Peter I founded it in 1710, supposing that that was the site of the Neva Battle in 1240, where Prince Alexander Nevsky defeated the Swedes (however, the battle actually took place about 19 km away from that site). The purpose of the foundation was to house the relics of St. Alexander Nevsky, patron of the newly-founded Russian capital; however, the massive silver sarcophagus of St. Alexander was relocated during Soviet times to the Hermitage, where it remains (without the relics) today. In 1797, the monastery was raised to the rank of lavra, making it only the third lavra in the Russian Church, along with Kiev Monastery of the Caves and the Trinity Monastery of Sergeyev Posad. Here is also the site of the 'Tikhvin Cemetery' which houses the tombs of some very famous Russians: Mikhail Lomonosov, Alexander Suvorov, Nikolay Karamzin, Modest Mussorgsky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Mikhail Glinka, Natalia Goncharova and Alexander Borodin, along with others not so famous.
WIKIVOYAGE · SAINT PETERSBURG/CENTER · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗
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