Shallowed Kakhovka reservoir "brought a surprise": the remains of an old Cossack church were found at the bottom

The ruins of an old church painted by Taras Shevchenko were found in the village of Pokrovsky near Nikopol at the bottom of the Kakhovka reservoir, which is losing water after a dam blew up.

Intercession Sich Church was hidden under water for 70 years, writes edition of Nikopolnews. Alexander Dovzhenko wrote about it, Taras Shevchenko painted it, and a cemetery from the Second World War was discovered nearby, where local residents find human remains.

In 1734-1775, the Novaya Sich (or Podpolnenskaya Sich) existed on the site of Pokrovsky. It arose upon the return of the Grassroots Zaporozhian Army under the Russian protectorate as a result of the signing of the Lubensky Treaty. The Sich was located on a peninsula, which was washed on three sides by the Podpolnaya River, a tributary of the Dnieper.

On the territory of the main fortification – Kosh – there were houses of the ataman and foremen, the military office, the treasury, the houses of the clergy, as well as the Sich Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God. It is known that the decoration for the temple was created by an outstanding carver of the 18th century, a friend of the koshevoy Kalnyshevsky and the general clerk of the Zaporizhzhya Sich Ivan Globa, Sysa Shalmatov.

During the destruction of the Zaporizhzhya Sich in 1775, the Intercession Sich Church was robbed by officers, soldiers and Don Cossacks. As one of the reports to the Slavic Ecclesiastical Consistory says, from the Church of the Intercession “they took all the vessels, cups, silver royal doors, gospels, chalices, diskos, stars, copies, crosses, local icons with salaries and from all other images, silver salaries, dishes for the blessing of bread, candlesticks, censers, lamps and everything silver to the end, why does the church remain without God’s service.

In 1794, Metropolitan Gavrilo of Yekaterinoslav ordered the Church of the Intercession of the Sich to be closed. In the autumn of 1798, a new stone church was built here, where local residents transferred what they managed to save during the robbery by the military.

In 1843, Taras Shevchenko visited Pokrovskoye, as evidenced by the memoirs of his contemporaries and the drawings he created: among them are images of the Church of the Intercession. Local residents showed the ruins of the former Shevchenko Sich and told events from Zaporozhye history.

Historians claim that Shevchenko planned to place the drawing of the local church in the album “Picturesque Ukraine”, which he hoped to publish in 1845. He reported: “In 1845, the following pictures will be released: 1) Views: Chigirin, Subbotov, Baturin. Intercession Church …”.

Svyatopokrovskaya Sich Church. Photo: nikopol.nikopolnews.net

The stone church in Pokrovsky was until 1954, when it was flooded by the waters of the Kakhovka reservoir. Before flooding the church, the Soviet authorities removed most of the relics from there. What the locals managed to save is in the Pokrovsky Museum. These are the key to the Sich church, crucifixion memorials, a mug of Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, Cossack pipes, the remains of a saber and other relics.

Oleksandr Dovzhenko, the founder of Ukrainian Soviet cinematography, wrote about the flooding of the village of Pokrovskoye and the stone church in 1954:

“… The last memory of the church. I am sixty years old. I have not believed in God since the age of fifteen and have not been in church since then. But in the village of Pokrovsky I regretted that there was no God. five minutes to the church and, seeing the monument of ancient architecture destroyed by scoundrels, built in honor of his Mother of God, he punished the dark and vile Jews who committed this vile deed with a furious death. Farewell, Pokrovskoye.

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