Hello, my dear readers.

This post is the continuation of my series about picturesque part of Ukraine - Podillia. If you missed previous 2 parts, here are links to them:

• Discover Ukraine. Mystical Podilia, p.#1
• Discover Ukraine. Mystical Podilia, p.#2 ~ Sataniv
  

Okay, we are still in Sataniv, a small and cozy town and resort with a fancy name that I tried to explain in p.#2.

Water mill

Nearby the main city gates, there is a water mill, constructed Austrians in 19 century. Original equipment was replaced with soviet one. A few years ago it stopped because of some break, and as there was no money and a smallest hope to repair it one day (who cares about a small town too far from the capital), the locals took him apart for spare parts. Another one sad story.

Just a side note, sorry, can't resist. All my travels around Ukraine are always a miz of opposite feelings: delight and sorrow. Now you know why...

Another one, called Galician Mill, is much more interesting, is on the other side of the river Zbruch. During the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire this mill gave such a fine grinding that no one saw anything alike in Sataniv. All flour were exported abroad.

Just one hundred years ago there was at least one water mill on almost every creek. Now they are quite rare.

This is a picturesque brick dam. In the foreground, on the left, you see the base of a boarder post. (Remember, once, it was a boarder between 2 empires: the Habsburgs and the Romanovs.

(source)

This is actually the floodgates of the mill. Closed for ever.

The Castle

Sataniv Castle is located in the northern part of Sataniv, on a high hill near the Zbruch River, and very very well fortified. I was here 2 times, so had photos taken in different years. This is a powder tower, the only well preserved.

According to the plan he is pentagonal, with double wall with moat between them and in front. In the every corner were was a tower. One tower is well preserved (mention before), two more are in poor condition, 2 more are destroyed.

There is an assumption, that the castle was constructed in the late XV century. The city was inhabited by Armenian, Greek, Moldovan, German, Jewish merchants and artisans. Many products from Sataniv's craft market - honey, wax, animal fat, cattle - were exported to Western European states. Through Sataniv a trade road passed that connected Galicia with Lithuania and Kiev, and even with Moscow.

This brick tower can vouch for me. From 1895 to 2005, a sugar factory operating on the territory of Sataniv fortress, and it in top-10 sugar refineries in Ukraine.

In 1711, the Russian Tsar Peter I, going to water treatment in Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary), stopped by in Sataniv castle visiting his owner - the great Crown Hetman Adam Senyavsky. Remained mention of the fact that tsar lived in the house, which stood by the castle. In that house on the stone was carved out the Russian emblem in memory of tsar was there. (Wiki)

Holy Trinity Monastery

Nearby the Sataniv itself, there is a XVIII century St. Trinity Monastery, initially build as a defensive church. According to legend, it was founded by a Greek from Athos, who once left the secular life into Podilsky Tovtry. This monastery became a shelter for many people, monks and locals during the invasion of the mighty Batu.

Throughout its centuries-old history, the monastery has managed to be both Orthodox and Greek Catholic (named after Rank of St. Basil the Great) and again Orthodox. He was both male, then female.

As I promised, it is a land of legends. One more, a bit frightening.

At the end of the XVIII century, the congress of representatives of Rank of St. Basil the Great, whome the monastery belonged to at the moment, chose the Sataniv Monastery as a place for the lifetime imprisonment of monks sentenced by the church court to burial alive. The first and last of the buried alive was Filimon Witoshynsky. The convicted person first has a have a memorial service as a dead man, and then bricked up. He was given food through a special window in the wall.

There is a version that, after Podillya's accession to the Russian Empire and the reassignment of the monastery to the Orthodox Church, the unfortunate Witoshynsky who had long lost his mind, was released off from his underground cell and let go.

The Holy Trinity Monastery is also known as the residence of the only one in Ukraine for professional beggars. The craft workers unit was officially registered with its masters, symbols, seals and other regalia.

During the warm season the beggars spread across the towns and villages of Podillya, and in winter returned to the walls of the monastery, by which there was a whole beggar settlement. To be enlisted, the beggar had to spend 6 years as a "students", and then also to pass a rather difficult exam. The beggar had to be able to play various musical instruments, to know a lot of songs, and so on. No freebies! The beggars honestly earned their bread.

The beggars were looked after by the abbot of the monastery and the Order of the Basilian. Much of the collected by beggars was given to the church. Instead, they received a security paper from the abbot of the monastery. As, they are not just begging, but for holy cause. Can you imagine?

This is mainly the all. But honestly, there are a lot of interesting things I'd like to share with you. Probably, I will continue this series later on.

Stick around!

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Unless stated otherwise all photos used in my posts are taken and owned by myself, if you wish to use any of my images please contact me.

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