Zagorsk State Museum-Preserve of History and Art [antikvár]

The town of Zagorsk, some seventy kilometres north-east of Moscow, is known throughout the world for its fine monuments of Russian architecture and culture. Pride of place among them belongs to the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius, a great treasure store of early Russian art. Here, within its walls, is one of the most famous museums irt the Soviet Union, the State Museum-Preserve of History and Art. which came into being as a result of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The decree of the Council of People's Commissars that the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius be turned into a museum of historical and artistic treasures was issued on 20 April, 1920 and signed by Lenin himself. The Zagorsk museum is a splendid page in the history of Russian culture. The beginnings of its unique collection date back-to mediaeval times when the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius was one of the most famous monasteries in old Russia. Any account of the Zagorsk museum's collection of Russian art must include a few words about the history of the monastery to which a special exhibition in the Infirmary is devoted. The founding of the Trinity Monastery in the 1330s and 1340s coincided with a very hard time in the history of Russia, the period of struggle for national independence and against feudal disunity. At this critical political juncture the Trinity Monastery actively supported the policy of the Grand Princes of Moscow aimed at uniting the principalities under Moscow and gathering strength to cast off the hated Tatar-Mongol overlordship. This support by Moscow explains why the monastery soon became very popular. The active political stance of its founder, Sergius of Radonezh, on the eve of the famous Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 and the participation of two monks from the Trinity Monastery in this battle brought the monastery even more prestige. The growth of the monastery's authority saw a rise in its economic and political importance. To a large extent this was thanks to the Grand Princes of Moscow and later the tsars, who granted the monastery all manner of privileges and made it lavish donations. By the sixteenth century the monastery owned extensive lands and a large number of serfs. The exceptional status of the Trinity Monastery and its wealth attracted the finest artists of mediaeval Russia. Masters from Moscow. Pskov and Yaroslavl worked here. Thus the monastery was turned into one of the leading centres of Russian culture. Fine churches adorned with frescoes and icons painted by outstanding artists were erected within its walls. In the fifteenth century the sculptor and architect Vasily Yermolin worked here and the great painter Andrei Rublev. It was in this monastery with its special creative atmosphere that Rublev's most brilliant work was painted, his famous Old Testament Trinity, a symbol of the spiritual regeneration of the Russian people and the rallying of forces in the struggle for political unity and national independence. Skilled jewellers and carvers of wood, stone and ivory, including the talented master Amvrosy also worked in the monastery. 5