The Belogorsky Monastery of St. Nicholas, also known as the Belaya Gora Monastery, is located on top of a hill in Belaya Gora or the White Mountains, in Russia, at a distance of 85 kilometers from the city of Perm and about 50 kilometers away from the town of Kungur. The monastery is dominated by a beautiful white church with gold onion domes topped by golden crosses. During winter through spring, the white structure becomes indistinguishable from the snowy surrounding.

The original wooden church and monastery was built in 1894, and housed some 25 orphan boys who received education in reading, writing, church singing and various crafts. When the building burned down, construction of a new, two-story, stone church began in June 1902, and it went on for the next fifteen years. During those years some four hundred monks lived within the grounds, and they helped in the monastery's construction by making their own bricks at the monastery’s brickworks. They also practiced agriculture, animal husbandry, bee-keeping and fishing.

Photo credit: Vadim Balakin