In 1069 the famous monk Anthony, the establisher of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, had come to Chernihiv. He had established the cave monastery of St. Virgin behind the city walls, which he wanted to be not worse than Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. The Boldyni Mountains were the most suitable for this, because the gullies were comfortable for the caves.
It had passed almost a thousand years after the digging the first cave in Chernihiv. The monastery was created on the example of the ancient cave Orthodox monasteries and had represented not a big cave town, situated on the slopes of the gully and consisted of a great number of underground buildings. The Anthony’s caves are only the part of the cave complex, which had existed here. Today we can surely say about seven known Old Russian caves, but undoubtedly...