Podgornoye: Remembrance and the Church of Paraskeva

Podgornoye brings together locally rooted remembrance and places dedicated to Saint Paraskeva. The monument commemorates the residents of Podgornoye and Khrushchevka who fell in the Great Patriotic War. It was erected in 1970 at the initiative of local residents; according to the regional account, it was later reconstructed. Both the monument’s dedication and its history are therefore closely connected with the residents.

Remembrance at the Monument

Every year on 9 May, Victory Day, residents of Podgornoye gather at the monument to remember the fallen soldiers. The dedication to residents of two places and the annual day of remembrance tell two sides of the same story: the monument records whom it commemorates, while the gathering marks the annual occasion for remembrance. For anyone interested in local history, this connection makes Podgornoye’s focus tangible.

Church of Paraskeva and Holy Spring

A description from 1911 calls the Church of Paraskeva a stone, unheated summer church and dates its construction to 1855. Another date is the consecration of a holy spring in Podgornoye in 2004, in honor of Saint Paraskeva Pyatnitsa. The church and the spring thus represent two distinct chapters in the local connection to Paraskeva. Service times at the church are listed as 8:00 and 17:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. Since times may change, check with the parish before visiting.

When looking for a holiday rental, consider whether you want to focus your trip primarily on Podgornoye’s local history or include other nature and cultural topics in Lipetsk Oblast as well. This distinction helps set local places of remembrance apart from separate regional destinations.

Nature and Landscapes in Lipetsk Oblast

In Lipetsk Oblast, the cliffs of “Galichya Gora” are among the region’s distinctive landforms: Devonian limestone cliffs shaped by water and wind rise on the right bank of the Don, in the central part of the oblast. The “Galichya Gora” Nature Reserve consists of six separate sections surrounded by developed and cultivated land. It protects characteristic forest-steppe communities and groups of rock-dwelling plants on Devonian limestone outcrops in the valleys of the Don, the Bystraya Sosna and their tributaries. It was the first nature reserve in the Central Black Earth Region and is among the smallest nature reserves in the world.

The Lipetsk Regional Museum of Natural History is located on the reserve’s central estate and is visited by thousands of day-trippers each year. The natural history museum’s open-air area includes an alpine plant collection with rare plant species, a bird of prey breeding station and a medicinal herb garden. Check current access to these facilities before visiting.

Parks and Regional Discoveries

The “Kudykina Gora” Park in Zadonsky District of Lipetsk Oblast offers a different landscape experience. It is a recreational, landscape and dendrological park. The “Zmey Gorynych” sculpture there is a 15-metre-high, three-headed figure with a pointed tail, claws and scales. Compared with the protected landscapes of “Galichya Gora,” the two places represent different regional themes: a nature reserve with limestone outcrops and forest-steppe, and a site classified as a recreational, landscape and dendrological park.

Culture and tradition also add further dimensions to Lipetsk Oblast. Yelets lace is one of the seven ancient crafts and traditions of the oblast listed in the Intangible Cultural Heritage Register. The village of Troitskoye in Lipetsk District is home to the Romanov Toy Art Center. The “Zvonari” bell-ringing festival takes place every year in Solidarność, bringing together leading practitioners of this ancient art. If you would like to include the festival in your travel plans, check the date of the current edition in advance.

Discover more destinations: Koptsevy Khutora, Dankov, Gryazi, Usman, Sreznevo, Chaplygin, Donskoye, Lebedyan.

For the main travel overview: Lipetsk Oblast.