Graduates of the school in the village of Vladimirskoye, Nizhny Novgorod Region, have a tradition to walk around the holy lake Svetloyar three times before each exam
- The main thing is to concentrate on your desire during such a round, - says the eleventh-grader Polina Bredikhina. - Now we are thinking about the exam. And when we get our certificates, we will ask the lake to help us enter the university. To make the wish come true for sure, it is better to go around the lake barefoot. Last year, all the graduates of our school entered, and the year before last, too … Yes, in Vladimirskoye, all graduates study where they have wondered. They are preparing, of course. But if not for the lake, we would not be so lucky.
Svetloyar is located one hundred kilometers from Nizhny Novgorod. People from all over the world come to wash it with water, to get around with a request.
According to legend, once on the site of the lake was the city of Kitezh. During the invasion of the Mongol-Tatar Khan Batu, the city sank under water.
“Until now, believers - both locals and visitors - hear the ringing of underground bells,” says Irina Pankratova, a resident of the village of Vladimirskoye, a biologist. - It is still unknown whether the city was here or not. 800 years have passed, and scientists have not yet decided.
The exploration of Lake Svetloyar began at the end of the 19th century; expeditions from Kazan University came here. In the twentieth century, the lake was studied by scientists from St. Petersburg.
- The scuba divers found out that the lake consists of several steps, - says Irina. - The southern terrace is the youngest and shallowest, it arose only 400 years ago. And the deepest, the northern one, appeared 800 years ago. It was there that wood chips were found under a layer of silt. They made an analysis and found that they were processed with a cutter, which means that a person worked on them. Scientists called this place the anomalous zone K - after the first letter of the name of the ancient city. So, perhaps, the city of Kitezh is not only a legend …
Until now, there have been several versions of the origin of the lake. The most plausible is the meteoric origin. The place where the huge meteorite fell was filled with water, and the hills along the banks are earth emissions. Also, scientists do not exclude that it is here that a subcontinental fault of the earth's crust passes. It begins in the Carpathians, crosses Kharkov, Nizhny Novgorod region and goes to Siberia.
“Nevertheless, Svetloyar is still one of the most mysterious places,” says biologist Pankratova. - I myself did not hear the ringing of bells. But somehow, being on Svetloyar, I felt the fragrance of incense. But there were only a few people besides me, and no one went with lighted candles. And recently I saw this picture. Not far from the lake we have a stone with the foot of the Mother of God. Schoolchildren with teachers came on an excursion, everyone went to church. The young teacher turned out to be on the street before the others and decided to consecrate a cross in a mortar - there was two centimeters of water there after the rain. I myself saw how she took off the chain and lowered the cross into the water. And suddenly he was gone! The whole class looked for it - they did not find it. Later I told the believers about this. It was assumed that someone in the group did not believe in the miraculousness of the lake, and so that people would believe,The Lord decided to perform a miracle. The second explanation was this: perhaps this woman carried a heavy cross and freed herself from it in a holy place.
Now every summer the shore of Svetloyar is dotted with vacationers, people come here to swim from all over Russia.
- People are trying to kill two birds with one stone: and relax to the fullest, and ask for something by the lake. But it doesn't work that way. It has long been noticed that Svetloyar helps people who come here with faith. And it doesn't matter what confession this person belongs to. Those who believe go around the lake in silence, asking for their loved ones. Therefore, we prohibit swimming on the lake on mattresses. It's not good when those who consider Svetloyar a holy place see naked people sunbathing in the middle of the lake …
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The clergy want to ban swimming at Svetloyar altogether. It is believed that people leave their sins in the water, and it loses its healing properties.
“It used to be the way it was: people will come to the lake, pray, go around it, and then scoop up water to wash,” says the local priest, Father Vladimir. - And they wash themselves above the ground so that not a single drop falls into the holy lake. Nowadays only the elderly and believers do this.
Especially a lot of people come to Lake Svetloyar on July 6. Believers - on the feast of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. All the rest are going to meet Ivan Kupala's night.
- For us, and for our lake, the invasion of people is a real disaster, - says the head teacher of the village school Elena Batalova. - Vacationers who go to celebrate a pagan holiday weave wreaths. Flowers are plucked around the lake and the local flora suffers as a result. Then these wreaths are thrown into the lake. And we take them out by trucks! It is imperative to collect them, otherwise they begin to rot and the lake gets sick. These days, so many people are bathing at the same time that we, the local residents, feel pain behind the reservoir. How our poor Svetloyar withstands all this is incomprehensible!
By the way, environmentalists are already sounding the alarm. Three years ago, Svetloyar began to bloom. An ordinary person does not yet notice this flowering, but the analysis of water is getting worse every year.
“Microscopic blue-green algae appear that can only be seen through a microscope,” says biologist Irina Pankratova. - The water changes color, becomes greenish. And if you do not at least reduce the number of tourists eager to swim in the waters of Svetloyar, soon the flowering will be more violent, which is detrimental to the reservoir. Previously, local water was poured into accumulators, they drank without straining. Now it's better not to do this.
So far, the mineralized water of Svetloyar is still considered healing. According to scientists, Svetloyar contains silver and copper, and they act as antiseptics.
“We believe that our lake is protected by underground Kitezh,” local residents believe. - Once the lake saved the city from the Mongol conquerors, now it's time for the city to save the lake. It is not for nothing that scientists have not yet decided on the origin of our Svetloyar.
Scientists and the truth are still at a loss. Experts from the St. Petersburg Institute of Lake Science on one of the last expeditions could not determine the depth of the lake.
“The device shows 34 meters,” says local historian Aleksey Groza. - And suddenly, unexpectedly, very close already four meters. At first they thought the equipment had broken. We checked it - everything works. Scientists were shocked - it seemed to them as if they had groped the domes of the churches of the ancient city. The divers examined the bottom, but found nothing.
In the old days, Lake Svetloyar was crawling on their knees.
“During the war, all the men from the village were taken to the front,” recalls a resident of the village of Vladimirskoe, Lidia Pavlovna. - Our father went to fight too. So women gathered on holidays and walked around the lake on their knees, praying that their husbands would return alive. And they gave a vow that if this happened, they would come to Svetloyar again. Our father returned, and my mother crawled around the lake again. I don’t crawl on my knees anymore, 85 years old nevertheless turned out this year. But bypassing - bypassing. And I must read the national prayer to myself: "Holy mountains, holy cathedrals, underground people, pray to God for us." I never ask for myself - only for children and grandchildren.
The inhabitants of the village of Vladimirskoye hear the underground ringing constantly. They don't like to joke on this topic. It is believed that "underground people" can take offense.
“When I was little, my grandmother and I came to the lake,” says another resident of the village, Anna Alekseevna. - She often asked me: “Come on, granddaughter, put your ear to the hill. Maybe you will hear the ringing of the Kitezh bells. And I heard. And now she has grown old, the hearing is no longer the same. It has been a long time since I heard this wonderful ringing.
Those who are helped by the holy lake Svetloyar will definitely come back here to thank him.
Five kilometers on my knees. Around the lake - with prayer and faith
“Recently, a woman came with an adult son,” says biologist Irina Pankratova. - This handsome young man was born in 1988. He had serious breathing problems, the doctors said that he would not survive. While the mother was in the hospital, the baby's grandmother disappeared from the house for two days. And somewhere at that time in the hospital the incredible happened - the baby suddenly began to breathe. The doctors could not understand what was the matter. And only recently my grandmother said that then she went to Svetloyar, crawled three times and begged for her grandson to recover. Then the mother and son also came to worship the holy lake.
The believers collect water from the lake in bottles and bring it with them. It is believed that it does not deteriorate for decades. Those who believe in its miraculous power use it carefully - add it drop by drop to ordinary water and drink it.
By the way
Lake Svetloyar is located one hundred kilometers from Nizhny Novgorod.
• The area of the reservoir is 12 hectares. The lake has an oval shape.
• Distance along the Svetloyar perimeter along the edge - 1 kilometer 324 meters. On wooden bridges - 1 kilometer 800 meters.
• Researchers at different times have expressed hypotheses about the glacial, karst, old age, volcanic, neotectonic, salt dome and cosmic - meteoric origin of the lake. In 2009, the results of field studies were published, confirming the hypothesis of the meteoric origin of the lakes.
