This year the Archbishop with the assistance of a great number of clergy was performing Liturgy at the house church of the fraternal building.

Then a moleben was served near the old mine where the Great princess Elisaveta Fedorovna with her sister in Christ nun Barbara, the great prince Sergey Mikhaylovich, his secretary Fedor Remez, and the great princes, sons of Konstantin: John, Konstantin, Igor, and prince Vladimir Paley were cast alive into the mine.

Saint martyr the Great Countess Elisaveta is greatly venerated in our monastery. Thus, the nuns who stood around the mine for a long time were reluctant to leave this holy place. The Lord so arranges it that the places that would have been frightening and repulsive because of the crimes that had been committed there, on the opposite attract people through the abundance of grace, the special serenity and peace that are clearly felt by the soul.

On the way back the sister who usually accompanies the guests of the abode in trips over the holy places of our eparchy, led us on a tour. At first we visited the On-the-Field school in which the Alapaevsk prisoners had been kept for several months. The school got its name because it used to be situated on the very outskirts of the city, almost “on the field.”

After this we visited the Holy Trinity cathedral. In 1918, while being under arrest, St. Elisaveta Fedorovna and other prisoners used to come here.

There is a small crypt under the Holy Trinity cathedral. In the beginning of 1919, when the White Army liberated the city, the remains of the holy Alapaevsk martyrs were laid there.

After Alapaevsk we went to the Nizhnesinyachikhinsky museum-reserve. From the knoll on which a church in honor of the Lord’s Transfiguration stands, a picturesque sight opens up — small hills, woods, and fields. Neat little chapels, huts, and windmills are clearly visible from there. In this museum under the open sky dozens of memorials of the wooden architecture are collected.

The visit to the Transfiguration cathedral has made a sad impression on us: even though divine services are held here from time to time, the church is still a museum, and therefore both in the center and on the walls there are glass cases with icons and shrouds demonstrated as exhibits. But the Lord is merciful, — we believe that this church will be restored not only from the outside, but also from the inside.