“Mother Superior Taisila on the veranda, Leushinskii Monastery” in 1909, by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The monastery was (and possibly still is) in Leushina, in the Tver (or Tverskaya) Oblast of Russia — between St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Prokudin-Gorskii made early color photographic surveys of the Russian Empire between 1905 and 1915. The Library of Congress purchased his collection of 2,607 images from his sons in 1948.
“Residence for the sisters of the Leushinskii Monastery.”
Detail above: the interior steps start right at the door frame.
“Residence of the Mother Superior.” All photos here by Prokudin-Gorskii, via the Library of Congress.
You can scroll through larger images by clicking on ‘Continue reading’ below and then on any thumbnail in the gallery.
Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.
I love the beans they’d strung up out of the window boxes. Excellent way to provide food and some shade. I wonder if this monastery was allowed to remain open during Communist era.
Unfortunately, I can’t find anything about it on the internet.