To the origins of the Romanov dynasty: Ipatiev monastery in Kostroma

For lovers of historical coincidences, world history has presented many mysterious and sometimes terrible “gifts”. One of the stories full of almost mystical roll-calls of dates, numbers, words and predictions is the history of the House of Romanov. In a period equal to three centuries of rule, even the most skeptical historian is not difficult to find more than one such coincidence. One of the loudest and therefore famous is associated with the fateful role of the royal family named Hypatiy: the dynasty began its days with a royal wedding in the Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma and ended with the execution of the royal family in the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.

The temple-on-blood, built on the site of the Ipatiev House, attracts thousands of tourists a year. Old residents remember the house itself and its demolition. According to rumors, some townspeople even keep boards from the historic house, made at a time when the boys still managed to get behind the high fence.

But not all residents of Yekaterinburg imagine the “cradle of the Romanovs”, as the Ipatiev monastery is called, which became the starting point of the three hundred-year path along which the ruling dynasty passed. To connect the initial and final points of the reign of the Romanovs, one can imagine Kostroma - not a city, but a river flowing into the Volga, over the bank of which the stone walls of the old (founded in the XII century) monastery whiten. Today it is part of modern Kostroma, a point on the map that attracts not only parishioners, but also tourists and politicians.

When you approach these walls on a clear day, the white color contrasts with the pure blue sky, the bright sun illuminates the brick ledges on the wall, creating a light pattern of shadows. The “swallow tails” crowning the wall suddenly lose their weight and seem to be a fabric: light, white, almost lace (in Kostroma – the “linseed capital of Russia” – a comparison with light fabrics comes to mind immediately).

The lace illusion will dissipate if you approach the walls themselves: their power and height will lead, if not to awe, then to a slight stupor, and the guide will strengthen the impression, reminding that this was how they stood under the monastery, in which the supporters of False Dmitry II, in the Time of Troubles rebelled against the “Tushin thief” Kostromich and the army of Vasily Shuisky came to the aid. The walls were so strong that the siege lasted from February to September 1609. The monastery was taken, according to legend, thanks to the feat of two Kostromichs: they dug a passage under one of the walls, went there with gunpowder and blew it up, opening the way to comrades by their death.

There is a famous photo of Nicholas II, taken on the steps of the main cathedral of the monastery - Holy Trinity: not only Mikhail Romanov was crowned there to the kingdom; since 1612, every new tsar of the Russian Empire at the accession to the throne considered it his duty to visit Kostroma. The empire collapsed, more than a hundred years have passed since the coronation of Nicholas II, and the porch - high, white, with carved columns, similar to a patterned palace - remained unchanged.

In modern Russia, the tradition of visiting the Ipatiev Monastery by the first persons of the state has resumed, so you can easily find modern photos taken at the same place.

Among the snow-white (or better – white-woven) buildings of the monastery stands out red two-storey building with a high porch in the middle – “chambers of the boyars of the Romanovs”. Once Nicholas I, inspecting the monastery, ordered to restore the monastery in which Mikhail Romanov lived with his mother, and in the middle of the XIX century the work on their restoration was completed. Now the building serves as a repository of the fund of the Church Historical and Archaeological Museum; the exhibits of the museum are open to every visitor of the monastery: ancient icons of North Russian writing in a semi-dark suite of rooms seem to bring enlightened calm.

The monastery is also remarkable for the fact that in 1814, among the collection of manuscripts, N.M. Karamzin found there the famous Ipatiev Chronicle named at the place of discovery, containing the Tale of Bygone Years.

Today, the monastery is experiencing a stage of active restoration after many years of inactivity. In the years of Soviet power, of course, it did not function; one of the churches - the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin - was completely destroyed. It is curious that not so long ago the main bell cast for the belfry according to all the rules of casting, contrary to the hopes placed on it, rings slightly cracked - and the monastery is thinking about its replacement.

Ipatiev Monastery is a kind of center in which historical and cultural threads of different times are intertwined, leading to modernity and invariably important and key for Russia.

Anna Menshchikova