Tourists and believers who enter the Optina Hermitage through the southern gate see a light metal pavilion with an Orthodox cross to the right of the entrance. This is a canopy chapel where a beautiful mosaic icon of the Mother of God is kept.
History and architectural features of the chapel
An elegant chapel stands on the monastery necropolis - between the church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and the chapel of the Resurrection of Christ, behind the building of the store “Candles. Prosphora ". It was built just a few years ago, at a time when the Orthodox monastery was actively being restored. People come here to remember the departed inhabitants, monks, benefactors and abbots of the famous monastery.
General view of the chapel
A small canopy chapel is open from all sides and looks like a light park gazebo. Its roof is supported by four metal pillars decorated with openwork capitals. The neat hipped roof is completed with a semi-dome, over which a thin drum with a gilded onion dome rises. The expressive ribs of the semi-dome are also gilded and stand out noticeably against the dark background.
Under the roof there is a stone stele with a mosaic icon of the Mother of God. Pilgrims who come to Optina Pustyn usually go to the monastery cemetery, kiss this icon and pray near it.
The canopy chapel at the necropolis is not the only one in the monastery. Not far from it, to the east, there is a stone chapel of the Resurrection of Christ, erected over the burial place of three hieromonks - Vasily, Trofim and Ferapont, who died in 1993 at the hands of a Satanist. Another canopy chapel covers the well of St. Ambrose of Mediolan. But it is not located on the main monastery land, but on the territory of the St. John the Baptist Skete, closed from the laity.
Mosaic icon of the Mother of God
The current state of the chapel and the visiting regime
The canopy chapel at the monastery necropolis is accessible to believers and tourists all year round. You can visit her at any convenient time from morning to evening.
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