Spas na Ugre, Eastern Orthodox monastery in Kaluga, Russia.
Spas na Ugre is a monastery in Kaluga situated on elevated ground where the Ugra and Oka rivers meet, with two main churches enclosed within its walls. The complex displays the architecture typical of religious communities from this period, with structures arranged around a central courtyard.
The monastery was founded at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries by Prince Dmitry Fyodorovich Vorotynsky on the site of the 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River. Its first written mention is a 1511 charter of Vasily III. It was abolished in 1764, its churches closed in the 1930s, and it was revived as a women's monastery in 2007, becoming independent on 13 October 2022.
The monastery's name comes from the Vorotynsky princes, who funded it, and from the village of Spas on the Ugra. Since 2002 the community has again venerated its founder, the locally revered Nikifor Medynsky, a disciple of Tikhon of Kaluga who died in 1506. The monastery was revived as a women's community in 2007, first as a dependency of the Kaluga Kazan Monastery, and became independent on 13 October 2022.
The site is best explored on foot, and its elevated position offers good views of the river landscape below. Visitors should check in advance whether guided tours are available to learn more about the structures and their background.
The monastery stands on the site of the Great Stand on the Ugra in 1480, when the armies of the Golden Horde and Moscow faced each other across the river. Local tradition in the village of Spas also holds that a Tatar camp stood here, where the khans' wives lived.
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