Borovsk

Borovsk rises above the Protva, south-west of Moscow. First mentioned in the fourteenth century, it was one of the centres of the Serpukhov-Borovsk principality. Nearby stands the monastery founded by Pafnuty of Borovsk, whose churches and fortified walls made it a prominent landmark in the river valley.

In 1444 Pafnuty left the nearby High Intercession monastery and established a new community at the confluence of the Istyorma and Protva. The small wooden church was followed by stone building, and the painters Mitrofan and Dionisy worked on the monastery’s cathedral. Gifts from grand princes and other patrons helped the community grow; by Pafnuty’s death in 1477 it had some ninety-five brethren. Its estates eventually extended across many districts of central Russia. The religious divisions of the seventeenth century left another mark on Borovsk. Some inhabitants rejected Patriarch Nikon’s reforms and retained the older rites, despite pressure from the state and the established church. The town’s history thus embraced both an influential monastic foundation and communities devoted to the faith as practised before the reforms.