Lyupov Chapel

The Lyupov Chapel is an early 20th-century stone chapel-tomb on the steep bank of the Volga near the village of Ermakovo in the Stavropolsky District of the Samara Region. It stands between Ermakovo and Vinnovka within the Samarskaya Luka National Park and is also known as the Lyupov crypt: no services were ever held here, as it is the burial vault of Staff Captain Alexei Nikolaevich Lyupov. The building is a Neo-Russian style architectural monument and a regional cultural heritage site.

History of the Lyupov Chapel

Alexei Lyupov was born in 1872 in Stavropol-on-Volga, today's Tolyatti, into a noble family. An artillery officer, he took part in the China campaign of 1900–1901, and in the Russo-Japanese War he commanded a battery of 9-inch mortars from the first to the last day of the defence of Port Arthur, often sleeping in the trench on a folding camp bed. After the fortress fell, Lyupov was taken prisoner. According to accounts, he refused release in exchange for a promise never to fight Japan again and spent a year in captivity, coming home with tuberculosis.

In 1907 he retired, settled in St Petersburg and took up inventing, obtaining 15 patents in three years. In 1911 Lyupov bought a plot on the Volga bank near Ermakovo, planning to build a house there. On the night of 25 September 1911 he was killed by two local peasants who hoped to find a large sum of money on him.

At the place of his death, Alexei's elder brother, a major general, built the chapel-tomb to a design by military engineer Lieutenant Colonel Fyodor Smirnov. Sources disagree on the year of construction: 1912, 1913 or 1914. In Soviet times the tomb was looted and neglected, but not demolished. In the 1980s participants of the Tolyatti "round trip" around the Samarskaya Luka cleared the site and began to piece together the story of the Lyupov brothers.

What to see

The white-stone chapel looks as if it were dug into the slope. It is decorated with four small turrets and carved metal cornices, and above the vault rises a black metal cross about 7 metres high. One side of the cross bore an image of Christ, the other an inscription: "To Alyosha, my dear brother, crowned with blood." Inside were a tombstone with a carved cross and an iconostasis, along with Alexei Nikolaevich's chains of penance and that same camp bed.

A small terrace above the tomb offers a view of the Volga. A local tradition says a candle once burned in the chapel constantly and served as a beacon for passing boats.

Today the Lyupov crypt is abandoned and does not belong to the church. Wild cherry thickets have almost hidden it, and it can hardly be seen from river cruisers. Volunteers of the "Path of the River" and "Must Be Saved" projects cleared the chapel of bushes and rubbish and washed the door, the dome with its cross and the metal details. The retaining wall is crumbling, and the building needs professional restoration.

Getting there

A dirt road leads to the chapel through Ermakovo: just past the village it reaches the barrier of the Ermakovskoye garden association, then descends steeply to the shore. Without four-wheel drive the last stretch is passable only in dry weather, and in spring the road along the Volga is flooded. The chapel can also be reached by water, by motorboat or boat from Vinnovka. It lies on the "Path of the River" eco-trail around the Samarskaya Luka.

The old steps from the entrance down to the Volga have been washed out and collapsed, so they cannot be climbed. Volunteers have made a detour through the ravine: from the cross at the top, go left and walk down into the gully on natural steps.