UKRAINE. MONTHLY CHALLENGE: SPIRITUAL SITES
Magic and Holiness of the Summer Evening
Walking around the old monastery
Like almost everyone who visited this village, I found out about it accidentally. Like almost everyone, I hadn’t expected anything special, but I got excellent impressions not only because of the monastery. I think the village should be in all guides of the Khmelnytsky region (moreover, it is close to the pretty big town of Shepetivka).
It is called Horodyshche, and this widely used name doesn’t add popularization for the place. “Horodyshche” literally means “settlement”. Before this, I had already visited another town and village with the same name.
First, let’s go to the monastery. I was lucky that the gate appeared to be open. In the evening, I was afraid not to get in the yard.
It was founded in 1538 when the Koretsky family owned the village. The monastery was initially wooden and rebuilt in stone in 1745 when the Carmelite Order cared for it. The main dominant is the former catholic church in the Vilna baroque style, non-typical for Ukraine. It can be recognized thanks to disproportionately high spires.
Inner paintings are more impressive than outer ones. There are saved frescoes of the 18th century. A church service was taking place, so that I could see the interior. But I didn’t take photos being in the crowd.
In 1777, the monastery became Greek Catholic and, in 1832, Orthodox. Different architectural approaches are mixed in its current view — a church of ST. Nicholaus (1880) has absolutely another style.
The monastery was closed by the Bolsheviks in 1923. It became a sanatorium and hospital. It was reopened during the Nazi occupation and acted somehow until 1960. After this, it was closed again and turned into a mental hospital. Being such a specific institution turned it into ruin.
Reopening and reconstruction started in 1995. The current view is criticized for inappropriate and ugly “golden” onion-shaped spires. But otherwise, the rebuilding was almost perfect. Especially if compared with the awful state I could see in old photos.
And here’s a view from the monastery hill:
All the people were inside the church, and nobody forbade me to walk in the yard and see what I wanted. Why not arrange a photo session for a “giant” frog?
A house with an “1896” date on the facade is a former pilgrim hotel. It is still possible to overnight near the monastery, too, but I don’t know where exactly.
An old wall:
Apparently, Roman Catholics still live in the village despite the monastery not belonging to them for more than 250 years. But they have a tiny modern church.
I bypassed a pond and walked in the direction of Shepetivka. There is a bus stop and a suburban train station on that side. But I went there mainly for landscapes. The pond was created on a small Huska river, and now it is the main background for the monastery:
And it’s the primary source of natural beauty.
The monastery looked gorgeous from afar as well as up close.
On the opposite side of the road, a wooden church (of the 19th century) peeked out of trees.
But let me return one more time to the Huska bank. I don’t know how long I could stay there if it were not getting dark.
I loved that nature. Nothing special, but those landscapes and the spirituality of the place applied to my mood. And the weather — adorable and warm summer evening with great lighting. Sun rays broke through clouds last time during sunset. I heard thunder. It was afar and not scary: it flew over Shepetivka from where I escaped a couple of hours ago… I hope I’ll be able to remember the fascination of that evening for a long time.
I returned to Shepetivka, where I had booked a room in a motel on the bypass road. The town is big enough, but the range of accommodation was poor. The motel was good for sleeping and recovering before one more day of travel through the region.
Other stories of this challenge:
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