Digital Wanderer

We live as long as we fly

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Crimea — 15, Inkerman Monastery

2012-01-19

On the morning of the next, final day, we woke up to rain and wind. I hadn't gotten enough sleep, and the right side of my face was going increasingly numb. The clouds gradually cleared up, but I was feeling worse and worse: I couldn't open my eyes, I wanted to sleep terribly, everything around was too bright and pressed on my brain, my eyes were watering, and my head was trying to start aching (it almost never aches for me).

View through a clear film covered in raindrops of a blurry silhouette of a person in a blue jacket, standing outside next to a red tent against a backdrop of green trees.

We were actually planning to visit the submarine base in Balaklava, but the tour was only promised for the evening, so first we headed to the Inkerman St. Clement Cave Monastery. There, out of habit, we took skirts at the entrance (a nun was handing them out), but a big burly guy took my skirt away later, saying that my knees were covered by shorts, so everything was fine as is. All this insane religious savagery and rituals right in the middle of Europe in the 21st century just leave me dumbfounded.

The nun told us that Pope Clement lived in the monastery, and hurried to explain in detail so we wouldn't be shocked.

I'm so incredibly far from religious topics, their fanaticism and feuds, that it was completely beyond me what we were supposed to be shocked about. Luckily, the rest of the story cleared everything up, albeit not right away: the monastery is Orthodox, but the pope is Catholic, so how did he end up here?

It's simple:

Tradition links the founding of the monastery to the veneration of St. Clement, the Roman bishop (pope) in 92-99 (101) AD, exiled by emperor Trajan for preaching Christianity to the quarries near Chersonesus, who preached and was killed here in 101 AD.

If anyone knows even a little bit of history, they should guess that back then there was no Catholicism and Orthodoxy, because the schism of the churches happened around 1054, so the pope of that time is perfectly "true" even by the standards of churchgoing Ukrainian Orthodox folks.

However, the nun picked the wrong crowd to shock and amaze: most of the people in our team are formally Catholics, but in fact — agnostics, or even atheists like me.

View from a hill over an industrial bay with ships and port cranes. In the foreground, autumn trees with bright foliage and a few buildings are spread out.

A little discussion arose that the power lines ruin the view

For me personally they don't ruin it, though, of course, one would wish it were like in Iceland.

sshot-1-jin's

 

A long blue train curves along the railway tracks passing between a steep rocky slope on the left and a vast rural valley with fields, trees, and greenhouses on the right.

There's also a little story connected to the local railway

. In 1895, in memory of the rescue of the royal family in a train crash, a church was built in the name of the Great Martyr Panteleimon.

IMG_0073

There was a fortress here, too

The main premises of the monastery are cave-like, carved into the western cliff face of Monastery Rock, on the plateau of which the ruins of the medieval Kalamita fortress, founded in the 6th century, have survived; in the 14th-15th centuries, the fortress was part of the Orthodox principality of Theodoro, protecting its port; in 1475 it was captured by the Turks. The time of the monastery's founding is determined ambiguously by historians: from the 8th - 9th to the 14th-15th centuries.

Ruins of an old stone wall with an arch and a window on a hill. Below, an industrial bay with port cranes and ships is visible, surrounded by hills and trees under a blue sky.

In the foreground — a field of dry grass and green plants with yellow flowers. Behind them, two parts of ruined stone walls are visible under a clear blue sky.

IMG_0085

View from above of a valley, where a person in dark clothing is standing by the railway tracks. In the foreground on the right — a rocky cliff overgrown with dry grass, and in the background houses and trees with autumn foliage can be seen.

View from a stone grotto over a picturesque valley with light layered cliffs and a railway winding below.View from above of a blue lake in an abandoned quarry with sheer light-colored walls. A settlement and hills covered with vegetation surround the quarry under a clear sky with scattered clouds.

Luckily, there's no need to explain anything to me, Wikipedia knows everything

Near the monastery there used to be a water spring, which, according to legend, was miraculously discovered by St. Clement to ease the plight of the convicts. The spring dried up in the 1930s (possibly due to construction work going on), and its water, according to one version, gradually flooded the Inkerman stone quarry located on the other side of Monastery Rock.

View of a limestone quarry with sheer white cliffs, small bodies of water at the bottom, and green vegetation on the slopes. In the background, on a hill, a city with residential buildings and industrial structures is visible under a clear sky.

Against the backdrop of stone ruins and hills, under a blue sky with clouds, a person in black clothing and a red bandana has squatted on a large boulder, examining their hand.

The folks had already gotten a bit tired, there was no longer the former zeal to see and notice everything

Four people walking through a rocky area overgrown with dry grass with scattered large blocks. In the background rises a vast terraced wall of the quarry under a clear blue sky with white clouds.

But they are walking around anyway

By noon it got hot, we'd had enough of walking, and drove to Sevastopol — to look at the ancient city of Chersonesus.

My condition was pretty crappy, but later it got a little better, so whether I liked the monastery or not, I can't really say. I guess I liked it, bought an emerald-green fridge magnet, and the story about the pope is funny.

As for my illness at the time, I didn't attach much importance to it at first, because I felt fine otherwise. But, of course, its gradual progression made me start worrying, even though I didn't complain to anyone.

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