In the center of the main territory of Optina Hermitage there is a small wooden belfry. Bells sound on it on church holidays, but people come here every day. Tourists and pilgrims come here to commemorate the monks who died on Easter in 1993.
Belfry history
When the government returned Optina Pustyn to the believers, the territory of the monastery presented a sad sight. Since 1987, a long period of restoration of the destroyed shrines began. Since then the monastery bell tower was dismantled, in the early 1990s a new wooden belfry was erected in the monastery.
Almost immediately, on April 18, 1993, a tragic event took place in the newly built belfry. The monks of the monastery Ferapont (Pushkarev) and Trofim (Tatarnikov) were killed here. They died at the hands of a mentally ill man who was later placed in a closed psychiatric hospital.
A terrible event happened on the bright holiday of Easter. On the same day, not far from the belfry, hieromonk Vasily (Roslyakov) was killed by a murderer. Today, on the graves of three monks, just a hundred meters from the belfry, there is a chapel of the Resurrection of Christ. And the wooden boards soaked in monastic blood are kept in the monastery as a shrine.
Architectural features
A small building is located between the main church of the monastery - the Vvedensky Cathedral, the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God and the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. On the south side of the belfry there is an elegant canopy chapel.
The small bell tower is built in the form of a light gazebo. The faceted hipped roof rests on four pillars, and above it, on a thin drum, rises a gilded onion dome with a cross. Three bells of different sizes hang in the chapel, and an openwork metal fence stands along its perimeter.
Anyone can come here. Therefore, there are always believers and tourists near the belfry who have come to look at the architectural monuments of the ancient monastery.
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