St. Savva Spring

Behind the Lavra there's a lowland spring of St. Savva of Storozha. 

Savva was St. Sergius' close disciple and very ascetic assistant. For 6 years after St. Nikon Savva ran the monastery as abbot. Like St. Sergius, he prayed intensely until a water spring came out of the hill. After his death in 1406 St. Savva's relics cured the sick and exorcized evil spirits. Sometimes his spirit came to monastery inhabitants who prayed for his help.

The St. Savva Spring is accessed by a wooden path and has a traditional bathing hut nearby. Though religiously cosidered holy, its water may not be so pure due to local drainage, epidemiologists warn.

White Pond

A traditional rest spot for Sergiev Posaders is the White Pond downtown between the Lavra, its hotel, the Museum and the avenue. It's the oldest basin here.

By legend, Peter the Great used to shoot the pond ducks. Now the White Pond is famous for its swans living in a central booth and shot only with cameras. 

Sergievsky Posad

In 1782 the adjacent suburbs and villages were united into a posad (settlement) with the name Sergievsky. The major capital constructor here was the Lavra erecting hotels, hospices, stores and lodgings around the monsatery. They served inflowing pilgrims especially after a convenient highway (1845) and railroad (1865) with Moscow were set up.

The town economy also served the monastery. Great pilgrim demand for devotional articles drove the manufacuring of crosses, candlesticks, icons and so on.

Trinity Sergius Lavra

In 1744 Empress Elizabeth (Elizaveta Petrovna) thanked the monastery for helping her father by granting it the highest church rank of lavra, thus making it in fact Russia's top monastery.  In the mid-18th c. the Sergius Lavra was the biggest landowner in land and people. It possessed over 2K km2 of land and 106K serfs in 15 provinces and 45 towns.

In 1764 the Lavra was dispossessed of all its lands due to church secularization (land nationalization). The state took on maintaining the "staff" of 100 monks and 100 priests.

Intro

Hi! I'm Konstantin, a 29-year-old Russian living in Sergiev Posad, the holiest and most beautiful Orthodox town. 70km NNE of Moscow, it's famous for the Lavra - a monastery complex with golden domes and white walls.

My mission here is promoting Sergiev Posad abroad due to its poor ad. When the authorities are too lazy for leveraging its huge potential, who's gonna attract tourists if not an energetic local!? So I can guide English-speaking tourists all over here. Please feel free to phone or email me for details.

I'm well-educated and experienced in teaching English and touring people. I graduated from the Moscow Linguistic University with an honors specialist degree in linguistics & intercultural communication.