Solovetsky Monastery Solovetsky Monastery ( ) was the greatest citadel of Christianity in the Russian North before being turned into a special Soviet prison and labor camp ( 1926 – 1939 ) , which served as a prototype for the Gulag system . Situated on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea , the monastery braved many changes of fortune and military sieges . Its most important structures date from the 16th century , when Filip Kolychev was its hegumen . History . Solovetsky Monastery was founded in 1436 by the monk Zosima , however , monks German ( Herman ) and Savvatiy ( Sabbatius ) from Kirillo - Belozersky Monastery lived on the island from 1429 to 1436 , and are considered as founders of the monastery as well . Zosima also became the first hegumen of the monastery . After Novgorodian Marfa Boretskaya donated her lands at Kem and Summa to the monastery in 1450 , the monastery quickly enlarged its estate , which was situated on the shores of the White Sea and the rivers falling into it . In the 15th and 16th centuries , Solovetsky Monastery extended its producing and commercial activity , becoming an economic and political center of the White Sea region . Its business activities included saltworks ( in the 1660s , it owned 54 of them ) , seafood production , trapping , fishery , mica works , ironworks , pearl works etc . , which engaged a large population in the area . Archmandrite s of the monastery were appointed by the tsar himself and the patriarch . Peter the Great visited the Solovetsky Island in 1694 . By the 17th century , Solovetsky Monastery had already had some 350 monks , 600 - 700 servant s , artisans and peasants . In the 1650s and 1660s , the monastery was one of the stronghold s of the Raskol . The Solovetsky Monastery Uprising of 1668 – 1676 was aimed at Nikon ' s ecclesiastic reform and took on an anti - feudal nature . In 1765 , Solovetsky Monastery became stauropegic ( from the Greek " stauros " meaning " cross " and " pegio " meaning " to affirm " ) , i . e . it subordinated directly to the Synod . Together with the Sumskoy and Kemsky stockade s , Solovetsky Monastery represented an important frontier fortress with dozens of cannon s and a strong garrison . In the 16th to 17th centuries , the monastery succeeded a number of times in repelling the attacks of the Livonian Order and the Swedes ( in 1571 , 1582 and 1611 ) . During the Crimean War , Solovetsky Monastery was attacked by three British ships . After nine hours of shelling on the 6 and 7 July , the vessels left with nothing . Between the 16th and the early 20th centuries , the monastery was also a place of exile for the opponents of autocracy and official Orthodoxy and a center of Christianization in the north of Russia . The monastery also had a huge library of manuscripts and old books . The pride of the monks was the monastery ' s garden which had many exotic flora , such as the Tibetan wild roses presented to the monks by Agvan Dorzhiev , a famous lama . After the Bolshevik Revolution , the Soviet authorities closed down the monastery and incorporated many of the buildings into Solovki prison camp , one of the earliest forced - labor camps of the GULAG during the 1920s and 1930s . The camp was mainly used for cutting trees , and when the trees were gone , the camp was closed . Before the Second World War , a naval cadet school was opened on the island . Layout . The architectural ensemble of the Solovetsky Monastery is located on the shores of the Prosperity Bay ( бухта Благополучия ) on Solovetsky Island . The territory of the Solovetsky Monastery is surrounded by massive walls ( height 8 to 11 m , thickness 4 to 6 m ) with 7 gates and 8 towers ( built in 1584 – 1594 by an architect named Trifon ) , made mainly of huge boulder s up to 5 m in length . There are also religious buildings on the monastery ' s grounds ( the principal ones are interconnected with roofed and arched passages ) , surrounded by multiple household buildings and living quarters , including a refectory ( a 500 m² chamber ) with the Uspensky Cathedral ( built in 1552 - 1557 ) , Preobrazhensky Cathedral ( 1556 – 1564 ) , Church of Annunciation ( 1596 – 1601 ) , stone chambers ( 1615 ) , watermill ( early 17th century ) , bell tower ( 1777 ) , and Church of Nicholas ( 1834 ) . Today , the Solovetsky Monastery is a historical and architectural museum . It was one of the first Russian sites to have been inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List . A small brotherhood of monks has appeared in the monastery again and it currently houses about ten monks . The monastery has recently been extensively repaired , but remains under reconstruction .