In the territories of many Orthodox churches and monasteries, you can find underground structures, which are called underground churches. They are located either in the basement floors of churches (and are, as it were, an additional place of worship) or in caves. Sometimes in loose rocks. The last example is the Nikolaev Berlyukovskaya Pustyn.
Excavation process. The found iconostasis is visible in the background. Information about him will be below.
I don’t know when these photos are dated, approximately the beginning of the 2000s.
According to the official version, these premises were dug, caves were made, and from the inside they were lined with brickwork with vaults. Can you imagine this volume and level of work intensity? This is not a building to build on the surface!
To better understand how these underground objects are tied to the terrain, a few more photos:
Promotional video:
Those. according to the logic of the official version, the monks dug a cave, a grotto in a clay hill, and then laid a brick on the inside! Does it not seem to you that this is already an excessive stretching of the facts under the desired?
Here is the church's official view of this fact:
Such logic can explain anything. And it suits everyone. In 2007, a 160-pound iconostasis was found during excavations:
Maybe the underground brick vaults collapsed, burying this underground church. Or maybe vice versa: it was once an overground structure. But it was brought either by dusty clay storms or mudflow masses of a flood that passed along the river bed, flowing nearby:
the Vorya river, which flows into the Klyazma.
The depth at which the base of the iconostasis was located.
The iconostasis after excavation and restoration.
The picture is not straightforward. But my opinion is that it makes no sense to build an underground brick church, even if there were caves prayed by monks. There are many difficulties and problems: waterproofing walls, ventilation of premises - all this leads to high humidity and dampness. There is no sun - you need to somehow illuminate the premises. In the spring, melt water drips from the ceiling. The construction will not last long. Maybe this is really the construction of the church before the cataclysm? The antique style of the iconostasis can just talk about this.
