flooded Bell Tower near the small Russian town of kalazan has played the role of a
nautical marker an artificial Island in an artificial Lake a swimming area
and even a tourist straw surprisingly this bizarre structure still occasionally hosts
Orthodox Christian ceremonies the tower is The Last Remnant of a monastery hundreds of
years old a monastery that was abruptly erased by the rise of Joseph Stalin's
USSR today we will discover the monastery that existed well before the bell tower the
tower itself and what remains I'm your host Ryan silkash and you're watching its history
since the 12th century the Nicolo hibinski Monastery has existed here apparently not
much is known about the monastery aside from the fact that it was here and it was destroyed during
the Tatar Mongol invasion a legend from the 19th century says that the monastery was rich and that
the monks hid treasure somewhere but no one knows for sure the monastery was Tiny According to some
reports somewhere in these places there was also a fortress but again we do not know where the exact
location was in any case by the 15th century the nearby settlement already existed around
the monastery a trading Enclave that eventually turned into the city of kalazan this is due to
the founding and growth of another more famous monastery Trinity in 1444 on the other Bank of
the Volga approximately opposite of the monastery a monk named macarius settled at first he lived
as a Hermit then those wishing to live under his leadership began to flock in his Direction they
built themselves a small Monastery with a wooden Trinity Church resulting in absolute outrage by
the landowners in fact the landowners may have overreacted a bit when they decided to kill the
saint because a terrible illness set in the whole family died and the landowner at death's door
repented to the monk surprisingly the monk forgave and cured him and so the landowner now humbled and
having lost his entire family elected to donate these surrounding lands to the monastery and this
rather dramatic beginning was where the Trinity Monastery has its Origins the settlement around
it began to grow the monk himself was buried in his wooden Trinity Church which we know for
sure because in 1521 his imperished relics were discovered and he was canonized when the monastery
eventually closed After the Revolution these remains were moved but have since been returned
apparently the there is a monument to the monk that you can visit on Modern icons the saint is
depicted with the famous flooded Tower the only thing left as almost nothing has survived from
his Trinity Monastery which was much larger and more prosperous you see before the flooding all
the buildings were blown up some of the removed frescoes and utensils remain only in fragments
within the Moscow Museum of architecture so now that we have the legend and the origins of this
unusual Tower let's discuss how it ended up in the middle of a lake when a reservoir was created it
comes at a high cost that isn't just natural and environmental but social and cultural as
well especially in areas where settlements are well established the landscape is ravished but
because of the fluctuations inherent in reservoirs due to the controlled storage and releasing of
water remnant Left Behind will occasionally re-emerge to remind us of their existence
examples include a building Foundation an Old Road bed and other artifacts buried seasonally by water
in most current projects the reservoir bed is cleared before Dam construction but in other
cases little is removed and Rising water simply swallows everything such was the case in 1939 when
Stalin ordered the construction of a hydroelectric reservoir on the Volga River one that would be of
many on the river that soon became a chain of artificial Lakes among the towers swallowed in
part or in whole by the new Reservoir was the old city of kalazan dating back at least to the
12th century the town contained many impressive structures of historical value some of which
escaped the flood and are still in use today the most prominent of these structures was perhaps the
Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church constructed in 1696 funny enough even if that sounds old the
church is the most recent edifice on this site that had been used as a religious Monastery
since the 11th century the bell tower itself is a 244 foot neoclassical structure looking
over the Waters of the Volga River the steeple and Belfry was built in 1796 as a part of the
monastery of Saint Nicholas of its 12 Bells the largest weighed some 17 000 kilos it was cast in
1895 to commemorate the coronation of Nicholas II of Russia in 1939 when Joseph Stalin ordered the
construction of the dam the bell tower in a sense was spared but other architectural monuments were
flooded and lost forever this includes medieval structures the monastery and so on seeing as
the rising Waters demolished all the structures except for the bell tower the authorities designed
decided to preserve the historic building and use it as a nautical marker and a lighthouse oddly
This creepy looking tower has become a symbol of the river in the small nearby town and although
we might look at this building with curiosity and sentimentality the Soviets had a completely
different Outlook let me explain in the 1940s two large hydroelectric complexes were built at
a huge expense displacing many people destroying many historic buildings with the bell tower it was
retained not for Nostalgia but for functional reasons you see it worked as a lighthouse and
was designated as such in Soviet documents as the tower is located conveniently within a Riverbend
hence passing ships needed a landmark so it was decided to leave the tower at the
scale of Devastation to everything else was almost impressive in a strange sense you see the decision
to build the reservoir was made in 1935 by 1947 the planned territories were covered entirely by
water in total more than a hundred settlements and 30 churches were flooded the water level in
the reservoir has changed and continues to change fluctuations can happen up to seven meters in the
1940s and the 1950s the lower tiers of the bell tower were completely underwater but the 1980s the
building was reinforced then an artificial Island was poured around it and Moorings were arranged
currently half of the first tier of the bell tower is now flooded but not so long ago the water level
in the reservoir dropped again due to extreme heat the foundations were exposed and it became clear
that the tower was in critical condition as the current from the river has eroded the foundations
and its strengthening structures into 2015 an open petition from the local Administration was posted
online with a request to include the bell tower in the state restoration program the petition didn't
receive many signatures but funds were allocated like I said before the height of the bell tower
used as a lighthouse Rises 244 feet above the water nearly equal to a 23-story building its
unique structure of the flooded Bell Tower serves as a marker for ships and sellers traveling to the
small nearby town the inside of the tower is empty as any relics or Furniture were removed before
the water levels Rose and many tourists still visit the iconic building to look inside it also
attracts swimmers and has a small boat dock when the lake is frozen in the winter the bell tower
can be visited by foot and occasionally religious ceremonies are still held there but I can't
Overlook how this Tower is a great example of the crazy complexity of people religion and politics
considering that a Dam built by prisoners resulted in the devastation of historic
monuments and all for the modern convenience of flipping on one's light switch consider how much
we trade anyways thanks for watching guys make sure you hit that subscribe button to catch our
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our playlist called Tales of Urban Decay until next time I'm your host Ryan silkash signing off