Dormition Divnogorsky Monastery This area was named Divnogorye because ‘divas’ are located there - chalk pillars of different heights. The first cave monastery on the Don River is located in Malye Divy. Its history is lost in the centuries: According to one version, it was founded in the 12th century by Greek schema-monks, who fled from the persecution of Catholics in Sicily.
According to another, the monastery was founded in the 17th century. On the territory of the monastery there are six caves up to 284 meters long, carved into ‘divas’, where the chapels and churches are located. In Soviet times, it was closed, the priceless library was thrown into the river and a sanatorium and hospital were organized there.
Monastic life was revived only in 1997. Next door, in Bolshiye Divy, there is a church of the Sicilian Divnogorskaya icon of the Mother of God - it is considered miracle-working and, according to legend, it saved the locals from cholera in the 19th century. Kostomarovsky Spassky Monastery The monastery is located in Voronezh Region, a few kilometers from the Don River.
The white chalk mountains subtly remind one of the cave temples of Cappadocia and the Sinai Desert. The monastery consists of eight caves up to 220 meters long. Perhaps, the very first ones appeared back in the 8th-10th centuries and, over time, they became more and more numerous, until a monastery arose in the middle of the 17th century.
One of the shrines of the monastery is the miracle-workin.
