Description of the attraction
Kosmo-Damianovsky (Kozmodemyanovsky) monastery - located 16 km from Alushta, between Babugan and Sinabdag in the Central basin of the Crimean State Reserve. The monastery was founded near the healing spring Savlukh-su ("healthy water"), in the place where, according to legend, the holy unmercenaries Kosma and Damian were killed.
The emergence of an Orthodox monastery in honor of St. Kosma and Damian is associated with the name of the Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride Innokenty. In 1856, with the blessing of Archbishop Innocent, under the leadership of Hegumen Macarius, the construction of the cinemas began.
In 1869 a wooden church was built in the name of St. Unmercenaries of Cosma and Damian. The monastery had 34 tithes and 1754 sq. fathoms of the earth. Gradually, despite financial difficulties, the monastery began to grow. In 1878 the future emperor Alexander III visited the monastery twice, and in 1880 he visited the monastery together with his wife Maria Feodorovna. In 1899, by the decree of the Holy Synod, the male cynovia was transformed into a female co-ordinate monastery. In 1913, a chapel was erected over the spring to mark the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov.
On October 5, 1923, the Kosmo-Damianovsky Monastery was liquidated. The monastery with all the lands passed into the possession of the Crimean State Reserve, and the nuns of the former monastery, having concluded an agreement with the reserve, created an agricultural artel. It was decided to set up a club in the building of the Transfiguration Church, and a natural history museum in the Kosmo-Damianovsky Church. The monastery was restored in service on July 29, 1992.
