Attractions of Male Starosillia

Irdynskyi Vynohradskyi Holy Assumption Monastery with a complex of caves is located in the middle of forests and swamps near the village of Male Starosillia to the west of Smila.

It was probably founded in the 16th century, but it was first mentioned in documents in 1656, when Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi issued a license for the construction of a new monastery complex. Khmelnytsky's son Yuriy hid in this monastery and accepted monasticism under the name of monk Gedeon. Haydamaks also hid in the monastery caves.

15 hectares of the large territory of the monastery was the first to be explored by Count Oleksiy Bobrynskyi at the end of the 19th century. The diagram of the underground passageways drawn up by him shows that they ran for hundreds of meters. However, neither the count nor modern local historians managed to reach the end and find out where the tunnels dug by the monks led. Archaeologists discovered an underground church in the caves.

The monastery, which was closed by the Bolsheviks after numerous destructions and fires, was never restored to a psycho-neurological boarding school on its territory. Only surviving caves are open to tourists.