Background Image
Previous Page  170 / 194 Next Page
Information
Show Menu
Previous Page 170 / 194 Next Page
Page Background

Svitochnaya tower got its name because its lower store was occup ied by

monastery lay-brothers who did the laundry (monk's clothes were called

svitki). Merezhennaya tower was placed over one o f the corners o f a large

vaulted chamber, where they used to dry nets. Its upper part rested no t only

on the ou ter walls hut also on the central pier and vaults o f the chamber.

This apparently was one o f the reasons of its collapse. The names o f the two

other towers characterize their ground plans and also the location o f one of

them near a water mill placed on river Sviyaga, which runs th rough the

monastery.

The walls had two tiers. In the part of them which faced the lake the

lower broad tier had large arched niches on the monastery side. In their

depth loopholes were made which consisted o f a round opening for shooting

and a cruciform observation window. In the upper tier along the whole length

of the wall there were numerous loopholes. Like the towers the walls were

decorated on the outside with a frieze of patterned brickwork. The walls

were not high — about five and a half meters. Besides the towers and gate

churches the wall system included the already built «Kazennaya» chambe r

and a small stone chamber referred to as the fishmonger's in the chronicles.

It was situated in the middle o f the south-east wall o f Uspenski monastery,

where a little later the wall of Ivanovski monastery was attached to it.

The walls o f I v a n o v s k i m o n a s t e r y which was much smaller

also had four towers. These walls were even lower than those o f Uspenski

monastery and ill-adapted for war. Of the four towers two had a co rne r

position and two were located in the middle of the walls. Besides these

towers the system o f monastery walls included a small cauldron chambe r, a

smithy and a wax processing chamber. There was no gate chu rch in Ivanovs­

ki monastery and the Holy gates were located in one o f the towers.

Of the four towers o f Ivanovski monastery only one has survived located

in the middle o f the wall fronting on the lake. This is G l u k h a y a t o ­

w e r named so because it was the only one that had no passage. It later got

the name K o t e l n a y a . It resembles Svitochnaya tower by the cha rac te r

of its brick decoration. Glukhaya tower is more wide and squat. There is a

pier in the cen te r o f its lower tier which supports the vaults covering this

tier. The lower storey served for processing wax and making candles. A t­

tached to the tower on the south-east is a one-storey building. This is the

«voskoboynaya» (wax-processing) chamber occupied by the «startsi (elders)

whose task was to process wax».

Only a small fragment of t h e H o l y g a t e s with two b ricked-in

passages remains o f the o ther towers of Ivanovski monastery. Small panels

decorating the gates resemble the adornment of the lower tier o f the chu rch

of the Transfiguration.

In 1610 when the threat of a Polish-Lithuanian intervention appeared the

walls of Ivanovski monastery were raised. A wooden deck supported by logs

fixed m the brickwork was made at the walking level of the wall. In the next

year the construc tion of a new element of fortification, the «О s t г о g» (a

type o f little fortress) began. It presented a small fortress with two towers

41