Bakota
A cliff monastery above the bay that buried an old Rus town.
Bakota is an ancient town on the left bank of the Dnister: according to “Detektor Media”, a trading port and the capital of the Dnister Ponyzzia in the 12th–13th centuries; according to texty.org.ua, in the 12th–14th centuries. Nearby, St Michael's Monastery was hollowed out of the rock: according to the ESU, it arose no earlier than the mid-12th century and disappeared no later than the mid-15th century, and its first hegumen was Hryhorii, known from inscriptions in the rock. Excavations in 1891–1892 led by V. Antonovych uncovered frescoes and polychrome high reliefs, but these finds were destroyed under Soviet rule; the wooden church of 1893 was demolished in 1960. On 24 October 1981 the filling of the Dnister Reservoir began, for which 7,486 households were resettled; according to “Lokalna istoriia”, the water covered Bakota in 1983. Today three caves and a two-tier niche can be seen above the bay, with 19 tombs in the floor and a canopy over the apse. Since 2025 a 4.5-kilometre route has led here from Horaivka.
The last kilometres are dirt road, poor after rain. Bring your own drinking water.