Holy Spring of the Prophet Elijah (Podgory)

The Holy Spring of the Prophet Elijah, also called the Ilyinsky spring, is a venerated spring on the Samara Bend in the Volzhsky district of Samara Oblast. It rises at the foot of Mount Plaksikha, about one and a half kilometres from the village of Podgory, inside the Samarskaya Luka National Park; next to it stands the Zavolzhsky Monastery of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross.

History

Podgory dates back to the first half of the 17th century: around 1640 a wooden church of the Prophet Elijah was built here. In 1860 work began on a brick church in its place, finished by 1890. In the early 1930s the church was closed and partly destroyed, and in Soviet times the spring fell into neglect.

The parish of the Prophet Elijah in Podgory was registered again in 1993, and the church restoration began in 1998. In June 2003 the first liturgy in eighty years was served there. The spring was also restored in the early 2000s, and in the summer of 2003 the first monks of the future Zavolzhsky Monastery settled beside it. The wooden Church of the Holy Cross was consecrated in 2006: it took about 200 cubic metres of spruce from Tver Oblast, and its large dome is covered with some fifteen hundred aspen shingles.

What to see

The spring is enclosed in a log frame, with a bathing font with steps and a well where you can draw water. The water is very cold: no more than 5 °C even in summer, about 3 °C in the font. Pilgrim websites say an analysis found a raised level of silver ions in it.

A mosaic icon of the Prophet Elijah, made in Valery Molchanov's workshop in Samara, stands by the spring. Above it rise the monastery's wooden churches, among the most beautiful on the Samara Bend. The ramparts of ancient hillforts survive on the nearby Belaya and Manchikha hills.

Legends

Local lore explains the "silver" water by saying the spring washes over countless treasures hidden in the Zhiguli Mountains. On the Samara Bend such hoards are usually credited to Stepan Razin and other Volga outlaw chiefs.

Getting there

There is no paved road to Podgory from Samara. The easiest way is to take the ferry to Rozhdestveno and go on foot or by bike. By car you can drive the dirt road through Sosnovy Solonets and Rozhdestveno; cars cross on the cargo ferry only during the summer navigation season. In Podgory, turn left off the paved road that skirts the village by the forester's house and climb about one and a half kilometres along a dirt track.

The national park's hiking and cycling route "East Wind" passes the spring: Rozhdestveno pier, Podgory, the Spring of the Prophet Elijah, Gavrilova Polyana, the Goat Path, Mount Verblyud and Shiryaevo. It is open from June to September.

Good to know

The spring and the churches are free to visit, but entry to this part of the national park is paid: buy a permit at the checkpoint where the paved road turns onto the dirt track in Podgory (about 100 roubles per person, free for children under 7 and concession groups). Do not confuse this spring with the spring of the same name in the mountains near Kurinskaya in the Apsheronsky district of Krasnodar Krai.