Antoniy Caves

The Antoniy Caves, Chernihiv's answer to Kyiv's Kievo-Pecherska Lavra lurk beneath the ground a short walk north of the Troyitsko-Illynsky Monastery. The caves consist of 315m of passageways, galleries and chapels constructed from the 11th to 13th centuries.

These are very different from those in Kyiv in that they lack both dead mummies and, for the most part, live tourists. The conditions here were too cold and humid to support mummification. Instead, the bones of monks killed during the Mongol invasion are preserved in a windowed sarcophagus; touching the sarcophagus is considered good luck. The cave's benefactor and namesake, St Antoniy of Pechersk, also helped burrow the Lavra caves.