jorgesanchez's travel recommendations

This underground monastery, of which existence I learnt thanks to my friends who brought me there as a gift for my birthday, is a real discovery. It consists in a XVI century monastery complex with a great church plus some smaller ones, and a hill in which interior there are monks’ cells with artistic frescoes and little chapels. The monastery is located at in Russkaya Khalan, about 5 kilometres from Chernyanka, in the direction to the Ukrainian border. We went by car. The place was so awe-inspiring! A very faithful woman conducted a tour and gave us explanations about the caves (only in Russian, of course, there never go foreigners). During the Communist times some of the caves were used by the soldiers and destroyed many frescoes, but the faithful people hid the treasures and gave them back to the Orthodox Church during Perestroika times. After Pecherskaya Lavra, in Kiev, these caves were the most impressive of its kind that I have ever seen in the ex Soviet Union countries.

Address: Russkaya Khalan, Chernyanka Chernyanka Belgorodskaya Oblast' Russia Phone: + no available E-mail: noavailable@yahoo.com Price: budget