Pirogov St Nicholas Church-Mausoleum

One of Vinnytsia's iconic places is a red-brick building — the church-tomb of M. I. Pirogov. He was an outstanding man whose surname every Ukrainian heard while learning the basics of biology at school. Pirogov made an incredible contribution to the development of anatomy and surgery, saved the life of the young Mendeleev, and saved the leg of Italy's national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi. He was a true “Man,” remembered warmly by his patients and everyone who knew him personally.

Photo from the website www.pirogov.com.ua

His wife, O. A. Pirogova, decided to perpetuate her husband's memory and specially bought a plot of land for this purpose in the cemetery of the village of Sheremetka. A tomb was built there, a crypt in which Pirogov's body is still preserved today.

Interesting facts:

• The body of the scholar, physician and surgeon was embalmed in 1881 by the St. Petersburg doctor D. I. Vyvodtsev.
• In 1885, a church was built over Pirogov's tomb and consecrated in honor of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, according to a design by V. I. Sychugov.
• In 2018, Pirogov's body was rebalsamed, but this is a unique case, since in no museum in the world has a body been preserved in such a state for over 100 years.
• Pirogov's body has been preserved in an embalmed state for 40 years longer than Lenin's body.
• Some visitors to the tomb come to pray to the embalmed body of the scholar, as to holy relics, asking it for help with serious illnesses.