Physicists Discover the Chambers of Secrets at the 16th Century Monastery in Pereslavl-Zalessky

The ancient city of Pereslavl-Zalessky, founded in 1152 by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky on the shores of Lake Pleshcheyevo, is known for its monuments of ancient Russian architecture of the 12th-17th centuries. Holy Trinity Danilov Monastery is the youngest of the surviving monasteries and was founded in 1508. Ancient documents, including floor plans, have been lost, and buildings and underground spaces require special study.

The method of muon radiography based on emulsion track detectors allows solving this problem in an accessible way, without destroying buildings during excavations. Muons are elementary particles of cosmic origin that can penetrate the soil to a depth of 2 kilometers. This feature of the propagation of atmospheric muons allows to use them for "remote" studies of the structure of the natural and industrial object on a large scale.

"Registration of changes in the density of matter inside the object is carried out by the ionizing radiation passing through the object on special detectors (in our case, photo emulsion layers) that are sensitive to this radiation," said Natalia Polukhina, Doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, NUST MISIS leading expert and a chief researcher at the Lebedev Physical Institute, scientific leader of the project. - With the help of 22 unique sensors installed in November 2020, we have detected several new objects in the underground space between and below the two temples. Unknown voids that are absent on the floor plan were found in the basement of the Church of the Praise of the Mother of God built at the end of the 17th century. In addition, a large longitudinal cavity was found between this church and the Church of All Saints. In front of the temple itself, there is a rectangular room, as well as a small void between the basement and the first floor.

At the end of December 2021, scientists scanned data from 22 detectors, performed a physical analysis of the results, and presented the experimental results in the form of 3D models of the buildings and the surrounding areas.

"The underground cavities found outside the temples almost certainly are burial crypts. Danilov Monastery was originally founded on a cemetery, and subsequently many quite wealthy people wished to be buried here, and they could be buried not just in an earthen grave, but in a crypt - an underground room lined with brick. There is evidence that in recent times the ground on the territory of the monastery sagged in places, filling underground voids, and all these cavities likely have a similar origin. As for the voids inside the walls, the buildings of the monastery have undergone many repairs and redevelopments. Basement furnaces were being built and destroyed, the purpose of the technical premises was changing, there were big changes during the restoration after fires. It is difficult for me to understand what the purpose of the accessible premises was, and it is even more difficult to guess about the invisible voids,"- commented Hegumen Panteleimon (Korolev), prior of the Holy Trinity Danilov Monastery, Ph.D. in theology.

Muon radiography is used in applied research all over the world, in particular, as a promising addition to geophysical and geological methods in the analysis of volcanic, seismic and karst processes, in mineral exploration, in the field of nuclear safety for radiation monitoring of nuclear power plants, for non-destructive testing of industrial facilities.

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