Iosifo-Volotskiy Monastyr'

Teryaevo, Russia, Russia

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The Iosifo-Volotsky Monastery, located in Teryayevo near Volokolamsk in Moscow Oblast, Russia, is an ancient Russian Orthodox men's monastery founded in 1479 by St. Joseph of Volotsk, a prominent theologian who championed monastic landownership and orthodoxy.

Dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God, it began with a wooden church that evolved into a white-stone structure by 1486, later rebuilt in grand Naryshkin Baroque style from 1688-1696 featuring five domes, thick fortified walls with nine towers, and ornate gate-churches like Ss. Peter and Paul from the late 17th century.

It served as a prison for figures like St. Maximus the Greek and Tsar Vasily IV during turbulent times, hosted a priestly school until 1823, and housed relics of its founder; closed by Soviets post-1917 and damaged in World War II, it reopened in 1990 and remains active today.