The Church of the Saviour at Berestovo ( uk, Церква Спаса на Берестові, ''Tserkva Spasa na Berestovi''; russian: Це́рковь Спа́са на Бе́рестове, ''Tserkov’ Spasa na Berestove'') is a church located immediately north of the
Monastery of the Caves in an area known as
Berestove
Berestove ( uk, Берестове) is a historical location of Kyiv. It is located in the Pechersk Raion of the city in the historic Hungarian tract. The location is situated between Lypky, Klov, Zvirynets and the right banks of Dnipro.
In th ...
. Although it is situated outside the
Lavra fortifications, the Saviour Church is part of the Lavra complex and the related
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
.
Architecture
Berestovo was a suburban residence of
Vladimir the Great
Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych ( orv, Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь, ''Volodiměrъ Svętoslavičь'';, ''Uladzimir'', russian: Владимир, ''Vladimir'', uk, Володимир, ''Volodymyr''. Se ...
(who died there in 1015) and some of his descendants, including
Vsevolod I
Vsevolod I Yaroslavich (Russian: Всеволод I Ярославич, Ukrainian: Всеволод I Ярославич, Old Norse: Vissivald) (c. 1030 – 13 April 1093), ruled as Grand Prince of Kiev from 1078 until his death.
Early lif ...
and
Vladimir II. It was also the site of a monastery, first recorded in 1073. Construction of the present structure is not documented, but most art historians date it to the reign of
Vladimir Monomakh
Vladimir II Monomakh (Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ Мономахъ, ''Volodiměrŭ Monomakhŭ''; uk, Володимир Мономах, translit=Volodymyr Monomakh; russian: Владимир Мономах; Christian name: ''Vasiliy'' ...
(1113–1125). Indeed, it has structural parallels with the churches of
Pereiaslav
Pereiaslav ( uk, Перея́слав, translit=Pereiaslav, yi, פּרעיאַסלעוו, Periyoslov) is a historical city in the Boryspil Raion, Kyiv Oblast (Oblast, province) of central Ukraine, located near the confluence of Alta River, Alta ...
, especially those built during Monomakh's administration of the town at the turn of the 12th century.
Monomakh's court church was larger than most cathedrals built in Kyiv in the 12th century and had three naves, three apses, and probably three domes. The western (narthex) wall survives almost intact, while the other walls are known by way of excavations. The western part of the church was separated from the
naos, forming a
narthex
The narthex is an architectural element typical of early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex ...
, flanked by a baptistery on the north and a projecting tower on the south. The tower contained the winding stairs leading to the gallery for the ruling prince, his family, and guests.
![Church of the Saviour at Berestove (Foundation)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Church_of_the_Saviour_at_Berestove_%28Foundation%29.jpg)
Art historians believe that the Saviour Church introduced some structural innovations into
architecture of Kievan Rus
The architecture of Kievan Rus' comes from the medieval state of Kievan Rus' which incorporated parts of what is now modern Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, and was centered on Kiev and Novgorod. Its architecture is the earliest period of Russian ar ...
. For the first time in Rus, all three entrances had projecting porches with steeply-pitched trefoil roofs. This novel feature may be interpreted as key to the overall concept of the church. Monomakh's architects apparently wished to emphasize verticality of the church, a basically Gothic formula which would be fully developed in
Smolensk
Smolensk ( rus, Смоленск, p=smɐˈlʲensk, a=smolensk_ru.ogg) is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest c ...
and
Polotsk
Polotsk (russian: По́лоцк; be, По́лацк, translit=Polatsk (BGN/PCGN), Polack (official transliteration); lt, Polockas; pl, Połock) is a historical city in Belarus, situated on the Dvina River. It is the center of the Polotsk Distr ...
.
If the Berestovo church was indeed the first germ of this new manner, its vaulting may have been unusually complicated, probably echoing the trefoil roofing of the porches. The outside of the church formerly displayed intricate brick patterns: double and treble niches, the meander, and decorative crosses. For the first time in Kyiv, no limestone was used in the construction, once again foreshadowing the practices of the mid-12th century.
History
Following Monomakh's death, the church was long associated with his family. At least three Monomachids were buried underneath the baptistery:
George I of Kiev (the founder of Moscow), his son Gleb and his daughter
Eufemia Eufemia may refer to:
* Eufemia, a Greek female given name
* Catarina Eufémia
Catarina Efigénia Sabino Eufémia (; February 13, 1928 to May 19, 1954) was an illiterate harvester from Alentejo, Portugal who was murdered during a worker's strik ...
. The church was damaged in 1240 when
Batu Khan
Batu Khan ( – 1255),, ''Bat haan'', tt-Cyrl, Бату хан; ; russian: хан Баты́й was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Golden Horde, a constituent of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi, thus a grandson of Genghis Khan. ...
sacked Kyiv and again in 1482, when
Khan
Khan may refer to:
*Khan (inn), from Persian, a caravanserai or resting-place for a travelling caravan
*Khan (surname), including a list of people with the name
*Khan (title), a royal title for a ruler in Mongol and Turkic languages and used by ...
Meñli I Giray
Meñli I Giray ( crh3, I Meñli Geray, ۱منكلى كراى) (1445–1515), also spelled as Mengli I Giray, was a '' khan'' of the Crimean Khanate (1466, 1469–1475, 1478–1515) and the sixth son of Hacı I Giray.
Biography
Struggle f ...
ravaged the neighbourhood. Its walls collapsed and it stood in ruins until the 17th century.
![Church of the Saviour at Berestove (Frescos)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Church_of_the_Saviour_at_Berestove_%28Frescos%29.jpg)
It was the
Metropolitan
Metropolitan may refer to:
* Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories
* Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England
* Metropolitan county, a typ ...
Petro Mohyla
Metropolitan Petru Movilă ( ro, Petru Movilă, uk, Петро Симеонович Могила, translit=Petro Symeonovych Mohyla, russian: Пётр Симеонович Могила, translit=Pëtr Simeonovich Mogila, pl, Piotr Mohyła; ...
who started to restore the Kyivan churches, long neglected during the Polish-Lithuanian rule. He had the Berestovo church restored in the
national Ukrainian ("proto-Baroque") style. The new church was under construction in 1640-1642. Incorporating the western wall of Monomakh's structure, Mohyla's church is smaller and differs considerably from its predecessor: there are five towers arranged on a four-petaled plan and surrounded by five massive pear-shaped domes. Two years later, a team of Greek masters painted the interior with frescoes. The most famous of these, known as ''Petro Mohyla's Gift'', features a portrait of Mohyla kneeling before Christ to whom he presents a model of the church.
The interior was renovated in 1751–1752 and again in 1813–1814, when Fedor M. Korobka carved an elaborate
altar
An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...
. At the same time, a two-
tier belltower was constructed to
Andriy Melenskyi Andrey Ivanovich Melensky (russian: Андрей Иванович Меленский; 1766–1833) was a Russian Imperial Neoclassical architect from MoscowМ. М. Жербин. Украинские и зарубежные строители: кр ...
's
provincial Neoclassical design which is out of keeping with the rest of the church.
In 1909, Academician
Pokryshkin (who specialized in ancient Orthodox architecture) was called upon to restore the church to its medieval appearance. Pokryshkin's restoration works lasted for five years but did not result in any fundamental changes. The foundations of Monomakh's original church were uncovered and may still be seen to the east from the extant structure. The
façade
A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'.
In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...
of the church was cleaned so as to highlight the surviving parts of the 12th-century building, which had been scraped of stucco.
On 7 September 1947, in the course of the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the foundation of Moscow, in the former Vladimir chapel of the church, a large granite sarcophagus was installed by architect P.Ostapenko over the place where it is believed
Yuri Dolgoruky
Yuri I Vladimirovich ( rus, Юрий Владимирович, Yuriy Vladimirovich), commonly known as Yuri Dolgorukiy or the Long Arm ( rus, Юрий Долгорукий, Yuriy Dolgorukiy, meaning "Far-Reaching", c. 109915 May 1157) was a Ru ...
, the founder of Moscow, had been buried.
In the early 1970s, a fragment of the 12th-century fresco ''Miraculous Fishing'', depicting
Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...
walking on water towards a boat, was uncovered in the church. Since Ukraine's
independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
after the
fall of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, the church is part of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Historical-Cultural Preserve and functions primarily as a museum, holding weekly church services on Sundays.
See also
*
:Burials at the Church of the Saviour at Berestove
References
* Pyotr Rappoport. ''Zodchestavo Drevnei Rusi''. Leningrad: Nauka, 1986.
online)*
*
*
* Памятники градостроительства и архитектуры Украинской ССР, 4 volumes, Kyiv: Будивэльнык, 1983–86, the article on the Saviour Church in Berestovo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Church Of The Saviour At Berestove
Kyiv Pechersk Lavra
Saviour at Berestove
12th-century churches
1120s establishments in Europe
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1642
1642 establishments in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
World Heritage Sites in Ukraine
Baroque architecture in Kyiv
Baroque church buildings in Ukraine