The cave monastery of the village of Rozhirche is a rock and cave complex, a unique monument of history and nature. Located on the southeastern outskirts of the village of Rozhirche on the territory of the Roshirche Nature Reserve. The first mention of the monastery dates back to the second half of the 15th century, and it was probably built in the 13th-14th centuries. Modern studies indicate that the rocks have been used since pagan times as a place of settlement or seclusion. The modern monastery is a popular tourist spot. According to the peasants, the monastery itself was male. It is...

The cave monastery of the village of Rozhirche is a rock and cave complex, a unique monument of history and nature. Located on the southeastern outskirts of the village of Rozhirche on the territory of the Roshirche Nature Reserve. The first mention of the monastery dates back to the second half of the 15th century, and it was probably built in the 13th-14th centuries. Modern studies indicate that the rocks have been used since pagan times as a place of settlement or seclusion. The modern monastery is a popular tourist spot. According to the peasants, the monastery itself was male. It is likely that its founders were monks who fled from the ruined in 1200 by the Tatars of Kiev and other villages of Kievan Rus. The surviving monks got to these lands, settled down, and, according to researchers, found an obscurely-hard-to-reach place and looked at the rocks of their monastery. Monks, in most, were silent, that is, they did not communicate with each other. On the holidays, the peasants could come to them, of course, with their permission. It is also known that monks sold honey from an apiary that was not far away to earn money. Around the monastery, the berries and mushrooms were eaten by monks. The location of the facility was very convenient and safe, because at that time the Tatars raided Ukrainian villages and lands and burned them (more than once it happened with the village of Rozhirche) . The rocky array itself is located at the foot of the ridge, on its northern slope, so the monastery, located on a hill in the woods and 200 meters from the southeastern edge of the village, was hard to reach for the attackers. The rock complex consists of two parts - actually the main one with rooms in the rock and two smaller rocks. Far from the main complex of 50 meters, these two rocks formed a narrow passage on the slope and were such a gate. Between those gates leads a path to the main rock. In the thicker part of the main rock mass, three caves are cut, which are located on two levels. On the first, there are two rooms, and on the second one (which has a staircase) there is one room. Researchers consider the lower large cave to be the living room to which the pantry adjoins, and the upper cave is a monastic church. In the past, some thorough research of the rock complex did not occur, therefore only a little mention of the monastery, dating to the 15th century, was the starting point for local lore. The first detailed studies of the rocks in Rozhirche were held by Vagilevich and Karpovich (1830 and 1834 respectively), already based on their findings and findings, they built up hypotheses about the history and past rocks and structures on them. And from the end of the XX century Ukrainian scientists and ethnographers began to thoroughly explore the rocks.