Valdai Iversky Bogoroditsky Svyatoozersky Monastery

Valdai Iversky Theogoroditsky Svyatoozersky Monastery is a male Orthodox monastery. It was founded by Patriarch Nikon with the approval of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. This is the first monastery built in Russia after a time of trouble.

In the autumn of 1653, two wooden churches were built and consecrated: The cathedral church is in honor of the miraculous icon of the Iberian Mother of God, and the warm one is in the name of Metropolitan Philip of Moscow. Nikon renamed the Posad of Valday in the village of Bogoroditsky, consecrated the Valdai Lake, lowering the Gospel and the cross to the bottom, and called the lake Holy. Therefore, the monastery has an additional name - Svyatoozersky.

For the glorification of the monastery, the holy relics of Jacob Borovichi were transferred to the monastery. Here from Moscow was delivered a copy of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, striking with its unprecedented splendor.

In Soviet times, on the territory of the Valdai Iversky Bogoroditsky Svyatoozersky Monastery there was a historical and archive museum, a museum of local history. During the Great Patriotic War there was a hospital, then a home for the disabled for the war participants, as well as a forest school for children with tuberculosis. In the 70s, a village was built on the island, and a recreation center worked on the territory of the monastery.