Zhydychyn Monastery: a granite sign with the coat of arms at the gate
The gate is the first thing a pilgrim sees. And the last thing, on the way out.
St Nicholas Monastery in Zhydychyn, near Lutsk, belongs to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Its first written mention appears in the Galician-Volhynian (Hypatian) Chronicle under the year 1227. In 2026 we made a granite sign bearing the monastery’s coat of arms for its gate.
The coat of arms — a cross with the letter “Ж” — is not painted but carved in relief from separate granite elements. Relief has one advantage over paint: it is read by the light itself. In the morning and in the evening the shadows fall differently, and the coat of arms looks slightly new each time, though nothing in it has changed.
The rest followed the usual order of work in stone: carving in the workshop in spring, then the approved composition, assembly and lettering on a black polished slab, and in August, installation on the brick pillar of the gate beneath the arch with the cross.
All stages, photos and a 42-second film “from stone to gate” are on the project page: Zhydychyn Monastery.
The monastery’s website: chernectvo.com.
We design plaques and signs for churches like this one for a specific place — from measurements and drawings to installation.
