Dukhov Convent, Eastern Orthodox monastery in Veliky Novgorod, Russia.
Dukhov Convent is an Eastern Orthodox monastery in northern Veliky Novgorod centered around the Holy Trinity Church and a bell tower. The complex consists of several stone and brick structures arranged in a compact religious community.
First mentioned in 1162 as already existing, the convent ranked among Novgorod's major monasteries after Yuriev, Antoniev, Khutyn and Vyazhishchi. All its buildings were wooden until 1357, when a stone Church of the Holy Spirit was begun. In the 1520s Archbishop Macarius introduced the cenobitic rule, and around 1557 the Trinity Church with its two-storey refectory was built for Abbot Jonah. Closed in the 1920s, it became a state archive in 1926.
The Trinity Church refectory, built around 1557 under Abbot Jonah, had a ground floor with a kitchen, bakery and two kvass cellars, while the upper floor held the dining hall and a storage room. Its walls are limestone slabs faced with brick on both sides, and the domes and apses are covered with stepped lemekh shingles.
The monastery is no longer active: the Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit has housed the State Archive of Novgorod Oblast since 1926, so the interiors are not open to visitors. A city street was driven through the former grounds after the 1920s closure, and the fence, bell tower and several residential buildings were demolished. The surviving Trinity Church, the abbot's house and the ruins of the northern sisterhood building can be seen from outside.
Since 1926 the Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit has housed the State Archive; under German occupation it was used as a warehouse, and the monastery grounds were cut by a city street after the fence, bell tower and cemetery were demolished in the 1920s.
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