Sviatohirsk: A Historical and Architectural Reserve

Sviatohirsk is rightly called the pearl of the Donbas. For here you can see historical and architectural monuments, churches and monasteries, mountains, a river, and a national nature park.

In photographs of 1958, the Lavra and Sviatohirsk:

I began my tour of the northernmost town of the Donetsk region with a visit to the Holy Dormition Lavra. To approach the shrine, I crossed the river Siverskyi Donets by the bridge.

On old postcards of Slovianohirsk (as the town was formerly called), in 1958 the bridge looked like this:

There are no precise data on the date the monastery came into being. However, there is a version that it was founded in 1240 by monks of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra who had fled after the invasion of the Tatar-Mongol horde. Over its centuries-long history the Sviatohirsk hermitage has lived through many different events; it was closed, its residents left it, and houses of culture and sanatoriums were set up in its churches. Since 2004 it has held the status of a Lavra.

You can learn about all this and get acquainted with the displays in the two museums and the exhibition hall located on the grounds of the Lavra.

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

To reach the Holy Dormition Cathedral you must pass through arches painted with the faces of saints.

The church was built in 1869 and combined two architectural styles — Byzantine and Russian.

It holds the especially venerated miraculous Sviatohirsk Icon of the Mother of God and the images of all the venerable saints who shone forth in the Holy Mountains.

The passage to the monks' cells and the house of the Lavra's abbot is closed.

Behind these iron doors begin the cave labyrinths with crypts and churches. You can walk through the cave monastery in the chalk mountain only with a tour, but I did not make it in time for the start of the tour.

The grounds of the monastery are drowning in flowers.

One of the towers is crowned by a gilded weather vane.

Two working fountains in the courtyard are not pompous in appearance, but very harmonious.

They say that by this gazebo you can feel the energy centre of Sviatohirya.

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

I took the short way, up a steep path, over stones and roots.

A very unpleasant feeling is aroused by the litter left everywhere after picnics. Are there really too few places to eat and drink for the tourists and pilgrims? During the Second World War this locality was, in the literal sense, soaked with the blood of the defenders of the Northern Donbas against the fascist invaders. And the name of the mountains — the Holy ones — was given not only because the Orthodox shrines are here. On the memory blocks of the memorial complex are immortalised the names of almost 2,500 soldiers and officers, heroes of the war.

Earlier the memorial looked like this:

In August 1943, during the offensive of the Red Army, the enemy held the defence on the high right bank of the Siverskyi Donets. It was extremely difficult to dislodge him from these positions. Guards Lieutenant V. Kamyshev set up an observation post on an oak not far from the fascists' position and directed artillery fire to destroy the enemy. A glint from the lenses of his binoculars gave the brave scout away. The enemy opened fire and blew off the tree's crown. Kamyshev died of his wounds.

The original monument was like this:

The present-day monument on the burial site of the courageous soldier.

A hundred metres from the sacred oak is a skete, fenced with a palisade. Its entrance is open only twice a year for pilgrims. The wooden church drew attention with architecture unusual for these parts.

I found an open entrance in the back yard and asked a novice for permission to enter the courtyard. I understand that the abbot's blessing is needed, but he was not in the skete. The novice, crossing himself and praying, let me in, and another, who was working on the roof, climbed down and told me about the church and about the life of the brethren.

The All Saints cemetery church has an old and tragic history. Consecrated in 1912, in the 1920s it took in the monks after the closure of the Sviatohirsk monastery. Here, too, the venerated images and the relics of saints were brought. In the 1930s the priests were arrested. Later the church was blown up by the communist authorities, and the cemetery desecrated. In 2000 the faithful set about restoring the shrine.

The remains of the monastery's residents were reburied.

The architecture of the church, of course, differs from the ancient wooden churches built without a single nail. The novice who told me about everything kept his nails on a magnet, for convenience when working at a height.

The brethren now have their own household, an apiary, an orchard and a tractor.

A kilometre to the north-west of the skete stands the St. Nicholas Church. It seems to grow out of the chalk cliff and jut into the sky with its three-domed extension. It was built in the 17th century on the site of an ancient Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, lost after a cliff collapse.

Nearby rises the chapel of Andrew the First-Called, built in the 1850s of sandstone.

The jagged peaks of the chalk cliff by the St. Nicholas Church.

This is how the church and the chapel are shown in photographs of 1958:

At this spot a viewing platform has been set up, the view from which is stunning at any time of year.

From here the monument to Artem is clearly visible — a reinforced-concrete monument, 28 metres high, to a Soviet party leader.

Its author, I. Kavaleridze, depicted the revolutionary in the avant-garde style of Cubism. They say that a 'Zhiguli' car could fit on the head of Comrade Artem.

The sculpture is now in need of restoration; beside it hangs a sign that the monument's condition is dangerous and passage is forbidden. But this does not stop the tourists, and everyone strives to climb up to the viewing platform beside it, to admire the surroundings of Sviatohirya.

As far as the eye can reach — this is the 'Holy Mountains' national nature park. Some plants have survived from the pre-glacial period. About 50 species are entered in the 'Red Book' of Ukraine. As many again are representatives of the fauna. The most beautiful, in my view, is the relict pine forest. But there are many oaks and other trees too.

On the steep slopes the whiteness of the chalk mountain is laid bare.

At the exit from the Lavra the Most Holy Mother of God gives her blessing.

Address: the Holy Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra, 3 Zarichna Street, Sviatohirsk town, Donetsk region
Tel. +380 6262 53024
Coordinates: 49°1'42 "N 37°34'3" E

With the revival of the Sviatohirsk monastery, in the village of Bohorodychne, some 3-4 km downstream along the Donets, the Church of the Icon 'Joy of All Who Sorrow' began to be restored. Built in 1847, it, like the other shrines, was destroyed in the 1930s. The new church that was built belongs to a skete in honour of the icon of the Mother of God 'Joy of All Who Sorrow'.

Address of the skete: 2a Stepova Street, the village of Bohorodychne, Sloviansk district, Donetsk region
Tel. +380 6262 53337, +380 99 9832468
Coordinates: 49°0'57 "N 37°30'52" E

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

In Sviatohirsk everyone will find something for themselves: some will be strengthened in spirit, some will enjoy the beautiful landscapes, and for some a hike with a climb up the mountain will do good. Here you can learn much of interest and enrich yourself with new impressions, which I share with you.