Being in Bakhchisaray, for hundreds of years, no visitor misses the opportunity to visit the holiest place of the city — The Dormition Cave Monastery. With this monastery is associated with legends and legends, miracles and suffering, this holy place has experienced for 12 centuries of its existence periods of prosperity and decline.
The holy monastery is located in the heart of the Mariam-Dere tract (Maria Gorge or Mariampol Gorge) and is considered to be the uppermost edge of the city. The monastery is surrounded on both sides by sheer cliffs up to 140 meters high. This area is both the most desolate and one of the most majestic in the Crimea. The local landscape alone attracts thousands of connoisseurs of natural beauty every year.
Many attractions of Crimea have a mysterious and confusing history and first of all it is the Bakhchisarai Holy Dormition Monastery. Until now, it is not known when the foundation of this monastery began. Several legends are associated with the history of the monastery.
According to one of them, the locals were attacked by the evil serpent, having lost hope for salvation, they were about to leave their native land. But one day they saw a gap in the Maria Gorge. Having cut through the steps, they went into the light and found a cave in which a candle was burning, next to it lay the defeated serpent, and behind it stood an icon of the Mother of God. After that it was decided to create here an abode for Christians. Today it is believed that the evil serpent was the Muslims who tortured other believers.
According to another legend, the icon of Our Lady in the Gorge was discovered by a shepherd. There are other versions of the miraculous appearance of the image in this place. Historians believe that the monastery was founded by the heirs of the Scythians at the end of VIII century, the construction of the church they marked the adoption of a new religion in Inkerman, or at the base were Byzantine monks-iconopoetateles. The church and then the monks’ cells were carved into a high sheer cliff according to popular tradition.
In the middle of the XV century the Dormition Monastery already consisted of many caves, there were also ground buildings: a small chapel, two guest houses, the abbot’s cell near the road and fountains. During this period the monastery became the main pillar of Christianity in the Crimea.
At the end of the XVIII century due to the Turkish War, Crimean Christians led by Metropolitan Ignatius were forced to leave their homeland, then the city of Mariupol appeared on the coast of the Sea of Azov, and the holy image of the Virgin Mary left the monastery and remained in the new city forever.
The Dormition Monastery was deserted, but after a few years it found a new patron — Konstantin Spirandi, the icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God was donated here, with which stories of miraculous healing of people are associated.
After the Second World War, the monastery was deserted again, and the newest history of this ancient holy place began in 1993. Again the monastery became a home for the believers who renounced the secular life, which, nevertheless, always welcomes many people who want to see the sights of Bakhchisarai, collected in the Dormition Monastery. In addition to the ancient cave temple, this is the miraculously appeared angelic face at the entrance to the church, and a wall with images of temples and monasteries from around the world.
From the Church of the Assumption, located high in the rock, the panorama of the Crimean mountains opens up — a sight that will not leave anyone indifferent. Many people penetrate the amazing atmosphere of this place, even at the approach to the monastery, climbing up the high stairs, preserved for centuries. The unique architecture of the monastery, its proximity to nature and something sacred — all this leaves the brightest impressions.
The Holy Dormition Cave Monastery was visited by many crowned persons, including Emperors Alexander I and II and Nicholas I, the last Emperor of Russia and many others. Miraculous phenomena that happened here have always caused Christians and lovers of interesting stories to visit this sacred place, feel awe and see with their own eyes the amazing Bakhchisarai Holy Dormition Cave Monastery.