Webcam Cherepovets. Monument to Athanasius and Theodosius (Vologda region)
In 1992, a monument to the founders of the city - the monks Athanasius and Theodosius - was erected on Sobornaya Hill.
There is a legend, which was recorded by a local historian of the last century A.V.Afetov:
A Moscow merchant sailed down the Sheksna to Belozersk with his goods. During the day on the Sheksna near the present town of Cherepovets, near the mouth of Yagorba suddenly there was darkness. Everything disappeared from sight, and the boat ran aground. Struck by such a phenomenon, the merchant began to pray, and while he was praying, an even more amazing sight was presented to his eyes. The nearby mountain covered with forest was as if on fire, and rays of light spattered out from behind the mountain as if pointing to the direction of the way. The merchant got off the shoal, swam in the direction of the rays toward the wondrous fiery mountain, and the apparition disappeared.
He climbed the mountain, saw dense forests, among which, curving fancifully, the river Yagorba flowed, and in the distance to the east went the wide silver ribbon of Sheksna. All this happened on a Sunday afternoon. Marking this marvelous place with a cross, the merchant left. The next year, bringing with him a large icon of the Resurrection of Christ, on the day of the miraculous vision, he built a chapel on the mountain and decorated it with the icon he brought.
Then legend adds that two icons came to the constructed chapel, Theodosii and Athanasii, and that the elder Theodosii was a Moscow merchant and Athanasii, a native of Ustyuzhna, a disciple of Sergii Radonezhski by the nickname of Iron-column. It is probable that he received this nickname because he had with him an iron club to tire the flesh, with which he would never part, as Archbishop Philaret of Chernigov in his composition "Russian Saints", venerated by the Church, wrote: "Athanasii the iron staff" hermitically lived in the place where the Cherepovets monastery was founded. Theodosius, as the same L.V. Afetov supposes, was a Muscovite, "a man of trade", who had lost his family during the disastrous times of the plague of 1352-1353, and who found solace in the thought of surrendering himself to the will of God and devoting his life to serving God. Thus, two monks appeared and founded the monastery, the main temple - the Resurrection Monastery.
After the death of the ascetics in the village of Feodosievo a wooden church was built in honor of the founders of the settlement. The patronal feasts of January 11 and 18 (Feodosy and Athanasiy's name days) gave rise to the appearance of two fairs, Theodosievskaya and Afanasievskaya.
In 1992 a monument to the founders of the city was erected on Sobornaya Hill. The author of the sculptural composition is the sculptor Alexei Arkhipov from St. Petersburg.
It consists of two four-meter high figures (cast in bronze in the shaped foundry of JSC "Severstal"). Athanasius and Theodosius are dressed in traditional monastic clothes.
Athanasius is wearing a monk's headdress, a kukol. Theodosius stands with his head uncovered. Theodosius points to the mountain where salvation appeared to him. Athanasius, too, raised his hands in admiration at the place where a new settlement would later arise. The low wall around the monument is lined with slabs. It bears the inscription: "To the Venerable Theodosius and Athanasius". Inside a small circle there are two more, as if unfinished, not closed.
Ceremonial opening of the monument took place on October 28, 1992, on another important day, the 150th anniversary of the birth of the artist V.V. Vereshchagin. Vereshchagin.
The monument to the founders of the city has become a visiting card of Cherepovets.
