Vysotskiy Monastyr'

Russia, Russia

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Vysotsky Monastery is a historic walled Russian Orthodox monastery overlooking the Nara River in Serpukhov, Moscow Oblast, Russia, founded in the 1370s by Prince Vladimir the Bold with the blessing of St. Sergius of Radonezh to defend Moscow's southern approaches from Tatar raids. Originally serving as both spiritual center and border fortress, its first hegumen Afanasy was a disciple of Sergius, while the current five-domed Cathedral of the Conception of St. Anne dates to post-1571 reconstruction after Crimean Tatar destruction, funded by Ivan the Terrible. Fortified in the mid-17th century with stone walls and four towers, it housed notable burials like Chancellor Gavrila Golovkin and features a Neoclassical belfry from the 1840s, reopening after Soviet closure as an active pilgrimage site.