Attractions of Malyi Bereznyi

The Greek Catholic Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Basilian Fathers is located in Malyi Bereznyi on the slope of Mount Dilok above the valley of the Uzh River.

The monastery was founded in the 15th century, known since 1435 - this is evidenced by the monastery seal with the year engraved on it. Since 2009, the settlement of the Basilian Province of Saint Nicholas in Transcarpathia has been located here.

With the beginning of the Soviet occupation of Transcarpathia, the monastery was liquidated (1947), some of the monks were imprisoned. In 1948, the monastery premises were transferred to Uzhgorod University, the church was turned into a sports hall. In 1958, a boarding school for children with developmental disabilities was opened in the monastery, a warehouse was placed in the temple, and the temple paintings were destroyed. In 1973, a new boarding school building was built next to the monastery buildings.

The restoration of the Saint Nicholas Monastery of the Basilian Fathers began in 1989. The monastery complex was completely restored only in 1997. During 1997-2003, the carver and artist Yosyf Volosyansky created a new iconostasis for the monastery church. The artist Mykhaylo Priymych repainted the temple, since the unique paintings by Yosyf Bokshay were irretrievably lost.

Currently, the Basilian Monastery in Malyi Bereznyi is one of the largest monastic settlements of the Mukachevo Greek Catholic Diocese in Transcarpathia. At the same time, it is a settlement of the Province of Saint Nicholas, which unites all Basilian monasteries of the region.