this escheated inheritance to his brothers, but declared the whole of it his personal property. Possibly for the purpose better management of his expanded possessions, he decided to create from the volosts of Radonezh and
Beli, which were part of the principality of Vasily Yaroslavich, and the volosts of Vorya and Korzenev, which were part of the inheritance of Yuri Dmitrevsky, a new territorial unit - Radonezh district. The lands of the new district, which arose no later than 1473, were located on both banks of the upper and middle reaches of the river. Vori. The town of Radonezh was connected by a network of roads not only with Moscow, Pereslavl and Dmitrov, but also with the centers of neighboring volosts and camps, as well as all large settlements of the district. Nevertheless, for unknown reasons, it did not become a trade and craft center of the county. It didn’t even help that on September 25, 1492. “in memory of Sergius, the prince transferred the great bargaining from Trinity to the town of Radonezh”. The artisans of the town, judging by the materials of archaeological excavations, served mainly the governors with their assistants and servants and the townspeople.
In the 1530s, a Yamsk station was established in Radonezh. From there, horses and carts were presented to government officials for travel to similar stations located on the Uche and Dubna rivers. At the end of the 16th century. 40 coachmen served on the Gorodets pit.
During the XV-XVI centuries. all the once free lands of the county became the property of someone else. In the middle of the 16th century. about 45/o of land was in the possession of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, about 38% belonged to secular persons, about 5% - to several Moscow and Moscow region monasteries, about 1% - to the royal house and about 1% was listed outside the town. The lands of the latter extended along both banks of the river. Pages. Northern border from the river. Vori, having reached Pazhi, crossed the latter and went up the nameless ravine. Having reached its beginning, she turned onto the path that connected the town with the Troitsk village of Morozov, and along the path descended to the river. Swing towards the left tributary of the Pazha. Then she walked up the Podmash to the Fominsky ravine. Eastern border went up the Fominsky ravine, from its source it crossed to the upper reaches of the Oleshkovsky ravine. The southern border from the Oleshkovsky ravine passed to the Mogilitsky ravine, descended along it to the large Gorodets ravine and along the latter reached the river. The page with whom she switched to Vorya. The western border ran up the Vora from the lands of the palace village of Golygino to the lands of the private village of Arkhanov (See illustration. Click on it to enlarge).
The largest border ravines were used by the Radonezh people for economic purposes. During their field examination, partially washed out earthen dams were discovered. With the help of the latter, the ravines were turned into ponds. In the upper reaches of the ravine, which flows into Pazhu from the east, a dam has been preserved (length - 16 m, width at the base - 9 m, height - 1.5 m), through which the Radonezh-Morozovo path passed. The dam blocks the middle part of the Fominsky ravine (length - 26 m, width at the base - 8 m, height - 2 m). A small dam blocks the upper part of the Oleshkovsky ravine (length - 17 m, width at the base - 4 m, height - 70 cm). Of the two dams of the Mogilitsky ravine, the one that was poured in its middle part has been preserved (length - 60 m, width at the base - 10 m, height - 2.5 m). The most powerful dam was built in the large Gorodets ravine (length - 30 m, width at the base - 12 m, height - 2 m). The road Radonezh - Vozdvizhenskoye passed along this dam. On the high left bank of the Pazha, at the foot of the fortress and 0.5 km from it, two pond dams were built. One end of these dams extends into the river about one-third of its width. The dams slowed down the flow of water, thereby raising its level above the edge of the low right bank. Thanks to this simple technique, part of the river valley in two places was turned into large shallow ponds.
According to archaeological research, the town itself occupied an area slightly larger than that on which the modern village is located. The houses of the Radonezh residents stood in several rows at a distance of 10-15 m from each other. On the southwestern outskirts of the town stood the wooden church of Saints Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria, near which a cemetery was built.
The church existed until mid-17th century c., and then due to disrepair it was dismantled. The royal doors, decorated with superimposed carved ornaments, have been preserved from it. The last braid is based on a double stem with curls.
The unsuccessful Livonian War of 1558-1583. and oprichnina 1565-1572. led to the economic ruin of the center of the Moscow state. In the Radonezh district, the overwhelming majority of secular estates and estates, some monastic and royal estates, as well as the town itself, were abandoned. Its main inhabitants were coachmen. The fair moved again to Troitskoe village. Klementyevo. Radonezh, whose formation and development was associated with the first Moscow dynasty, faded away along with this dynasty.
Village Gorodok
IN early XVII V. Moscow State entered into a period of internal strife, in which the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden intervened. During the events of the first decade of the 17th century. together with the central part of the state, Radonezh and its surroundings were completely devastated. Trinity-Sergius Monastery, girdled in the middle of the 16th century. powerful fortress walls, was subjected to a 16-month siege by the troops of False Dmitry II. From September 1608 to January 1610, its defenders repelled several assaults, made countless large and small forays, and withstood a month-long artillery bombardment and a six-month pestilence. In February 1613, Mikhail Romanov, the great-nephew of the first wife of Ivan the Terrible, was elected to the vacant Moscow throne. Internal strife in the state began to slowly subside, but the struggle with Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth continued.
In November 1616, Mikhail Fedorovich ordered "Date to the saints' house life-giving Trinity to the Venerable Wonderworker Sergius as his patrimony" the never-revived town of Radonezh and 12 wastelands that were previously assigned to the Gorodets pit. In December of the same year, the monastery authorities turned to the tsar with a request to grant them a tumbledown from his yard in the neighboring village of Vozdvizhenskoye, because “to put a church in the town and there is nothing to build a monastery courtyard with”. Povalusha (a large unheated tower) was converted into a tented church dedicated to the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (celebrated on August 6/19). In the refectory attached to it there were chapels "Sovereign Angel Mikhail Malein and Sergius of Radonezh."
In the spring of 1617, the campaign against Moscow of the Polish prince Vladislav began, who in 1610, first by Tushino and then by Moscow boyars, was invited to the royal throne. After an unsuccessful assault on Moscow on the night of October 1, 1618, the prince moved along the Pereslavl road further into the interior of the country. Perhaps he intended to capture the Trinity-Sergius Monastery and, on the basis of this success, receive money from the Sejm to continue the war. By this time, the monastery had acquired its own archers and gunners, so Vladislav, having understood the current situation and remembering the results of his previous siege, decided not to tempt fate anymore. He moved further along the road to the village of Rogachevo and began negotiations. They took place in the village of Deulino, where Troitsk authorities released “... from the ambassadors of the Radonezh town of the priest Simeon with an honest life-giving cross, gold and beads, and precious stones decorated... and with a decorated leopard, and a silver dish.” On December 1, the text of the agreement was finally adopted. The certificates were placed on a plate and a cross was placed on top of them. The ambassadors took turns approaching the lectern and kissing the cross. Then each of the parties signed the letters and hung up the seals. After this, the ambassadors solemnly exchanged the texts of the treaty. The long-awaited peace has arrived in the Moscow state. Thus, by chance, the Radonezh priest became a participant in the truce that put an end to the Polish-Lithuanian intervention. With the advent of peaceful days, the Troitsk authorities quickly managed to populate the new estate by providing benefits and issuing loans to those peasants who agreed to move to Radonezh. By the mid-1620s, in the village of Gorodok Radonezhsky there were 10 peasant and 13 bobyl households, as well as a monastery courtyard in which they lived “monks to supervise the monastic plowing”, and the ox yard. On the church land there were the courtyards of the priest, the sexton, and 4 cells of the poor. A bell tower was added to the Church of the Transfiguration. The inactive Church of Saints Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria still stood in the churchyard. The territory of the churchyard, which was not occupied by the cemetery, was rented out, and local peasants used it as an arable field.
At the Afanasovsky cemetery in late XVII V. The unfortunate Khovansky princes were buried. In the 1680s, a power struggle broke out between members of the family of the late Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The then head of the Streletsky Prikaz, the elderly Prince Ivan Andreevich Khovansky, decided to take advantage of this Kremlin battle. But before he had time to prepare the conspiracy, the kings received a denunciation of him. The entire royal family, under the guise of a pilgrimage, moved to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Prince I.A. Khovansky was summoned to the village. Vozdvizhenskoe under the pretext of a meeting of the Ukrainian hetman Ivan Samoilovich. On the way to the village, he was captured along with his eldest son Andrei Ivanovich. In Vozdvizhenskoe, Duma clerk Fyodor Shaklovity read to them about their guilt. “And for their treason the great sovereigns ordered that they be executed by death, and having answered, they cut off their heads, and did not order them to be buried near the church.” According to the Mazurin chronicler, “their bodies were ordered to be buried in Gorodets.”
Until 1764, the peasants of the village. The town was used by the Trinity authorities on the monastery's arable land and farmyard. In 1764, due to the secularization of church lands, the village became a state property. In 1836-1842. In it, at the expense of parishioners, a stone Church of the Transfiguration was built with a chapel of St. Sergius of Radonezh in the refectory. The building has the traditional parish churches of the 17th-20th centuries. three-part longitudinal-axial composition. Its basis is a pillarless one-light quadrangle of the temple, completed by an eight-window rotunda. A small drum with an octagonal bowl and a cross rises above the rotunda. Adjoining the temple on the east is a semi-circular apse, and on the north and south sides there are four-column porticoes of the Doric order. A rectangular refectory with a gable roof is attached to the temple from the west. Behind the refectory rises a three-tiered bell tower, topped with a spire with a small cross. The apse of the temple and the refectory are decorated with quadruple rustication. The first and second quadrangles of the bell tower are decorated with flat paired pilasters, completed in the first quadrangle with a triglyph-metope frieze, and in the second with a triangular pediment. The cylindrical tier of the bell, as in the quadrangles, is cut through by four arched openings. In all tiers, the partitions between them are processed with paired pilasters. The altar part of the temple is covered by a five-tiered iconostasis, and the south-eastern corner of the refectory, where the chapel of St. Sergius of Radonezh is located, is covered by a two-tiered iconostasis. The icons in them were painted by local artists in the second half of the 19th century. The fragmentarily preserved wall painting dates back to the 1870s. In 1855, a brick fence with a metal lattice and round turrets at the corners was erected around the church. In the 1860s, the separate bell tower was connected to the refectory by a narrow passage.
In the 1870s, a zemstvo primary school began operating in the village. IN late XIX V. There were 55 households in the village. The peasants of the village, like everyone else in the area, sowed rye, oats, peas, and planted potatoes. Due to the shortage of land and its low fertility, many of them became servants, engaged in weaving and carpentry, and worked as foilers at nearby enterprises. At the beginning of the 20th century. The zemstvo authorities allowed the use of the fort as a cemetery, which had previously been used either as an arable field or as a pasture.
From the first quarter of the 19th century. The village of Gorodok began to attract the attention of historians, archaeologists, and antiquity lovers. In 1821 he was visited by a Polish antiquities researcher Slavic peoples Z.D. Khodakovsky. In his “Report on the first successes of travel in Russia” he noted the presence of a settlement in the village and a field called White Gods next to the settlement. Professor of Moscow University I.M. Snegirev, in a number of his guidebooks of the 1840-1850s, dedicated to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the Trinity Road, for the first time introduced a wide range of readers to the history of the settlement and its monuments. In the 20th century great attention Radonezh has been studied by archaeologists. Thanks to the efforts of Yu.G. Gendune, N.P. Milonov, S.Z. Chernov, V.I. Vishnevsky and A.E. Bushuev, it was possible to identify the pre-Slavic history of the settlement, clarify its topography, collect significant material related to economic activities and life of Radonezh residents.
In the 1960s-1980s government agencies A number of decisions were made aimed at preserving the monuments of Radonezh and its historical landscape. In 1960, the settlement was placed under state protection as an archeological monument of republican significance, and in 1974, the Church of the Transfiguration was placed under state protection as an architectural monument of republican significance. In 1986, the Moscow Regional Executive Committee decided to establish protection zones for the town of Radonezh. The design of these zones was developed research assistants Trust "Mosoblstroyrestavratsiya" A.I. Semenova, T.V. Bugaeva and S.Z. Chernov (See illustration. Click on it to enlarge). The northern border of the protection zones begins near the Abramtsevo platform, runs south of the city of Khotkovo and between the city and the village. Semkhoz turns southeast, and then through the forest comes out to the Yaroslavl highway north of the village of Ryazantsy. The eastern border descends from the Yaroslavskoye Highway to the south, west of the villages of Kirimovo, Shelkovo and Lychovo and reaches the village of Barkovo, Pushkinsky district. The southern border goes from Barkovo to the west and north of the village. Rakhmanova goes to the river. Twilight. The western border runs from Sumeri to the north and near the village of Antipino, Sergiev Posad district, turns northwest to the railway track, then it runs along the track beyond the Abramtsevo platform. Thus, the protection zone is located in the southwestern part of Sergiev Posad and the northeastern part of the neighboring Pushkinsky district of the Moscow region.
On May 29, 1988, a memorial sign to St. Sergius of Radonezh (sculptor V.M. Klykov, architect R.I. Semerzhiev) was erected to the southwest of the Transfiguration Church of the village. I.M. Snegirev, in one of his articles dedicated to Radonezh, wrote: “Here one cannot help but be in awe of a place consecrated by the existence of the shrines of churches and the stay of the Reverend Founder of the House of the Holy Trinity and overshadowed by the invisible presence of Angels - their guardians. Radonezh is worthy of a monument corresponding to it, which would indicate to a passing pilgrim the traces of the great ascetic, lover of the fatherland, supporter of Russian weapons, peacemaker and miracle worker. May the place not be holy empty!” 133 years later, his call was heard. The base of the memorial sign is an oval one and a half meter high hill. On its flat top stood the three-meter figure of an old man in monastic robes. The monk's half-lowered head is covered with a doll pulled over his forehead. The elder's eyes are closed, his hands are folded on his chest in prayer. In the middle part of the figure, the stone is slightly selected and the figure of the boy Bartholomew protrudes from the outlined oblong niche. He is wearing an untucked shirt and soft pants tucked into his onuchi. The boy has bast shoes on his feet. With wide open eyes, Bartholomew looks over the Radonezh hills. In his hands he holds a carved icon, in the center of which, in a circle, is the Old Testament Trinity. At the base of the hill lies a parallelepiped with the inscription: “Grateful Russia to Sergius of Radonezh.”
In October 1989, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the village of Gorodok was renamed the village of Radonezh...
The Empire style Church of the Transfiguration was built in 1834-1840. financed by parishioners and donations. The unplastered brick building with the use of white stone in its details has a composition characteristic of its time. The pillarless single-apse quadrangle of the temple with side porticoes of the Doric order is crowned with a domed rotunda. From the west it is adjoined by a refectory and a three-tiered bell tower with a spire, completed with a cylindrical tier of bells. The walls of the apse and refectory are decorated with square rustication, the bell towers are decorated with double pilasters. Wooden cornices. The interiors are decorated with wooden carved iconostases: the main five-tiered one in eclectic forms, 1890, and the two-tiered side chapel with features of the pseudo-Russian style, 1862. The walls and vaults are covered with oil paintings, executed in the church in 1870, in the refectory by I.M. Malyshev in 1863; updated and registered in the 1960s. The brick church fence with a wooden lattice was restored in 1969. on the model of the previous one, 1855. Radonezh was first mentioned in 1328. By decree of the Government of the RSFSR dated October 31, 1989, the village of Gorodok was returned to its ancient name- Radonezh.
The Church of the Transfiguration in the village of Radonezh was built in 1836-1842. The village of Radonezh on the Pazhe River has an ancient history and is widely known due to the fact that it was here that the exploits of St. Sergius (Bartholomew), who received the nickname of Radonezh, began. The parents of little Bartholomew moved to Radonezh from their estate near Rostov the Great, from where they were forced to leave by constant oppression from the governors of the Moscow prince Ivan Kalita. Boyar Kirill with his wife Maria and sons Stefan, Bartholomew and Peter, at the invitation of the Radonezh governor Terenty Rtishch, who promised great benefits to the settlers, moved to Radonezh. Later, Cyril and Maria took monastic vows at the nearby Khotkovo monastery, and Bartholomew went with them to look after and help their elderly parents.
In the 15th century, Radonezh became a real town with a fortress, earthen ramparts and three churches, the center of an appanage principality, which was owned by Prince Andrei Menshoi. The ramparts have survived to this day, but from the three temples only the wooden royal doors have survived. The cathedral church of the fortress was called Preobrazhensky. Under Ivan III, the fair was transferred to Radonezh from the Trinity Monastery. In the 17th century, Radonezh became the patrimony of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. By this time, the village (or, as stated in the documents, “the city of Radonezh”) was devastated during the Time of Troubles, and not a single temple remained in it. The monastic authorities decided to convert the tower of the fortress into a tented church. The temple was consecrated in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord, and in the attached refectory two chapels were consecrated - Sergius of Radonezh and Mikhail Malein.
In the 18th century, the village acquired a new name - Gorodok. A new church in the village was built with funds from the parish in the mid-19th century in the Empire style. Initially, the main volume of the temple was placed separately from the bell tower, and they were combined with a refectory in the 1860s. The main volume is quadrangular, the sides are decorated with high porticoes in four columns, and a high light rotunda is placed on the lower tier. A five-tiered iconostasis was placed in the main part of the temple, and a small two-tiered iconostasis in the chapel of St. Sergius of Radonezh in the refectory. In the 1870s, the temple was painted, and some of these paintings have survived.
The three-tier bell tower is decorated with paired columns and topped with a spire. In 1855, the temple was surrounded by a new brick fence with metal bars. This fence was partially destroyed during Soviet times, but was restored in 1969.
The ancient village has attracted the attention of researchers since the beginning of the 19th century. Largely due to the fact that back in the 1820s it was possible to restore the history of the village, in the 1960s a decision was made to preserve its monuments, including the Church of the Transfiguration. In 1974, the temple was placed under state protection. In 1988, a monument to Sergius of Radonezh was erected next to the temple, designed by sculptor V.M. Klykov and architect R.I. Semerzhiev. In 1989, the village of Gorodok was renamed Radonezh. Now many pilgrims flock here, visiting places associated with the life of one of the most revered and famous Russian saints - St. Sergius Radonezh. Under the mountain there is a spring of Sergius of Radonezh, and there is a font there.
Source: http://hramy.ru/regions/r50/sergposad/radonezh/radpreob.htm
At one time, Radonezh was of great strategic importance due to its location on the road connecting Moscow with Rostov, Uglich, Pereslavl and Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda. In the first decades after the Tatar invasion, Tatar Baskaks sat in Radonezh. In the chronicles, Radonezh is mentioned in the will of Moscow Prince Ivan Kalita (1288 - 1340), who assigned Radonezh along with the volost to his second wife Ulyana. After her death, Radonezh went to her grandson, Prince Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky, and then to his son Andrei Vladimirovich Radonezh. The latter turned Radonezh into a fortified town, building a wooden Kremlin in it and surrounding it with ramparts.
At the end of the 15th century, Prince Ivan III transferred the fair from the Trinity Monastery to Radonezh. Around the 1530s, a yam appeared in Radonezh - a postal station; During the time of Ivan the Terrible, there were up to 40 coachmen at the station. But Radonezh did not have long to prosper - in times of troubles the town was ravaged by the Polish troops of Sapieha during the campaign against the Trinity-Sergius Monastery (1608-1610). After this, Radonezh is never restored to its former meaning.
The central attraction of present-day Radonezh is the Transfiguration Church with a bell tower, the construction of which dates back to the first half of the 19th century. Next to the church there is a monument to St. Sergius of Radonezh, erected relatively recently - in 1988. The Transfiguration Church stands on a hill under which the Pazha River flows; There is a wooden chapel on the river, and a little further behind it there is a spring. The small parking lot in front of the church is almost always full of cars and tour buses. At a short distance from the church there are a number of hills overgrown with trees, in which you do not immediately recognize the ancient ramparts. This place is very picturesque, here you can have a pleasant walk in the summer or ski in the winter. If Radonezh seems unattractive as an independent destination for a trip, then a visit to it can be conveniently combined with a trip to Sergiev Posad, Khotkovo and Abramtsevo.
Source: http://explorado.ru/towns/radonej
Radonezh, associated with the name of St. Sergius (1314-1392) and inseparable from the initial history of the Trinity Lavra, is one of the most significant historical places Russian state. The history of Radonezh began in the 8th-9th centuries, when on a steep bend of the left bank of the Pazhi River there was a tribal settlement of hunters and fishermen of the Finno-Ugric Merya tribe. By the 13th century, a Slavic agricultural village had grown up next to the former Meryan settlement. It could be called either the name Radoneg or the name Radonezh derived from it.
In written sources, Radonezh was first mentioned in the spiritual charter of the great Moscow Prince Ivan Kalita (1325-1340) as the village of Radonezh. The Grand Duke bequeathed the village to his wife, Princess Ulyana, and her younger children. The Life of St. Sergius, compiled at the beginning of the 15th century, testifies that under Ivan Kalita, many residents of Rostov, which was then subordinate to Moscow, moved to “the whole, the verb Radonezh.” Among them was the noble but impoverished boyar Kirill with his wife Maria and sons: the eldest Stefan, the middle Bartholomew and the younger Peter. Stefan and Peter chose a worldly life in marriage and in the service of the Grand Duke. Bartholomew, who from a young age was especially committed to the spirit of monasticism and church service, dreamed of retiring to a monastery. Nevertheless, at the request of his parents, he remained with them, comforting them in their old age and infirmity. Thus, Bartholomew spent his worldly life in the village of Radonezh in obedience to his parents and in caring for them. Only after the death of Cyril and Mary, who took monastic vows in the small Intercession Monastery in Khotkovo and were buried there, did Bartholomew begin to fulfill his cherished intention. Leaving Father's house on younger brother, Bartholomew went to “seek a deserted place.” Here, on Makovets, Bartholomew, with the help of his older brother, founded the modest Trinity Hermitage - the basis of the future great Lavra. Radonezh was then owned by Serpukhov Prince Vladimir Andreevich the Brave (1353-1410), one of the heroes of the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, and, of course, repeatedly visited the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, sending drinks “to amuse the elder and his brothers.”
Under Prince Vladimir, the village of Radonezhskoye turned into the town of Radonezh. The busy Pereslavl road, which ran near the town, supplied the local market with goods and made it possible to collect trade and travel (mytnaya) duties in favor of the prince. Serpukhov Prince Vladimir the Brave was succeeded by his fourth son Andrei Vladimirovich (1410-1426). Having inherited, along with the rural volosts, “Radonezh with tamga and with myty...”, Prince Andrei of Radonezh made this town the capital of his small principality. Having inherited Radonezh, the prince became the owner of the lands around the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Following the example of his father, the prince helped the Trinity Monastery, the founder of which he knew from childhood. In 1422, on the 30th anniversary of the memory of St. Sergius, Prince Andrei transferred three nearby villages to the monastery, thereby creating material basis further existence of the monastery. The prince took part in the celebration of the discovery of the relics of St. Sergius and in the construction of the white stone Trinity Cathedral. In 1426 it became the tomb of the prince. This is how the historical and spiritual connection between Radonezh and the Holy Trinity Monastery manifested itself. In 1456, Radonezh and its volosts were returned to the Moscow sovereigns, and it received a new status and name - the village of Gorodok. During the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century, Gorodok, along with other villages around the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, was devastated and deserted; some of its inhabitants took refuge behind the walls of the Trinity Monastery, impregnable to enemies. The temple, of course, was burned. In 1616, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, in respect of the memory of St. Sergius of Radonezh, transferred the desolate village of Gorodok to the ownership of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The village of Gorodok was located in the patrimony of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery (from 1744 - Lavra) until 1764, when, in pursuance of the decree of Empress Catherine II on the secularization of church land ownership, it was transferred to the ownership of the state, which was considered until the abolition of serfdom in 1861.
Now a reminder of ancient city, which has existed since those distant times, are the swollen ramparts and the church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord, which stands on the western outskirts of the village, on the edge of a slope facing the Pazhe River on one side, and the ancient settlement on the other. During the time of Prince Vladimir the Brave, a security tower of the Radonezh fortress stood in its place. Transfiguration Church in the village. Radonezh was preceded by the Church of the Nativity of Christ, mentioned in the Life of St. Sergius. It was at the Nativity of Christ Church, according to the Life of the Venerable, that the family of boyar Kirill settled when they moved from Rostov to the village of Radonezh. The Transfiguration Church in Gorodok was built in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery at the beginning of the reign of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich during the revival of a noble village that had been desolate during the Time of Troubles. Archimandrite Dionysius and his brethren send the monastery's archimandrite Dionysius and his brethren to Radonezh to build a temple from the logs of the royal tumbleweed, the trees of which were cut down in the vicinity of the Trinity Monastery. From these logs, in 1618, a wooden church was assembled, dedicated to the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, with the chapels of St. Sergius of Radonezh and Mikhail Malein, the heavenly patron of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. All the decoration of the church - images, candles, books and bells on a small bell tower - was provided by the monastery. The first rector of the Church of the Transfiguration was named Simeon. He was present directly at the conclusion of a peace treaty between the Moscow State and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on December 1, 1618 in the village of Deulino. There he performed the rite of kissing the cross. The village of Gorodok and the neighboring village of Vozdvizhenskoye went down in history under the name “Khovanshchina” - a revolt of the Moscow Streltsy led by the head of the Streletsky Prikaz, Prince Ivan Khovansky, in 1682. After in September of this year, Prince Ivan Khovansky and his son Andrei, on the orders of Princess Sofia Alekseevna, were beheaded in the village of Vozdvizhenskoye, their bodies were buried “on Gorodets,” that is, in the graveyard where the Afanasovskaya Church had previously stood. The memory of the lost temple and its abandoned churchyard was preserved in the toponym Afanasovsky Meadow.
Since the mid-17th century, the Church of the Transfiguration remained the only church in the village of Gorodok. Until the 19th century, it was made of wood and, of course, was reconstructed several times either due to disrepair or due to another fire. The existing stone church was built in 1836-1840. Its architecture is traditional for parish churches of that time. Nevertheless, the Church of the Transfiguration in Radonezh is recognized as one of the best examples of the Empire style. The author of the church project was supposedly from a family of serfs, A.G. Grigoriev (1782-1868), recognized as the leading architect of the Moscow Empire style. In 1854, a stone fence with metal bars and four corner turrets was built around the temple. In the 1860s, the bell tower, which stood separately from the church refectory, was connected to it by a narrow passage. The bell tower had 7 bells, the main one weighing more than 202 poods (more than 3.3 tons). The church has preserved wooden iconostases, decorated with carvings and gilding: a five-tiered one in the temple, a two-tiered one in the chapel of St. Sergius of Radonezh, in the refectory. The icons for the iconostasis were painted by Lavra artists in the second half of the 19th century. An oil painting from 1870, executed by the Sergievsky Posad artist I.M., has been preserved in fragments on the walls and vaults. Malyshev (1802-1880). Coming from poor family Lavra minister, Malyshev, with the support of the Lavra, learned the basics of painting, then graduated from the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Having become a free artist, he lived in Sergievsky Posad, fulfilling orders from the Lavra and even members of the imperial family.
Difficult times for the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, its ministers and parishioners began in the 1930s. In December 1934, the authorities banned the ringing of bells in the churches of the village of Gorodok and its neighboring Vozdvizhenskoye. Two years later, the community of believers in the village of Gorodok was forced to hand over the vestments from the icons stored in the Transfiguration Church to the state. Mother of God Kazan and Smolensk. Finally, by order of the authorities of the Moscow region in the spring of 1941, the Church of the Transfiguration, allegedly at the request of general meeting The residents of the Town were closed and turned into a rural club. The petition of former parishioners to open the church, submitted to the authorities in January 1943, was considered inappropriate. Changes for the better for the Transfiguration Church began in 1974, when it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Zagorsk State Historical and Art Museum-Reserve. The museum set up an exhibition in the church dedicated to the history of ancient Radonezh. The popularization of the history of Radonezh resulted in the recognition of the Transfiguration Church as a monument and urgent restoration work.
In front of the northern façade of the Church of the Transfiguration there is a vast square. To the west of the square, on the edge of the slope facing the ancient Radonezh settlement, rises unusual looking a monument erected on a round embankment one and a half meters high. On the flat top of the embankment stood a three-meter-tall figure of an old man in monastic robes. The half-lowered head of the old man is covered with a doll pulled over his forehead, his eyes are closed. His hands are prayerfully folded on his chest and a protective dome over the head of the figure of the youth Bartholomew. In the hands of the youth is an image of the Old Testament Trinity. With a gesture of his hand, the elder seems to bless and at the same time protect the boy, who has a long and hard way spiritual development and service Orthodox Church, people and Fatherland. At the base of the hill lies a parallelepiped with the inscription: “Grateful Russia to Sergei of Radonezh.” Monument by sculptor V.M. Klykov was opened in May 1988 in honor of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus'. In October of the following year, 1989, by decree of the Presidium Supreme Council In the RSFSR, the village of Gorodok was renamed the village of Radonezh. With the opening of the monument to St. Sergius of Radonezh and with the return of it to ancient Radonezh historical name a new chapter opened in the history of the Church of the Transfiguration. Transferred to the jurisdiction of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, it became the center of the small Radonezh metochion subordinate to it.
From the brochure: Radonezh courtyard Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra. - Russian Printing House LLC, 2017
Radonezh- an ancient village in the Sergiev Posad region. It is located not far from the Kholmogory highway, 13 kilometers south of Sergievo Posad, on the Pazha River.
Story
The territory of Radonezh and its surroundings has been inhabited for a very long time. The oldest inhabitants of these places were Finno-Ugric and Baltic tribes. At the beginning of our era there was a fortified Finno-Ugric settlement here. In the 11th century, the Krivichi Slavs appeared on the banks of the Pazha, leaving behind burial mounds.
According to legend, the settlement was founded by Novgorodian Radoneg and named in his honor. Radonezh was located on the highway near the ford. This road was a vector for the settlement of Russians in the 13th-14th centuries. Rajonezh, which was part of the Rostov-Suzdal Principality, was not damaged during the Mongol-Tatar invasion; there were Tatar Baskaks in it.
In the middle of the 14th century, Radonezh (otherwise Radonezh) was annexed to the Moscow Principality, becoming a volost center. At the beginning of the 15th century, Prince Andrei of Radonezh, the owner of the village, fortified Radonezh, surrounding it with earthen ramparts and building a wooden Kremlin. At that time, the settlement was known as the Radonezh Town. Under Tsar Ivan III, the town was appointed the center of a special district; the fair, which was usually held in the Trinity Monastery, was even moved here. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, a large pit (postal) station was built in the town. During the Time of Troubles, the Radonezh town was ravaged by the Poles, after which the settlement was unable to recover.
Since the beginning of the 17th century, Radonezh has been known as Gorodok, although in fact it was a village. In 1617-1764, the town was assigned to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, and then it was a state-owned village. The historical name Radonezh was returned to it in 1989.
Attractions
The architectural landmark of Radonezh is the Transfiguration Church, consecrated in 1842. It is decorated with paintings and icons from the 19th century. The ramparts from ancient Radonezh have been preserved. At the former entrance to the fortress (Detinets), a sculpture was installed in 1988, symbolizing the “miraculous teaching” of the youth Bartholomew - the future Venerable Sergius of Radonezh. The filming of the film “Aty-Bati, Soldiers Are Coming” took place in Radonezh.
The village of Radonezh on the left bank of the Pazhi River is one of the oldest settlements in the Sergiev Posad region. It was founded by the Slavs around the 11th century. This is confirmed by the name Radonezh - personal Slavic name"Radoneg" in the possessive form. It is believed that the name of the neighboring city of Khotkovo comes from the name “Khotoneg”.
The Church of the Transfiguration in the village of Radonezh was built in 1836-1842. The village of Radonezh on the Pazhe River is widely known due to the fact that it was here that the exploits of St. Sergius (Bartholomew), who received the nickname of Radonezh, began.
The parents of little Bartholomew moved to Radonezh from their estate near Rostov the Great, from where they were forced to leave by constant oppression from the governors of the Moscow prince Ivan Kalita.
Boyar Kirill with his wife Maria and sons Stefan, Bartholomew and Peter, at the invitation of the Radonezh governor Terenty Rtishch, who promised great benefits to the settlers, moved to Radonezh.
Later, Cyril and Maria took monastic vows at the nearby Khotkovo monastery, and Bartholomew went with them to look after and help their elderly parents.
In the 15th century, Radonezh became a real town with a fortress, earthen ramparts and three churches, the center of an appanage principality, which was owned by Prince Andrei Menshoi. The ramparts have survived to this day, but from the three temples only the wooden royal doors have survived.
The cathedral church of the fortress was called Preobrazhensky. Under Ivan III, the fair was transferred to Radonezh from the Trinity Monastery. In the 17th century, Radonezh became the patrimony of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. By this time, the village (or, as stated in the documents, “the city of Radonezh”) was devastated during the Time of Troubles, and not a single temple remained in it.
The monastic authorities decided to convert the tower of the fortress into a tented church. The temple was consecrated in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord, and in the attached refectory two chapels were consecrated - Sergius of Radonezh and Mikhail Malein.
In the 18th century, the village acquired a new name - Gorodok. A new church in the village was built with funds from the parish in the mid-19th century in the Empire style. Initially, the main volume of the temple was placed separately from the bell tower, and they were combined with a refectory in the 1860s.
The main volume is quadrangular, the sides are decorated with high porticoes in four columns, and a high light rotunda is placed on the lower tier. A five-tiered iconostasis was placed in the main part of the temple, and a small two-tiered iconostasis in the chapel of St. Sergius of Radonezh in the refectory. In the 1870s, the temple was painted, and some of these paintings have survived.
In 1974, the temple was placed under state protection. In 1988, a monument to Sergius of Radonezh was erected next to the temple, designed by sculptor V.M. Klykov. It was May 29 - in honor of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' and in honor of the 600th anniversary of the repose of St. Sergius here, opposite the Church of the Transfiguration. The monument is a three-meter figure of an old man with a relief image in its middle part of a boy with the image of the Trinity. This is the first monument to a Russian saint since 1917. Revered as an icon.
In 1989, the village of Gorodok was renamed Radonezh. Now many pilgrims flock here. Under the mountain there is a spring of Sergius of Radonezh, and there is a font there.
The pilgrim carries with him six five-liter water containers. Consequently, he will have to climb a steep hill, carrying an extra 30 kg with him.
Some of the material was taken from the website Khramy.ru.
