The Fer­apon­tov Monastery, in the Volog­da region in north­ern Rus­sia, is an excep­tion­al­ly well-pre­served and com­plete exam­ple of a Russ­ian Ortho­dox monas­tic com­plex of the 15th-17th cen­turies, a peri­od of great sig­nif­i­cance in the devel­op­ment of the uni­fied Russ­ian state and its cul­ture. The archi­tec­ture of the monastery is out­stand­ing in its inven­tive­ness and puri­ty. The inte­ri­or is graced by the mag­nif­i­cent wall paint­ings of Dion­isy, the great­est Russ­ian artist of the end of the 15th cen­tu­ry.