Convent of the Intercession (Pokrovsky Monastyr)

Convent of the Intercession (Pokrovsky Monastyr) Review

In addition to being a religious institution, the Convent of the Intercession (was also a place for political incarcerations. Basil III divorced his wife Solomonia in 1525 and banished her here when she failed to produce a male heir. Basil may have chosen this monastery because, in 1514, he had commissioned the splendid octagonal, three-dome Cathedral of the Intercession here, as supplication for a male heir. Interestingly, local legend has it that Solomonia subsequently gave birth to a boy and then staged the child's death to hide him from Basil. Basil subsequently married Yelena Glinskaya, who did give him an heir: Ivan IV, who would be known as "the Terrible." Ivan, in turn, banished his wife Anna here. And when Peter the Great, after returning from Europe in 1698, finally decided that he wanted to rid himself of his wife, Yevdokia, he forced her to take the veil and live out the rest of her life in this convent. A fine view of the monastery can be had from across the river, from the sparse remains of the Alexander Nevsky monastery. The convent sits across the Kamenka River from Spaso Yefimsky, in an oxbow bend of the river. To get here, turn east off ulitsa Lenina onto ulitsa Stromynka, and then go north on Pokrovskaya ulitsa.