Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra. Svyatogorsk.

The Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra is an Orthodox monastery of the 15th century of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) in the city of Svyatogorsk, Donetsk region. Of the monks who worked in the monastery, 17 were glorified as saints. In 2004 he received the status of a laurel. Monastery on the right high chalk bank of the Seversky Donets (on the so-called Holy Mountains, in the national park of the same name). In addition to ground structures, there are chalk caves.

According to church legends, the first monks settled in the 14th or 15th centuries. The first written mention of the 'Holy Mountains' area dates back to 1526. The first reliable mention of the monastery dates back to 1624, when the clergy was granted a royal charter granting the right to own this land. In 1679, the monastery was captured and plundered by the Crimean Tatars. The Gorokhovatskaya Mother of God hermitage also belonged to the monastery. Subsequently, it was restored and in the second half of the 18th century lost its defensive significance, becoming a major landowner. In 1787, by decree of Empress Catherine II, the Svyatogorsk monastery was abolished, and the villages, lands and lands belonging to it were taken to the treasury. In 1790, Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky became the new owner of Svyatogorye. By decree of the Holy Synod, the monastery churches of the Assumption of the Mother of God and St. Nicholas on the rock turned into parish, and the rest were dismantled and taken away. The monastery was in a closed state for almost 57 years. The lands remained in the Potemkin family.

In 1844, at the request of the landowner Tatyana Potemkina, by the decree of Emperor Nicholas I, the Svyatogorsk Monastery was restored according to the rank and charter of the Glinsk Hermitage of the Kursk Diocese. Over the next 70 years, it reached an unprecedented heyday, becoming one of the largest in the Russian Empire. During this period, the question of assigning the status of a lavra to the Svyatogorsk monastery was raised more than once. The monastery had brick workshops, mills, various workshops, trade shops, was famous for its wonderful views and attracted many pilgrims. At the end of the 19th century, at the crash site of the train with the imperial family in the village of Borki, the Spaso-Svyatogorsk skete with the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was built. The cave Arseniev skete and the Akhtyrsky skete (hospital farm) also operated. Before the First World War, there were about 600 monks in the monastery.

The events of 1917 and the arrival of the new Soviet power tragically affected the further fate of the Svyatogorsk monastery, the plundering of which began in January 1918. The founder of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic Artyom (Sergeev) was directly involved in deciding the fate of the monastery. So, at his suggestion, on the one hand, from destruction, the main temples of the monastery were saved, and on the other hand, a cinema was set up in the Holy Dormition Cathedral (with a toilet in place of one of the altars), and in the Holy Intercession - a library. In 1922, the monastery was liquidated, and in its place a rest house for workers of Donbass was formed. The Svyatogorsk monastery was reopened in 1992, three years later restoration and restoration of the monastery buildings began. Today all the temples, caves and surviving buildings have been returned to the monastery.