Opposite the fortress, on the right bank of the Volkhov, stood the Vasilyevsky male monastery, most of whose buildings were wooden. During the Time of Troubles the monastery was devastated and destroyed, eight Valaam monks, expelled by the Swedes from their permanent place of residence, settled here in 1618. The stone church of St Basil of Caesarea stood "crumbling" in the 1620s, and the brethren were forced to hold divine services with a luchina. In 1666 the church collapsed to the ground, and 20 years later on its place on the funds of voivode T.I.Bestuzhev built a new one, which still exists today. At the end of the 17th century there were only two monks left in the monastery. In 1764 the monastery was abolished, and the church became a parish church.
