Donator cave temple Temple of Donators in Crimea. Stolen fresco of George
Donator Temple is located on the Cherkez-Kermen valley, not far from Eski-Kermen in the Bakhchisarai region of the Crimea. The temple was erected in a secret place and plays the role of a kind of protection for the entire valley. Only when you are in this place can you feel the flow of Power that emanates from the Temple into the valley and fills it with life-giving energy. When a small cave church, which is painted on the inside with frescoes, served as a refuge for monks.
The temple was erected on a hard-to-reach rocky promontory. It is not so easy to get into the monastery, but it is worth it. First, you need to overcome a rather steep ascent along a rocky slope, which is sprouted by a forest. Then go out onto the path that goes around the rock and walk along the slippery steps carved into it. It is impossible to find the entrance to the temple from the bottom of the beam. It opens only at the top.
The interior of the Temple is very small - about 2x3 meters. Previously, wooden outbuildings adjoined the outer side. They were built with the help of grooves made in the stone, in which beams were installed. A staircase carved into the rock led to the entrance of the room.
The temple is famous for the fact that he managed to preserve the medieval fresco painting. It is assumed that it was preserved due to the secrecy and secrecy of the place. The structure is so securely hidden that it would have been impossible to find it without a sign on the top of the mountain in the form of a cross. Gradually, the drawings are lost, but at the beginning of the 20th century they were in good condition.
In the altar part of the temple, the forms of a fresco from the 14th century have been preserved, which depicted the holding of the liturgy of the Holy Grail (depicting the infant Christ in a bowl surrounded by saints). Unfortunately, the state of the fresco itself is sad. This temple is the only one on the territory of Crimea where you can still find the image of the Holy Grail. It symbolizes the idea of direct communication with God without a priest, which became popular in the 13-14 centuries in the territory of Crimea and Serbia.
Who were called donors and why did they build the temple? The word donator means from Latin "giver" or "bringing a gift". You can also consider him the patron saint and organizer of the construction of the temple. It is believed that a certain princely family donated funds for the construction and arrangement of the Temple. This is why it is named that way. Two figures are depicted on the western wall of the temple. It is assumed that these were spouses: on the left - a man with a beard, in a crown and military attire, on the right - a female figure with earrings in the ears and a pointed hat is distinguished. They say that this is an image of the very donors who were local feudal lords. Their ancestral nest was located on the nearest plateau Topshan. Thus, it can be concluded that this small church was a family temple. Scientists suggest that the fresco depicts the founder of the Crimean principality of Theodoro - Prince Theodoro. Until now, the history of the principality is shrouded in mystery.
How to get there
Finding a temple, as well as climbing it, is not easy. The excursion runs along the southern part of the Eski-Kermen plateau. Next, you should bypass a small cape with the Kyz-Kule tower. After that, it is necessary to go in the opposite direction, along the neighboring valley almost to the very end, to the point where the beam bifurcates. At the top of the rock you can see the carved temple of the Donators. You can climb to the temple after turning into a gully on the right and walking forward 200 m, then go up the left slope. If you walk along the top of the cliff (on which the remains of the foundation are visible), you can find two adjacent caves. It is in one of them that the Temple of the Donators is located.
The road to the Eski-Kermen plateau follows different routes:
1. The most the best option, if you go from the village of Zalesnoe (regular buses go to the village from Bakhchisarai, Sevastopol, Yalta) along a tourist trail about 3-4 km to the southern part of Eski-Kermen. The trail is easy to find south of the village. Moreover, it is indicated on the topographic map of the mountainous Crimea.
2. From the village of Kholmovka (by regular bus from Bakhchisarai, along the road about 6-7 km in the southwest direction.
3. From the village of Ternovka through the Chelter-Marmara cave monastery. From it you need to turn north, and a little higher than the village go along the road to cave monastery Shuldan (from which the trail joins the trail from the village of Zalesnoe along a gully).
4. If you are driving your own car, it is best to drive through the village of Krasny Mak to the village of Kholmovka. Turn left before reaching the last one. Then turn right at the end along the slab surface, which gives way to a dirt road. Drive to the end of the northern part of the plateau, where you can see a museum worker charging an entrance fee.
Anya reacted favorably to my idea to visit the Donators' temple.
The driver of the 40th bus to Ternovka was also accommodating and stopped us near the poplars.
From here the road goes to the greenhouses and the ascent to the Chelter-Marmara cave monastery begins.
Here, past this smoking pipe, we come to the beginning of the ascent.
The cave monastery is clearly visible from the road.
It's hard to miss.
Between the first and second windows on the left, a cross carved into the stone is clearly visible.
I remember him well from the days when monks did not live here.
A local guard came to our aid.
He made sure that no one dared to turn back.
So we came to the entrance.
A visit to the monastery was not included in our plans and we walked around its territory along the slope.
At the ascent to the top, we decided to take a break under the vigilant control of the owner of these places.
The ascent is not difficult and soon we find ourselves at the top.
A cross is installed at the top.
Ternovka is clearly visible from here. V historical documents there are also other names: Old Shulya, Shulyu, Shuli, Staroshuli, Staroshul.
Climbing upstairs, we immediately went north-west or towards the city of Sevastopol.
With this, we pursued two goals at once: to find a dream-grass and to get out on the road to the Donators' temple.
The surroundings are clearly visible from above.
Balaclava.
Fashionable parting of forest glades and the Mytilino rock in Balaklava.
The first goal was not achieved immediately.
We even had doubts.
But everything ended well.
We first found one flower.
Then two.
Then a lot.
This is an amazing flower.
It is impossible to stop looking at them.
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We reach the stone tour, next to which there is a stone arrow.
The direction of the arrow is northeast, into the bushes. There is a trail.
On this path we find ourselves in the forest.
Snowdrops meet us in the forest.
I thought that they had already faded.
But in Crimea miracles happen.
We go along the path all the time straight, we are not distracted by the road crossing it and we come to the clearing.
Immediately we go around it to the left and along the path we go into the forest, where the descent into the valley begins.
Barbed wire on the way is a sure sign.
We go around the thorn on the right and go down the slippery rock onto the final path down.
And here we are already happily greeted by flowers.
Primrose of different colors.
We leave to the Cherkez-Kermen valley.
We find the pointer and start climbing.
We're upstairs.
The path led to the temple.
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This temple makes a strong impression.
But we have to go.
We go down the slope covered with snowdrops into the valley.
Past an old spring and a bull with a tied bell, the ringing from which spreads throughout the district, we go to the exit.
A small tea party with a view of the Kyz-Kule tower.
It was here that the idea was born to run upstairs lightly.
Anya stayed downstairs to rest.
I climbed up not where I planned.
But the tree growing close to the rock helped.
Being near the tower, I suddenly remembered the time when I visited here for the first time.
Eh, where are my 17 years old? Rather 18, because it was in 1978.
That hairy in the middle is me).
From the Tower you can see Eski-Kermen and the adjacent valleys.
Cherkez-Kermen is also clearly visible.
I got carried away by something memories, Anya was tired of waiting.
I found the descent down from the top.
Ancient steps carved in stone.
Below we saw that the scenery for the film "Diamonds for Stalin", which we met last year, is still in place.
We will visit the Urallag again, it is good that not as prisoners.
The Egyptians considered the snail a symbol of eternity.
What am I doing?
I don’t know myself.
"Again he" - I thought and was mistaken.
This is the next generation of monastery cats.
We go down, not forgetting to look back.
And looking back, we forget that we have to go down.
This field is already near the road.
The descent ended, to the delight of both.
Tired but not defeated Anya.
The last bonus of this walk is the bus, which departed 10 minutes after we arrived.
It was a great walk.
And on the map it looks like this.
All the best and see you soon!
It is located in a freestanding outlier rock in the upper reaches of the Cherkez-Kermen gully. The entrance to the temple from the bottom of the beam is not visible. It can only be found by climbing to the top.
The temple is a small room carved into the rock, measuring about 2x3 m. At one time, there were wooden extensions on the outside, as evidenced by the grooves made in the stone for fastening beams. A staircase carved into the rock led to the entrance.
The monument is famous for the fact that medieval fresco painting has been preserved here for a long time. Perhaps it was the secrecy of the place that contributed to this. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, the drawings were in good condition. But, unfortunately, over the past century, most of the paintings have been lost.
The main fresco, located in the altar part, depicted the infant Christ in a bowl, surrounded by saints. The wall paintings reflected gospel stories. One of the frescoes depicted a family of donors to the temple.
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It is located in a freestanding outlier rock in the upper reaches of the Cherkez-Kermen gully. The entrance to the temple from the bottom of the beam is not visible. It can only be found by climbing to the top. The temple is a small room carved into the rock, measuring about 2x3 m. At one time, there were wooden extensions on the outside, as evidenced by the grooves made in the stone for fastening beams. A staircase carved into the rock led to the entrance. The monument is famous for the fact that medieval fresco painting has been preserved here for a long time. Perhaps it was the secrecy of the place that contributed to this. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, the drawings were in good condition. But, unfortunately, over the past century, most of the paintings have been lost. The main fresco, located in the altar part, depicted the infant Christ in a bowl, surrounded by saints. The wall paintings reflected gospel stories. One of the frescoes depicted a family of donors to the temple. Save changesStart :: :: :: :: :: :: end
Near Eski-Kermen, to the west of the northern part of the Tapshan Upland, in a deep gorge, there was the village of Cherkes-Kermen, which gave its name to this gorge. In the southern part of the Cherkes-Kermen gorge, south of the place where the village was located, a cave temple "Donators" is carved in a rocky promontory. The temple is hidden in the rocks and has an entrance from the south. A staircase carved into the rock leads to the temple, next to which there is a tomb and a tomb typical for Eski-Kermen (Repnikov, 1932a). There is a deep crevice in the rock in front of the entrance to the temple.
The premise of the temple is rectangular. The apse is not located in the middle of the eastern wall, but is displaced to the south. In the apse, the syntron and the adjoining throne are carved into the rock. the apse is separated from the rest of the premises by the rocky foundation of the pre-altar barrier. In the center of the base, there are steps that lead to the altar.
A bench is carved along the walls of the room. The northern wall and the closest part of the western wall are divided into three arkosaline depressions. In the eastern part of the northern wall, two niches have been cut, possibly one of them is an altar. In the altar, to the north of the pre-altar barrier, another niche is carved into the rocky wall. There was a rocky column near the northern wall, the base of which was preserved in the stone floor. The south wall has a window and a doorway.
The name of the "Donators" temple, like the Eski-Kermen temple "Assumption", is given conditionally. He received it on the plot of the painting depicting the ktyrots of the temple or donors. In the local history literature, the temple is rarely mentioned. E. Markov writes about him for the first time. It has already been described in detail by N.L. Ernst, and then by N.I. Repnikov. Subsequently, OI Dombrovsky devotes a whole section of his book to the frescoes of the temple. He dates them to two periods - the first 12-13 century, the second - the 14th century.
The Cherkes-Kermen gorge, where a large village of the same name was formerly located, splits into two gullies in the upper reaches, on a rocky promontory, between them is the "Donators" temple. The entrance to it is difficult to notice. A steep path leads from the gully to the temple. The ancient path to the temple began from the valley, from here a steep staircase led up from the side of the village. The large height of the steps is due to the peculiar construction of the stairs. It is composed, as it were, of two parts, shifted along the central axis by half the height of one step. Therefore, during a spiral ascent in the center of the staircase, the ascending person met steps spaced from one another by half their height - usually about 0.2 m.
The staircase led to a small platform that turns south along the cliff. There are two caves with nests for wooden structures. Further, the trail leads to a narrow crevice of the rock, where there are also traces of a staircase, now almost impassable. She then led to the door of the church. Now a path from the valley leads to the temple, which runs along the northern edge of the cliff, not at all there and not in the same way as the previous road. On it you can climb to the top of the rock itself. Now, there are preserved: drainage grooves, a square depression 0.7 by 0.7 m, as well as a felling, probably for fixing a cross.
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A. L. Yakobson was of the opinion that the "Donators" temple was a small churchyard monastery. Perhaps one should agree with this. In addition to ordinary monasteries, in the Middle Ages the form of "non-own" monasteries was widespread in the Christian East. One or several people who wanted to monasticism, having gathered in one society, could arrange cells at parish churches or in their enclosures, subject to service in the temple. To such fences in Russia, in addition to the traditional "churchyard", according to the testimony of E. Golubinsky, in the 20th century they used the term "monastery". In the latter case, it was meant that a monk or monks served in the temple inside the fence. For the 17th century, this phenomenon is recorded quite often. A similar case is known from the Moscow Register for 1638. With regard to the parish church of the Resurrection of the Word at the Uspensky Vrazhka it is said: "In the Resurrection, in monasteries and cells, poor old women live."
The plan of the "Donators" church is two-part. The main volume is a rectangular naos measuring 3077 by 2.2 by 3.15 m and a horseshoe-shaped altar niche 1.5 by 1.8 by 2.15 m. 00 by 1.75 m. It is barely separated from the rest of the temple by partially hewn half-columns, up to 0.18 m wide at the edges, and two arches on the ceiling between them. The geometric shape of the arches is not consistent. Between them, in the center of the span on the ceiling and in the floor, you can see the remains of the foundations of the pillar, hewn away during the rebuilding of the temple. The vault of this part in an above-ground temple would represent two domes, each resting on four sails.
The Temple of Donators is one of the most inaccessible and at the same time rarest places in Crimea. It is located in the middle of mountain ranges and it is not an easy task to find it. A small church perched on a rocky plateau in the upper reaches of the Cherkes-Kermen ravine, in a stone overhanging the gorge, and the paths to it are almost impossible to make out, especially in autumn, when there is firewood scattered around, so you have to climb ahead over the stones in order to achieve the desired goal.
The temple is a small cave church, which from the inside was decorated with frescoes dated from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, only a few fragments of the painting have been partially preserved to our time, in the altar part you can recognize the image of the execution of the liturgy of the Holy Grail. In general, the church became so famous thanks to the painting, which, unfortunately, is now not in the best condition. The premises of the temple also served as a refuge for saints in the past years. Now the temple is practically empty, inside there are only candles and icons, occasionally liturgies are held.
The name of the temple comes from the Latin word "donator", which means "bringing a gift" or simply "giver", apparently, it was named in honor of the person who patronized the construction of the church, although this moment all this is quite arbitrary. Much more realistic is the justification of the name in honor of the "donators" - the princely family, the images of which are in the temple.
HOW TO FIND
To the west, in the vicinity of the Eski-Kermen mountain range, there is a gorge, earlier there was the village of Cherkes-Kermen, which had already ceased to exist a long time ago, but the temple, organized in one of the rocks, still attracts tourists, despite the fact that to get there before it is very difficult.
As mentioned a little above, the temple is part of the rock, carved into its massif. A window and an entrance have been cut down in the south wall. A staircase leads through a rocky platform along a crevice, on the sides of which a tomb and a burial vault are made. As it became clear the entrance to the church is from the south side, and from the window light falls on the aspida.
DESCRIPTION
Inside, the room was almost completely painted, in addition to the family who contributed to the foundation of the temple, you can make out images of Jesus and some holy figures, as well as scenes from the gospel.
The space inside reproduces the basilica: nearby the central nave is a side one, it is separated by ceiling protrusions and ledges in the wall, as well as columns, of which only traces now remain.
The apse is rounded and separated from the nave by a high step and an arch. A throne for the relics is separated from the wall, most likely in the early years it was covered with wood or marble chips.
The fact that the temple is located in such an inaccessible place and far enough from the main settlements suggests that, most likely, there was once a monastery skete here, based on funds donated by the princely family.
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