An Orthodox cross is installed on a high hill in the Irkutsk regiontranslated

Prikhody.ru 10/01/2026. The worship cross at an altitude of more than 800 meters above sea level, in a place called Zhdanovskaya Sopka (Irkutsk region), was installed on the eve of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. The Brotherhood Diocese announced this in early October.

The head of the administration of the Rudnogorsk urban settlement, Alexander Evgenievich Bykov, led the ascent to the hill. Representatives of the local community and Orthodox parishioners took part in the event. The rite of consecration of the Cross was performed by priest Kriskent Akhmetgaliev. “All participants in the event showed unprecedented perseverance and unshakable faith; the entire journey took about eight hours,” the diocese notes.

“Zhdanovskie Sopki” is a natural monument located on the Angara Ridge, in the interfluve of the right tributaries of the Ilim - Zhdanikha and Tushama, on the territory of the Nizhneilimsky municipal district of the Irkutsk region. They formed north of the village of Novoilimsk (nine kilometers from it) and the Rudnogorsk railway station (thirteen and a half kilometers from it). The ridge is a strip of hills that stretches 700 km. to the northeast from Nizhneudinsk to Nizhnyaya Tunguska. From the highest point of the hill you can view the entire Nezhneilimsky...