Nikola’s Hill

In the north of the Ulyanovsk region in Sura, there is one place that is fanned by the old legends – Nikola’s Hill. At the top of the hill there is a chapel and a bend of the river Sura is next to it.

In 1552 the hordes of Kuban Tatars approached to the village and prepared to cross the river Sura. The local guard garrison was expecting imminent death. But suddenly the aggressor stopped. An impenetrable mist formed around them, among which St. Nicolas the Miracle-Worker appeared in the extraordinary radiance on the White Hill with the image of a church in one hand and a sword in the other, George The Victorious was next to him with a spear in his hand on a horseback ready to rush to the intruders. Tatars fled, and local residents rushed to the White Hill immediately. A horseman was riding ahead. His horse stumbled suddenly at the top of the hill and fell to his knees. It turned out that he was on his knees before the icon of St. Nicholas the Miracle-Worker, hidden in the ground. It represented a convex bas-relief image of the Saint with the sword in one hand, and the temple in the other. "Nikola Mozhajskij" - so that is the name of the image in Russia. People raised the icon and set a chapel on the White Hill and began to store the miraculous image. The icon traces were lost in 1932. Nikola’s Hill is still considered to be a holy place. It a new icon was set here, like the first stolen one. Nikola’s Hill is very steep. Long-held belief says who will take a bag filled with stones on Nikola’s Hill that one will get rid of his sins or recover from illness.