Original Village Bell Tower and Church…

I have been working on the only image that I have seen or found of the original church. I realize that the Orthodox may have an archive with more and better images in it, but I have never seen better than this. I have seen much worse and that is what drove me to image enhancing of this photo…

It may be still a poor image, but it shows information that concurs with my knowledge’s of what was and what is, in the past with the old monastery…

What a beautiful church and to think that it was intentionally blown up…

At the time of this picture it was no longer a female monastery, it was a old church being used for grain storage and the guys that you see in the photo are part of the Soviet school for the deaf and blind. I see a stack in the background and that verifies that they had steam heat and hot water and I have located the foundation of that building. The Orthodox crosses are missing from the buildings and of course no girls in the image. The monastery was female when it operated…

You can just see the dormitory buildings edge behind the right side of the church and the building that is attached to that building is still visible. It is almost ready to fall down though, as they did not reinforce the building with steel bar and only used broken bricks as a strengthener. It is ready to crumble and very soon. Another building is visible in the background, it is another utility building and built just like the crumbling dormitory addition. This building has crumbled and has only a wall and a half left to go…

I also see the attached additions to the bell tower, which are now gone, but the visible remains of them are still present. I know all this because I am here studying the remains and they are digging up some of these foundations as I study them. The image below is the old well and water building, or what is left of it and this is located in front of the bell tower…

The well is to the right, when I first came to the village years ago, there was a water tower mounted on top of the well and the Monks from the “Church Village” stole it (They may disagree!) and are using it at their compound there. You see I know this stuff and I keep an eye out on who is doing what…

Now I am going to tell you a story that only I am able to verify and most who can verify it now are dead…

24 people died in the destruction of the church and the church was destroyed for the hidden gold that it had been able to evade confiscation by the Soviet government. But the local government had a man who being typical greedy sick politician, plotted and schemed to gather this gold. He succeeded after gaining the confidence of the locals and discovering that the gold was hidden in the tunnels under the monastery. There is a tunnel network that connects all the buildings together under ground and it also included several homes built later for the school…

There was a common chamber that was basically in the center of the compound and the room held the treasure for the politician, after he stole it from another part of the complex. The church was blown up with the people who were made to help him. The church collapsing buried the evidence and people who could tell on him, but alas the man who stole and killed, met his demise before he could utilize the gold several years later and the gold stays buried in the main chamber under the ground. The chamber has collapse many years ago and has sealed itself sufficiently, but the monks have discovered one of the entrances to the tunnels and I have discovered three of the entrances, myself…

How do I know this?

That is for me to know and you to wonder about…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…