Heroon Crypt - Monument of Ancient Necropolis

In 1908, an outstanding archaeologist Professor Nikolai Ivanovich Veselovskiy 8.5 km from Anapa in the village of Anapa was excavated mound. The crypt in it was composed of large white blocks of local stone - sandstone. Unfortunately, the crypt was looted in ancient times, but plaster with colored painting has been preserved on its walls. The painting of the ceiling, which had a semicircular shape similar to an arch, reproduced the color of the blue sky. On the walls of the crypt were depicted large stone squares from which the fences of heros were folded - sanctuaries dedicated to heroes. The vault could be entered through an underground corridor - dromos. Nikolai Ivanovich Veselovskiy at the request of the Anapa city authorities dismantled the crypt and transported it to the city, where he again collected the crypt on the territory of the city garden. It was the first painted crypt found in our area. Nikolai Ivanovich Veselovskiy lived in the city until 1917 (his cottage has survived, it is located near the sanatorium "Small Bay"), occasionally leaving for the capital. Together with D.G. Schulz, Veselovskiy discovered many archaeological sites in the North Caucasus. Nikolai Ivanovich wanted the crypt to become the central monument of antiquity in Anapa, but unfortunately the revolution of 1917 interrupted all plans. And then the crypt was forgotten, and it became a haven for homeless vagrants, and his condition became worse and worse. Barbarian inscriptions appeared on the walls of the crypt. The condition of the crypt further deteriorated during the Great Patriotic War. According to the testimony of local residents and local historian K.Y. Wedergon during the war, weapons were stored in the crypt, and all the frescoes were erased, as well as destroyed by dampness. Next to the crypt was a sarcophagus, which during the Great Patriotic War was blown up either accidentally or deliberately. After the end of the war in the destroyed city, no one remembered the crypt. Only in 1960 was it decided to restore it. They wanted to move the crypt to the Anapa Museum and arrange an open-air exhibition there, but for some reason this was not done and its restoration took place in the old place. The exterior of the tomb was restored. The inscriptions of tourists were removed from its walls, but the frescoes could not be restored. In the crypt, a drainage system was laid for the removal of groundwater, the structure of the crypt was sorted out and strengthened, the vault was hydroisolated, and other works were carried out to restore its external and internal appearance. After the restoration in 1972, a castle was hung on the fence of the crypt and forgotten about it. The crypt gradually became the refuge of vagrants, and inscriptions of modern vandals appeared on the monuments. Today, walking along the embankment of the city, you can not notice in the passage between the sanatorium "Blue Wave" and the Palace of Culture "Resort" a small fence, behind the walls of which there is a crypt. Its fence consists of 19 columns. Ancient monuments of architecture have always aroused great interest among people. And most likely, our monument will become in the near future one of the central monuments of ancient Greek architecture in Anapa.