Walls and Towers of the 17th century | 1653-1680
The fortress of the New Town is the greatest achievement of the local stonemasons. Its construction started on May 18, 1653 with the money donated by the Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov. He gave 45 thousand rubles to the monastery. “The New Town” surrounds it from three sides. The fortification walls consist of three tiers: a closed lower one and two arched galleries which open onto the monastery. The length of the new walls is 732 metres; their height is almost 11 metres and the breadth – 7 metres. The stronghold includes 4 corner and 2 gate towers.
Construction of the fortress lasted for about 30 years (till 1680). The peasants of the monastery worked hard and used plenty of building materials to erect it. But owning to the New Town the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery became one of the largest in Europe (its total area was 12 hectares and the length of the walls – 2 kilometres) and the mightiest stronghold in the Russian North.
Visitors like to walk along the galleries of the fortification walls of the 17th century. A wonderful view on the architectural monuments of the monastery opens from the second and third tiers.
Since 1919 till 1939 the repair and restoration work was led by V.V. Danilov. A new stage of the restoration started under S.S. Podiapolskiy in 1953. Some parts of the fortification walls have already been restored.
