Kitaeva pustyn
Kiev, Ukraine
About
Even Kiev locals are few to know that there is an ancient priory named Kitaeva Pustyn near Kiev. You can feel like touching another world in this place. Time in Kitaeva Pustyn flows like a dreamy river. You cannot hear city noise and usual hustle and bustle though a big city high-road is just behind the monastery walls. Sounds of signing birds, murmuring leaves murmuring and old creaking branches envelop you from the first step. Kitaeva Pustyn is naturally protected by small hills all around. Blue sky, weeping willows and bulbous cupolas of St.Trinity Cathedral seem to be painfully sliding on a mirror of five local lakes. Because of their location - out of the city center - Kitaevo caves are less visited than Lavra's ones; there is no regular tourist flows. People come here with their families or in small groups to walk along the ancient labirynthes. Kitaev hillfort (from Turco "Kitay" - «fortress-site») was an old slavonic outpost laying on the way to Kiev. Nowadays Kitaeva pustyn still remains bulwark and citadel of Christianity. But for the most of us Kitaevo can be the perfect place to stay on our own: for concentration and taking important decisions – especially in Kitaevo caves. The entrance to the caves is on the top of Kitay mountain. There you find a little wooden chapel with a monk who can guide you inside. Historians presume these caves had already been initiated here in pre-Christian times. Their four-levelled area was used for intimity, protection against ennemies, food storage and even for connection with other monasteries. Today a lot of caves are ruined but the remaining part is big enough and very interesing. There is no regular tours in the caves, but you can enter in there for free and visit the monastic cells. All you have to take with is a candle or a to light your way on. You can stay for hours studying ancient pictogrammes or scripts on the walls or just have a rest in one of the cells on an earthen bench.
