Museum complex "Savior-Euphimius Monastery"

Architectural complex of the Spaso-Eufimiev Monastery

The monastery was founded in 1352 by the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod prince Boris Konstantinovich. The first abbot of the monastery was the Monk Euthymius, who belonged to the circle of spiritual interlocutors of Sergius of Radonezh. After the canonization of Euthymius (1549), the monastery became known as Spaso-Euphimius. The patronage of the Suzdal and Moscow princes provided the monastery with rich land holdings and many privileges. By the end of the XVII century, the monastery became one of the richest in Russia. The existing stone ensemble of the monastery was formed in the XVI-XVII centuries.

In 1766, the monastery opened a "prison for insane wells", which existed until 1905. The monastery was a prison in Soviet times. Closed in 1923, the monastery came under the jurisdiction of the OGPU and turned into a political isolator. In 1940-1941, the political isolator changed the camp for prisoners of war 1943-1946. After the war, a children's colony was opened in the monastery - first a male, then a female one.

In 1967, major restoration work began, and a few years later the buildings found a new, museum life. The ensemble of the Savior-Eufimiev Monastery is a rare example of coordinated restoration and museumification of monuments of ancient Russian architecture, awarded in 1977 with the State Prize of the RSFSR. The architectural ensemble of the Savior-Eufimievsky Monastery was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1992.