The Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, also known as The Monastery of St, Cyril of the White Lake, is one of the largest and best preserved medieval Abbeys in Russia. Although named after the White Lake (Lake Beloye) and the city of Belozersk it actually is located on smaller lake Siverskoye, near the present day town of Kirillov, a few miles inland from the village of Goritsy on the Sheksna River.
A photo map on a poster near the main entrance shows the size of the establishment.
In 1397, two monks, Kirill (Cyril –then about 60 years old) and Ferapont, journeyed from Moscow to this remote north country with the object of founding a monastery. They lived for a year in a dugout on the lake shore. Ferapont then moved on to establish his own monastery even further north.
The wooden churches and walls built at the original location were replaced over succeeding centuries by impressive stone and masonry structures. The present day fortress walls, about 2 Km long and enclosing about 30 acres, were constructed in the mid 17th century incorporating earlier defenses which helped repel the Polish Invasion of 1612. There are a number of towers, each named and distinctive.
The complex contains eleven churches with the largest cluster surrounding the Assumption Cathedral built in 1497. At that time the Cathedral was the largest monastery church in Russia. There are many other buildings. By the 18th century the monastery was one of the most important and wealthiest in Russia. It was one of the largest land owners anywhere in the country, controlling 400 villages and 22,000 serfs, owing a salt works and its own river fleet. Largely because of its remote location it often housed political exiles.
As its importance for defense declined the monastery began to fall in disrepair and the early 1900s only a handful of monks remained. There was some reconstruction in the late 1800s at the time of the 500th anniversary of the founding. When the soviets came into power the monastery was closed in 1924 but it escaped the fate of many other other religious structures which were torn down, converted to secular uses or simply allowed to decay away. Largely through the influence of the architect V. Danilov it was designated the Kirillov-Belozersky Museum of History, Art, and Architecture. Extensive restoration began in the 1970s.
In 1998 monks were readmitted to a portion of the complex known as the small Ivanov (St John’s) Monastery. The main complex remains a museum visited by most of the cruise ships travelling between Moscow and St Petersburg. An impressive collection of icons , furniture and ecclesiastical robes is displayed in the Treasure Chambers adjacent to the Holy Gate leading into the inner courtyards.
The Url below gives additional historical details.