500 Roubles Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos of Barkalabava

The Barkalabava Icon is associated with the Barkalabava Convent in the Mogilev region, one of the oldest Orthodox monasteries in Belarus, founded in the early seventeenth century. The icon itself is venerated as a miraculous image and has remained at the convent — with the exception of a Soviet-era removal — for roughly four centuries. Belarus has issued a recurring series of large-format silver devotional coins tied to significant Orthodox icons of the region, and this 500-rouble piece belongs to that program, which runs parallel to a broader post-Soviet reassertion of religious and national identity in Belarusian state symbolism.