The population is 5,136 (2001). Before 2003, the city was known as
Slovianohirsk or Slavyanogorsk , and before 1964 it was known as
Bannovsky or Bannovskoe, so called for the medicinal baths constructed
near the Svyatogorsky monastery in the nineteenth century; the current
name is derived from the monastery itself. Sviatohirsk is located on the
territory of the Sloviansk City Council, 30 km (19 mi) from the town of
Sloviansk, on the banks of the Seversky Donets River.
Sviatohirsk
includes the Holy Assumption Sviatohirsk Lavra, the Holy Mountains
National Park, an historical and architectural reserve, as well as a
resort of national importance; thirty objects, among them a monumental
sculpture of Artem (F.A. Sergeyev) and a World War II memorial (opened
on the day of 40th anniversary of victory) are included in the historic
monuments complex of the reserve. The town has been visited by
well-known cultural figures, including Hryhorii Skovoroda, Fyodor
Tyutchev, Ivan Bunin, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Marina Tsvetaeva, and
Ilya Repin.
The development plan of Sviatohirsk provides a
significant expansion of the resorts, recreational and tourism network.
Within the Sviatohirsk resort are the Holy Mountain sanatorium and
hotel-and-tourist complexes. The town carries out a construction and
modernisation of recreation departments for children and adults.
Sviatohirsk,
along with Donetsk, Mariupol, and Makiivka, will host the European
Football Championship, which will be held in Poland and Ukraine in 2012.
By that time the town will have an aquapark, a cinema complex with two
thousand seats similar to the one in J?rmala (Latvia), and a children's
recreation complex. In early 2009, a four-star hotel opened. Sviatohirsk
also offers the Seversky Donets River, chalk mountains, coniferous and
mixed forests, centuries-old oak trees, and clean air
