The Home of the Last Tsar - Romanov and Russian History

Yekaterinburg, February 6, Interfax - There were no Orthodox holy things in the hegumen house located on the territory of the cemetery in Ganina Yama stow near Yekaterinburg and the fire that has occurred there only damaged office furniture, Svetlana Ladina, press secretary for the information section of the Yekaterinburg Diocese, told Interfax.

"Two computers, a printer, tables, and chairs were burned. There were no holy things in the building. The hegumen house is an administrative building, people are only present there during the day, and therefore the fire, which occurred at night, did not hurt anyone," she said.

Ladina said there will be no fundraiser for the restoration of the hegumen house, saying monks will restore the building themselves, but will not refuse help.

According to earlier reports, the hegumen house of the monastery located in the Ganina Yama stow, where the remains of the tsar family, who were killed in 1918, were buried, caught fire in the early hours of Sunday.

The fire damaged the first floor, the second floor, and the roof. The total area of the fire reached 300 sq. meters. No one was hurt in the fire. An investigation is underway.

This is not the first fire in Ganina Yama. In September 2010, the Church of the Our Lady Icon fully burned down there.

Ganina Yama was initially an old mine. It is located several kilometers away from Yekaterinburg. The bodies of Russia's last tsar Nicholas II and his family members were brought there and thrown into the mine on July 17, 1918.

In 2000, a monastery was founded in Ganina Yama. Several wooden churches, each sanctified in honor of saints or icons of Our Lady related to the tsar's family in some way, were built there.