Cave Monasteries

The history of cave monasteries is very interesting. They appeared at the turn of 9th century and their formation was to a great extent, an outward manifestation of the political struggle between Byzantine secular powers and monasteries which had accumulated enormous property. By accusing and then condemning the monks as idol and image worshipers, the big monasteries were abolished, their property and lands passed to the state, and monks were forced to marry or join the army.

These drastic measures provoked the resentment of the monks and they escaped to remote corners of the empire or went abroad. Many of the fugitive monks gathered in Crimea. It was they who founded monasteries in the sheer cliffs along the rivers.

Cave towns excite the interest of visitors and leave unforgettable impressions because of the exotic location and appearance.

The Uspensky Cave Monastery

Founded in the 15th century, the monastery is built in caves in the limestone walls of a spectacular valley leading to the ancient cave city of Chufut-Kale.

It is said that an icon of Mary the mother of Jesus illuminated by a candle miraculously appeared high on the cliffs and was discovered by a shepherd. The local prince ordered the icon to be carefully moved to his palace, but when he awoke the next morning he found that the icon had returned to its position on the cliff.

A further attempt to remove the icon met with the same result, and the people realised that they were meant to leave it where it had appeared. Accordingly they built a small chapel in a cave about 20m up in the cliffs and a flight of steps to reach it. The icon was placed in the chapel.

It is likely that the site of the existing monastery had religious significance well before the 15th century, and there is evidence of monastic activity here from the 9th century AD. The valley was originally settled by the Greeks and later by the Genoese, and there are Christian graves in the area dating from the 6th century.

The monastery continued to function during the centuries of Tatar rule, and some of the Russian prisoners held in Chufut-Kale higher up the valley were allowed by their Tatar captors to attend services there, and to meet the Russian envoy there too on occasions.

The shield of St George the Victor has been the Moscow city shield since the 15th century and became the centrepiece of the Imperial Russian coat of arms as the symbol of the capital. However, there is its another connection - with the Uspensky monastery.

An alternative, and certainly older account of the founding of a monastery here tells how a huge snake or dragon appeared in the valley, preying on both cattle and people. The Greek and Genoese inhabitants at the time were christians and prayed to the Most Holy Mother of God to free them from the monster. One night they saw a candle burning high up on the cliff. When they went to look, they found steps hewn in the rock leading to the candle, which illuminated an image of the Most Holy Mother of God, and nearby the corpse of the dragon. The people cut the corpse into pieces and burnt it, and from that day the place became a holy shrine.

Seven years after the 1917 revolution the monastery was closed by the government.It was abandoned and allowed to fall into disrepair during the soviet era, but in the early nineties monks began to move back, and significant restoration work has been undertaken. This includes icons, originally painted on the bare rock in the 19th century, which had become faded and weatherbeaten.