Boris and Gleb Monastery, Smolensk

Boris and Gleb Monastery was a monastery, built on the site of the murder of St. Gleb, on Smyadyni in Smolensk ..

History
The monastery was located not far from Smolensk, in the place where the Smyadyn River, falling into the Dnieper, forms a small bay, convenient for stopping ships, which served in the Middle Ages as a western port facing the city ​​of Kiev. According to chronicle and hagiographic data, it was here in 1015 that people sent by Svyatopolk found Prince Gleb and killed him.

XII century
The first wooden church was built on this spot in 1070's, but the appearance of the monastery on Smyadyni researchers associated with the formation of the cult of Saints Boris and Gleb, and refers to the beginning of the XII century, simultaneously with the laying of Vladimir Monomakh main Smolensk church - Cathedral of the Assumption ..

For the first time in the chronicles, the monastery is mentioned under the year 1138, when, according to the records of the Novgorod first chronicle of the junior breeding, Prince Smolensk was seized and imprisoned by the Smolensk prince Svyatoslav Olgovich, who was expelled from Novgorod : "... and Svyatoslav himself is on the road to Smolyan and his solitude on Smyadin manastyr ... ". Stone construction in the monastery began in 1145, when the Smolensk prince Rostislav Mstislavich "... laying the church of Kamyan on Smidin, Boris and Glob, Smolensk ..." . Apparently, in order to strengthen the importance of the Smolensk monastery, in 1191 his son, Davyd Rostislavich, brought to Smidyn from Vyshgorod "... coffins are dilapidated ..." Boris and Gleb. On the death of Davyd Rostislavovich himself in 1197 in the Ipatiev Chronicle it is said: "... and putting it in the church of St. Globe and Boris in Smolensk ..." . According to historians, Borisoglebsky stone church was built as a cathedral of the monastery of Smolensk princely dynasty ..

According to one version, first voiced by the Smolensk historian SP Pisarev, in the XII century Smidyn was a fortified princely patrimony ("princely city") and a large trade and craft settlement isolated from Smolensk. Высказывалось даже предположение, что она имела значение княжеского замка, подобно Боголюбову и Вышгороду. Отправной точкой этой теории стало летописное сообщение о том, что восстание смолян 1440 года началось около «церкви Бориса и Глеба в городе». . It was even suggested that it had the value of a princely castle, like Bogolyubov and Vyshgorod. The starting point of this theory was a chronicle message that the Smolensk uprising of 1440 began around the "church of Boris and Gleb in the city". Considering that there was no Borisoglebsk church in Smolensk, SP Pisarev concluded that the Cathedral of St. Boris and Gleb was this temple of the "princely city" located on Smidyn. Other scientists reject this theory, relying on archaeological excavations that did not reveal powerful cultural deposits in this place, as well as the study of G. Bugoslavsky, who proved the existence in the 15th century of the second ancient church of Boris and Gleb in Smolensk itself [9]. Nevertheless, the researchers admit that the Borisoglebsky monastery was important for the Smolensk princes, not only as a family "monastery" monastery, but also as a fortified point, which controlled the river route from Smolensk to Kiev and the entire trading life of the important Smyadynsky harbor.

XVII century
From the XII to the XVII century, information about the monastery is very scarce - only two of its archimandrites are known: Andrian (1589) and Theodosius (1598). Some information about the fate of the monastery is in the documents of the Time of Troubles. During the Russian-Polish war in 1609, Polish troops settled in suburban monasteries, including Borisoglebsky. In 1633 the monastery was transferred to the Uniate archbishop Lev Krevse, and according to the information of the preserved inventory from 1654, Smidyn was already called "Zhygimontovaya wasteland ". It is known that the Cathedral of Boris and Gleb still existed in 1680, as it is referred to as a landmark in the boundary dispute, but, apparently, at this time he was already in ruins.

XVIII-XIX century
[[File:Cathedral of Saints Boris and Gleb on Smyadin 03.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Southern wall of the church. 1908 In I. Orlovsky's opinion, the official looting of the ruins of the Borisoglebsky monastery for building materials began under Peter I in 1708, when Smolensk was fortified in anticipation of the approach of the Swedish troops to Charles XII . In the 1780s, Smolensk Governor-General N. V. Repnin permitted to take rubble stone from the ruins of the monastery for the construction of stone buildings around the city garden of Blonje . P. P. Svinyin, who visited Smolensk in 1825, left a note in his notes that local old people still remembered the time when the ruins of the church of Boris and Gleb "were still high and inside of them there were stone pillars" . In 1833 the governor I. Khmelnitsky ordered to take from the ruins of temples brick and rubble stone for the construction of the Smolensk-Moscow road, but fortunately, until the ruins of the monastery turn came only in the fall, when the construction was already stopped. Ruins continued to be plundered after this . At the end of the XIX century, when looking at the ruins of the Smyadyn monastery, it was still possible to determine the plan of its main temple with four dome and two western pillars, to trace the remains of the walls of three apses , sometimes rising to a height of 2.2 meters.

Russian Empire


Plans for excavations of the Borisoglebsk cathedral (1908): on the left - VA Popov, on the right - II Orlovskiy (?).





The first archaeological excavations on the ruins of the Borisoglebsk cathedral were conducted by the chairman of the Moscow Archaeological Society Count A. S. Uvarov in 1883. In his notes on these excavations, the well-known archaeologist said that this temple is oblong and three-sided, noted the presence of markings on the plinth, and also the fact that the shape of the bricks and the nature of the masonry are similar to those of the Kiev Golden Gate .. On the right side of the temple, the scientist discovered traces of some extension, but due to lack of time he could not study it in more detail. According to other researchers, it could be the remains of the wall of the southern gallery.

A new stage in the study of the remains of the Smyadyn monastery is connected with an article published in Smolensk diocesan statements by SP Pisarev on the initiative of Smolensk bishop Nikanor. In this large and rather controversial work the author argued that in 1191 Prince David Rostislavich actually transferred from Vyshgorod to Smidyn not the coffins of Boris and Gleb, but their relics allegedly laid in the Borisoglebsk cathedral. With this assumption, the idea of ​​restoring the ancient monastery found a religious motivation and reason.

The idea was picked up Vyazemsky priest P. Troitsky, who conceived the idea of ​​creating a convent here, putting on the foundation of the ancient Borisoglebsk cathedral a new wooden church. After the land of the Smyadyn monastery was bought out in 1907, and the sisters led by Troitsky began clearing the foundation of the church in the hope of finding in them the relics of saints Boris and Gleb, the Moscow archaeological society, concerned with these unprofessional works, sent to Smolensk a special commission consisting of NV Nikitin and the architect V.A. Popov. According to the commission, the excavations were done primitively and unevenly, the ruins were unearthed "from the middle" to the edges, the walls were not cleared. In the same year, N. Sultanov, who visited the ruins of the Smyadyn Convent , on the contrary, was pleased with the result of the works, which, in his opinion, "were carefully and with due care, found things, plaster and tiles carefully preserved".

In 1908, the Moscow Archaeological Society decided to organize a scientific excavation of the temple, which remained unrealized, but in August of the same year, on behalf of the society, the Smolensk historian and archaeologist II Orlovsky visited the excavation site to supervise the work. In his opinion, there was no archaeological excavation itself, and the sisters simply cleared the ruins of the rubble and how they considered "garbage", in which there were actually a lot of irrigation tiles, fragments of frescoes and voice. .. Orlovsky again urged the sending to Smolensk of a competent commission to measure the plan and facades of the building, establish its original form, study all archaeological finds, as well as discoveredburials at the western wall of the temple. The commission consisting of VA Popov, AM Gurzheenko and VV Sheinman, who visited the excavation on September 7-8, 1908, "... determined in detail all the dimensions of the temple and made a plan for it ..." , and also explored two burials near the southern wall.

On September 23, a well-known archeologist and architect-restorer, D. V. Mileev, arrived in Smidyne to investigate the outlines of the grounds of the southern and northern walls of the gallery. However, his works did not preserve any scientific materials, except for a series of photographs of the ruins of the monastery stored in the archives of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences.

After the excavations in 1908, the ruins of the cathedral remained unpublished and were partially disassembled by the population on a brick, and partially covered with earth.

Soviet time
Control excavations of the Borisoglebsky temple were made in Soviet times: in 1949 ID Belogortsev with the purpose of checking the published plan of the cathedral, as well as in 1972 and 1974 with the goal of clarifying some technical issues and chronology of the building parts.

Present state
At present, the remains of stone foundations have been preserved on the site of the monastery. In 1991, a memorial sign was erected - a stone with a cross on it and a text about the martyr's death of St. Prince Gleb.

In September 2013, the wooden church of Saints Boris and Gleb was opened on Smidyni.