25 km from the railway station Nadvirna, Ivano-Frankivsk region, in the picturesque gorge of the Carpathian Mountains, the ancient village of Manyava is located. Here, among the Carpathian pines-twilights, on a rock above the river stands an old monastery-hermitage of the 17th century. It was founded by monks Yov Knyaginetsky and Ivan Vishensky, immigrants from Athos. The year 1608 should be considered the date of foundation of the Manyavsky Skete. It was then that the first mention of him appeared in the annals. Once this monastery was directly subordinate to the Patriarch of Constantinople. At one time there was a large library of early printed books. Legends say that in the 30-40s of the 18th century, the legendary leader of the Hutsul rebels Oleksa Dovbush repeatedly visited here. In 1620, the Patriarch of Tsargorod granted the skete the right to staurology, which meant independence from local hierarchs and direct subordination to the patriarch. In the middle of the 17th century there were up to 200 monks in the skete. He had under his command dozens of monasteries in Galicia, Bukovina and even in Moldova. In 1612, the Exaltation of the Cross Church was erected in the monastery.
In 1620-1621 the monastery was surrounded by a defensive wall with three towers. However, during the Turkish raid in 1676, the monastery was destroyed and restored only in 1681. In 1628, at the Kiev Cathedral, the skete received the title of prot (presiding monastery of the Russian, Belz and Kamenetz-Podolsk voivodeships. 556 other monasteries were subordinate to the skete at that time. There is an assumption that Hetman of Ukraine Ivan Vigovsky, who died in 1664, was buried on the territory of the monastery. famous for its iconostasis, created at the end of the 17th century by the icon painter hieromonk Job Kondzelevich.This majestic building, measuring 13 x 11 meters, consists of six rows, in which there are about 100 icons of various sizes, from miniatures to icons over two meters in size. next to such outstanding monuments as the Kozeletsky iconostasis in the Chernihiv region and the Sorochinsky iconostasis in the Poltava region.In the years 1970-1980, significant restoration work was carried out in the monastery.After that, the Manyavsky Skete was declared a historical and architectural reserve.
The architectural monastery complex of buildings is an ensemble of stone and wooden structures enclosed by a high stone wall with towers and loopholes - a successful synthesis of mountainous relief and fortifications. Between the slopes of the mountains covered with evergreen fir, on three sides the territory of the monastery is washed by river waters. Once it was a place for prayer, purification, confession and communion, and at the same time a safe haven during the attacks of the Crimean Tatars and Turks. The monastery has underground vaulted cellars, with secret exits to the mountains and connecting passages between buildings.

At the moment, the Exaltation of the Cross Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate is located on the territory of the skete. Well, above the monastery is one of the most beautiful Carpathian waterfalls - Manyavsky waterfall. True, you can only get there on foot, covering a distance of about 7 km along mountain trails.