25 Roubles Novotorzhsky Saint Boris and Gleb Monastery

The Boris and Gleb monastery in Torzhok is among the oldest in Russia, traditionally dated to the early twelfth century and associated with Efrem Novotorzhsky, a boyar of Varangian origin who founded it in mourning for Boris and Gleb — the first saints canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church, killed in 1015 during a dynastic struggle and venerated for refusing to take up arms against their brother Sviatopolk. The monastery survived Mongol raids, multiple fires, and Soviet-era conversion into a museum complex before religious use was partially restored in the 1990s.

This issue belongs to the long-running Bank of Russia series dedicated to architectural monuments of the Russian Federation, which has produced several hundred commemorative silver pieces since the early 1990s.