Vitebsk. Yuryeva Hill.

Perhaps one of the most mysterious places in Vitebsk is Yuryeva Hill. City dwellers go there with their families and children; the forest park attracts with its green crowns of pine trees, clean air and proximity to the sky. And why is the hill called "Yuryeva"? The fact is that from the end of the 17th century until 1947 there was the St. George's (or Yuryeva) Church here - a wooden, summer one. The temple was founded by the Uniates, after 1839 it was transferred to the Orthodox. There was a chapel nearby - a little lower than Yuryeva Church, on a spring, the water of which the locals considered healing. According to the 1904 plan of Vitebsk, on the northern slope of Yuryeva Hill there were Semenovskoye, Old Believers, military and Lutheran cemeteries.

The forest park is located on a moraine ridge stretching from north-east to south-west. The south-western extension of the forest park is called Zolotaya Gora . The following grow on Yuryeva Gora: pine, Norway and red maples, Canadian poplar, downy birch, common ash, lilac and other shrubs. In the northern part of the forest park there is a city radio and television transmitting center with a television tower (height - 245 meters). There are two springs on Yuryeva Gora, one of them is consecrated by the Orthodox Church. Zolotaya Gora is partially built up with private houses (Zagoryanskie, 13th and 14th Bebelya streets).

Since the mid-19th century, Yuryeva Gorka, which was better known among the townspeople as Sosonnik, became a place of mass recreation. From the eve of Yuryev's Day (April 23) until autumn, Vitebsk residents lit fires here, cooked food, drank tea from samovars, sang songs, danced, and watched soldiers' training at the shooting range, which was located in a lowland among the hills.

Until the 20th century, the forest area of Yuryeva Hill was adjacent to the Markov Monastery . And since the 1890s, there was a recreation area for workers of the flax spinning factory "Dvina". In 1900, one of the first gatherings of Vitebsk revolutionaries took place on Yuryeva Hill. In the late 1920s (until 1931), a water tower was built on the hill. In the pre-war years, a parachute tower operated here. In the mid-20th century, the Church of St. George (Yuri) was destroyed. From the 1950s to 1973, motocross competitions were held on Yuryeva Hill.

Spring.

In pagan times, the spring was a place of worship for the Slavs, and with the advent of Christianity, it was consecrated by Orthodox clergy. People took water from it and believed that it had the gift of healing. When St. George's Church was destroyed after the war, the spring was also filled in. In the early 1980s, people noticed a trickle of water at the site of the former spring. The place where the spring flows was lined with stone, a cross was installed, consecrated, and a font was built nearby in 2011. People come to the spring from different parts of Vitebsk with large bottles, stand in line for a long time and still believe in the miraculous properties of this water, the legend about it is passed from mouth to mouth.