THE HOLY GATES are the entryway into the monastery, whose walls, crowned by 11 towers, are reminiscent in their style of Moscow's Kitay-gorod. The museum was founded on April 20th, 1920, by a decree of the Soviet People's Committee, entitled 'On turning the historical and art treasures of the Troyitze-Sergiyeva Lavra into a museum'. These days it is the largest (with approximately 130 thousand preserved items) collection of Russian art; in the original words of the famous Russian scientist and cultural researcher D.S. Lihachyov: 'An Hermitage of Russian culture of the 14th-19th centuries'. Among the rare relics that are part of the museum's exhibition is an ancient veil with an image of Sergiy Radonezhskiy (15th century), the shroud of Christ given to the museum by the princes Staritzky (1561), a pearl shroud given by Boris Godunov and meant for the icon entitled 'The Trinity', by Andrei Rublyov (early 17th century), and magnificent jewelry donated by the grand prince Vasiliy Tyomniy (the Dark), the tzar Fyodor loanovich, and other famous historical figures. THE OLDEST CHURCHES OF SERGIYEV POSAD are located on the southeastern side of the Troyitze-Sergiyeva Lavra. 'Na Podole', or at the foot of a hill stands the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, and the Church of the Martyr Paraskeva Pyatnitza. In 1547, in the place of the wooden parish church of Sluzhneya Sloboda two stone churches were built. The Vvedenskaya Church was built using funds donated by the boyar I. Habarov, while the building of Pyatnitzkaya Church was financed by the Troitzkiy Monastery. The Lavra's oldest cathedral is the Troitzkiy, which has the remains of Sergiy Radonezhskiy. In the centre of the Lavra's architectural complex is Uspenskiy Cathedral, containing the famous icons of Semyon Ushakov. USPENSKIY CATHEDRAL (1559-1585) is the Troitze-Sergiyeva Lavra's largest, repeating in its outer shape the Moscow Kremlin's 15th century cathedral by the same name.