St. Nicholas the Miracle Church-Lighthouse in Malorechenskoye

(autotranslated, could have mistakes)

On June 18, 2006, on the southern coast of Crimea, in the village of Malorechenskoye, located in the Greater Alushta region, a prayer service was held dedicated to the completion of the construction of the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The temple was built according to the design of Academician of the Academy of Arts Anatoly Gaidamaki, who is the author of projects for more than 20 Orthodox churches in Eastern Europe. The most famous Ukrainian designers and decorators took part in the construction and decoration of the temple. The style of architectural details is made using traditional ornaments of Ancient Greece and early Byzantium, since the earliest settlements on the territory of Crimea were Greek cities. The church is illuminated using modern lighting technologies. Windows made using classical stained glass technique, illuminated from the inside of the building, harmoniously emphasize the significance of the building in the evening.

The lighthouse temple in memory of those who died on the waters and travelers was built on a high cliff above the sea and is visible from many points on the southern coast of the peninsula. It is expected that this temple will become one of the main attractions of Crimea

There are about ten such lighthouses known to exist in the world. One of them is in Russia. This is the largest lighthouse on the White Sea - the Church of the Ascension on Sekirnaya Mountain in Solovki. It is designed so that it only needs light from a flashlight or candle.

In Crimea, the Church of the Resurrection of Christ (Foros Church), located in Foros at an altitude of 427 m above sea level on the way to the Baydar Gate pass, is also used as a lighthouse. Erected in 1892 in memory of the miraculous rescue of Alexander III and his family during a train crash, it is illuminated every night and is still a landmark for seagoing vessels.

On May 7, 2009, thanks to the efforts of Chernigov craftsmen, the second part of the memorial was opened in the basement platform of the temple - "Museum of Water Disasters".  The exhibition is dedicated to the most tragic pages in the development of navigation - disasters on the waters that resulted in innumerable human casualties. The museum is located in 17 rooms (1000 m2), each of which tells through videos and stands about the most resonant tragedies on the waters of the World Ocean.

The general scenario of the exhibition begins in the lobby, the interior of which gives the viewer the feeling of being personally on board a sunken ancient ship. The “prologue” of the exhibition is a ticker with an endless list of shipwrecks indicating the date, place of death and the number of victims of the tragedy.

The architectural and artistic design of the interiors is as follows. The viewer walks along the deck of the “sunken ship,” enters its “holds,” and moves from compartment to compartment. On board the neighboring “sunk ships”, 9 videos are shown using camouflaged video projectors: documentaries and chronicles about tragedies on the waters, archival videos, eyewitness accounts.

A ship's fencing, made of metal and hemp rope, separates the exhibition from the visitor traffic area. The foreground imitates the seabed, on which exhibits from different eras and the results of shipwrecks are displayed chaotically, without observing chronology: anchors, cannonballs, models of cannons, chains, lanterns, remains of boats and other objects that emotionally support the overall imagery, as well as scraps of old fishing nets, blackened wood, metal covered with shells. All walls are decorated with reliefs (like seaweed) and painted in appropriate dark colors. The floors are made of hewn deck boards.

You can virtually get acquainted with the exhibition or book a tour on the official website of the museum

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Panorama of the lighthouse in Malorechenskoye