Ensemble of the Ferapontov Monastery

In 1502 the painter Dionisy and his sons frescoed the Nativity Cathedral of Ferapontov Monastery in a matter of weeks — and the murals survive almost untouched, the fullest testament to Russia's finest artist of that age. The small monastery in the Vologda lakelands preserves an entire Orthodox complex of the 15th to 17th centuries in rare completeness, from the era when the unified Russian state was taking shape. UNESCO listed the ensemble in 2000.