With an area of 47 km², Anzer Island is the second-largest island in the Solovetsky Archipelago after Bolshoy Solovetsky Island. It stretches about 17 km from west to east and from 1 to 5 km from north to south. Located northeast of Bolshoy Solovetsky Island, it is separated from its larger neighbor by the 5-kilometer-wide Anzerskaya Salma Strait. Anzer is the northernmost island in the archipelago. It is notable for its diverse landscapes, which include more than 60 lakes connected by a canal system, dense forests, swampy marshes, and rocky shores.
The island was uninhabited before the founding of the Solovetsky Monastery. In the 15th and 16th centuries, hermit monks came here in search of spiritual solitude.
In the 17th century, St. Eleazar Anzerskiy, with the blessing of the Solovetsky Hegumen Irinarkh, founded the Holy Trinity Skete, the first monastic settlement on the island. The future Patriarch Nikon, later renowned for his church reforms and the ensuing schism (Raskol) in the Russian Church, took his monastic vows at this skete.
In the 18th century, Venerable Iov (Job) of Anzer —who before taking monastic vows served as confessor to Peter I—founded the Golgotha-Raspyatsky Skete, which includes the Church of the Crucifixion of the Lord. The church, restored in 2008, stands on Mount Golgotha, 64 metres high. According to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared to Venerable Iov (Job) in a dream and showed him where to found the skete. From the summit, one of the highest points on the island, there is a breathtaking view of the island and the endless White Sea.
In the 1920s, one of the Solovetsky camp’s harshest penal colonies was located here, and the prophecy made to Iov (Job) by the Virgin Mary herself that ’this mountain has been whitened by countless sufferings’ came true.
The Holy Trinity and Golgotha-Crucifixion sketes are the island’s most important treasures and shrines, and they honour the memory of the ascetics who lived there. The sketes have been revived, with monks returning to live there and regular services being held.
