The village of Vinnovka is comfortably located on the banks of the Volga, on the southern side of the Samara Luka, 30 km. by water from Samara and 40 km. on the road from Zhigulevsk. Proximity to the Volga, automobile and water-motor accessibility to large cities makes this small village a very attractive place for a country holiday. Almost half of the village already uses the constructed property as their second home.
This place really seems to have been chosen by God, it is so quiet, cozy, calm, peaceful... This is probably why I settled here Holy Mother of God Kazan Monastery together with Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. The new monastery building and the restored church are a landmark of the village, and combined with the beautiful nature of this place, they attract many tourists and pilgrims from all over the country and even from abroad.
The village of Vinnovka has its own history. It was founded in the 17th century, in 1671. The first population was mainly runaway peasants, and there were many immigrants from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In 1768, the entire Samara Luka was transferred into ownership brothers Orlov. By agreement between them, in 1794 the village went to Fyodor Orlov, and in 1802 it became the owner Alexey Grigorievich Orlov-Chesmensky(09/24/1737 - 12/24/1807), an outstanding figure and military leader of the 18th century, who commanded the Russian Mediterranean squadron in 1769-1777. and in honor of the defeat of the Turkish fleet at Chesma (06/24/1770) he received an honorary addition to the family name - Chesmensky.
The first church in the name of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God was built here back in 1770, but it burned down, along with almost the entire village, during a big fire in 1839. Construction of the stone church began in 1841, commissioned and financed by Anna Alekseevna Orlova-Chesmenskaya and continued by the Appanage Department in the Samara Territory, which managed the property of the imperial family. Anna Alekseevna was very pious, all her life she prayed for her father’s sin - regicide, the village lived in prosperity under her, and merchants sailing along the Volga often stopped and donated alms to the temple. Anna Alekseevna bequeathed her entire enormous fortune to Russian monasteries. The construction of the church in Vinnovka was completed in 1851.
Unfortunately, Vinnovka was not spared the events of the civil war. At the end of February - beginning of March 1919, a punitive detachment that participated in the suppression of the “Chapan uprising” stopped in the village. Residents of the village did not participate in the uprising, but despite this, executions of local residents and residents of surrounding villages were carried out in the area of the church.
On February 26, 1930, the administration of the department of the Samara District Executive Committee decided to close the church, after which the interior decoration was destroyed, and the external appearance of the temple was badly damaged. The temple was adapted for a stable and other economic needs. At the same time, the documents stored here were lost, including approved construction plans and projects that existed in a single copy.
The restoration of the temple began only in our time, in 2003. Today in this place stands not just the restored temple of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, but the entire Holy Mother of God Kazan Monastery, which includes 4 churches, a fraternal and administrative building and a hotel for pilgrims. By the way, the price is only 500 rubles. per day, including three meals a day.
The gate temple of the monastery was built by the architect Yuri Kharitonov in the form of a lighthouse, personifying the indication of the path to God through darkness and bad weather. Under the dome of this temple, almost 50 meters high, real Russian bells shine, striking the time every hour and spreading Russian church bell ringing throughout the surrounding area, for the soul and faith...
Below is a circular panorama of Vinnovka.To control panoramahold down the left mouse button and drag the image left - right. Use the mouse wheel to enlarge the image.
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.Would you like me to tell you how summer weekends work in Samara? Not rainy summer, as we seem to be accustomed to, but hot, unexpected summer?
Weekends are designed in such a way that already at nine in the morning you want to find peace somewhere by the river, with ice-cold beer, friends and half-naked beauties in flocks nearby, but first it is better to do something that justifies such decadence. For example, try to gain some spiritual experience, or just go for a ride.
Let's go!
Where
The Holy Mother of God Kazan Monastery (Vinnovka village), opened on December 26, 2006, has the status of “Bishops,” whatever that means. Active. Monks in black scurry about, novices in whatever.
How to get there
You can get to Vinnovka by car from Zhigulevsk, that is, first drive to Tolyatti along the M5 highway, dodging radars, then quickly turn onto the bridge with views of the hydroelectric power station, rush to Zhigulevsk and from there to Vinnovka. In Zhigulevsk there are beautiful mountains, all this serpentine road and trees of various shades of green, but at the moment repair work is being carried out with all their might on the bridge, and it is quite possible to get stuck in a traffic jam, which will darken the path. Choose better water routes.
The high-speed ship "Voskhod" will take you to Vinnovka (the village was previously called Vinnaya-on-Klyuche) in thirty-five minutes, the slow-speed "Moskva" - in two hours and a quarter. “Moscow” departs at 8:15 daily, “Voskhod” runs on Saturdays and Sundays, starts at 9:30. If suddenly someone wants to spend a lot of money, feel like a chosen one, a wasteful reveler and that’s all, call a river taxi and rush through the waters individually, with gypsies and bears, if that’s what you need. It’s convenient, expensive (10,000 rubles round trip), but, in general, Voskhod is no worse.
In any case, it’s a magnificent journey, the river is reflected in the sky and vice versa, the gentle banks turn into mountains, at the widest point of the route the Volga spreads three kilometers in width; Now the water is high, and the huts of the settlers on the islands are thoroughly flooded (the winners are those who installed the house on stilts). There are fans of extreme tourism in the form of kayakers, ancient boats, luxurious literal yachts and plastic boats with motors. Fishermen, buoys, seagulls, a powerful engine cuts through the water surface like a knife through a sponge cake.
There are ready-made tours, tickets for which are sold at the box office of the river station; the tour costs 1000 rubles, including transportation by Voskhod, a tour of the monastery and lunch in the refectory. Every Saturday-Sunday. As an option, use the services of the tour operator “Profcenter”, which rents a pleasure boat and a guide to entertain tourists along the way with stories about the history of the village of Vinnovka, plus an entertainment program (the journey is long, 2.5 hours - for the convenience of passengers, the boat departs from Barboshina Polyana, in an hour it floats to the river station and there picks up those who are more convenient from the center), and then everything is the same - a tour of the monastery, the bell tower, the museum, lunch in the refectory. Such a tour costs 1,700 rubles and will take place, for example, on July 22.
For what
Admire the views. The monastery looks very good from the water. Some kind of dollhouse, and the mountainside on the right with neatly stuck toy houses.
Enter the monastery. In general, the monastery is new, newly built, but the main temple, where the icon of the Kazan Mother of God is located, is quite ancient, built in 1851, and at first there was a wooden church from the 18th century, but it burned down, wooden churches are prone to this.
Find out more about the monastery. It’s worth taking a tour, you can arrange it in advance with monk Luke (phone: 8-964-983-94-36), or novice Alexander (8-964-983-94-36), or you can right on the spot by going to the church shop, where responsible brothers are waiting for tourists. As part of the presentation, you will be taken up to the bell tower, allowed to ring the bell a little, and will be told that the vast majority of diseases can be cured by ringing the bell; You won't believe it and will smile. The excursion lasts, including lunch (refectory! monastery cabbage soup! pies with mushrooms!) for about three hours. Directly at the monastery, an individual excursion costs 1,000 rubles per person, and if you and your friends are in a group of more than five, it costs about 150 rubles.
Invite your friends with you.
Stay overnight
You can go to the monastery hotel. It is quite large, the rooms, as befits a pilgrim’s home, are ascetic but clean. You need to book through Evgenia, by phone: 8-987-917-24-94, or Galina Alekseevna (8-937-729-42-40). True, I can’t imagine why someone might need to hang around Vinnovka at night, but suddenly. Still views. Volga. Benches for contemplation are provided, village children (in a crowd) sell raspberries, village women (one at a time) sell goat's milk and eggs of real chickens.
Speaking of food
At the monastery there is a buffet with homemade horseradish kvass, celandine and something else exotic, pies and coffee. I already talked about the refectory, but if you are not an organized tourist, don’t count on monastery-style noodles, it’s not for you. The high-speed ship "Voskhod" will return you to Samara exactly at five in the evening, and the slow-speed "Moskva" - maybe even at half past three, and here you will be surrounded by Samara, the "Dno" beer hall, cafe-restaurants and your own kitchen with a bowl of okroshka in summer time , For example. It’s very casual to sip okroshka after a visit to the monastery.
From eyewitness observations
On the threshold of the monastery, a tall man in a red T-shirt and a solid bald head falls to his knees: “ Brothers, I ask for help!”, he shouts quite loudly, without attracting much of anyone’s attention.
« I ask for help, brothers, not for myself! The dog bit the girl in the face, brothers!” The brothers are silent. He leaves and returns five minutes later: “Brothers, this is not even my child! Help, brothers!»
The brothers mobilize someone from among themselves to sort it out. There is no bitten girl. " Well I do not know, - the man with baldness says offendedly, - were just grazing here».
« No need to ask me for forgiveness“,” sings the brother in civilian clothes, escorting a group of four tourists out of private cells. — For you came here out of ignorance, and not out of evil intent.».
A minute later, with the same intonations, he says to a local alcoholic: “ Either you come home here, or you never come back, that’s my last word." The alcoholic wanders up to the stone steps to the refectory and deftly lies down along.
A large group of pilgrims arrives. A stately pilgrim in a spacious, completely transparent dress reads the rules for using the monastery. " Great,- says with satisfaction, - I'm in great shape».
A church shop worker teaches how to write lists of prayers for health and peace, or something like this: “ In the genitive case, my dears, in the genitive case. Alexandra. Or not. Alexandru. Alexandra. Or not. In general, you can just write your name».
"Well, of course, - one brother reproachfully to another, - no one wants to work.”
« Is it possible to come to an agreement with the priest about baptism??,” a woman with a nice and somewhat plain-haired face looks ingratiatingly at the worker. " I'll give you the phone, honey, and you can talk"- the worker painstakingly packs candles. " Can we talk in person??,” the woman wants to talk in person, she specially plopped down from Samara on the high-speed ship “Voskhod” to meet with the priest and discuss. Maybe it's her first child. Maybe this is a holiday in general in the family. " On the phone, honey, - the worker adjusts her pea scarf, - Father Feognost works only by phone».
A family of a man with a surprisingly blue face and a woman in a zip-up dressing gown are buying candles. " Give it to your father, give it to your mother, the man mutters. — Give it to your brothers, give it to your aunt. I won’t tell my uncle, but Lyokha will be punished».
On the bench there is a pile of newspapers “Ufa Diocesan News”...
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Where the heart of stone beats
First written mention – 1672
The state-owned village of Vinnovka, according to the description of the palace villages of the Samara province in 1672, did not stand out in any way from the many other settlements of this region. But behind the dry official record lies an amazing story and magical legends.
This place on the high right bank of the Volga was inhabited by people already at least in the 4th century BC. Near the modern Vinnovka pier, at the Stone Koza cliff jutting out over the Volga, archaeologists discovered an ancient settlement fortified with ramparts and ditches. This is how the population defended itself from wild nomads, and traces of these protective structures are still visible. Then the entire territory came under the influence of the Volga Bulgars, and, obviously, the Tatars, and in the middle of the 17th century a Chuvash village arose here.
In the 18th century, a rather unusual social phenomenon occurred in the village: several dozen fugitive Russian peasants arrived among the Chuvash. Basically, they belonged to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and were fleeing from increased serfdom and “shortage” - famine. Despite laws tightening penalties for the escape of serfs, the monks did not carry out repressions, but obliged the peasants to continue paying taxes to the Lavra.
This is how the Russian-Chuvash settlement was formed, which in those years was called Vinnaya-on-Klyuch. The name of the village speaks for itself: the fugitive peasants were quite limited in their ways of earning money, so they were mainly engaged in gardening and distilling. Vinnovka was famous for its apples and the moonshine produced from them, so even the river that flowed through the local ravine was called Vinnaya.
The position of state-owned or state peasants, compared to serfs, was easier. At least they could appear in court along with other free citizens and try to defend their rights. Vinnovka did not have a landowner, and the fugitive peasants paid tribute to the monastery, which was located far away and did not send its overseer. We can say that the spirit of freedom reigned in the village until Empress Catherine II came to power.
She secularized church lands in 1764 and transferred part of the property of the monasteries to the state treasury. So the peasants who belonged to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra came under the jurisdiction of the state, and in 1768 they turned into serfs. They were granted to the count family of the Orlovs, Catherine's favorites and great commanders.
In 1770, with the money of parishioners in Vinnovka, a wooden church was built in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, and the village, which turned into a village, began to be called Bogorodskoye-Vinnovka. However, local pagan legends were also strong. And one of them is about the owner of the Samara Luka - the largest bend of the Volga. Today there is a reserve there, which is part of the UNESCO Middle Volga Complex Biosphere Reserve.
Our contemporaries claim that from space on the map of Samarskaya Luka the silhouette of an attractive woman in a fur coat and mittens is clearly visible. And its heart is located 4 kilometers north of Vinnovka, where there is a rectangular rock in a ravine. Residents say that the stone heart sometimes beats for real.
However, Vinnovka really had her own mistress. She turned out to be the daughter of the winner of the Chesme battle in the war with Turkey, Alexei Orlov-Chesmensky. Anna Alekseevna, a brilliantly educated lady, maid of honor of the court and Russian millionaire, was an amazing figure for her time. Leading an intense social life, she did not abandon her spiritual quest and spent about 25 million rubles on church charity throughout Russia and abroad. An incredible amount even in today's times.
In 1839, during her reign, there was a fire in the village of Vinnovka, which destroyed, among other things, the wooden church. Anna Alekseevna laid the foundation for a new stone church in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the European and Moscow Baroque style. But in 1843 she sold the village to the appanage department that managed the property of the imperial family. The great serfdom Anna Alekseevna did not recognize this shameful right of some people over others, and her Samara peasants again became government officials. They received a certain freedom, which finally took shape during the era of the Great Reforms in 1861.
Due to the sale of the estate, the Countess was unable to complete the construction of the church, but the grateful residents themselves collected all the necessary funds. By the way, among them there were already many baptized Chuvash who accepted the Christian faith thanks to the educational activities of Anna Alekseevna in their Volga possessions.
The Kazan Church became the best monument to its benefactor - in the 30s of the 20th century they tried to blow it up several times, but each time unknown forces prevented this barbaric act. As a result, in 2006, the Holy Mother of God Kazan Monastery arose on the territory of the village of Vinnovka around the Kazan Church.
It is with its magnificent architecture, similar to the proportions of a medieval fortress, that greets guests arriving along the river, and is the main and most beautiful attraction of the modern village. Truly, the heart of the owner still beats in Vinnovka.
In this village, if anyone doesn’t know, there is the wonderful Holy Mother of God Kazan Monastery. It is located opposite the city of Novokuybyshevsk, but on the other side of the Volga.
You can get there by car from Samara in two hours. You will have to go through Tolyatti and Zhigulevsk. Or by boat for 2 and a half hours and for 85 rubles. It was decided to go by boat, and at the same time admire the beauty.
The adventures began... We were terribly late for the ship, which leaves at 8.15. Moreover, we constantly ended up at red traffic lights. At the ticket office they said that the ship was waiting at the first pier. We stood in line, but it turned out that the ship standing there was going to Shiryaevo (also a cool place, in the gorge of the Zhiguli Mountains, Repin’s house-museum, where he painted the famous painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga”) - on the completely opposite side. Our ship was parked next door and we still managed to board it.
Let's set sail... Samara from the Volga is very beautiful! 
Upon arrival, the ship stays at the pier for two hours. The pier in Vinnovka is located right next to the monastery, so we thought it was time to take our car for a walk!
Along the way, the ship makes several stops: “Lower Beach”, “Shelekhmet”. The final one is in Vinnovka, after which it goes back.
Recreation center "Utes" 
But... we are sailing PAST!!!
How so? The ticket and itinerary clearly indicate: VINNOVKA!
Why are we sailing past? It turned out that they were not stopping in Vinnovka yet; they were stopping in the neighboring village of Osinovka, five kilometers downstream. At the same time, in Vinnovka there is a good pier, but in Osinovka they simply moored to the shore...
Those traveling with us suggested that we would not walk along the banks of the Volga, but that we could get to the highway and anyone would be “taken there right away”!
... Ok, let's go on foot, first up the hill to the village, then through the village, in the heat... We reached the highway, no one stops, everyone is driving with family, friends, there is no room in the car. While we were walking, we spent about an hour, walked about four kilometers and that’s only until we reached the highway. In general, we decided to have a picnic on some hill overlooking the Volga. And then return to the ship. Light breeze, warmth, boutiques with sausage and lemonade, Volga...
On the way back, just for fun, I decided to take another risk and try to stop the car. Surprisingly, the first car stopped. A local driver from Osinovka was driving to the pier in Vinnovka, and then back, but after 20-30 minutes. We didn’t have time to get back with him, but we had a small amount of time to walk around the monastery and go back with someone. 
local wildlife 
And on the way back, we only needed a couple of minutes. Standing on a hillock, out of breath from running, we watched the departing ship... Today there was no other...
The south-eastern part of the Samara Luka, here the plateau of the Zhigulevsky massif steeply descends down to the bank of the Volga. From the side of the river, the hill, cut by ravines, looks like a mountain range, and these mountains are called by the names of nearby villages, Shelekhmetyevsky, Vinnovsky, although they all represent a single massif.
This view opens from the top of Bald Mountain, which is the tip of the Vinnovsky Mountains ridge, and below, at the mouth of the ravine, you can see the village of Vinnovka, where we will go on this short journey. 
Rising hills alternating with ravines create an interesting terrain.
The village of Vinnovka is one of the oldest settlements on Samarskaya Luka, located at the wide mouth of the Vinnovsky ravine, founded in the middle of the 17th century.
However, these lands were inhabited long before the founding of the village, so in the vicinity, not far from the village, two ancient villages dating back to the 3rd - 4th centuries were found. The village was founded by the Chuvash; subsequently, fugitive Russian peasants, mostly immigrants from lands belonging to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, came here to escape serfdom. Otherwise, they were not sent back, but they were still obliged to pay taxes to the monastery. They lived here mainly engaged in gardening and distilling, the village was famous for its apples and the moonshine produced from them, which is why the ravine and the river flowing through it were nicknamed Vinny, and the village itself was formerly called Vinnaya on Klyuch.
The color and authenticity of the village is in such courtyards, there are fewer and fewer of them in modern Vinnovka, cottages and country houses are growing up, and yet you can still find such old houses creating an atmosphere of real village charm.
Another architectural landmark of modern Vinnovka is the Holy Mother of God Monastery. I also looked into its territory.
The heart of the monastery is this church, and the monastery grew up around it.
Initially, the church, built at the expense of parishioners, in 1770 was wooden, illuminated in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. After its construction, the village ceases to be considered a village and acquires the status of a village, and it is now called Bogorodskoye-Vinnovka. During a fire that happened in 1839, most of the village burned down, and it did not spare the wooden church. Three years later, in May 1842, by order of the owner of these places, Countess Anna Alekseevna Orlova-Chesmenskaya, work began on the construction of a new, now stone church. However, a year later, the Countess sells the land to the appanage department and construction work is suspended. Only five years later they will be resumed, and construction is being carried out using funds raised by the peasant community of the village. And in 1851, the Temple in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was finally completed and consecrated.
During the years of Soviet power, the fate of most churches was not spared; they were closed everywhere, the church was looted, they tried to blow up the building, but it miraculously survived. Later, the church building housed a granary and barn.
At the beginning of the 2000s, work began on restoring the church, and a monastery was built around it. Unfortunately, it was not possible to examine its interior. At the time of the visit, its doors were closed.
After walking around the territory of the monastery, I go down to the banks of the Volga, leaving very little time to explore the surrounding area.