A unique monastery complex of the XVI–XIX centuries with natural caves.
Sviatohirsk Holy Dormition Lavra is located in an exceptional natural landscape on the high cretaceous riverbank of Siverskyi Donets, the so-called Holy Mountains. It is a rare object of the cultural heritage of Ukraine. According to archaeological finds, the first Christian cave dwellers inhabited hills near the river even before the Christianization of Kyivan Rus.
The monastery was surrounded by the river on one side and by the forest on the other, making it possible to repel enemy attacks successfully. Many tried, but no one managed to ruin the temple.
In 1862, a St. George Church was built in the village of Hola Dolyna (‘Bald Valley’). Thus, the history of the St. George Skete of Sviatohirsk Lavra began. 5 years later, in 1867, a public school for boys opened here. Later, it transformed into a parochial school under the monastery and became a spiritual education centre with a library, theatre and Sunday school.
With the beginning of the Soviet regime, the monastery faced its dark times: all its buildings and property were turned into sanatoriums, and the Assumption Cathedral was converted to a cinema. The Soviet authorities destroyed some temples and installed a monument to Red Army commander Artem (Fedir Serhieiev) on the hill peak.
After the regaining of Ukrainian independence, Sviatohirsk Monastery became the third orthodox Lavra in Ukraine. Over a hundred monks lived here, and thousands of pilgrims and tourists visited the Lavra yearly.
In 2014, when Russia attacked Ukraine for the first time, many refugees from the main combat zone, over 300 children among them, found shelter there. Eight years later, as Russia’s military aggression on the East of Ukraine turned into a full-scale war, the Russian military repeatedly shelled Sviatohirsk town in the spring of 2022. The shelling and blasts from the explosions damaged the Assumption Cathedral and its premises, inhabited by a lot of monks and refugees. Several other churches and the monastery museum were also affected.
St. George Skete, an educational centre of the Lavra, was hit hardest. On May 8, the Russian invaders razed it to the ground by a targeted artillery strike.
Whatever stored the memories has now become a memory itself.
Formerly Palace of Culture of the Azovstal plant. The building of the former Continental hotel (1887–1910).
Historical buildings reflecting the Mariupol architecture of the late XIX and early XX centuries before the Bolshevik Revolution.
Donbas Arena is the home stadium of the Ukrainian ‘Shakhtar’ football club, which became the first of the ‘elite’ category in Ukraine and in all of Eastern Europe.
An ancient building of 1902 in the Northern Art Nouveau style, which comprised under its roof the works by respected Ukrainian landscape painters, as well as world-famous marine and realist artists.
Invaluable monumental artworks, created by a group of Ukrainian monumentalists led by Alla Horska, a dissident artist and one of the Sixtiers movement’s founders. These panels incorporated elements of Ukrainian folk tradition, contemporary world trends, and Soviet art.
Formerly prospering trade and then a metallurgical centre of Ukraine that has become the symbol of the bloody Russian invasion of Ukraine and the genocide committed by the Russian army and government.
The only church in the world entirely decorated with Petrykivka paintings, an ancient style of folk Ukrainian decorative painting included in the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.
The museum was established at the Faculty of History of Mariupol State University. It has become an important cultural and educational site bringing together students, professors, and citizens around the native land’s history.
The manor of Mariupol City Council’s mayor, having more than 150 years of history behind. Its architecture incorporated elements of the Stalinist Empire, Neoclassicism, and Baroque.
One of the oldest and largest Ukrainian museums, which collection comprised over 180 thousand exhibits, including the monuments and artefacts of world importance.
One of the biggest steam mills in the German Mennonite colony that existed in the Donetsk region at the turn of the 20th century. Built in 1903, this mill had been feeding people of New York and all of its suburbs for decades.
The central church of the Sviatohirsk Lavra’s convent, erected in the neoclassical style with baroque elements in 2005 in the site of a stone church of 19th century dismantled by the Bolsheviks.
The house was built in the constructivist style in 1929. It has been the centre of the city’s creative life for almost a hundred years.
Former State Bank’s building, constructed at the turn of the 20th century. In 2019, this site housed the city library, which history began back in 1904. An intellectual and educational centre of the city.
A two-storey manor in the classical style with a neo-Gothic tower, built in Mariupol 125 years ago. The state was a property of respected doctors.
Part of the Sviatohirsk Lavra. All the skete’s buildings are made of massive pine trunks. The All Saints Church, the main skete’s sanctuary, used to be the biggest wooden church in Ukraine.
The Azovstal plant in Mariupol was one of the largest iron and steel producers in Europe. In 2022 it became a symbol of resistance to brutal Russian aggression and the incredible courage of Ukrainian fighters.
Educational institution with more than 140 years of history where many generations of Mariupol citizens studied.
Center of spiritual life of Muslims of Donetsk region.
Two buildings are a monument to an entire era. They were the last buildings in Mariupol designed in the Stalinist Neoclassicism style.
One of the oldest theatres in the Left-bank Ukraine.
The mosque was built in 2007 on the site of a mosque built in 1906 and destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1936.
St. Demetrius Church dedicated to the holy martyr Demetrius of Thessaloniki is one of the oldest in the region.