The Solotcha Convent of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary is located 20 kilometers from Ryazan, in the center of the small town of Solotcha. Due to the beauty of these places, Solotcha is called the Ryazan resort. The city is surrounded by the Solotcha Park, where relict pines grow. In the monastery you can see churches in the Naryshkin’s Baroque style.
Solotcha Monastery was founded by Prince Oleg of Ryazan in 1390. According to legend, there was a small steke. Prince Oleg had a long conversation with its monks Vasily and Efimiy. After that, he ordered the construction of the Solotcha Monastery on the banks of the Solotcha River. Until the end of the 17th century, its churches and walls were wooden.
Under Prince Oleg, the Ryazan Principality became very powerful. Ryazan was located on the border with the Golden Horde, so the Ryazan princes were always very careful in their relations with the Horde khans. For a long time Prince Oleg was at enmity with Prince Dmitry of Moscow for the primacy among the Russian lands. In 1373, Oleg even had to use the Horde army to regain the Ryazan throne, which was taken away by Prince Dmitry.
10 years later, in 1380, Prince Dmitry of Moscow led the united Russian army and defeated the army of Khan Mamai in the Battle of Kulikovo Field. After this battle, Prince Dmitry was named Dmitry Donskoy. Prince Oleg of Ryazan did not join the Russian army and was even called a traitor. However, if we recall the long feud between Oleg and Dmitry, it becomes clear why this happened.
After the Battle of Kulikovo, in 1382, the Mongol-Tatar Khan Toshtamysh attacked the Russian lands. The vassal dependence of Russia on the Horde was restored. In the following years, some military skirmishes took place between Ryazan and Moscow for the city of Kolomna. This feud ended in eternal peace in 1387, when Prince Oleg of Ryazan married his son Fyodor to the daughter of Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow, Sophia.
The Solotcha Monastery, founded in 1390, is located north of Ryazan. It is protected from the west and south by the Oka River, and from the north and east by an impassable swampy area. Now Meshchersky National Park is located here. Thus, the Solotcha Monastery can be called a refuge where Prince Oleg and his family could take refuge in case of danger. Before his death in 1402, Prince Oleg of Ryazan became a monk of the Solotcha monastery and was buried here.
The stone churches of the monastery were built in the 17th century by Abbot Ignatius in the architectural style of the Naryshkin`s Baroque. A large Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit was erected in the center of the Solotcha Monastery in 1688. It is also called the Spiritual Church. In the same year, a stone fortress wall was erected. In 1691, the five-domed Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin was built, which became the main temple of the Solotcha monastery. In 1695, the Gate Church of John the Baptist was built. Also in the monastery, the Abbot`s building, built in the 17th century, has been preserved.
