Belogorye, Voronezh region. Chalk caves

This trip took place exactly one year ago. Unfortunately, due to deeds and worries, the hands have reached the report only now, well, yes, for us this is not yet a record - the African chronicles have been waiting in the wings for the 3rd year, and something even more. In general, better late than later, so do not judge strictly, I will try to finish everything in the next day or two. Taking this opportunity, I would like to say my gratitude to all those who helped plan this trip and, first of all, to Inge ( Ingusic) from the auto.ru conference and Valka from the awd.ru forum, whose advice allowed us to make our trip as saturated as possible and saved us from some possible overlays.

PART 1. BELOGORIE.

About the fact that there is such a place as Divnogorye, we learned only a few years ago and from that moment we were going to get there for some more or less extended holidays, but somehow everything did not work out. However, the past tense has not passed in vain. We collected information, found out that in addition to Divnogorye, in the same region, there is also Belogorye with Kostomarov, and you can see a lot of things on the way to these wonderful places. When the stars finally aligned last year's May weekend, we were able to fulfill our long-cherished dream.

The preliminary layout of the route looked like this:

Day 1 - Moscow-Belogorye (overnight in Pavlovsk)
Day 2 - Pavlovsk-Divnogorye (night in Divnogorye)
Day 3 - Divnogorie-Moscow

As possible options were considered: a cave church in the village of Kolybelka, an old mill in Kolodezhnoye, excavations at the parking lot ancient man in Kostenki, the castle of the Princess of Oldenburg in Ramon, the monasteries and springs of Zadonsk, the reserve Galichya Gora. In the draft, it all looked something like this:

Naturally, it was clear right away that it would not be possible to collect everything, but if it was possible to jump somewhere else, then why not. And although it was not yet completely clear where and when we would actually be, just in case, we ordered a couple of deluxe rooms at the Don Hotel in Pavlovsk for the first night and an apartment in Divnogorye for the second. Looking ahead, I will say that the latter turned out to be very helpful.

On May 1, at 7 am, two crews - Lyosha and Galya and I on the Randzhik and Sergey and Larisa on the Pajere were already moving from the Moscow Ring Road along the M4. However, they did not move for long. Already a few kilometers after the circuit, we realized that we were not the only ones here in the morning, when the Don highway, unable to digest the flow of vacationers, stood up dead. I must say that certain difficulties with traffic were expected, but what they were not ready for was the fact that the traffic jam would stretch almost to Kashira. We very quickly regretted that we didn't immediately rush to Domodedovo, we could have saved a lot of time, but somehow, somewhere along the side of the road, where we could push through parallel to the highway. After Kashira, there was a relative space almost to Yelets, but then again a traffic jam, this time due to the repair of the bridge. There were no further problems, and in the free sections we, to the best of our ability, tried to compensate for the backlog from the schedule.
We were going fast enough, but not the fastest, and at one of the sections we were overtaken by a client on X6. Before we had time to give way, he was immediately besieged by a mobile traffic police post. After talking with them in detail, the guy, apparently out of frustration, drowned even more, because after a while he caught up with us again. We missed him again… Needless to say, he immediately flew into the wide open arms of the sellers of striped sticks again – to be honest, we even felt uncomfortable. Nevertheless, we are grateful to him, because. If it weren't for him, then we certainly are. Further, either the guy ran out of money, or he realized that moving in the train mode “further everywhere” he would not go far, but the approaching familiar silhouette in the rear-view mirror was no longer observed.
In the meantime, people wanted to have a bite to eat, they didn’t want to go far from the highway, so, having scored “food along the route” in the navigator, they began to track the proposed points. Most of them turned out to be roadside tents, until at the very entrance to Voronezh they noticed an institution called "Yar". The navigator promised Japanese cuisine, and outwardly everything made a rather favorable impression - a guarded closed territory, a 4 * hotel, a huge, very expressive iron horse on a pedestal, a restaurant and a sushi bar, in the parking lot in front of which there were several pieces of not the cheapest cars.

Everything in the bar is quite stylish, good design, rustling girls in kimonos. I was somewhat surprised that the menu that was served contained only pictures with names, but after a request, as it seemed, with some reluctance, they brought us a bound set of sheets with a printout of the cost of the dishes. We immediately noticed that the prices are quite metropolitan, but oh well, that's not the point. I will not go deep, who is in the subject - will appreciate. I was refused a non-alcoholic mojito with lime, explaining that it was over and left only with rum! Well, well, carry it with rum. However, the "lime rum mojito" turned out to be a glass of tasteless sparkling water with ice and a bunch of mint at the bottom. Rum, like lime, was not there, but on the edge of the glass there was a large slice of lemon. Well, okay, we are not proud people, we will survive, we didn’t poison, and that’s good. The ambush happened when Serge, who had already rolled his lip, did not find any cheese or eel in the rolls he ordered with eel and flodelphia cheese. More precisely, for an eel, a shrunken piece of skin, torn off from some mackerel and lonely stuck on the side, could still somehow mow, but there really was no cheese. Someone else might not have noticed - eating rice in rolls is already good, but for some reason it was important for our gourmet, he says that for the sake of this cheese, in fact, he ordered everything.
Then there was a whole series with repeated requests to the waitress to invite the manager for a conversation, after which she disappeared for an indefinite time, in order to appear to give out another pearl, like, “we don’t put cheese, we ... smear it.” There was also the phenomenon of the manager, who turned out to be a girl who had been sitting behind a screen all this time 5 meters from us. Having issued a tirade that everything was done in accordance with the norms, and Seregina's claims were slander, she disappeared for a long time. In the midst of a discussion about cheese, the bartender showed up and tried to take over the fire. “Ah, old man,” I rejoiced, it was already boring, “here, I need you. Tell me, friend, what kind of mojito are you making here? The bartender stopped short, but gathering himself, he gave out rather ingenuously that, they say, the lime was over, but the lemon is the same thing, there is no soda, therefore there should be soda, but there should be rum, since he poured it himself. No, brother, I say, this is not how things are done, of course I am not against lemons, but you would at least wave your hand first, it’s not far to go, and a shuttle in a kimono runs around the hall. And about the presence of rum, try, I say, your tincture - here's a glass. The kid did not dare to drink from the puddle ...
In short, they realized that it was more expensive to discuss further, they left the money without a tip on the table, began to gather, and then Seryoga was brought a replacement, they say, here you are, if you insist. Thank you, he said, Seryoga, no longer needed, he ate. Well, then another time, the Japanese catering workers promised. There will be no other time, we warmly said goodbye to them.
After the meal, already on the move, we had a radio exchange of views. The kind, but naive Lesha said that, they say, everything is not so hopeless, they are trying, but they simply do not know how to do it, maybe they will learn. Serge and I, due to our age, were less subject to illusions, were inclined to believe that everything they needed, and for us, was a pure scam for good money. Everyone stayed with their own.
After a heated debate, they slipped through the left turn onto the bypass. They realized it, but did not return and, having entered Voronezh, they went to the district along Antonova-Ovseenko and after a while went back to the M4.

Closer to Pavlovsk, we figured that we seem to have time to see Belogorye today. We called back to "Don", they said that we would be with them anyway, but most likely quite late, and left the track for Rossosh. The road is deserted, except for the Hummer with Moscow numbers, which periodically rushed past us, then across, for some reason I immediately thought that we were going to the same place with him, but if we “know”, then he “is looking for ". :)

BELOGORIE

The road to the monastery from the village of Belogorye was described by the predecessors in sufficient detail. For control at the entrance to the village, an aborigine was interviewed, who immediately showed a desire to ride with us, but we decided not to bother the peasant, especially since his story confirmed what we knew ourselves. As expected, we went to the right in front of the store, then left to the dirt road, however, when it split in two, we became thoughtful. We moved along the left branch, but after a couple of hundred meters, having rested on a slightly broken descent, we changed our minds and, having clicked a flowering tree on the slope from all sides, returned and went to the right.

A few minutes later we were at the barrier, next to which there were several cars in an impromptu parking lot. It's about 6 o'clock and it's still light. While they were going to close, Hammerok, already familiar to us, flew up, and on the other hand, thereby answering 2 questions at once - the road we rejected at the fork leads here, closing the circle and Hammerok really “looked” for the way here. :)
Immediately after the barrier begins the territory of the Belogorsk Resurrection Cave Monastery. There are practically no ground buildings. There are remains of the foundation of the blown-up Resurrection Cathedral and tablets indicating that the Ascension Church once stood at such and such a place. A memorial cross has also been erected.

But numerous tourists and pilgrims come here not for this, but to see the famous underground galleries in the body of the chalk mountains.
It is known that the first caves existed here since the 14th century. However, the beginning of the monastery was laid much later, when in 1796 the Cossack widow Maria Konstantinovna Sherstyukova, with the blessing of the elder of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, dug the first cave of 8 sazhens and began to labor in it.
As it often happens, when the fame of the cave hermit spread far beyond the borders of Belogorye, and thousands of pilgrims reached out to her, ill-wishers also appeared. Maria was arrested more than once, forbidden to dig. As a result, the matter even reached the emperor Alexander I, who ordered a thorough investigation into the activities of the cave-digger, as a result of which, either punish or help. I will note along the way that for a modern person familiar with the approach practiced by historically closer rulers who think in terms of “punish/milk”, the very proposed alternative to “punish/help” looks rather unusual.

Be that as it may, as a result, after a positive report from the commission, 2,500 rubles were allocated from the treasury, a very significant amount, for the construction of a cave church in honor of Alexander Nevsky, which was consecrated in 1819. The digging of caves continued, the length of which by the end of Mary's life was a little over 200 m, but later reached several km, which made them the largest structure of its kind.
Now many passages are filled up, however, multi-storey underground galleries go deep down, they say, at least 70 meters. There is a legend that an underground passage to the other side of the Don used to go from the lowest tier, but there is no confirmation of this, and all the now known exits of the underground corridors are located on a steep cliff above the Don. In a civilized way, you can get into the caves from a small platform on the slope.

In normal times, access to the caves is closed with metal doors, but as a rule, there are no special problems with visiting, you need to find a monk who will open everything and give you a tour. Naturally, for free.
Generally speaking, the brethren of the monastery, consisting of only a few monks, live in the neighboring village of Kirpichi, 3 km from the monastery, and most of the time they are in various obediences, but sometimes someone can be found in a small house on the territory of the monastery or in the Trinity Church in Belogorye .
From the barrier to the cliff, from where a path descends to the site along the coastal slope for about 5 minutes.

The couple we met said that the caves are now open and Hieromonk Hermogenes is there with a group, so we should hurry.
I note, by the way, that knowing in advance about the absence of any kind of lighting in the caves, we prudently grabbed a sufficient number of flashlights from the house, and ... we safely left everything in the cars, remembering this only when we were in complete darkness. They did not return, so all our underground wanderings were accompanied by the illumination of mobile phones, which also turned out quite tolerably. ;)

Trying not to stray far, we went to the voices and soon met with a group of Saratov guys led by Fr. Hermogenes with a long carrying lamp in their hands, but decided to independently inspect what they had already passed. After wandering around the dungeon for another half an hour, after a while they heard that people were reaching for the exit. We also pulled ourselves up, and when Father Hermogen was about to lock the doors, I said that I saw how several people went deep into the caves down, to which he asked to go after them, noting without humor that if anything, the guys would have to wander until next Sunday . I will not undertake to assert that the last word in his mouth meant exactly the day of the week. :) I ran after the “spelunkers” and brought them back to the light.

The caves made an indelible impression. The monks at one time really worked hard, breaking through these passages. They are still working now, because they have to put the economy desecrated by vandals in order. All the walls of the caves are cut with various inscriptions and drawings. I, for the first time, encountered such a volume of "folk art". Looking at its depth, in the truest sense of the word, one is amazed at the perseverance and purposefulness of the authors of the inscriptions. After all, this is not a neighboring entrance with an electric light bulb at the top and a battery on the wall, and the “painting” itself requires a certain “hard work”. It would be, but for a good deed ...

Now a fairly large amount of the surface is wiped off to whiteness, but there is still no end to the work.

Coming out of the caves, going down a little lower, we went into the cave church of Alexander Nevsky, connected, by the way, with galleries, and then, with the blessing of a very young priest from Liski, who temporarily labored in the monastery, they rang the bells of the remote belfry installed in front of the entrance to the temple.

We talked a little more with Father Hermogen, who turned out to be an interesting storyteller, and set off.
We drove back along the banks of the Don and after a while we came to a large spacious plain near the Kirpichi farm.

The place is very nice and convenient for parking - access to the river with a gentle slope, here next to the very shore of St. the source of Alexander Nevsky, from which, as if growing out of the water, steep chalk mountains rise up with Divas protruding from them.

There was nowhere to hurry, it's time for dinner. We put up a brazier, and until the 2nd crew pulled up, having overlaid another picturesque bush with tripods at one of the turns, I quickly ran upstairs, from where I was almost blown away by very weak gusts of wind. But the view from there is simply amazing - a picturesque panorama of the surroundings, the Don flowing below, bizarre crystals of Divas. The beauty…