Peter I and Zheltikov Monastery in Tver

Abstract

The Assumption Zheltikov Monastery in Tver is one of the oldest monasteries in the capital of the Upper Volga region. Founded at the end of the 14th century, already at the beginning of the 15th century it acquired the stone Assumption Cathedral, the original architecture of which became a bright page in the history of ancient Russian architecture of the 14–15th centuries. In the second half of the 17th century, the tradition of building stone constructions in the monastery was continued not without the participation of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who treated Bishop Arseny, the founder of the Zheltikov monastery, with great reverence. These works were continued at the very beginning of the 18th century, when the monastery was surrounded by a high stone fence, and in the structure of its «front» eastern wall, a new Holy Gate with a gate temple in the name of St. Alexei the man of God appeared (until 1709). Near it, two-story stone chambers were built at the same time, which soon received the name «tsar’s palaces». The creation of the gate church with this dedication and the «tsarevich» chambers, according to sources of the second half of the 18th century, was due to the order of Peter I, which, according to researchers who wrote about this monastery since the last quarter of the 18th century, was caused by the fact that the tsar decided to make the Zheltikov monastery a kind of «country residence» for his son Tsarevich Alexei. The article attempts to determine when exactly Peter I could act as the customer of these structures, and who implemented the wishes of the monarch on the site.