Troitsky Monastery, Orthodox monastery in Smolensk, Russia

Troitsky Monastery is a working Orthodox women's monastery at 9 Bolshaya Sovetskaya Street in Smolensk. Its stone Trinity Cathedral, built between 1672 and 1675, is pillarless with a single dome: a tall four-sided main volume with a five-sided apse, a lower refectory to the west with L-shaped porches leading to the second floor, and two-storey annexes. A wide frieze passes into semicircular pediments; the interiors are closed with flat vaults, and the old interiors are lost.

The monastery was reconsecrated in 1669 from a Uniate Basilian monastery, and Smolensk archbishops lived here until 1703. The stone Trinity Cathedral was built between 1672 and 1675 on the initiative of Metropolitan Varsonofy Eropkin with treasury funds, probably by Moscow architect Ivan Kalinin. A hurricane damaged the cathedral in 1697, and in 1727 Bishop Gedeon added a second floor and a sacristy.

The monastery remains an active place of worship where visitors encounter Russian Orthodox practices through daily services and religious observances. The sacred objects inside the churches serve as focal points for pilgrims and local worshippers who come to the site.

The monastery is accessible to visitors during daylight hours with tours offered on site, though primarily in Russian. Dress appropriately for a religious site and expect uneven ground when walking around the complex.

The stone fence around the monastery was built only at the end of the 18th century, and its upper section and the cathedral's top porch were rebuilt in the late 19th century. The wooden abbot's house north of the cathedral was destroyed in 1943, but its wide L-shaped cellar still lies beneath the asphalt.