home Perch Frescoes of the Ferapontov monastery created by Dionysius. Frescoes of Dionysius in the Ferapontovsky Monastery (Vologda region)

Frescoes of the Ferapontov monastery created by Dionysius. Frescoes of Dionysius in the Ferapontovsky Monastery (Vologda region)

Frescoes of the Ferapontov Monastery

In one of the remote areas of the Vologda region, near the city of Kirillov, there is an ancient monastery founded in the 14th century by the Moscow monk Ferapont. More than 600 years ago it arose from small chopped cells. Over time, surrounding lands began to be transferred to the monastery. Money flowed into the monastery treasury, with which new lands and villages were purchased, and craftsmen were also invited to build stone fortress walls, temples and other buildings. Many books were also purchased: the Ferapontov Monastery started a huge library, books copied to order were sent from here throughout Rus'.

At the very beginning of the 16th century, a team of painters appeared within the walls of the Ferapontov Monastery, painting the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. For more than four hundred years, the stone walls patiently preserved the colors of the frescoes, inscriptions and the memory of the masters who created them. One of them is Dionysius, whose name was read by scientists at the beginning of the 20th century. In my own way geographical location The cathedral was a wayside temple. At a time when, with the fall of Constantinople, a new trade route to the Russian state was being established, the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the Ferapontov Monastery was precisely on this great route, passing through the White Sea along Onega and Sheksna. It was the first stone cathedral on this route and was quite suitable for fresco painting. Kargopol, located on the same Onega, was still a completely felled city, and even in Solovetsky Monastery stone churches hasn't happened yet. The team of masters and apprentices (carpenters, plasterers, gesso makers, etc.) completed all the work assigned to them in just over two years.

Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary

The iconography of the frescoes of the Ferapont Cathedral in many ways has no precedent in the wall paintings of Russian churches. Never before, for example, has there been an image of John the Baptist on the altar, there have been no images of Ecumenical Councils and much more. Some researchers (in particular, G. Chugunov) believe that the akathist to the Mother of God also first appeared in Ferapontovo. In Greek and South Slavic churches, the entire life of Mary was usually depicted, starting from the “Nativity of the Virgin Mary” and ending with her “Assumption.” If an akathist to the Mother of God was included in the painting, it usually occupied an insignificant place somewhere in the aisles of churches. Dionysius creates a painting glorifying Mary, a painting similar to the chants that were composed in her honor. Of course, Dionysius did not arbitrarily introduce into the frescoes many subjects that had not been depicted before him. To take such a bold step, he had to see the previous paintings, and not just hear about them, and he could only see them on Athos. But Dionysius’s solution to many gospel stories also differs from those at Athos. At that time there were no strict canons, and Dionysius could take advantage of this circumstance. For example, he independently tried to comprehend some of the provisions of Christianity, in particular, about the life of the Mother of God. What was the main goal for previous painters became a secondary goal for Dionysius. The main task for him is the akathist to the Mother of God, her glorification, therefore the entire large cycle of paintings in the Nativity Church appears as a single hymn: “Rejoice!”

The frescoes created by Dionysius should be considered as an integral part of the architecture of the Nativity Cathedral itself. Its entire internal space - from the dome to the base - is filled with shining paintings. Dionysius willingly surrenders to the bright impressions of life; he can revel in the colorful patterns of precious brocade, the bright colors of overseas silks, and the shine of semi-precious stones.

“The Marriage in Cana of Galilee,” for example, appears to him as a joyful feast. The cathedrals and towers that frame numerous painting scenes remind the viewer of the architectural monuments of Moscow and Vladimir. The rhythmic construction of scenes and the movement of figures speak of the artist’s powers of observation and genius, and Dionysius always translates his life impressions into the realm of beautiful and sublime poetry. Even the most ordinary characters - servants filling vessels with wine, or blind beggars feeding on meager alms - acquire a special nobility and dignity in the frescoes.

Marriage in Cana of Galilee

In the center of the cathedral, in the dome, Christ the Pantocrator is depicted.

According to many researchers, this image is reminiscent of the “Pantocrator” from the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, but this connection is felt purely externally - in the arrangement of the hands and the Gospel. The essence of Ferapont's Christ the Pantocrator is very different from Novgorod's. In Ferapontovo, Christ the Pantocrator does not have that formidable and unyielding will, like the Novgorod Pantocrator.

On the north side of the cathedral, the Virgin Mary sits on a throne, surrounded by archangels, and at the foot of the throne crowds of mortals are crowded, chanting the “Queen of Peace.” On the southern side, a host of singers glorify Mary, as in her womb she bore deliverance to the captives.”

On the western side, instead of the “Assumption”, more usual for South Slavic churches, the composition of the “Last Judgment” is depicted, in which Mary is glorified as the intercessor of the entire human race. In the eastern lunette of the temple, the Mother of God is depicted in a purely Russian, national spirit - as the patroness and defender of the Russian state. She stands with a “veil” in her hands against the backdrop of the walls of ancient Vladimir, which in those years was a symbol of the religious and political unity of Rus'. Mary is no longer surrounded by singers or saints, but by Russian people.

Protection of Our Lady

The cathedral was painted by Dionysius and his comrades not only inside, but partly also outside. On the western facade there is a well-preserved fresco that greeted those entering the temple and gave the right direction to his thoughts and feelings (later a porch was built in this part of the cathedral, and the painting ended up inside the temple).

The painting is dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and consists of three belts: the upper one is the Deesis, the middle one is the scenes of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and the Caress of Mary by Joachim and Anna, the lower one is the archangels. To the right of the portal is Gabriel holding a scroll on which is written “The angel of the Lord will write the names of those entering the temple.”

The portal fresco is a kind of prelude to the painting of the cathedral, because the akathist to the Virgin Mary begins here. Before Dionysius, other artists interpreted the plot of “The Nativity of the Virgin Mary” as a purely family scene in the house of Joachim and Anna, Mary’s parents. Dionysius also left genre details dictated by the very content of the painting, and at the same time, his frescoes differ sharply from the works of his predecessors. In the middle tier of the paintings, Dionysius placed not scenes from the life of Mary, but illustrations to the twenty-four songs of the akathist to the Mother of God. Here the artist was least bound by canons, and from under his brush came images that were completely original. He did not show the violent movements of the human soul; the artist is drawn to reflection, to an original interpretation of traditional gospel themes.

Caress and Mary

For example, Anna and the elderly Joachim, who learned that his wife was expecting a baby. Usually other masters portrayed this scene as full of dramatic explanations. Joachim rushed to his wife, and Anna responded to him with no less expressive gestures. Dionysius doesn’t even have anything similar. His Joachim already knows about the “immaculate” conception, he reverently bows before the newborn Mary, extending his hand to her and repeating the gesture usual for “immaculate” births. Anna in Dionysius’s fresco makes no attempt to stand up or reaches for food. Filled with dignity and humble grace, she sits on the bed, and the woman standing behind the bed not only does not help Anna get up, but does not even dare to touch the cover of the one who gave birth to the future mother of Christ. The woman to the right of the bed does not just hand Anna a bowl of food, but solemnly offers it. And this golden cup, receiving a special semantic meaning, becomes the center of the entire composition. Dionysius shows the viewer that what is before him is not the usual everyday vanity that accompanies the birth of a child, but the fulfillment of a sacred sacrament.

Nativity of the Virgin Mary

The images of all the characters from the life of Mary are filled by Dionysius with extraordinary spiritual delicacy. Their movements are smooth, gestures are only outlined, but not completed, participants in many scenes only indicate touching, but do not touch each other. This applies, for example, to the scene "Mary's Bathing". The compositional center of this part of the fresco is the golden font. Women bathing a newborn do not dare to touch her, and the one who brought Anna a gift holds it carefully, like a vessel with incense.

Bathing Mary

Researchers noted that the soft rounded contours of one shape are repeated in another; all the figures are painted lightly and picturesquely, as if they were weightless and hovering above the ground. The frescoes of the cathedral are distinguished by their tenderness, muted and lightened colors, soft color transitions, they lack contrasts and sharp comparisons. Experts (though not all) believe that when painting the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin, Dionysius deliberately “replaced” the red tone with pink or pale crimson, green with light green, yellow with straw yellow, blue with turquoise, so his colors almost lost their power and the masculinity inherent in his works of an earlier period.

In the vault of the southwestern pillar of the Nativity Cathedral there is a composition depicting Jesus Christ and the Moscow Metropolitans Peter and Alexei. Below them, near a pond, are a gray-haired old man, an elderly woman and two young men. Antiquity expert S.S. Churakov hypothesized that the reservoir symbolizes the source of “God’s bounties”, and the people receiving them constitute one family - husband, wife and their sons. Perhaps Dionysius depicted himself and his family here, because his two sons, Vladimir and Theodosius, worked with him in Ferapontovo.

S. S. Churakov believes that real people introduced by Dionysius into another composition. Thus, in the scene of the Last Judgment, among the Fryazins (foreigners), the artist depicted the Italian architect Aristotle Fioravanti, who built the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin. And indeed, this portrait is very expressive: the head of the person depicted is somewhat thrown back, a large forehead, a nose with a characteristic hump, brown eyes, a shaved face, a bald skull... The viewer is presented with a middle-aged man, independent, wise with experience and knowledge, who does not bow even to overlords. For now, this is just a hypothesis, which may be answered by future research.

Text by Nadezhda Ionina

Historical reference:

Ferapontov Belozersky Nativity of the Virgin Mary monastery founded at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries, during the period of expansion of the political influence of the Moscow Grand Duchy, for about 400 years it was one of the prominent cultural and religious educational centers in.

The history of the Ferapontov Belozersk Nativity of the Virgin Mary monastery, founded at the end of the 14th century, is closely connected with the historical events of the 15th – 17th centuries: the capture and blinding of Grand Duke Vasily II the Dark, the establishment of the power of the first “sovereign of all Rus'” Ivan III, the birth and reign, the formation of the dynasty Romanovs, .

In the second half of the 15th - early 16th centuries, the Ferapontov Monastery became a significant spiritual, cultural and ideological center of Belozerye, one of the famous Trans-Volga monasteries, whose elders provided assistance.

The entire 16th century was the heyday of the monastery. This is evidenced by the preserved deposits and letters of grant from the secular and spiritual authorities, primarily from Ivan IV. Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya, Ivan IV come to the monastery on pilgrimage. The deposit book of the monastery, begun in 1534, names among the contributors “princes Staritsky, Kubensky, Lykov, Belsky, Shuisky, Vorotynsky... Godunov, Sheremetev” and others. The rulers of Siberia, Rostov, Vologda, Belozersk, and Novgorod are also mentioned here.

In 1490, with the construction of the first stone church of Belozerye, the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, by Rostov craftsmen, the formation of the stone ensemble of the Ferapontov Monastery of the 15th - 17th centuries began. In the 16th century In the monastery, the monumental Church of the Annunciation with a refectory, a state chamber, service buildings - a stone drying shed, a guest chamber, a cook's chamber - are being built. Having recovered from the Lithuanian devastation, in the middle of the 17th century. the monastery erects gate churches on the Holy Gates, the Martinian Church, and a bell tower.

After the destruction by the Nazis during the Second World War of the famous Novgorod churches of the 12th–15th centuries (the Savior on Nereditsa, the Assumption on Volotovo Field, the Savior on Kovalevo, the Archangel Michael on Skovorodka), the paintings of Dionysius remained the only completely surviving fresco ensemble Ancient Rus' Moscow school of mural painting.

State of the object today:

Currently, the monuments of the Ferapontov Monastery house the Museum of Frescoes of Dionysius, which has the status of a historical, architectural and art museum-reserve. Since 1975, the formation began modern museum, which has turned into a research and educational center that disseminates knowledge about the unique monuments of the Ferapontov Monastery ensemble through various forms of museum work. At the end of 2000, the ensemble of the Ferapontov Monastery with paintings of Dionysius was included in the List world heritage UNESCO.

Frescoes of Dionysius

Dionysius is an outstanding icon painter, the most revered artist of Rus' at the end of the 15th – beginning of the 16th centuries, a contemporary of Raphael, Leonardo, Botticelli, Dürer. The miraculously preserved mural of Dionysius in the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the Ferapontov Monastery (1490) was unknown until 1898. Dionysius painted the cathedral in 1502 together with his sons Vladimir and Theodosius in 34 days.

Ferapontov's paintings are not a classical fresco; they are made using the technique of multi-layer painting. The area of the cathedral murals is about 600 square meters. m. The paintings of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin, numbering more than 300 scenes and images of individual characters, occupy all surfaces of the walls, vaults, pillars, window and door slopes. The dimensions and proportions of Dionysius’s compositions are subordinated to the architectural divisions of the cathedral and are organically connected with the interior of the temple and the surfaces of the walls. The grace and lightness of the design, elongated silhouettes emphasizing the weightlessness of seemingly “floating” figures, as well as exquisite colors emitting an unearthly light and a unique tonal richness of colors and shades determine the uniqueness of Ferapontov’s painting.

The frescoes of the Ferapontov Monastery are united common theme glorification of the Virgin Mary, led by an akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos. This is a picturesque embodiment of poetic hymns written by the Byzantine poet Roman the Sweet Singer in the 6th century. The desire to glorify the Mother of God in a similar way was introduced into the work of Dionysius by the Orthodox tradition. The paintings decorate not only the interior, but also the facade of the temple, which depicts the plot - “The Nativity of the Virgin Mary”. It was not by chance that the theme of glorifying the Mother of God was chosen as the basis for the painting system. At the end of the 15th century, the Mother of God began to be considered as the patroness of the Russian land.

The restoration of the Ferapontov Monastery debunked the legend that Dionysius used local pebbles that littered the shores of local lakes in painting the cathedral. Microchemical analysis of the mineral raw materials of authentic paintings showed that Dionysius, like all other artists, painted with imported paints (probably Italian and German), purchased in bulk at trading floors in Rostov or Moscow.

Dionysius used both artificial and natural pigments: malachite, poznyakite, atacamite, pseudomalachite. Such a quantity of green copper pigments is not contained in the paintings of any of the studied monuments of Western European painting. There is no such diversity in ancient Russian icon painting, which is the individual handwriting of the master.

Frescoes of the Ferapontov Monastery

Like any medieval art, ancient Russian art by its very nature is ensemble, monumental. Therefore, it loses more than the art of another era in the conditions of a museum exhibition. Individual works of icon painting, torn out from their natural environment, perceived from the wrong distance, in the wrong environment, under the wrong lighting, largely lose the power of their impact. In this sense, the painting of the Nativity Cathedral of the Ferapontov Monastery acquires special meaning. This is a complete ensemble. And although not all of its elements have survived to this day - the external appearance of the cathedral has been changed, the iconostasis has been removed - the main core has nevertheless been preserved. The most important quality of this ensemble has been preserved: painting, inextricably linked with architecture, existing in a real architectural and spatial environment. The temple stands high on a hill above the lake, the western facade faces the road below, along the shore, leading to Kirillov. The main gate of the monastery leads to the same road. And although it itself has changed over the centuries, this aspect has always been the main one in the perception of the temple. At the beginning of the 16th century, when its facade was not distorted by alterations, the portal painting of Dionysius was visible from afar. Now it is difficult to say from what distance the painting was visible, but, of course, it was designed for distant perception, especially since it began not from the ground itself, but from the level of the high porch that led to the door of the temple, raised to the basement. It is not difficult to imagine the joyful colors of the Dionysian portal against the backdrop of the monotonous northern landscape. The nature of the lake district is modest in color: gray-green grass and trees, silver-gray mirrors of lakes, wildflowers, yellow and white. Only the sky here can be unusually bright, especially in the evenings. Sometimes it blazes with all shades of red, from soft pink to dark purple, tints of gold, a multi-colored rainbow and even reflections northern lights. The frescoes of Dionysius, made almost entirely with local paints extracted from stones on the shore of the lake, reproduce not an earthly, but a heavenly landscape. Perhaps their “unearthly” flavor is due to the artist’s impressions of the northern sky, which was unusual for him. But the main thing, of course, is that Dionysius’s paintings depicted not the earthly world, but the heavenly world - therefore their colors had to be “mountainous”. The portal of the Nativity Cathedral, shining with colors, was an image of the gates leading “from this vain and fleeting poor life into this never-ending age”*.

The interior of a medieval temple was always, in one form or another, associated with the image of the other world, paradise. IN different countries and at different periods this image of paradise was presented in different ways, but it always appeared in color and light transformation. According to the views of the Middle Ages, light and color, or rather, a certain general, indivisible idea of color-light, radiant color or colored light, constituted the main quality of beauty, its divine essence. The interior of the Byzantine temple was transformed by mosaics; their brilliance was associated with heavenly radiance. In the interior gothic cathedral The role of mosaics was performed by stained glass windows. Their changing combustion in the huge darkened space of the cathedral also evoked associations with the heavenly Jerusalem.

In the architecture of Rus' of the pre-Mongol period, Byzantine figurative symbolism was preserved. In the chronicles of the 10th century, the church is called a garden, which was planted by the right hand of God*. Now it is difficult to determine how this image of paradise was interpreted in Russian church interiors of the 14th-15th centuries - their paintings and decorations were too incompletely preserved. But, of course, in them light and color impressions played a very important role. The light of lamps and candles, the shine of golden frames of icons, studded with precious stones, expensive shrouds embroidered with silk, gold, silver and pearls, brocade vestments, vessels and the smoke of censers created a special light-colored environment. As for painting, it seems that icons, with their intense colors and surface shine, formed a more powerful chord than frescoes, which were painted in a much more subdued palette. In any case, from the end of the 14th century, when the multi-tiered iconostasis was built, it focused attention on itself and performed the main semantic and decorative functions.

The question of the role of light in the interior of a medieval temple has not yet been sufficiently studied. There is no doubt that lighting, both artificial and natural, played a huge role in the figurative concept of the interior. Its symbolic meaning in the interior is preserved to some extent even in the Italian architecture of the Renaissance, especially in the second half of the 15th century, at a time when the ideas of the Neoplatonists were widespread. It can be argued a priori that in Russian temple architecture the symbolism of light played an important role. Obviously, in Russian churches the veneration of light was to a greater extent connected with its immediate source - the flame of a candle, the fire of a lamp. This could be explained in part by the more severe climatic conditions, partly by the traditions of ancient, pre-Christian beliefs. The people of Ancient Rus' were stingy in expressing their artistic impressions, and yet it is significant that, admiring the beauty, lightness and multi-colored heavenly “signs,” they did not talk about lordship of their churches. Their imagination was struck first of all by the church decoration: “honest crosses and wonderful icons... decorated with gold and silver and pearls and precious stones; and shrouds embroidered with gold and seeded with pearls...”*. It is difficult for us to imagine what the overall interior of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir looked like in natural light. Now it seems dark, apparently, it was just as dark in the 15th century and was designed mainly for the light of candles and lamps. This uneven light, this twilight created a special state of concentration, self-absorption. In any case, Rublev’s painting is designed for attentive, consistent contemplation, detachment from everything external, and self-absorption. The image of the otherworldly, eternal world is connected in this painting with the idea of the last fair judgment, with deep internal rebirth and purification. The interior of the Nativity Cathedral of the Ferapontov Monastery is, perhaps, the first example known to us in Rus' of the figurative use of light as such, in its intangible essence. Light appears in this work both as a symbolic and aesthetic category. Apparently, there is some kind of internal connection between such an understanding and the very daytime nature of Dionysius’ coloring, the abundance of luminous colors in his painting - white, blue, not only symbolizing, but also seemingly depicting light. Perhaps here it is right to see echoes of those aesthetic categories that Dionysius came into contact with in Moscow, working in the Assumption Cathedral, built by the Italian Fioravanti.

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Core architectural ensemble Ferapontov Monastery, as well as its oldest and most interesting building - the single-domed Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, the first stone building in Belozerye. The frescoes of the late 15th century, painted by Dionysius and his sons Theodosius and Vladimir, have been preserved virtually unchanged. This is the only church in Russia that has preserved such ancient frescoes created by the greatest painter of his time. In addition to the frescoes, Dionysius also completed the iconostasis, details of which can now be seen in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, and also in the museum of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery.

The cathedral is open during the so-called “airing hours”, which occur infrequently - at suitable temperature and humidity from May to September. In winter the cathedral is closed; in summer it may not be open in bad weather. weather conditions(namely, high humidity). You cannot take photographs of the frescoes, even without flash.

The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary is located in the center of a complex of churches connected by common porches. The tented church of Martinian is attached to it from the south, a bell tower from the north, then a refectory chamber and a small Church of the Annunciation. Another complex consists of the Holy Gate with the churches of the Epiphany and Ferapont, united in one room, the only ones operating in the monastery.

The refectory and state chambers of the Church of the Annunciation are the earliest buildings of this type preserved in their original form in the Russian North. The tented church of Martinian was built over the burial place of the second founder of the Ferapontov Monastery, teacher Martinian.

The gate churches of the Epiphany and St. Ferapont above the Holy Gates are unique in the complete preservation of all architectural elements. Together with the treasury chamber adjacent to the south, they form the main facade of the Ferapontov Monastery.

In the Ferapontov Monastery there is the only church in Russia that has preserved ancient frescoes created by the greatest painters of his time - Dionysius and sons.

The bell tower is a three-tier, hipped, very rare type with a square bell plan and a tetrahedral tent. There are 17 bells hanging on the ringing tier. The tent contains a unique mechanism of the earliest surviving military clock in Russia from 1638.

The monastery is picturesquely located between two lakes (entrance from the shore of Borodaevskoye Lake) and is visible from afar from all sides. Two kilometers south of the monastery is Tsypina Gora (204 meters) and the wooden church of Elijah the Prophet on Tsypina Pogost.

Practical information

Address: Vologda region, Kirillovsky district, Ferapontovo village, st. Kargopolskaya, 8. Website.

Opening hours: from May 1 to September 31 from 9:00 to 18:00 seven days a week, from September 8 to April 30 from 9:00 to 17:00, from October 1 closed on Mondays.

Ferapontov Belozersky Nativity of the Virgin Monastery was founded at the turn of the 14th – 15th centuries, during the period of expansion of the political influence of the Moscow Grand Duchy, for about 400 years it was one of the prominent cultural and religious educational centers in the Belozersky region.

The history of the Ferapontov Monastery at some key points comes into contact with important historical events of the era of the formation of the Russian centralized state, is closely connected with the main historical events that took place in Moscow in the 15th – 17th centuries: the capture and blinding of Grand Duke Vasily II the Dark, the establishment of the power of the first “sovereign of all Rus'” » Ivan III, the birth and reign of the first Russian Tsar Ivan IV, the formation of the Romanov dynasty, the exile of Patriarch Nikon.

Traditionally, the founding date of the Ferapont Monastery is taken to be 1398. At this time, Ferapont, an associate of St. Kirill of Belozersky, settled separately on a hill between two lakes, Borodaevsky and Paskim. A few years later, having obeyed the insistence of the Belozersk prince Andrei Dmitrievich, Ferapont went near Moscow, to Mozhaisk, and founded his second monastery - Luzhetsky.

Ferapontov Monastery becomes widely known thanks to the activities of the disciple of Cyril of Belozersky, Venerable Martinian, confessor of Vasily II, who was in 1447 - 1455. abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery.

Along with the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, it becomes a traditional place of worship and contributions of many representatives of the Russian feudal nobility (Andrei and Mikhail Mozhaisky, Vasily III, Ivan IV and others). From its walls at the turn of the 15th – 16th centuries. Prominent hierarchs of the Russian Church emerged who actively participated in the internal life of the country - Archbishop of Rostov and Yaroslavl Joasaph (Obolensky), Bishop of Perm and Vologda Philotheus, Bishop of Suzdal Ferapont.

At the same time, major church figures who fought for the priority of church power in the state (Metropolitan Spiridon-Sava, Patriarch Nikon) were exiled here. Book writers Martinian, Spyridon, Philotheus, Paisius, Matthew, Efrosyn, and icon painter Dionysius worked here.

With the discovery of the relics of St. Martinian and his subsequent canonization, attention to the monastery increases, contributing to the growth of deposits and income.

To the richest patrimony of Belozerye - the Ferapontov Monastery at the beginning of the 17th century. belonged to several villages, about 60 villages, 100 wastelands, more than 300 peasants.

In the 16th century In the monastery, the monumental Church of the Annunciation with a refectory, a state chamber, service buildings - a stone drying room, a guest chamber, a cook's chamber - are being built. Having recovered from the Lithuanian devastation, in the middle of the 17th century. the monastery erects gate churches on the Holy Gates, the Martinian Church, and a bell tower.

In 1798, the Ferapontov Monastery was abolished by decree of the Synod.

In the 19th century, during the parish period, the narrowed monastic territory was surrounded by a stone fence.

In 1904, the monastery was reopened as a convent and closed again in 1924.

Currently, the monuments of the Ferapontov Monastery house the Museum of Frescoes of Dionysius, which has the status of a historical, architectural and art museum-reserve. The museum, which arose at the beginning of the 20th century, protected the monuments with the help of only one guard throughout the 1930s-1960s. Since 1975, the formation of a modern museum began, which has turned into a research and educational center, disseminating knowledge about the unique monuments of the Ferapontov Monastery ensemble through various forms of museum work. At the end of 2000, the ensemble of the Ferapontov Monastery with paintings by Dionysius was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The buildings of the monastery, perhaps the only ones in the Russian North, have preserved everything characteristics decor and interiors.