There are such temples that are not only a shrine and a valuable architectural monument, but also serve as a reminder of the most important and sometimes tragic historical events. Among them is the monastery of St. Luke in Crimea.
It is located in a green valley surrounded by mountains, not far from Bakhchisarai. Not long ago there was a fairly large settlement near it called Laki, but now it stands alone, and for several kilometers around only empty fields are visible.
Monastery of St. Luke in the village. Lucky
History of the village of Laki
This settlement arose in the early Middle Ages. As archaeological excavations have shown, the first inhabitants appeared here in the 7th-8th centuries. There are no written sources about the ancient history of the village, except for the inscriptions of two tombstones in the local cemetery, which date back to the 14th century.
There are also many ruins of ancient temples in the Lakin Valley. There were once fourteen of them in total (in an area of 4 km). One of them, the 15th-century Church of the Holy Trinity, has partially survived.
The first written source mentioning this village dates back to 1774. This is the “Report on the Christians brought out of the Crimea in the Azov region”, compiled by A. Suvorov. 412 Orthodox Greeks were taken out of Laki, among them were 6 priests.
Whether it can be considered that after this the village was completely deserted is not known for sure, but most likely not. Because in 20 years , in 1794, a new church of St. Apostle Luke was built here. Documentary evidence of its construction has been preserved. This is where the history of this monastery begins.
In 1796, these lands were given to the Greeks, who were taken out by Prince Orlov after the First Archipelago Expedition.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Church of St. Luke was very dilapidated. It was necessary to replace it with a new one. The sponsor was a pious merchant named Dmitry Pachadzha. This building has survived to this day.
After the revolution, the village of Laki was listed in the Yalta district, and then, since 1923, in the Bakhchisaray district. At this time, 260 people lived here, most of whom were Greeks.
More about the monastic monasteries of Crimea:
- Katerlez St. George Monastery
- Monastery of St. Lazarus in
- Sevastopol Paisevo Monastery
When the Germans were driven out by the Red Army, the Lakinians tried to return to their native lands, but they were allowed to live there for only a few months. Also in 1944, all the indigenous inhabitants of the village were exiled to Siberia and Central Asia. Instead, collective farmers from central Russia were brought here. Lucky was renamed Goryanka.
However, the new village did not last long; in 1960 it was considered unpromising and was liquidated. The valley became deserted again.
The destroyed church of St. Luke in the village of Laki, Crimea
The Church of St. Luke witnessed all these events. It was the only one that almost survived the fascist pogrom, and after that it stood abandoned for many years, gradually collapsing. Finally, in 2016, on the initiative of the descendants of the residents of Laki, the temple was completely restored. Now there is a small men's monastery on this site.
Read about another Luke, the Crimean saint:
Local shrines and holidays
This temple is most revered as a monument to the tragic events of World War II. Therefore, the most important day in the monastery is March 23, when a memorial service is held for the repose of the villagers killed by the Nazis. The descendants of those people who once lived here come to the monastery for this service.
The monastery also specially celebrates May 9th. On this day, a memorial service is held for all those who died in the fight against fascism.
Important! The patronal feast of the monastery is October 31, when the memory of the holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke is celebrated. Among the local shrines one can name a source
THE CULT OF CHILDREN IN OUR DAYS. You can’t do that either... Children are sacred. All the best for children. At least let the children live. Flowers of life. Joy in the home. Son, don’t worry, dad will do everything for you... For some reason this song has tired me terribly. And as a parent, and as a former child, and as a future grandfather. Maybe stop loving children already? Maybe it's time to deal with them somehow humanely? Personally, I would not like to be born in our time. Too much love. As soon as you find your birth date, you immediately become a doll. Mom, dad, grandmothers, grandfathers immediately begin to practice their instincts and complexes on you. You are being fed into three throats. They call a children's massage therapist for you. For everyone's amusement, they dress you in jeans and a jacket, although you haven't even learned to sit yet. And if you are a girl, then already in the second year of your life your ears are pierced in order to hang gold earrings, which your loving Aunt Dasha wants to give at any cost. By the third birthday, all the toys no longer fit in the children's room, and by the sixth - in the barn. Day after day, you are first driven and then taken to children's clothing stores, stopping at restaurants and arcades along the way. Mothers and grandmothers, especially gifted in terms of love, sleep in the same bed with you for up to ten years, until it no longer begins to smack of pedophilia. Oh yes, I almost forgot! Tablet! A child must have a tablet. And preferably an iPhone as well. Right from the age of three. Because Seryozha has it, his mother bought it for him, but she doesn’t seem to earn that much, much less than us. And even Tanya has one from the neighboring group, although she generally lives with her grandmother. Before school, the “puppet period” usually ends, and immediately the “corrective labor period” begins. Loving parents finally realize that they did something wrong. The child is overweight, has a bad temper and attention deficit disorder. All this gives a reason to move to a new level of the exciting game of parental love. This level is called “find a specialist.” Now, with the same enthusiasm, they drag you around to nutritionists, teachers, psychoneurologists, just neurologists and just psychologists. Relatives are frantically looking for some miracle that will allow them to achieve magical healing results without changing their own approach to raising a child. A lot of money, nerves and a lot of time are spent on these essentially esoteric practices. The result is zero point, a little bit tenths. This period is also characterized by a desperate attempt to apply the norms of iron discipline and work ethics to the child. Instead of sincerely captivating the little man with some interest, instead of giving him more freedom and responsibility, relatives line up with belts and shouting. As a result, the child learns to live under pressure, losing the ability to be interested in anything. When the futility of the efforts spent becomes obvious, the stage of broken parental passion begins. Here almost all loving parents suddenly suddenly begin to hate their children: “We are for you, and you!” The only difference is that for some this hatred is expressed in complete capitulation with the further sending of the youth to a closed educational institution (Suvorov School, an elite British school), while others play a record in their heads with the inscription “You are my cross!” Having come to terms with the fact that nothing good has come out of the person, parents with a cross around their necks continue to achieve personality in their almost adult child. They excuse themselves from the army, get a job at a paid university, give money for bribes to teachers and just current expenses, buy an apartment, a car, select a sinecure to the best of their ability. If by nature your cross is not very talented, then this strategy even brings some more or less edible fruits - a mentally crippled, but quite respectable citizen grows up. But much more often, children pay for the wounds inflicted by excessive parental love in a completely different way - with health, lives, souls. The cult of children arose in our civilization not so long ago - just some 50-60 years ago. And in many ways, this is the same artificial phenomenon as the Coca-Cola Santa Claus jumping out of the Coca-Cola marketing snuff box every year. Children are a powerful tool for promoting the consumption race. Every square centimeter of a child’s body, not to mention cubic millimeters of the soul, has long been divided between producers of goods and services. Making a person love himself with such manic love is still a rather difficult moral and ethical task. And love for a child starts right away. Then just turn on the counter. Of course, this does not mean that children were not loved before. They loved it so much. There just wasn’t a child-centric family before. Adults did not play free animators, they lived their natural lives and, as they grew older, involved their offspring in this life. The children were loved, but from the first glimpses of consciousness they understood that they were only a particle of a large universe called “our family.” That there are elders who must be respected, there are younger ones who must be taken care of, there is our cause that we must join in, there is our faith that we must adhere to. Today, the market imposes on society a recipe for a family built around a child. This is a deliberately losing strategy, existing only to pump money out of households. The market does not want the family to be built correctly, because then it will satisfy most of its needs itself, within itself. And the unhappy family likes to outsource the solution to their problems. And this habit has long been the foundation for entire billion-dollar industries. The ideal father from the market point of view is not the one who spends the weekend with the child, goes to the park, rides a bike. The ideal father is the one who will work overtime this weekend to earn money for a two-hour visit to the water park. And guess what? Let’s replace the verb “to love” with something else in this column. Ignore, spit, be indifferent. Because, of course, such parental love is only one form of selfishness. A frantic mother, a workaholic father - all this is nothing more than a game of instincts. No matter what we tell ourselves about parental duty and sacrifice, such fatherhood and motherhood are raw pleasure, something like love pleasures, just pure biology. There is such a wonderful Indian proverb: “A child is a guest in your home: feed, educate and let go.” Even a fool can feed him, raising him is already more difficult, but being able to slowly let go of a child from the first minutes of his life is love. Dmitry Sokolov-Mitrich
Previously, in this valley there was a small Greek village of Laki, now the remains of a destroyed church and an old cemetery
Amazing nature...it’s quiet here...you’re left alone with yourself
The ruins standing by the road belong to the Church of St. Luke, erected in 1904 by village residents on the site of an old wooden church from the 16th century.
Above the entrance to the temple is inscribed the date of construction of the church and the words of Christ in modern Greek: “Come, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And on the lower arch there is an inscription: “Church of St. Luke the Evangelist.”
The Church of St. Luke is a typical cross-domed, single-nave structure, oriented with its apse to the east.
The dome is built on a light drum, which, through sails and girth arches, rests on four pylons built into the walls, forming an under-dome square in the middle cross. The ornamental painting of the pylons has been lost. The main western entrance to the temple is decorated with a portal.
The altar was completely destroyed, but the frescoes were preserved. In some places the gloomy faces of saints, angels, a lion, an eagle and an ox are clearly visible. The Evangelist Matthew is depicted as an angel, the Evangelist Mark is symbolized as a lion, and the Evangelists Luke and John are symbolized by the image of an eagle and a calf.
And the village in which this church used to stand no longer exists...as well as the inhabitants
They were killed by the Nazis
They were brutally killed...They were burned...A tragedy similar to the Belarusian Khatyn happened in Crimea. By some mystical coincidence, it happened exactly a year before the burning of Khatyn - to the same day - March 23, 1942.
A witness to the destruction of the rebellious village was Yuri Mikhailovich Spai, the nephew of Nikolai Konstantinovich Spai, the legendary intelligence officer of the Karasubazar partisan detachment, who carried out special assignments from the central headquarters. Nikolai Spai was betrayed as a traitor and hanged by the Nazis. One of the streets in Belogorsk is named in his honor. Yuri Mikhailovich Spai is already over seventy. Then, in 1942, he was a thirteen-year-old boy.
– When the Nazis defeated the partisan detachment, those who remained alive came to our village. On March 23, 1942, the village was surrounded by Germans and volunteers - Crimean Tatars from the punitive battalion, says Yuri Spai. “All the residents were gathered in front of the Village Council and searched. Apparently, the Germans received a denunciation, because, despite the fact that they did not find anything suspicious, more than thirty men were immediately driven aside. Among them were my uncle and two brothers. I, then still a naive teenager, came up and asked: “Uncle Mitya, why are you here?” And he answered me in Greek, so that the Tatars would not understand, “Yura, go away, otherwise they will kill you too.” We are being led to be shot." This cannot be forgotten...
The village was set on fire, dogs barked loudly, and people panicked. All the “dirty” work was done by the Tatars. Aunt Yuri Mikhailovich was tied to the bed, and her eight-month-old child was thrown into the fire like a rag. The woman screamed until the burning roof collapsed on her. The fire destroyed all 87 households. Those who survived, including Yuri Spai, accompanied by Crimean Tatar volunteers, were sent through Bakhchisarai to Oktyabrskoye. The war claimed seventeen lives in the Spai family, Yura’s father died, and his mother joined a partisan detachment.
Why did they burn this particular village? Why were the Nazis so merciless towards its residents? Historian Panteleimon Kesmedzhi in his book “Greeks of Crimea” cites the words of the commander of the Bakhchisarai partisan detachment, the same Mikhail Andreevich Makedonsky. He says that his detachment owed its existence to the residents of Laki, who provided assistance to the partisans with food, clothing, and in the cold they provided accommodation. There were many other villages around, but in each of them lived at least several traitors, but in Laki there were no traitors. Residents of Lak actively helped the partisans from the first day of the occupation of Crimea. For this disobedience the Greeks were consigned to fire...
The Nazis tried to completely wipe out this village from the face of the earth, but the punitive forces were never able to completely destroy the church.
After the liberation of the village by the Red Army in April 1944, residents began to return to Laki, but on June 20 of the same year, according to the Decree of the State Defense Committee, the Crimean Greeks were deported to Central Asia and the Urals.
I visited these places in April 2008. Just in time for Easter
The village of Laki was located between the villages of the Bakhchisarai region, Vysoky and Verkhorechye. It was founded by the Greeks who lived in Crimea during the early Middle Ages; it was then called Laka. A prosperous small village of 60 households was located on the picturesque slopes of the Crimean mountains.
The Church of St. Luke was built on one of the hills. Local residents believed that the very name of their village comes from the name of St. Luke.
Later in 1904, local residents rebuilt the old temple. Now from the Church of St. Luke only the bell tower to the belfry, a number of church premises have been preserved, and the dome has been partially preserved.
Above the entrance to the temple you can see preserved Greek inscriptions with the date of construction of the temple “1904” a little higher - “Temple (in honor of) Saint and Evangelist Luke.” Even higher there is another inscription - these are the words of Christ in modern Greek: “Come (to me) all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give (you) rest.” Behind the temple there used to be an old church cemetery.
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The village of Laki was located between the villages of the Bakhchisarai region, Vysoky and Verkhorechye. It was founded by the Greeks who lived in Crimea during the early Middle Ages; it was then called Laka. A prosperous small village of 60 households was located on the picturesque slopes of the Crimean mountains. The Church of St. Luke was built on one of the hills. Local residents believed that the very name of their village comes from the name of St. Luke. Later in 1904, local residents rebuilt the old temple. Now from the Church of St. Luke only the bell tower to the belfry, a number of church premises have been preserved, and the dome has been partially preserved. Above the entrance to the temple you can see preserved Greek inscriptions with the date of construction of the temple “1904” a little higher - “Temple (in honor of) Saint and Evangelist Luke.” Even higher there is another inscription - these are the words of Christ in modern Greek: “Come (to me) all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give (you) rest.” Behind the temple there used to be an old church cemetery. Save changesThe silence that reigns in the Laki Valley fascinates with its depth and some unique feature. It seems that I have never encountered such silence anywhere else.
Trees do not creak under the pressure of the wind, birds do not sing. Even the bees, those tireless workers, do not scurry from flower to flower. Only scarlet poppies, spread out on a huge field, slightly sway their buds.
There is silence all around. It seems that everything around has frozen in a state of indescribable grief for the events that happened here 60 years ago.
In the old days, Listrigons lived on this land. This is the name given to the descendants of Greek colonists. Not far from the village were located the Church of the Holy Trinity and an ancient temple, built in the 15th century. Now there is little left of them. Among the half-erased cemetery located near the temple, tombstones have been preserved, one of which has an inscription dating back to 1362. Local residents can be proud that they are descendants of the Theodorites, a people who have lived in Crimea since ancient times and earned respect in the surrounding lands.
At all times, the village of Laki lived separately. Residents had little interest in the events of the big world, preferring to deal with pressing matters. Here they raised cattle, grew grapes, and took care of children. There were several family dynasties in the village with beautiful surnames Arvanidi and Leli.
But in the winter of 1942, the Germans came to visit Vladimir Lely, the chairman of the Neo Zoi collective farm. From that moment on, grief came to Lucky. The Nazis completely destroyed the village. All buildings were destroyed, everything that could be destroyed or burned. Only the church did not allow itself to be completely destroyed. The Church of St. Luke the Evangelist still stands.
This temple is unique in its architecture and unique in its internal atmosphere. In the temple one can feel the presence of the souls of people who died during that cruel time. The temple is located on a hillock, surrounded by a wall of weeds in the form of wormwood, sorrel and nettle. The dome of the bell tower was destroyed and what remained of it were stone blocks in front of the entrance to the temple. The altar was completely destroyed, but frescoes remained on the walls. In some places you can see images of an eagle or a lion, the faces of saints and angels. Unfortunately, in some places the frescoes are defaced with inscriptions from vandals.
60 years have passed since the tragedy, but people still do not forget the terrible events and details of the destruction of the village of Laki. In the place where the houses stood there is now a field. Only the church and the monument remind that there was a village here and the Greeks lived in it until trouble came to their house.
The village of Laki was captured and destroyed on March 23, 1942. Why did this happen to this particular village? If we turn to the historian Panteleimon Kesmedzhi, in his book “Greeks of Crimea” he cites the words of the commander of the partisan detachment of Macedonian Mikhail Andreevich. According to him, the Bakhchisaray partisan detachment, which he commanded, received solid support from the residents of the village of Laki. The soldiers of the detachment were helped with food and provided with clothing. There were many other villages in the vicinity, but in almost all of them there were traitors who were ready to hand over the detachment to the fascist punitive forces. In the village of Laki, residents supported Soviet power; a red flag flew fearlessly and proudly on the building of the Village Council. For helping the partisans, the Germans shot more than thirty men; women and children were burned along with their houses. 87 households were burned. But not everyone died. Those who were lucky enough to survive were transported to the village of Oktyabrskoye.
The Greek people remember those terrible events and honor the memory of those killed. Every year, on March 23, Greeks come to lay flowers at the monument and pay tribute to the memory of the dead. The only pity is that nothing remains from the village of Laki, not even the foundations.
