St Nicholas Monastery – Mukachevo (Munkács)
The St Nicholas Monastery on Chernecha Hora (Csernek Hill) in Mukachevo is one of the oldest church centres in Transcarpathia: for centuries it was the seat of the Eastern-rite bishops of Mukachevo. Today the complex rising above the Latorica river houses an Orthodox convent.
Tradition links its foundation to Prince Fedir Koriatovych (Korjatovics Tódor) of Podolia, who received the castle and estate of Mukachevo from King Sigismund at the end of the 14th century. According to legend, he was attacked by a snake while hunting, prayed to St Nicholas and built the monastery in thanksgiving for his rescue. Scholars regard the foundation charter dated 1360 as a later forgery; the first authentic mention of the monastery is found in a charter of King Matthias from 1458.
From 1491 the monastery was the seat of the Bishop of Mukachevo. It was destroyed several times in the wars of the 16th and 17th centuries – in 1537 and again in 1657 – and in the 17th century it was taken over by the Greek Catholic Basilian order. The episcopal see moved into the town in 1751 and has been in Uzhhorod since 1780, but the monastery remained the centre of the Basilians. Its school and its library of more than six thousand volumes played an important part in the intellectual life of the region.
The present Baroque monastery building was erected between 1766 and 1772; its foundation stone was laid by Bishop Manuel Olsavszky. The Classicist Church of St Nicholas was built between 1798 and 1804: a rectangular building with a single apse and a bell tower.
In 1946, when the Soviet authorities suppressed the Greek Catholic Church, the Basilian monks refused to convert and were expelled, and Orthodox nuns moved into the monastery. The library and archives were transferred to state collections. The monastery buildings and the Church of St Nicholas are listed as architectural monuments of national importance in Ukraine.
Visiting: the monastery stands in the north-eastern part of Mukachevo, in the Pidmonastyr (Klastromalja) district, about two kilometres from the town centre. It is a working convent, so visitors should dress modestly and keep quiet. Before travelling, check the current travel advice of your foreign ministry.
Sources: Wikipedia · Wikipedia – Fedir Koriatovych · Explore Carpathia · Encyclopedia of Ukraine · Wikipedia (Ukrainian)
Photo: Haidamac / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo: Dmytro Petishkin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Town:
Mukachevo (Munkács)