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| Grammar School where the prisoners were held |
In 1918 this small Ural town hosted very unusual prisoners. They were relatives of the Royal Family: Grand Duchess Elizabeth (Elizaveta Feodorovna) with her sister in Christ Varvara, Grand Prince Sergei Mikhailovich and his secretary Fedor Ramez, Grand Princes John, Constantin and Igor (Konstatinovich), and Prince Vladimir Palei.
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| Filled shaft, where the bodies of the prisoners were thrown into |
Here, in the building of a Grammar School on the outskirts of Alapaevsk, the prisoners spent several trying months full of horror and suffering. Their fate had been decided after the execution of the Royal Family: on the night of 17-18th of July after a falsely staged attempt of escape they were taken outside the town towards the Verkhne-Siniachikhinsky Factory, and their bodies were thrown in to an abandoned Staroselimskaia Shaft 12 miles away from Alapaevsk…
The White Army started an investigation of the murder of the Grand Princes immediately after they took Alapaevsk on September 28, 1918. On October 9-11, 1918 the bodies of the martyrs were taken out of the shaft, and on October 19, 1918 they were buried in a crypt of the Holy Trinity Cathedral with great honor. In July 1919, as the Red troops were advancing to the city Hiegumen Seraphim (Kuznetsov) transferred the coffins with the relics first to Chita, and later to Beijing (China). In January 1921 the relics of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth and nun Varvara were transferred to Jerusalem and buried in the crypt of the Church of Mary Magdalene of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, where they remain now.
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| Chapel dedicated to the Hieromartyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth | Veneration Cross near the old shaft | Pilgrims walking into the crypt under the Holy Trinity Church |
Today there is a Veneration Cross and a small chapel built near the old shaft. In 1996 there was a monastery dedicated to the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia built nearby.
The classroom of the Grammar School, where Hieromartyrs Elizabeth and Varvara were held captive is now a memorial.