Mavrinsky Maidan
Mavrinskaya Square
Ukraine, Pavlograd
Not far from the city of Pavlograd (Dnepropetrovsk region), in the neighborhood of the village of Mavrino, there is an earthwork - a huge, mysterious, incomprehensible configuration. From the height of a hang glider, it represents a giant mysterious symbol.
The current village of Mezhyrichi (Mezhdurechnoye) several decades ago consisted of two villages: Mavrino - in the southeastern part, and Mezhyrichi. The word “Maidan” was familiar to the residents. There was Mezhiritsky Maidan - outside the village, in the west, and Mavrinsky - in the east direction. Mezhiritsky almost did not survive, although this area continues to be called "Maidan". And Mavrinsky was preserved, which about a dozen years ago was called Cossack.
"Maidan" strikes with its unusual shape, grandeur, originality and special mystery: - a clear, regular geometric shape of a cut cone with a deep hollow; - the top of the conical earthen structure has a pronounced annular recess and resembles the hole of a pottery pot, Ukrainian makytra, in a ring shape; - at the top there is a clear gap (as it turned out - not one); - serpentine-shaped earthen ramparts depart symmetrically from the conical structure, four on each side of the gap ...
In the Pavlograd Museum of Local History, you can hear versions of the use of this building. With some additions, they look like this:
Version one. Maidan is a Cossack defensive structure. Maidan with its amazing ramparts (perhaps) was entirely used by the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks as a watchtower and as a defensive structure.
Version two. Maidan is a saltpeter plant. There is an idea that the Maidans were formed after the predatory excavations of ordinary mounds, or after the installation of saltpeter mines in them. It turns out that there was once such a trade. Polish sources testify that in 1613 the Poles unearthed the grave of Skorobir in the Poltava region and mined saltpeter in it.
Third version. Maidan is a sanctuary and (at the same time) an observatory for determining the seasons. Thus, the connection between the design of the ramparts of the Maidan and the position of the Sun on different days of the year, especially on the important days of the solstices and equinoxes, is quite clearly visible. And from this a third version arises that the Maidan is a kind of temple, a religious and religious building, shrouded in the mystery of sacred knowledge.
