Lavra (Civ6)/Civilopedia

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, a lavra (such as found at Mount Athos in Greece or Neamț in Romania) is a cloistered monastery of cells for hermits with a central church and/or rectory. Perhaps the most famous is the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (trust the Russians to name a holy place after a warrior) in St. Petersburg where many eminent but dead Russians are buried – besides Nevsky, there's Euler, Suvarov, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky and others. Believed to have its origins in the early 4th century AD, the first lavra seems to have been a settlement of some 600 hermits around Nitria in the Egyptian desert. In the strict Eremitic tradition, these hermit-monks lived a secluded life devoted to prayer, often accompanied by vows of silence, chastity, meditation and/or fasting. Further proof of the lengths to which some of the faithful will resort to be saved.