This monastery is on Selvitsky Island on Lake Valdai, 10 kilometres from the town of Valdai, the district centre. Patriarch Nikon Minin founded this establishment in 1653. The above image is the Holy Gate with the Gate Church of St Philip. The Soviets closed it in the 1920s; the Church regained it in 1991… it’s now restored to its former glory.
BMD
This is on the territory of St Ivan Rilski Monastery in Bulgaria, one of the oldest operating monasteries in the Balkans (founded in the 10th century). St Ivan Rilski, the first Bulgarian monk founded it; it’s so old that it predates the Baptism of Russia in 988. It has been in continuous operation since its foundation, although the oldest extant buildings date from the 14th century. The monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This is why so much convert vapouring on the internet is so shallow, vacuous, and without any merit whatsoever. They have none of the grounding and rootedness found in holy places such as Rila… you can see the vapid shallowness in Rod Dreher, Maximos Weimar, Josiah Trenham, Patrick Reardon, and those who ape them… you can see the barely hidden heterodoxy just popping out of all their pores. Keep the rootedness of real Holy Orthodoxy uppermost in your mind… the Church’s focus is NOT on homosexuality and abortion… the Church does NOT bless rightwing politics at all… the Church blesses the State and its mission in the world; it always has, it still does, and it always will (it does NOT bless the anti-state “libertarian” rants of American “conservatives”). The Church believes that the love of money is the root of the worst evils… “conservatism” blesses the love of money… sadly, many konvertsy line up behind “conservatism”, not the Church.
Bite the coin… there be counterfeits about… long beards and self-righteous moralising do NOT equal holiness… keep the image of the truly righteous and holy always in your soul… we live in parlous times.
BMD
The Ivan the Great Belltower (Колокольня Ивана Великого) is the tallest tower in the Moscow Kremlin, with a height of 81 metres (266 ft). Grand Prince Ivan III Vasilyevich (“The Great”) of Moscow and all Rus built it in 1508 for the cathedrals in Cathedral Square, as they didn’t have their own belltowers. Like so many other buildings in the Kremlin, an Italian architect designed it. Until the building of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 1883, it was the tallest building in Moscow; it was forbidden to put up any building taller than the Belltower. Napoleon attempted to blow the tower up as part of his retreat from Moscow, but it only suffered minor structural damage. Inside the tower, a 329-step spiral staircase leads to the highest observation deck. It has a choir of 22 bells (18 small, 4 large).
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This church is part of the Assumption Monastery near Fedoseyeva. This hill, along with the holy spring on the banks of the Don River, according to legend, is the burial-place of Russian warriors who died of their wounds after the Battle of the Kulikovo Pole in 1380.
BMD
Voices From Russia, Too 
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