Sergiev Posad

Sergiyev Posad, a town of the Moscow region, is located 71 kilometers north-east of Moscow.
The pilgrimage to the Holy Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius is very precious for the spiritual consciousness of Russian society. St. Sergius of Radonezh who founded the monastery in the mid-14th century is the most venerated saint. Faith in a special power of Sergius's blessing sprang and consolidated in people even during his life. In 1380 before the Kulikov battle Dmitri Donskoy received a benediction from Sergius. Later, visits to the Holy Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius - pompous raids - became a tradition.
Nowadays, there are also many interesting museums in Sergiev Posad.
State Historical and Art Museum-Reserve of Sergiev Posad was established in 1920. The museum's expositions and depositories are mounted in the buildings of the Treasury block, along with the Fortress and Hospital wards of the monastery's clinic on the sacristy premises.
The main collection of the museum's fund consists of valuable objects which had been collected in the monastery throughout the centuries. They were executed in private workshops and gifted to the cloister as donations.
The icon collection of the monastery reflects the progress of Moscow's art school: one will note icons of the 15th century; icons of the 16th and 17th centuries of Godunov's school with austere manner of painting and first-class elegant icons of Stroganov's school.
The specimens of applied art of special historical and cultural importance are exhibited in the sacristy.
The sacristy building (1782) was erected in the vicinity of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in 1782 by the project of the architect V.S. Yakovlev. Nowadays, the sacristy houses the museum's department of ancient Russian art of the 14th-17th centuries featuring a wide range of unique specimens of fancy-work, objects of applied arts made of valuable metals, garments of priests studded with pearls and gems, miniature carved objects of bone, wood, and stone.
The gem of the museum's collection is an assortment of portrait embroidery.
Sergiev-Posad is often called the capital of the toy because its toy museum.
The depositories of the museum boast 30,000 exhibits among which are the toys found in archeological excavations, toy collections from the Oriental countries and Western Europe, popular Russian toys made of wood, clay and papier-mache', toys of the Soviet period.
In the late 19th century a mass production of toys shaped on a lathe was launched in Sergiev Posad. The most noted among them were matryoshkas. Matryoshka of Sergied Posad is celebrated as the best Russian souvenir.