The Holy Assumption Borovenky Men's Monastery was founded in the late 14th century by a disciple of Sergius of Radonezh, the venerable Ferapont Borovenky. Therefore, it is also called Ferapont's Desert. According to legend, Ferapont brought with him an icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God, received as a blessing from his mentor, to establish the monastery.

The history of the monastery over three and a half centuries, starting from its foundation, remains unknown due to a lack of written sources.

In the 17th-18th centuries, Ferapont's Desert was repeatedly affiliated with major monasteries, such as the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery and the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

It is known that in 1764, the Borovenka Monastery was abolished as part of the state policy of secularization, and the monks were transferred to the Meshchovsk Holy Georgievsky Monastery. While large monasteries thrived, smaller ones often faced a lack of funds and lived on alms.

Such a disproportion in the distribution of resources led to the subordination of small monasteries to larger ones, resulting in the abolition of many of them.

The memory of such monasteries has survived only in local traditions and brief mentions that there once was a monastery here. Archives that could contain information were destroyed during the Lithuanian devastation or by later fires.

Until 1764, the Assumption Church in the village of Borovenk was the main cathedral of the monastery. Its construction began in 1754 by the last abbot of the monastery, Gideon (Rotensky), and was completed in 1766 when the church was consecrated thanks to the efforts of the treasurer Ivan Petrovich Begichev.

There is a tradition about the glory of Ferapont's Desert, where pilgrims flocked even after the monastery was closed, to pray and collect water from the holy spring. The parish lived and prayed until 1935 when the church was closed by the authorities. From 1961, it housed a grain storage and separator point.

Only in 2007 was the Church of the Assumption returned to the Kaluga Diocese. For almost 80 years, prayers had not been heard here, and each day of delay threatens the integrity of the building, which, by God's grace, still retains its beautiful outlines.

Currently, conditions are being created for the brethren's residence in the monastery. A book about the Ferapontov Monastery has been ordered from writer Nadezhda Smirnova, and a brochure has been published for the 700th anniversary of Sergius of Radonezh.

An icon of the venerable Ferapont Borovenky is currently being written, commissioned from an iconographer of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. After the work is completed, the icon will be ceremoniously handed over to the Borovenky Monastery.

Today, from the former monastery complex, only the half-ruined Assumption Cathedral remains, overgrown with grass and trees. Even now, it radiates majesty, waiting for its hour when the good deeds of people will breathe new life into it. The church is built in the style of two-story monastery churches "ship" and is an outstanding work of church architecture with many architectural features. Below was the warm Nativity of Christ church with chapels, above, the cold Assumption church. The two-light square is covered with a high vault with a dome, the altar with three apses, the refectory, and the bell tower. Wide porches and stairs give monumentality, and the facade is decorated in the style of Ukrainian Baroque.