Illiriya Things to Do

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The village cathedral is called
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St.Alexander of the Neva Cathedral
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It was called after the great warrior and diplomat Prince St. Alexander of the Neva, Prince of Novgorod, who had routed the Swedish knights on the banks of the Neva in 1240 and afterwards had been canonized as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The cathedral was built in 1885 and survived Stalin's dictatorship.
Father Alexander is the cathedral dean now.
He lives in a small house in the cathedral courtyard.
The parish celebrates St.Alexander of the Neva Feast Day on September 12 every year.

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Take a stroll along the Village Promenade.
It was paved five years old thanks to the efforts of the village mayor Nickolay who is my friend.
The Promenade looks very special and even unique. Not every village has something like that.
It starts from the store in Sovietskaya Street and leads you to the village park and the cathedral.
On the way to the cathedral you can turn right to see the park and the war memorial.

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Delegations or groups coming to Illyria (which happens very rarely) are usually invited to school for a welcoming meeting.
The school building is on the picture. It is a nine-year secondary school. They also have a village museum on the first floor.
The visitors lay flowers to the monument on the common grave of the fallen soldiers that is to the right of the school.
The school in this village, unlike many other villages I have visited, is located next to the village cathedral.
The visitors also visit the cathedral and if they are lucky, they attend the liturgy there.
Then the visitors can go to the village council and walk to the nearest hills to have a bird’s eye view of the village and to take pictures.

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There are a lot of wild plants out in the steppe:
- wild carnation;
- thyme;
- feather grass (Stipa);
- sweetbrier;
- houseleeks, or liveforever that is also called “hens and chickens” (Sempervivum).
The hills are covered with lots of feather grass and other rare plants.

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This is what you feel like doing when you look around standing in the village center.
There are many hills that can be seen from the cathedral entrance.
It's nice to see the huge pieces of stratified stone at the brink of the hill located in Peace Street (“ulitsa meera” in Russian) near the old village cemetery.
It is very easy to climb the hill.
The wonderful views of the village are your reward.
Also, you can see the higher hill that is about five miles away.
They call the Big Canyon.
You can also find an ancient site located about five miles away – the Bronze Age pyramids.