"visit ... the half-ruined Hustynia monastery, on the other side of the Uday River, three versts from the town of Pryluky. I can assure you that you will not regret it. It is a true Abbey of Saint-Clair ...," — thus, as early as the 1840s, did Taras Shevchenko advise a visit to the holy cloister. In 1845 the classic of Ukrainian literature, as a member of the Archaeographic Commission, made sketches in the monastery courtyard, and later, in 1953, he began his novella "The Musician" with a description of this place of prayer.
Hustynia. Chernihiv region. The Holy Trinity Monastery. The Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul
Of course, not all the pilgrims and travellers set off for Hustynia in search of spiritual cleansing after reading the lines of the poet-prophet.
This monument of Ukrainian Baroque has, over its history, gone through periods of oblivion and destruction, of restoration and of closure once again.
Pilgrimage to the shrine, 420 years after its founding, has not waned and is in a bright season of spiritual discovery.
The Holy Gate. The Church of St Nicholas. The bell tower
The entrance to the monastery courtyard begins with the four-tier Holy Gate, where the Church of St Nicholas occupies the second and third tiers, and the bell rings out from the fourth. The lower tiers, square in plan, were laid at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries; the upper one — octagonal, with a tented bell tower — was added in 1853.
The Holy Gate. The Church of St Nicholas
The Hustynia Chronicle tells of the events of the 16th and 17th centuries in Ukraine, Poland, Rus and Lithuania. In its chronicle accounts, in which the author speaks out in defence of the Ukrainian people and of Orthodoxy, it tells of the founder of the hermitage, the monk Ioasaf. In the dense forest — from which the name Hustynia comes — the ascetic, together with his disciples, built the Holy Trinity Church in 1614.
Fires more than once destroyed the wooden buildings, and later it was decided to move the cloister from the ashes to a new site.
The Holy Trinity Church and the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul
The central avenue, which divides the grounds into two parts, leads to the Holy Trinity Church. One of the finest examples of Ukrainian Baroque, it was built in 1675. Eight different types of windows were used in its construction — cruciform, corner and blind niches.
The Holy Trinity Church. An architectural monument
To the left of the entrance is a crypt with the memorial slabs of the Horlenko family, whose line included colonels and military officers, as well as the ancestors of St Ioasaf of Belgorod.
The Holy Trinity Church. The family vault of the Horlenkos
With the funds of the Pryluky colonels Lazar Horlenko and his son Dmytro, churches and defensive walls with towers and loopholes were built in the 17th century; the monastery received new lands and was considered one of the richest in Ukraine, second only to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
The Holy Trinity Monastery. The walls and towers
The Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God was founded in 1695 by Hetman Ivan Mazepa. In 1845 the church was reconsecrated in honour of the Resurrection of Christ.
The Church of the Resurrection of Christ
Beneath it lies the family vault of the Repnin-Volkonsky princes.
Gathered and preserved are the gravestones of donors and benefactors — smashed during the years of Soviet rule — whose names are linked with the restoration of the holy cloister.
The five-domed, cross-shaped Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul was built in 1693-1708.
The Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul
The building is incorporated into the monastery wall, and the eastern gate stands next to it.
The Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. The eastern gate
On the northern side rises the abbot's house, with the northern gate on the first tier, cells on the second, and the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara on the third. The building dates from the 17th-18th centuries. It is the only example of Ukrainian architecture combining defensive, residential and ecclesiastical functions in one building.
The abbot's house and the Church of St Barbara
The cloister's prosperity lasted until the October coup. After the place of prayer was closed, the ancient icons and iconostasis were chopped up for firewood, and the sepulchre was turned into a cellar, with its burials and gravestones destroyed.
The graves of the priests
The parishioners did not allow the churches to be demolished, and the God-fighting authorities housed a colony for juveniles in the buildings.
The monastery cells
During the Second World War the Nazis allowed the nuns to return, but in the years of the Khrushchev Thaw they were once again turned out of the gates, and the churches were converted into a psychoneurological care home.
A chapel
In 1993, when the shrine was returned to the faithful, the community and the brethren inherited a ruined legacy. The monuments of history and architecture had been mutilated and half-destroyed.
The cells and the church shop
The Holy Trinity Convent. The cells
Over 20 years the churches and monastic buildings were restored and the grounds put in order. The monastery has established a bakery, workshops, a livestock farm, a poultry yard, a hayfield, an apiary, greenhouses and a hotel for pilgrims.
The well
On 28 August, the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, a fair is held, offering monastery honey and gingerbread, herbal teas, handmade soap and candles. A Sunday school has been opened.
The church shop
Near the monastery, an 1843 building has been renovated, its heritage plaque stating that it is a hotel.
The Holy Trinity Convent. The hotel. 1843. An architectural monument
The patron saints of the Hustynia Holy Trinity Convent are St Dymytrii of Rostov, St Ioasaf of Belgorod, the Wonderworker of Pryluky, and the three Christian virtues Faith, Hope and Love, and their mother Sophia.
In the central part of the cloister, beneath a tall ash tree, stands a memorial plaque to Taras Hryhorovych, who saw Hustynia in 1845 in a pitiful state and depicted the cloister in his album and in prose.
A memorial plaque in honour of T. H. Shevchenko
"I ... on the commission of the Kyiv Archaeographic Commission, visited these half-ruins ... Having learned all this and having drawn, as best I could, the main, or Holy, Gate, and the Church of Peter and Paul, as well as the refectory church where the ever-memorable Prince Mykola Hryhorovych Repnin is buried, and the still-surviving cyclopean fraternal building — having done, I say, all this as best I could ..."
Drawing by T. H. Shevchenko. The Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. 1845
The monastery is located ten kilometres north-east of the district centre of Pryluky, in the Chernihiv region. There is no regular bus service between the small village and the town. You can get there by hitchhiking or by taxi.
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