Outcrop of Upper Cretaceous deposits "Holy Mountains". Northern Donbass. Svyatogorsk Historical and architectural reserve What to see in the Holy Mountains Park

In the Slavyansky region, on the high mountainous bank of the river. Seversky Donets, between the village. Bogorodichnoye and s. Tatyanovka, rises a ridge of chalk hills known as the Holy Mountains. This is one of the most picturesque and famous tourist places in Donbass. Here the thickness of the Cretaceous rocks is exposed by very steep slopes and picturesque rocky outcrops of writing chalk. The outcrop is of great scientific and historical significance, and is included in the register of Geological Monuments of Ukraine. In 1963, the Holy Mountains (then the Artem Mountains) were declared a natural monument, in 1975 - a State Landscape Reserve, and in 1997 - a National Natural Park.

On a high 80-meter chalk cliff above the Donets there is an ancient cave monastery. The name of this area was first mentioned by the Austrian ambassador to the Moscow court, Sigismund Herberstein, who traveled to Muscovy twice (1517, 1526). In his “Notes on Moscow Affairs,” published in the 16th century, Baron S. Herberstein notes that “... the warriors whom the sovereign, according to custom, keeps there on guard for the purpose of reconnaissance and deterring Tatar raids, ... were seen near the mouths of Small Tanaid, four days’ journey from Azov, near the place of the Great Perevoz, near the Holy Mountains, some marble and stone statues and images.” Russian chronicles of the 16th century note the role of the Holy Mountains as a guard post on the southern outskirts of the Russian state. The first documentary evidence of a cave monastery in the Holy Mountain dates back to 1624.

The most ancient monument of the Svyatogorsk Monastery are the chalk rock caves. The cave complex in the chalk rock consists of temples, cells, tombs, refectory and utility rooms located at different levels of the rock and communication routes between them. The total volume of the caves is about 7 thousand m³, the area is 2.5 thousand m².

There is no exact data on the date of establishment of the Svyatogorsk Monastery; there are only a few hypotheses about its origin. Even the monks of the 17th century. They didn’t know who or when the monastery was founded. The only thing that the monastic brethren knew was that the monastery was built “in a stone mountain from long ago,” and that “in that monastery, in the mountain, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was consecrated to the Kingdom of blessed memory of the Great Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich of all Rus''s Autocrat in 1634."

One of the most popular hypotheses dates the beginning of the monastery to the middle of the 13th century, when, after the Mongol-Tatar invasion of Kievan Rus, some of the monks of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra were forced to leave their native monastery and found a new refuge in the Svyatogorsk caves. Less known, but very popular, is the hypothesis of the writer E. Markov about the appearance of a Christian center in the Holy Mountains back in the 9th century, during the educational activities of Cyril and Methodius among the peoples of the Khazar Kaganate, under whose authority this area was included.

The top of the chalk rock with caves is crowned by the St. Nicholas Church - a masterpiece of folk Ukrainian architecture of the 17th century. Its distinctive features are its compositional unity with the cliff itself and the picturesque natural landscape. The temple is pillarless, single-nave, crowned with three domes of different sizes. The eastern (altar) part of the church is carved into the chalk rock - these are the remains of the ancient Assumption Church located on this site. After its destruction in the 17th century, the brick part of the temple and the bell tower were added, and among the pilgrims a legend was born about the miraculous appearance of the St. Nicholas Church in one night and that it was built secretly behind a chalk wall, and at the end of the construction the wall was brought down, revealing this temple to the people. In 1851, the St. Nicholas Church was partially rebuilt, a new bell tower (western chapter) and a southern aisle were erected. At the expense of the merchant I. Izvekov, a new iconostasis was tripled. Services are held here occasionally, gathering a countless number of believers. The surviving drawing of a chalk rock with caves, made by Archimandrite Joel and dated 1679, also points to the Assumption Church on the site of the later St. Nicholas Church.

The cave period of the Svyatogorsk monastery ends in the beginning. 80s XVII century In 1679, the wooden church of St. the apostles Peter and Paul, and with it residential and outbuildings under the rock. Archaeological excavations at the site of their construction confirmed the presence of remains of buildings and household items from the late 17th-18th centuries.

Mount Favor and the largest chalk outlier in the Northern Donbass - Monastyrskaya Rock. On the rock is the St. Nicholas Church of the 17th century. and St. Andrew's Chapel of the 19th century.

The Svyatogorsk monastery was closed in 1922, which led to the disappearance of some architectural monuments of the 19th century. Other religious, residential and outbuildings were adapted for the Holiday House, which received its name in the mid-20s. XX century name of the I All-Ukrainian Rest House named after. Artem. To commemorate this event, on the top of the neighboring chalk mountain, known as Bald Mountain, in 1927, a 22-meter monumental sculpture of the Bolshevik, revolutionary, founder of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic and leader of the coal industry trade unions Artem (Sergeeva F.A.) was poured from reinforced concrete. . The author of the monument is the famous sculptor Ivan Petrovich Kavaleridze. The sculpture was made in the avant-garde style - cubism, and since 2009 the monument has been included in the State Register of National Cultural Heritage Objects as part of outstanding works of monumental art in Ukraine. Thanks to the monument and the total anti-religious policy during the years of the USSR, this place has another name - Artem Mountains.

Complex of cave structures of the 17th century. in the chalk rock is not the only underground type monument of the Svyatogorsk Monastery. Eyewitnesses testified that back in the 19th century. on the slopes of the Holy Mountains, the remains of single cave rooms carved into the chalk rock were visible. Among them, the underground church of St. Anthony and Theodosius became the most famous. This underground complex dates back to the time of its origin to the original complex of cave structures in the chalk rock. The entrance to the underground temple is located east of the main monastery and dug at the foot of the mountain on which the monument to Artem now stands. Before entering the temple in 1847. a cemetery was founded for secular persons - benefactors of the monastery and individual monks, mainly confessors of the monastery. Contemporaries were amazed by the splendor of the monuments in the cemetery, the abundance of princely and noble families, whose representatives were buried here. On both sides of the entrance arch, a pavilion was built over the two crypts of the Golitsyn princes, which became the main architectural element of the entire memorial complex of the 19th century cemetery. Prince Boris Alekseevich Kurakin was buried next to Prince Golitsyn in 1850. Even earlier, in 1847, with the burial of Major General G.D. Ilovaisky, the Ilovaisky family tomb was founded. Immediately in front of the entrance to the temple, the hieromonks and confessors of the Svyatogorsk Monastery of the 40-90s of the 19th century were buried. - O. Theodosius, Fr. Cyprian, Fr. Paisiy, Fr. Ioannikiy. Old photos show dozens more monuments near the temple, incl. Ataman of the Don Army, Count M.I. Platov, actual state councilor S.V. Kurdyumov - the first chief physician of the Slavyansky resort and others. After the monastery was closed in 1922, the temple and its necropolis were destroyed. And the premises of the underground temple were used as a vegetable storage facility for the sanatorium.

The pavilion is the tomb of the Golitsyn princes at the entrance to the underground church of St. Antonia and Theodosius.

Outcrops of Upper Cretaceous rocks along the road leading along the serpentine to the top of the mountain. The outcrops are represented by white and also yellowish, locally ferruginous writing chalk with subordinate layers of chalk-like marl. The thickness of the deposits reaches 120 m. The Cretaceous deposits contain fauna characteristic of the Turonian and Coniacian stages. Below the chalk-marl strata, near the village. Tatyanovka, deposits of the Cenomanian stage (Slavyanogorsk formation) and Lower Cretaceous age (Dolinskaya sequence) and underlying Jurassic limestones of the Oxford stage are exposed.

Small grotto

The barely visible face of Jesus Christ on the chalk rock.

There are two viewing platforms at the top. One on Bald Mountain, at the foot of the monument to Artem. From here a panorama of the chalk hills opens from the Holy Mountains to the village. Bogorodichnogo and further to the village. Yaremovka, as well as an incredible view of the Seversky Donets valley and the architectural complex of the Lavra.

It is worth noting one of the disappeared monuments of historical and spiritual heritage - the Church of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. In 1864, on one of the highest peaks of the Holy Mountains - Mount Tabor, as Archimandrite Arseny called it, the Transfiguration Church was built above the St. Nicholas Church. The temple was erected at the expense of Countess Tatyana Borisovna Potemkina. The church had a completely original architecture and had two tiers. At the top of the church, at the expense of Countess Lanskaya, a carved iconostasis made of dark cypress was built. In the lower tier of the church there was a throne in honor of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God. Services were not often held in the Church of the Transfiguration, mainly in the summer. After the death of T. B. Potemkina, the temple fell into disrepair. The church itself was dismantled in the mid-20s. XX century due to a shortage of material for the construction of an electrical substation for the Rest House named after. Artem.

Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra. The Svyatogorsk monastery was reopened in 1992. This year, the Holy Assumption Cathedral, which had been plundered and turned into a cinema, was given to the monastery. In 1995, when the number of brethren increased, restoration and restoration of the temples and buildings of the monastery began. On November 28, 2003, residential and economic buildings that were under the jurisdiction of the Slavyanogorsk Historical and Architectural Reserve and the “Holy Mountains” sanatorium were finally transferred to the Svyatogorsk Monastery. Taking into account the antiquity of the monastery, its historical role, numerous appeals of Orthodox believers, as well as the active revival of the monastery and its beneficial influence on the spiritual life of the region and Ukraine, on March 9, 2004, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II, decided to assign the monastery the status of a monastery . Thus, the Svyatogorsk Monastery became the third Orthodox Lavra in Ukraine (after the Kiev-Pechersk and Pochaev Lavra).

The second observation deck is located on the opposite Mount Tabor, at St. Andrew's Chapel, standing on the top of the Monastery Rock. The chapel is located at the level of the roof of the St. Nicholas Church of the 17th century. and occupies the mark of 141 m, i.e. the highest platform of the chalk rock.

The Cyril and Methodius Staircase was built in 1851 to the top of the chalk rock and the cave monastery. A completely original structure, which was a covered gallery with transitional towers and gilded domes. The inside of the tower was decorated with paintings, presumably by I.E. Repina. The Cyril and Methodius Staircase, built at the expense of the Shabelskys, had 511 steps and branches to the entrances to the chalk rock caves.

On the upper platform of the chalk rock in the 50s. XIX century St. Andrew's Chapel was built. This is a kind of covered gazebo made of unhewn large sandstone, folded into massive pillars. Such an original construction technique has been known for a long time and was called “wild masonry.” The idea of ​​​​building the chapel belonged to A.N. Muravyov, who visited the Holy Mountains in 1851. “The Archimandrite showed me on the top of the rock a chapel in the name of my angel, the First-Called Apostle, with his icon in the recess of the cliff, as he promised to arrange for me seven years before this. A lamp was burning in front of the icon, and on the rock was written a large crucifix with those present, which can be seen from afar from the opposite bank. “You see that we have kept our word to you,” he said, and this place is known to us as St. Andrew’s Chapel.” (From a letter from A.N. Muravyov to St. Petersburg, May 27, 1858)

Subsequently, St. Andrew's Chapel received a second name - the Upper Pavilion of Pilgrims, since numerous pilgrims overlooked the endless distances of Svyatogorye from here.

Cyril and Methodius Staircase and view of Bald Mountain with the monument to Artem.

Further west from the monastery stretches a series of dome-shaped peaks covered with dense forest.

The greatest interest among the flora of Svyatogorye is the chalk pine, towering above the diverse flora of the Holy Mountains. This relict tree of the pre-glacial era is included in the Red Book. In addition to chalk pine, linden, ash, aspen, maple, mackerel and, of course, oak grow on the slopes and gorges of the Holy Mountains.

In a deep hollow, 1.5 km from the monastery, there is the so-called Holy Place. In the 19th century here was the monastic monastery of St. Arsenia. Here, to this day, an underground complex of monastic cells, carved into the chalk, has been preserved. The above-ground monastery buildings were destroyed with the closure of the monastery and were never restored.

The main temple of the Svyatogorsk Lavra is the Assumption Cathedral. The Assumption Cathedral was built in 1859-1868 and after its consecration on September 4, 1868 it became the central element in the architectural ensemble of the Svyatogorsk monastery of the 19th century.

By the end of the 50s of the 19th century, the main church of the monastery, the Assumption Cathedral, built back in 1708, was having difficulty fulfilling its function as the cathedral church of the famous monastery. It was already quite dilapidated and small in volume. The design of the new Assumption Cathedral was completed by St. Petersburg architect A.M. Gornostaev. Construction of the cathedral took place over nine years, from 1859 to 1868. Built in the Russian-Byzantine style, the cathedral became the central element of the entire architectural ensemble, delighting contemporaries with its monumentality and grandeur. In the interior, the temple is divided into three naves by four powerful columns. In the altar part, formed by three apses, there are three altars. The main one is in honor of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the right one is in the name of the Great Martyr Barbara and the Martyr Tatiana, the left one is in the name of the retinues Dmitry of Rostov, Mitrofan of Voronezh and Tikhon of Zadonsk. An eyewitness to the construction of the cathedral, A. Kovalevsky, left a detailed note about the construction of the temple: “The laying of the foundation began with large blocks of local wild stone, which broke in the gorges of the Holy Mountains in straight cubes and fell into the ditches; God sent Father Herman an experienced and conscientious contractor for stone work, a peasant from the Vladimir province, Yakov Sergeevich Eremin, who personally managed all the work and carefully monitored the conscientious execution of the stonework... The capital collected by Archimandrite Arseny for the construction of the cathedral was far from sufficient to replenish all the needs of this a capital and very valuable building, and despite the free building materials: wood, stone, brick and lime, which were partly obtained from the Potemkins’ savings, partly broken and made in the monastery’s own factories, this construction required over 100 thousand rubles of pure money.”

4. Motienko, Yakov Vlasovich. Along the Seversky Donets: a guide / Y. V. Motienko. - Donetsk: Donbass, 1982. - 59 p.
5. Dedov V.N. Slavyanogorsk Guide. - Donetsk: Donbass, 1984. - 56 p.
6. Dedov V.N., Dashevsky A.B. Slavyanogorsk Historical and Architectural Reserve (Guide). - Donetsk: Donbass, 1986. - 40 p.
7. Dedov V.N. Types of the Svyatogorsk Assumption Hermitage in the Kharkov province. Photo booklet. Author-compiler V. N. Dedov. Reproduction photography by B. M. Prokhorov. - Slavyanogorsk: Slavyanogorsk State Historical and Architectural Reserve, 1993. - 56 p.
8. Dedov V.N. Holy Mountains: From oblivion to revival - K.: RPO "Poligrafkniga", 1995. - 352 pp.: ill.
9. Dedov V.N. Holy Mountains in the history of Slobidska Ukraine. Pre-Victorian exhibition of the State Historical and Architectural Reserve near Svyatohirsku. — Donetsk: LLC “RA “Your Image”, 2012 – 116 p.
10. Holy Mountains: Catalog of postal leaflets of the 19th – 20th centuries. Vidannya 2-ge, additional. — Donetsk: “Shadowy house”, 2013 - 116 p.
11. Dedov V.N. Svyatogirsk historical and architectural reserve. Preservation, investigation, restoration of cultural decline. 1980-2015. — Kramatorsk: “Circulation-51”, 2016.- 332 p.

ORTHODOX CALENDAR. MODERN LOOK
Where are the Holy Mountains?
July 30, 2008
Icon of the Mother of God of Svyatogorsk

July 30, 2008 The Russian Orthodox Church venerates the Icon of the Mother of God of Svyatogorsk, and with it the UOC MP joins in this veneration. Moreover, in 2008 brought into the church life of the Russian Orthodox Church, one might say, a number of revolutionary changes. And this year, the celebration of the Icon of the Mother of Svyatogorsk will take place against the backdrop of celebrations dedicated to the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' and with the personal participation of Patriarch Alexy II, which in itself is an extraordinary event for Ukraine.
But, due to historical realities, with the veneration of this icon, a certain historical, and I would even say ecclesiastical, conflict arose in the Orthodox Church, which in the Russian Orthodox Church, where everyone is passionate about new church construction, stubbornly refuses to notice.
For in the Russian Federation, in fact, on the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church, there is the HOLY ASSUMPTION Svyatogorsk Monastery (Pskov region) where there is an icon of the Mother of God of Svyatogorsk and in Ukraine (Donetsk region) there is a restored one in 1992. Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Monastery.
And since 2004, it has already become the Svyatogorsk Holy Dormition Lavra, where there is also the miraculous Svyatogorsk Icon of the Mother of God.
And the celebration of these icons takes place on one day, although the history of their appearance and the beginning of the cult of veneration, in the time period, is spread out by 300-400 years, in favor of the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Monastery (Pskov region).
And believers are no longer sure where the Holy Mountains are located in the Pskov region or in Ukraine? Isn’t it logical to have two places of religious veneration of the same icon, in monasteries with the same name and in localities with similar names?
But if we follow the logic of recent events, then the decision of Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Alexy II to visit Donetsk and the Svyatogorsk Lavra on July 29 and 30, where on the last day of his stay in Ukraine he will lead the liturgy on the day of the celebration of the “Svyatogorsk Icon of the Mother of God” probably indicates that The “true” Holy Mountains are located in Ukraine….
It is a pity, however, that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was offended in such a situation, since it is in this HOLY ASSUMPTION Svyatogorsk Monastery in the Pskov region that the Pushkin family tomb is located. Apparently modern politics is more important than the historical memory of the popular Russian favorite.
Taking into account this priority and the attention of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Svyatogorsk Holy Dormition Lavra and its main shrine, we will begin our essay about two monastic monasteries, with this monastic monastery, in order to finally find out where the Holy Mountains are located and whose icon Mother of God is revered July 30, 2008

Chapter 1 part 1
Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Hermitage - Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Monastery - SVYATOGORSKY Holy Dormition Lavra (Ukraine)
Historical part
On the right bank of the Seversky Donets River stands, restored since 1992. monastic monastery - Assumption Svyatogorsk Monastery.
This monastery is located in the region that, according to church tradition, was Christian long before the baptism of Rus'.
We will discard the stories of church tradition that the monastery was originally founded by monks running away from Byzantium and move on to documentary evidence.
So in “History of the Russian Church” Metropolitan. Macarius indicates that the Khazars who lived here already in the middle of the 8th century. had their own bishop, a certain recluse of Sosthenes, exiled to Kherson for venerating icons.
A century later, the Greek Emperor Michael, at the request of the Khazars, sent St. Cyril and Methodius to Khazaria, because “byahu tamo blasphemes the Jewish peasant faith.”
Whether Cyril and Methodius were in the Svyatogorsk Monastery, history is silent. But Metropolitan Macarius claims that after repeated heated debates with the Khazars, Saracens and especially the Jews, the brothers, with God’s help, achieved the goal of their embassy - according to the life of the brothers Equal to the Apostles, the prince himself, his boyars and many people believed in Christ and accepted holy baptism.
Another church authority is Archbishop. Filaret (Gumilevsky). Explaining the name of the Holy Hermitage, he wrote: “Why are the Donetsk mountains called holy? –
- This name can only be explained by the fact that since 1540 the shrine of the Donetsk Rocks - the image of St. Nicholas, found by the monks (in the caves), and the holiness of the monks who labored here...
With all probability we can assume that in the 14th century. The Svyatogorsk monastery already existed...”
Please note, dear reader, that the first and main icon of the Svyatogorsk Hermitage has been around since 1540. became an icon of St. Nicholas!
In the XI-XIV centuries. On the territory of the region, in the immediate vicinity of the Holy Mountains, there existed, according to some modern archaeologists, both a series of small settlements and a large center - “Tsarino Settlement”, some of the inhabitants who professed Christianity according to the Greek rite.
The Holy Mountains are repeatedly mentioned in historical documents of the 16th century, such as the Moscow and Lvov chronicles, and in 1624 Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich granted a charter to Abbot Simeon and his brethren.
In Russian historiography, the granting of such a royal charter is, as it were, the official acceptance of the monastery under the wing of the Russian Orthodox Church and is usually considered as the year of its foundation.
And everything that happened before this, as it were, doesn’t count, who knows how many “Judaizing” Khazars were wandering around here?
The brothers Cyril and Methodius came and went, but the Khazars, but not the Slavs and the Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians who then left them, remained in the territory that is now the Donetsk region.
At this time, the Svyatogorsk Hermitage was the most advanced, southern, Russian settlement in the Wild Steppe and stood in the way of the Crimean Tatar hordes, which repeatedly went to Muscovy for tribute, and was also ruined by the Tatars, although as we know, they did not take monks prisoner and the church was not subject to taxes.
. The fact that the monastery was an advanced fortress is evidenced by its location on almost impregnable rocks.

But the hard times have passed, the reign of Catherine II has come.
Ukraine was conquered, the Zaporozhye Sich was liquidated.
In 1782, Catherine II concluded a peace treaty with the Crimean Khan Sahib-Girey and the need for the Russian Empire and, naturally, for the Russian Orthodox Church, in the desert disappeared.
In connection with this, in 1787 the monastery was “abolished.” According to the “Spiritual States”, published by Catherine II on February 26, 1764, all monasteries that owned patrimonies and were not abolished, with the exception of the laurels (Trinity-Sergius and Kiev-Pechersk) and those of them that were made cathedrals, that is, intended for bishops (Alexandro-Nevsky, Chudov, Rozhdestvensky-Vladimirsky, Ipatievsky, Spaso-Preobrazhensky, Novgorod-Seversky), were divided into three classes and a norm of full-time monks and nuns was established in them.
First class monasteries had 33 monks, second class monasteries had 17, and third class monasteries had 12 monks; in first-class convents there were, according to the staff, from 52 to 101 nuns, and in second- and third-class monasteries there were 17 nuns each.
In 1762, there were 881 monasteries, hermitages and hermitages in the Great Russian provinces alone.
Only established monasteries now received a certain monetary allowance from the state.
But not everything was clean here, there was corruption, as they now say, and the miraculous icons of Svyatogorsk did not help.
An unexpected turn in the history of Svyatogorye was the decision of Catherine II to give this “paradise on earth,” as the empress herself put it, to her favorite, Prince Grigory Potemkin. After which the desert territory became his ordinary secular dacha.
Yes, I almost forgot to note that by the time the desert was closed, it owned 27,000 acres of land and 2,000 peasants. The monastery community was very wealthy! And it’s not for nothing that Potemkin “liked” it.
Since 1790, the Holy Mountains were owned by Prince G. Potemkin, and after his death - by his relatives, the Engelhardts. The ones with T.G. Shevchenko served in the Cossacks, who doesn’t remember. The monastery churches were partially dismantled, and partially became just a church parish.
By July 1, 1896, there were 789 of all monasteries, hermitages, hermitages and women’s communities (not counting the few assigned monasteries in which only a few monks live to perform divine services).
But let's return to the topic of the story.
Almost 54 years later, the Svyatogorsk hermitage opened up again. This happened in 1844 in connection with the arrival of the first 12 monks, led by Abbot Arseny (Mitrofanov), to the settlement.
The history of this “miracle”, if expressed in church language, is as follows.
In 1842, Engelhardt's nephew Alexander Potemkin (namesake of Count Potemkin) and his wife Tatyana (née Golitsyna), having visited here, decided to revive the monastery, for which they turned to the Synod with a petition to restore the monastery.
And according to the “most submissive report of the Holy Synod,” Nicholas I, by decree of January 15, 1844, “deigned to order the restoration of the Svyatogorsk Assumption Hermitage on the principles of community life and to accept the charter of the Glinsk Hermitage of the Kursk Diocese as the basis for the internal well-being of it.” (This hermitage still exists - Glinskaya hermitage in the village of Sosnovka, Glukhovsky district, Sumy region of Ukraine)
Again, I draw the reader’s attention to the fact that the king allowed the founding not of a monastery, but of a “hermitage.”
And yet, usually out of misunderstanding, or maybe out of malicious intent, I draw attention to the important detail ““he deigned to command the restoration of the Svyatogorsk Assumption Hermitage on the basis of a community life...”.
T. and in its first legal status it was not a monastery, but a hermitage.
This is fundamentally important because “Pustyn” is a term denoting a monastic settlement, in the Russian Orthodox tradition, a monastery usually remote from the main monastery.
And in Orthodoxy, hermitage is a form of monastic, “skete” or “desert” life, solitude associated with the voluntary adoption of additional ascetic vows in addition to the general statutory ones (for example, intense prayer, strict fasting, silence).
Now let's talk about another important detail of the restoration of the Svyatogorsk Hermitage. About the Charter of the Glinsk Hermitage. This is a special document in Russian monasticism and it deserves a detailed description because, having understood its essence, one can understand what the monks of the Syatogorsk Hermitage were supposed to do.
The Charter consists of three sections, including 36 chapters.
The first defines the order of worship and meals.
From 24 o'clock in the Glinsk Hermitage morning prayers and the midnight office were read, matins and lithium were performed, from 6 o'clock - an akathist to the Mother of God, from 8 o'clock - liturgy, from 16 o'clock - vespers, lithium.
From 18 o'clock - Compline with three canons, prayers for the future and a memorial service were also read. The Sunday and holiday vigil began at midnight and lasted five hours on the Lord's and Mother of God holidays (except for the reading of kontakia and ikos of the akathist), and on other holidays – four hours.
On Sunday, at 5 o'clock in the morning, a cathedral akathist to the Sweetest Jesus was performed. The monastery introduced a special Glinsky chant, the Partes singing of St. Filaret did not allow it.
After the liturgy, the brethren went in pairs to the refectory, and the rite of Panagia was served. In the desert there was continuous reading of the Psalter and daily commemoration according to a special synod. In the first week of each month, the water was blessed.
Among the features of the Glinsk Hermitage service was the carrying of tabernacles around the church by deacons and the burning of censers with censers (censers with handles).
The second and third sections of the charter regulated the duties of the abbot, senior and ordinary brethren. The monks did not have any property, did not receive anyone in potassiums, and met with relatives occasionally and only in a hotel. Women were prohibited from entering everywhere except the temple.
Everyone who entered the monastery was entrusted to the elder for spiritual guidance. In addition to the existing obediences of the confessor and treasurer, St. Filaret introduced in the Glinsk Hermitage the positions of dean, sacristan, charterer, ecclesiarch, housekeeper, hospital attendant, hotel attendant, etc.
According to chapter 25, the brethren who did not fulfill the charter were removed from the desert.
The Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, now so revered in Russia during the Putin era, called the Glinsk hermitage “the great school of monastic life.”
The Glinsky charter, borrowed by many monasteries (about 15), served as “the cornerstone of a strong structure and prosperity.”
Hieromonk of the Glinsk Hermitage Innocent became the first rector of the Svyatogorsk Hermitage.
At the end of 1844, work began on restoring churches, clearing caves and underground passages.
From this time on, during the second half of the 19th century, the old buildings near the river were replaced by new stone ones.
The underground church of Saints Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk was restored in 1846, and in 1859 the main cathedral of the desert, the Assumption Cathedral, was rebuilt. The Cathedral of the Assumption had a height from the base to the cross of 53.5 m.
In 1850–1867, in one of the cells inside a steep cliff, the Monk John (Kryukov) performed the feat of seclusion.
It was the Svyatogorsk monastery that built the Skete of the Savior, famous throughout the Russian Empire, at the Borki railway station, where the imperial family miraculously escaped in the disaster on October 17, 1888. This is when the Narodnaya Volya people planted a bomb under the tracks, in case anyone forgot school history.
In 1874, a staircase called Cyril and Methodius was built to the top of Mount Tabor.
The staircase had 511 steps and was designed in the form of a covered gallery with 16 landings, two towers and 22 passages.
In general, we can say that over 70 years a lot of construction was carried out in the monastery: 8 churches in the monastery, 5 churches in farmsteads, 2 monasteries, hotel buildings, a hospital, schools, a huge exemplary farm, the eldership was revived
This is clearly visible in the surviving pre-revolutionary picture of the Svyatogorsk Monastery and its surroundings.
In “Complete geographical description of Russia, for 1903.” you can read:
"Svyatogorsk Dormition Community Hermitage" is located in the Izyum district of the Kharkov province, 155 versts along a dirt road from the city of Kharkov, 35 versts from the city of Izyum and 18 versts from the city of Slavyansk, famous for its mineral waters...
From the city of Slavyansk to the station of the same name on the Azov railway there are three miles, and from there it is 237 miles along the cast iron road to Kharkov."
Nevertheless, the monastery received thousands of pilgrims every year. The total number of monks, novices and simply residents (Balti) and service personnel was about 600 people. A large farm required many workers.
This is how the monastery greeted the fateful year 1917 for the entire Russian Orthodox Church.
In 1922, after a period of repression and looting of the monastery, it was closed.
In today's church literature one can find the following statements: “The opening of the monastery, predicted by the Svyatogorsk elders, took place in 1992.”
The author believes this is a prediction made in hindsight. And to prove his point of view he refers to a historical document.
It speaks more eloquently than any words, testifying to how the monks lived in the desert under the Bolsheviks.
"Act of investigation into the atrocities of the Bolsheviks committed in the Svetogorsk monastery of Izyum district." It is dated 1919.
“Normal life in the Svyatogorsk Holy Dormition Monastery, famous not only in the Kharkov province, but throughout Russia, was disrupted in 1918.
At the beginning of January, the Velikokamyshevakhsky land committee of the Izyum district, as well as the Bogorodichsky and Slavic committees, registered the property of the monastery, which has its own branches (monasteries) in various places with farms and various workshops.
Having registered the monastery property, the committees immediately began to liquidate it for their own benefit, and Velikokamyshevakhsky mercilessly cut down the forest.
Thus, the entire supply of grain was exported, and the livestock was sold. The monastic brethren were excluded from using the land. The monks who made up the workforce were subject to forced eviction, and out of 600 people, only 200 to 300 old clergymen remained and some of the monks took refuge in the monastery itself. The losses of the monastery, according to the most conservative estimate, amount to about 250 thousand. This situation did not save the monastery from further attacks. Since February, numerous searches begin, each time accompanied by robbery.
Already on February 15, an armed gang of about 15 people, as local peasants said, mainly from Izyum policemen, burst into the monastery, demanded an indemnity of 15 thousand rubles and, going around the cells, took away everything they liked. This time the robbers failed to obtain indemnity. On March 26, a group of Bolsheviks reappeared.
Under the pretext of finding weapons, the uninvited guests went to the cave temples, where they behaved blasphemously, entering in hats, smoking cigarettes, overturning thrones and using foul language. The confiscation of church utensils evacuated to the monastery from the churches of the Volyn and Vilna dioceses dates back to the same time. The selection of these items, according to witnesses, was carried out in an unusually rough manner. Sacred objects were squeezed into boxes with curses, the Holy Gifts were thrown out of the monstrance and trampled on the spot.
After the search, the Bolsheviks went to the rector, demanded church wine and drank it immediately. When leaving, they took with them the monastery horse.
The brutal murder of the monk Hypatius, who went outside the monastery walls, dates back to the beginning of April. Apparently, he was robbed and hacked to death with sabers by roving Bolshevik detachments. In June, armed robbers (from 5 to 8 people) appeared at the monastery near the village of Gorozhovka and demanded that the monastery steward, Monk Onuphrius, hand over the money received from the sale of the monastery property. The housekeeper said that he had no money. He was taken outside the fence and immediately shot at the gate. Another monk, named Israel, is killed while trying to escape.
Procession of the Cross in the holy monastery
Banditry, which had weakened somewhat during the time of the Hetman, was, however, supported all the time by detachments of Bolsheviks roaming in the surrounding area, popularly nicknamed “Lesoviks.” The murder of several people from the clergy of the Svyatogorsk monastery dates back to this time.
In October 1918, the icon of the Svyatogorsk Mother of God, especially revered in the area, was transferred from village to village. The procession stopped for the night in the village of Bayrachek. Here a gang of robbers attacked the premises occupied by the clergy, broke down the doors and shot dead hieromonks Modest and Irinarch, hierodeacon Theodotus, who lived in the same house as a psalm-reader of the local church, the owner of the house and his daughter.
Five corpses lay at the foot of the icon, which stood in a pool of blood. The monks had no money. But more than one motive for robbery guided the robbers, judging by the words of one of them during the murder: “You pray that God will punish the Bolsheviks.”
When the Germans left, Bolshevik activity immediately revived. Already on December 1, a group of armed people appeared demanding the release of weapons that were available for the self-preservation of the monastery. The weapon was issued. Then a gang of about 100 people, awaiting the results of the negotiations, broke into the monastery and began to rob the monastery and fraternal property.
7 thousand rubles were stolen from the monastery cash register, clothes, shoes, underwear, watches, etc. were taken from the monks, and all the loot was taken away on the monastery’s six horses, while capturing two more carriages.
The days of January 2 and 3, 1919 were the most difficult for the Svyatogorsk Monastery and at the same time the days of the most intense blasphemy and mockery of the Orthodox monastery and violence against its clergy and monks. On January 2, at about three and a half o'clock in the afternoon, Red Army soldiers numbering up to 60 people arrived at the monastery in 16 carts.
They had red ribbons on their chests and on their rifles. With a whoop, they burst through the gates of the hotel and, cursing the monk in charge of the hotel with vulgar abuse, beat him with a rifle butt and dispersed throughout the buildings of the monastery.
The robbery began with the most incredible bullying. At this time, a service was going on in the Church of the Intercession. Several Red Army soldiers burst into the church wearing hats, loudly demanding the abbot and the release of keys to the monastery vaults. A demand was made for the issuance of 4 million indemnities and 4 thousand of the money that was in the monastery's treasury was taken away. The Red Army soldiers split into small parties for the purpose of a general search and robbery of the monastery premises. The abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Tryphon, had all the furnishings and things scattered around them, demanding money with abuse and threats with weapons.
Searches, robberies and bullying took place simultaneously in all cells. The monks were deprived of their property, down to their last shirt and boots. Icons were broken and thrown to the floor, monks were forced to smoke and dance in the corridors.
One of them (Monk Joseph), under threat of execution, was demanded that he curse the Lord and the Mother of God, and after refusing, they forced him to smoke, beating him to force him to inhale deeper. The beaten, robbed and abused brethren began to gather, led by the archimandrite, in the church for worship. But Red Army bandits, wearing hats and holding candles in their hands, kept barging in there all the time, examining the feet of those praying and taking away boots that seemed good to them.
At about 2 o'clock in the morning, when there seemed to be some calm, they began to celebrate the liturgy.
Celebration in the revived monastery
The liturgy in the cathedral was served by the archimandrite with other clergy. During the litanies, a group of Red Army soldiers burst into the temple. One of them ran into the pulpit and shouted: “It’s enough for you to pray, you’ve been trampling all night, get out of the church!” - he turned back by the shoulders of the hierodeacon who proclaimed the litany. At the urgent requests of the archimandrite and the brethren, permission was given to finish the liturgy. But the Red Army soldiers did not leave the temple.
While singing the Cherubic song, they entered the throne and continued to inspect the boots of the worshipers. The brethren, expecting further suffering and even death, received Holy Communion. Towards the end of the mass, a new gang of Red Army soldiers burst into the temple. One of the gang, holding scissors in his hands, shouted: “Stop, don’t move, come one by one, I’ll cut everyone’s hair,” and immediately cut off the hair of one of the monks. The monks tried to escape.
Another Red Army soldier ran into the altar, opened the Royal Doors and, standing in them, shouted: “Don’t come out, I’ll shoot.” At the same time, the Red Army soldiers carried out robberies, sacrileges and abuses in all rooms of the monastery.
In the archimandrite’s apartment the fanatics slept, covered with stoles, and in the treasurer’s room they chopped up portraits of the hierarchs of the Russian Church. Bullying and violence continued everywhere. Several monks had their hair and beards cut off and were beaten and forced to dance, smoke and even drink ink. In the morning, when mass began again, the Red Army soldiers did not allow the service. The gang that broke in attacked the clergy and began to drag them out of the temple in their vestments, but, yielding to the requests of the priests, they allowed them to expose themselves.
Then everyone, led by the archimandrite, was taken out of the temple. They took off the archimandrite's boots, gave him some supports, and, despite the frost, lined everyone up in rows in front of the temple. Accompanied by beatings and obscene language, the mocking training of the monks in marching and military techniques began.
At this time, another group of Reds was blaspheming in a nearby temple. One of them, wearing a robe and miter, sat on the throne and leafed through the Gospel, while the others, also in vestments, blasphemously represented the service, now opening and now closing the royal doors for the amusement of their like-minded people. The temple was desecrated by excrement near the candle box.
Stones and icons from mitres and icons - everything was stolen. All the loot was taken out of the monastery on 38 carts. At the same time, all the monks of the “hospital farm” located next to the monastery were robbed.
During the Bolshevik administration, by order of the Izyum executive committee, an indemnity in the amount of 80 or 85 thousand rubles was imposed on the Bogorodichanskaya volost. The Bogorodichsky executive committee demanded 50 thousand from the monastery as an indemnity. The brethren collected 10 thousand rubles, and 5 thousand were paid from the monastery funds.
In the spring of 1919, a colony of children of different ages, up to and including 18 years old, was sent to the monastery from Petrograd and was located in two monastery buildings. The colony of up to 350 people was headed by the communist Poltoratsky, conducting education in a spirit consistent with communism. All icons from the occupied buildings were removed, and visiting the church was prohibited.
During their retreat at the end of May of this year, the Bolsheviks once again visited the Svyatogorsk Monastery.
First, some military man appeared and, calling himself General Shkura, demanded that the abbot be shown to him, and then a gang of “fighters” burst in, demanding 50 thousand indemnities. At the same time, they forced Hieromonk John to put his head under the blows of the saber. The hieromonk got away with giving the rapists the 40 rubles he had with him and receiving two blows with a whip.
During the retreat, the Bolsheviks cut off the hair on the heads and beards of hieromonks Nestor and Boniface, killed the monk Timolai in the field and hacked the novice Moses, who survived with severed fingers.
This act of investigation is based on the facts obtained by the Special Commission in compliance with the rules set out in the Charter of Criminal Procedure. Compiled on July 17, 1919 in Ekaterinodar."
And these are all yesterday’s zealous parishioners, about whom A.P. wrote so warmly. Chekhov, in his story about visiting the Svyatogorsk Hermitage, truly God subjected his best servants to a strict test...
And on June 8-12, 1922, in the city of Bakhmut, a court hearing of the Donetsk Provincial Revolutionary Tribunal took place.
9 people of the Svyatogorsk brethren, led by Archimandrite Tryphon, were tried. The main accusation is concealing church valuables from being confiscated to help the famine-stricken.
The verdict was made after a 6-day trial, which sentenced Archimandrite Trifon (Skripchenko) to 2 years of forced labor with imprisonment.
So, by 1922. if any of the monks managed to survive, they clearly had no time for forecasts about the revival of the monastery.
For the Bolsheviks came in earnest and for a long time. These are terrible times for everyone, both believers and non-believers, even the most terrible...
But after 1922, the Soviet government managed to find a different use for church buildings - one of the famous health resorts in Ukraine was created in the desert.
In 1948, the remaining buildings of the monastery were declared a cultural monument, and in 1980 Svyatogorye was declared a state historical and architectural reserve, whose employees did a lot for the fundamental study of the history of the Holy Mountains and the restoration of war-damaged shrines
But then 1991 came. The USSR collapsed, and in free Ukraine, they began to slowly return church property appropriated by the state.
Through the efforts of the local Gorlovka diocese, in 1992 the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Monastery resumed its activities as a monastery.
The chain of times, as they say, has connected... But there is one thing. To understand it, we need to make a digression and explain to the unprepared reader what monasteries represent in the Russian Orthodox Church today.
Currently, all monasteries in Russia are divided into monasteries and non-monasteries, regular and supernumerary.
In communal monasteries, monks receive everything they need from the monastery, and their labor in priestly service in the monastery and various monastic “obediences”, as assigned by the abbots, is provided for the benefit of the monastery;
Neither monks nor officials headed by the abbot can have anything here as property; abbots are elected by the monastics themselves (those who have full monastic ordination).
In non-communal monasteries, monks, having a common meal from the monastery, clothes and everything else necessary for a monk, buy themselves from the salary given to them or from income from divine services and from various types of monastic “work”, the works of which can be sold (for example, dressing crosses, icons, etc.).
The abbots of these monasteries are appointed by the diocesan bishop with the approval of the Holy Synod.
Established monasteries are those that receive a certain amount of maintenance and have a number of monastics determined by the state.
They are divided into three classes according to the amount of content they receive and the degree of rights.
In the first class, four laurels and seven stauropegial monasteries (Solovetsky, Simonov, Donskoy, Novospassky, Voskresensky - called New Jerusalem, Zaikonospassky and Spaso-Yakovlevsky) are allocated some special privileges and rights.
The name stauropegial is derived from the words - cross and - erect, and is explained in the sense that when they were established, the cross was erected in them by the patriarchs themselves, under whose direct control some of them were at first.
Their advantages now lie in some episcopal features of the worship of their archimandrites (for example, the right to overshadow the people during the liturgy with trikiriy and dikiriy) and in the fact that they are removed from the jurisdiction of diocesan bishops, being under the direct supervision of the Holy Synod or the Moscow synodal office (Moscow stauropegial monasteries).
In the management of economic affairs, the laurel takes part in the so-called. a “spiritual council” of the oldest monastics, and in all other monasteries the abbot is assisted by the “eldest brethren” in managing the economy.
The internal structure of monastic life in all monasteries is regulated by general monastic rules, special statutes and “instructions to the dean of monasteries.”
With some of the first class. monasteries there are, at some distance from them, in secluded places, several cells for a more strict ascetic life, the totality of which is called a monastery (such as, for example, the Anzersky monastery of the Solovetsky monastery, the Gethsemane monastery of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, etc.).
Supernumerary monasteries are called monasteries that do not receive a salary and exist on income generated by the priesthood and the labors of the monks themselves.
And the Svyatogorsk Assumption Hermitage until 1918 was a provincial, communal, monastic community of the Kharkov diocese.
But let's go back to our time!
As of 2007 The monastery had three ground and three cave temples, two bell towers, the main one with 17 bells, the weight of the main “abbot” bell was more than 6 tons.
Among the parishioners of the UOC-MP it is believed that there are no monastic monasteries similar to Svyatogorsk in terms of beauty and unusual construction.
Cave passages, about one kilometer long, with chapels, tombs, and cells are revered as shrines.
In addition to them, the monastery houses the miraculous image of the Mother of God of Svyatogorsk, the relics of St. John the Recluse, reliquaries with particles of the relics of many saints, of which there are the relics of St. John the Baptist, the evangelists, as well as part of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord.
The most revered holidays in the Holy Mountains:
May 22 - St. Nicholas. The religious procession ascends on this day to the Holy Rock to the Temple of the Wonderworker.
July 30 - Svyatogorsk Icon of the Mother of God. A crowded religious procession with a miraculous icon takes place around the monastery.
August 24 - St. John the Recluse, a procession of the cross takes place around the monastery with the icon and relics of the saint, attended by several hundred clergy and up to 10 thousand pilgrims.
August 28 - Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary - the patronal day of the monastery. The main celebrations take place in the Assumption Cathedral.
Divine services are held daily. All obediences in the monastery are mainly performed by the brethren, from among whom a wonderful choir is formed.
In addition, the brethren work in the carpentry, sewing workshops, blacksmith, bakery, apiary, vegetable gardens, prosphora, fraternal and pilgrim meals, in garages, as tour guides and in other obediences, of which the reviving monastery has no shortage.
And everything in the monastery would be in accordance with the rules, there would be peace, quiet and God’s grace, if not for politics...
(end of part 1)

Svyatogorsk is rightly called the pearl of Donbass. After all, here you can see historical and architectural monuments, temples and monasteries, mountains, a river, and a national natural park.

On a 1958 postcard from this point, the Lavra and Slavyanogorsk looked like this:

I began my tour of the northernmost city of the Donetsk region with a visit to the Holy Dormition Lavra. To approach the shrine, I crossed the Seversky Donets River across the bridge.

On old postcards of Slavyanogorsk (as the city was previously called) in 1958, the bridge looked like this:

There is no exact information about the date of foundation of the monastery. However, there is a version that it was founded in 1240 by the monks of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, who fled after the invasion of the Tatar-Mongol horde. Over its centuries-old history, the Svyatogorsk Hermitage has experienced many different events: it was closed, inhabitants left it, houses of culture and sanatoriums were located in churches. Since 2004 it has the status of a Lavra.

You can learn about all this and get acquainted with the exhibitions in 2 museums and an exhibition hall, which are located on the territory of the Lavra.

The Holy Intercession Church was built in 1850. The peculiarity of the tower clock on the bell tower is that 2 dials have Arabic numerals, another 2 have Roman and Church Slavonic numerals. The chimes showed the correct time, and a melody sounded every quarter of an hour.

To get to the Holy Assumption Cathedral you need to go through arched vaults with paintings of the faces of saints.

The temple was built in 1869 and combined 2 architectural styles - Byzantine and Russian architecture.

It contains the especially revered miraculous Svyatogorsk Icon of the Mother of God and images of all the saints who shone in the Holy Mountains.

The passage to the cells and the house of the rector of the Lavra is closed.

Behind these iron doors begin cave labyrinths with tombs and temples. You can only walk through the cave monastery in the chalk mountain with a guided tour, which I didn’t have time to go to this time.

The territory of the monastery is buried in flowers.

One of the towers was crowned with a gilded weather vane.

2 functioning fountains in the courtyard are not pompous in appearance, but very harmonious.

They say that near this gazebo you can feel the energy center of Svyatogorye.

You can climb higher up the chalk mountain along a slab-paved road, a little long, but well-maintained.

I took a shortcut along a steep path, over rocks and roots.

A very unpleasant feeling is caused by the leftover garbage everywhere after picnics. Are there really not enough drinking establishments for tourists and pilgrims?

During the Second World War, this area was literally watered with the blood of the defenders of Northern Donbass from the fascist invasion. And the name of the mountains - Saints - was given not only because Orthodox shrines are located here. The names of almost 2.5 thousand soldiers and officers, war heroes are immortalized on the memory blocks of the memorial complex.

Initial view of the war memorial:

In August 1943, during the offensive of the Red Army, the enemy held defenses on the right high bank of the Seversky Donets. It was extremely difficult to dislodge him from these positions. Guard Lieutenant V. Kamyshev set up an observation post on an oak tree not far from the Nazis’ location and adjusted artillery fire to hit the enemy. The reflection of the binocular lenses caused the discovery of the brave scout. The enemy opened fire and blew away the crown of the tree. Kamyshev died from his wounds.

The original monument was like this:

A modern monument at the burial site of a courageous warrior.

100 meters from the sacred oak there is a monastery fenced with a palisade. Entrance to it is open only 2 times a year for pilgrims. The wooden temple attracts attention with its unusual architecture for these places.

Of course, I found an open entrance in the backyard and asked the novice for permission to enter the courtyard. I understand that the abbot’s blessing is needed, but it was not in the monastery. A novice, crossing himself and praying, let me pass, and another, working on the roof, got down and talked about the temple and the life of the brethren.

All Saints Cemetery Church has a long and tragic history. Consecrated in 1912, in 1920 it received expelled monks after the closure of the Svyatogorsk Monastery. Revered images and relics of saints were also brought here. In the 1930s, the priests were arrested. Later, the temple was blown up by the communist authorities, and the cemetery was desecrated. In 2000, believers began to restore the shrine.

The remains of the inhabitants of the monastery were reburied.

The architecture of the temple is called an eight-on-four with a refectory. It is, of course, different from the ancient wooden churches, built without a single nail. The novice who told me about everything had nails held on a magnet for ease of working at heights.

Now the brothers have their own farm, an apiary, a garden, and a tractor.

A kilometer northwest of the monastery is the St. Nicholas Church on the Holy Rock. It seems to grow out of a chalk cliff and rests against the sky with a three-domed extension. It was built in the 17th century on the site of the ancient Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was lost after the collapse of a rock.

Nearby stands the chapel of St. Andrew the First-Called, built in the 1850s, the vaults of which are made of sandstone.

Teeth of a chalk cliff near the St. Nicholas Church.

This is how the church and chapel are depicted in photographs taken in 1958:

This place has an observation deck, the view from which is stunning at any time of the year. But I think especially in golden autumn.

From here you can clearly see the monument to Artyom, the Soviet party leader. This monumental sculpture made of reinforced concrete is 28 meters high.

Now the sculpture is in need of restoration; there is a sign next to it that the state of the monument is in an emergency and entry is prohibited. But this does not stop tourists, and everyone strives to climb to the observation deck near it to admire the surroundings of Svyatogorye.

As much space as the eye can see, this is the Holy Mountains National Natural Park. Some plants have been preserved from the pre-glacial period. About 50 species are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. There are the same number of fauna representatives. The most beautiful, in my opinion, is a relict pine forest. But there are many oaks and other trees.

The whiteness of the chalk mountain was exposed on the steep slopes.

At the exit from the Lavra, the Most Holy Theotokos blesses.

Address: Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra, st. Zarechnaya, 3, Svyatogorsk, Donetsk region
Tel. +380 6262 53024
Coordinates: 49°1’42"N 37°34’3"E

With the revival of the Svyatogorsk monastery in the village of Bogorodichnoye, 3-4 km down the Donets, the Holy Sorrow Church began to be restored. Built in 1847, it, like other shrines, was destroyed in the 1930s. The new church that was built belongs to the monastery in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow.”

Skete address: st. Stepnaya 2a, s. Bogorodichne, Slavyansky district, Donetsk region
Tel. +380 6262 53337, +380 99 9832468
Coordinates: 49°0’57"N 37°30’52"E

Along the road in this village there is a chapel in the name of Alexander Nevsky, built over a holy spring, the water in which comes from a 30-meter depth and has healing properties.

In Svyatogorsk everyone will find something for themselves, some will strengthen their spirit, some will enjoy the beautiful scenery, some will benefit from a hike and climbing a mountain. And you can learn a lot of interesting things and be enriched with new impressions that I share with you.

One of them is the National Natural Park “Holy Mountains” (http://www.svyatygory.org – official website). The park was created on February 13, 1997. Located in the northern part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, in the Slavyansky (11957 hectares), Krasnolimansky (27665 hectares) and Artyomovsky districts. It is located along the left bank of the Seversky Donets River with large protrusions on the right bank. In 2008, the chalk mountains on the territory of the national natural park “Holy Mountains” were included in the Top 100 of the all-Ukrainian competition “Seven Natural Wonders of Ukraine”.

The park carries out work to protect and study valuable natural, historical and cultural complexes and objects on its territory, create conditions for organized tourism and recreation for the population, and environmental education of visitors.

The park is important in historical and archaeological terms. On the territory of the Saints there are 129 archaeological sites (from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages), 73 historical monuments. In 1980, a state historical and cultural reserve was founded on the current territory of the park. The basis of the complex of monuments of the reserve is the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra (founded in the 13th - 16th centuries, received the status of a monastery in 2005), located on the rocky right bank of the Seversky Donets. The complex of historical monuments also includes a monumental sculpture of Artyom by I. P. Kavaleridze. Next to the monument is the Great Patriotic War Memorial. The National Natural Park “Holy Mountains” includes 13 specially protected natural areas of the Donetsk region - landscape, forest, botanical reserves and natural monuments.
The vegetation of the Holy Mountains National Nature Park has enormous scientific value. On an area of ​​40.5 thousand hectares, half of the species of higher plants that have ever been recorded in the South-East of Ukraine grow - 943 species, including 27 species of trees, 63 of shrubs and 853 of herbaceous plants. 48 plant species are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine, 20 species grow only in this territory. The vegetation of the Seversky Donets River valley is protected: relict and endemic plant groups in
chalk exfoliations, ravine forests, steppes, meadow and swamp vegetation. Of particular value are the unique chalk forests formed by chalk pine - a tertiary relict listed in the Red Book of Ukraine and the IUCN International Red List. As a unique corner of nature, the chalk mountains have long attracted the attention of scientists. Chalk pine differs from Scots pine. Currently, in Ukraine, chalk pine is preserved only in the Holy Mountains park and the Cretaceous Flora reserve.
The fauna of the park is very interesting - 256 species of animals live on the territory of the “Holy Mountains”. The fauna includes 43 species of mammals, 10 of reptiles, 9 of amphibians, and 40 of fish. There are weasels, polecats, American minks, pine martens and stone martens - common inhabitants of typical biotopes of the national park. There are also ermine, badger and otter, listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. Several groups of wolves constantly live in the park. Ungulates are represented by roe deer and wild boar, native to the region, the taiga resident elk, which became widespread in the second half of the twentieth century, and sika deer, acclimatized in the 60s from Primorye.
In total, among the wild inhabitants of the Holy Mountains National Park, 49 species are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine and 13 in the European Red List. The rare composition of the animal and plant world can be confidently considered the golden fund of the “Holy Mountains”.

National Natural Park "Holy Mountains" is a wonderful place for organizing and conducting tourism, environmental excursions and environmental education. Here you can relax, improve your health and get acquainted with beautiful natural, cultural and historical complexes.

National Natural Park "Holy Mountains" is located in the north of the Donetsk region, in the Slavyansky, Krasnolimansky and Artyomovsky districts, along the left bank of the river. Seversky Donets. This corner of nature is incredibly beautiful, but this is not the only thing that distinguishes it from other national parks in Ukraine. “Holy Mountains” are more than 120 archaeological sites, over 70 historical monuments, several nature reserves and natural monuments of various levels. The rarest specimens and entire groups of relict plants grow here, and the total number of plant species exceeds 9 hundred. More than 250 species of animals live in the park, 50 of which are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. The park is famous for its chalk mountains, which in 2008 were included in the Top 100 of the “7 Wonders of Ukraine” competition.

Many writers have written about the attractive power of Svyatogorye’s nature. For its magical landscapes and excellent opportunities for restoring health, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov called Svyatogorye “Donetsk Switzerland”. After visiting the Holy Mountains, many artists of the 19th century. left their creative works to their descendants. Among them are I. Repin, S. Vasilkovsky, A. Kiselev, Y. Fedders.

The heart of the national park is the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra, whose history goes back centuries. One of the existing versions connects the origin of the monastery with Byzantine monks who fled from persecution by the imperial power during the period of the iconoclastic heresy.

Near the Holy Mountains National Park, there is a long-known source of mineral waters and healing mud. Local residents and medical specialists constantly use them for bathing and making appliqués.

Every year the park is visited by thousands of tourists who come here for recreation and treatment. Scientific and educational tourism also plays an important role.