Makaryev Monastery Russia
Russia
Frequently Asked Questions
At the landing of Makaryevo village, on the left bank of the Volga. The ramparts are a few minutes' walk away: this is one of the rare calls where the monument is visible from deck long before you tie up.
Yes, easily. Makaryevo village lines up wooden houses, kitchen gardens and grassy lanes running down to the landing, a few minutes from the walls. No transfer is needed.
Tour the enclosure: cathedrals, churches and convent buildings within an almost intact quadrangle. Add a walk through Makaryevo village, whose grassy lanes set the tone of the upper Volga.
It begins in 1435, when the monk Macarius set up a hermitage near a lake of yellow water. Four years later the monastery burned, most of the monks died, and Macarius was freed only on condition he not rebuild on the same spot. It took until 1620.
They are what impresses you from the river. Built between 1662 and 1667 and flanked by towers with pointed roofs, they enclose the complex in a quadrangle so well preserved the fortress could have been finished yesterday.
From the 16th century until 1816, one of the largest fairs in Eastern Europe, held each summer beneath these walls. Russian, Persian and Armenian merchants traded furs, silks and tea here. A fire destroyed the site in 1816 and the fair moved elsewhere.
Yes. Returned to worship in 1991, it is home to a community of nuns who tend the gardens and buildings. Their presence gives the old stones a warmth a museum site would not have.
Respectfully: shoulders covered, a headscarf for women entering the churches, voices lowered and photography kept discreet inside the sanctuaries. This is a working convent, not a museum.
Because the river has shifted its bed over the centuries. It now flows almost at the foot of the ramparts, which explains the striking view of the monastery from the deck of the ship.
May through September, when ships run between Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan. White walls against a summer sky are the whole effect of the call. Bring roubles in cash: the village has no ATM and no reliable card terminal.
