The so-called pagan sanctuary before you is a reconstruction of a structure that archaeologist Vikentiy Khvoyka proclaimed a sensational discovery in 1908: a Slavic pagan shrine from the pre-Christian era. According to his description, the stone structure had an oval shape measuring 4.2 by 3.5 meters, with four projections oriented toward the cardinal directions. Nearby, archaeologists uncovered what Khvoyka described as a “sacrificial pillar” composed of burnt clay, ash, and animal bones. His colleague Karl Bolsunovsky went even further, suggesting that an idol of the sun god Svetovid once stood here.
It sounds fascinating — but there is one problem.
When researchers returned to the site in 1937, they discovered that Khvoyka’s descriptions and drawings did not match reality. The structure proved to be not oval, but rather sub-rectangular in shape, and it contained traces of late medieval construction techniques. As for the “sacrificial pillar,” it was most likely nothing more than the contents of a refuse pit from a much later period.
In other words, the “pagan sanctuary” is largely a product of the romantic imagination of early archaeologists, from a time when archaeology was only beginning to develop rigorous scientific methods.
What you see today is a schematic reconstruction created in the 1980s based on a design by Avraam Miletsky. It recreates not an actual pagan shrine, but rather a beautiful — though highly imaginative — interpretation of one.