Attractions of Starobilsk

A monument to Ostap Bender, the hero of the satirical work "12 Chairs" by Ilya Ilf and Yevhen Petrov, is erected in front of the old building of the former female gymnasium in Starobilsk, where the faculty of Luhansk National University named after Taras Shevchenko is now located.

The idea to immortalize Bender belongs to the LNU team. Researchers of the works of Ilf and Petrov believe that the city of Starhorod described in "12 Chairs" is Starobilsk, where the writers worked in 1923.

The sculpture of NLU teacher Andriy Borovoy depicts the scene of the appearance of the "great combiner" in Starhorod, which was accompanied by communication with a homeless person. The words that begin the 5th chapter of the novel are written on the pedestal: "At half past twelve from the northwest, from the side of the village of Chmarivka, a young man of twenty-eight entered Starhorod. A homeless man ran after him..."

The Saint Nicholas Cathedral was built in Starobilsk in 1886 "in memory of the prosperous 25-year reign of Emperor Nicholas I in the name of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker of Myrlikia".

The author of the project was the diocesan architect of the Kharkiv Spiritual Consistory Kraevsky.

Restoration is currently underway.

The Starobilsk Women's Monastery "Joy of All Sorrowfuls" was founded on the basis of a shelter for orphan girls, which was organized in 1849 by the noblewoman Hanna Bulych.

In 1862, the asylum was transformed into a women's community in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Sorrowfuls". In 1870, a winter temple was built in honor of the Holy Life-giving Trinity. In 1886, the community was raised to the status of a monastery.

During the First World War, an infirmary was opened for typhus-wounded soldiers who were refused care by doctors.

In 1924, the monastery was dispersed, some of the sisters were killed or arrested. In Soviet times, a military unit was located on the territory, and during the Second World War - a concentration camp.

In 1992, the temples were returned to the Orthodox Church, and in 1993, the monastery began to function again. The main shrine is the miraculous icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Sorrowfuls".