Sergiev Posad was founded by Saint Sergius, the Patron Saint of Russia. He came to the land to be alone, but word spread and people came out to see him. In 1345 he built a wooden church on Marovets Hill and named it for the Holy Trinity. In 1355 he wrote down a charter for how a monastery should be set up which became the model for all monasteries in Russia. The city grew up from the popularity and today is the spiritual center of Russia. The Tatars destroyed the monastery in a raid in 1408.
The city is built around the Trinity Lavra. A lavra is the highest level church in Orthodoxy. Inside is a place of beauty.
The Trinity Cathedral was rebuilt in 1422. Today it holds the body and relics of St. Sergius as well as an icon painted by Andrei Rublev as the center piece of the iconostasis.