As the Russian army is getting dangerously close to Kiev, concerns are great not only for the civilian populations but also for the heritage of the Ukrainian capital. Despite the destruction of many religious buildings during the Soviet period and the dynamiting of the Cathedral of the Dormition in 1941, the city remains dotted with remarkable monuments.
A new Constantinople
The oldest of them, posted on the right bank of the Dnieper and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990, date from the 11th century and the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, whose father, Vladimir I, had been baptized. in 988, resulting in the conversion of its people to Byzantine Christianity. To mark the importance of the city as the new Constantinople, his son built the Saint Sophia Cathedral (1017-1031).
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Transformed into a museum, it keeps a dazzling collection of frescoes and mosaics from this period, including great masterpieces The Annunciationthe praying Virgin or even theApostle Saint Paul. Its semi-spherical domes were replaced in the 18th century by pear-shaped golden domes, typical of Ukrainian Baroque art, as was its new bell tower.
As for the famous Golden Gate, also erected during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, again on the model of that of Constantinople, unfortunately only ruins remain embedded in a modern reconstruction (1982).
Another exceptional complex with its roots in the Middle Ages and gradually enriched with monuments until the 19th century: the lavra (note: monastery) of the catacombs, also listed as a UNESCO heritage site. Its origins date back to Saint Anthony and his disciple Saint Theodosius, two monks from Mount Athos, who lived there as hermits in caves from the 11th century.
Built at the end of the 11th century within the walls of this monastery, the Cathedral of the Dormition and these catacombs, where the relics of many monks remain, became over the centuries an immense center of pilgrimage and propagation of the Orthodox faith, today under the aegis of the Patriarchate of Moscow.
Of the many aboveground and underground churches there, the Trinity Gate Church is one of the oldest and dates from the 12th century, although it was later redecorated in Baroque style.
It should also be noted that, behind the Cathedral of the Dormition (rebuilt in 2000 in its latest baroque configuration), there is a museum of historical treasures which preserves unique collections in the world, including both Scythian and Sarmatian gold jewellery, of Jewish art, Orthodox liturgical objects.
Rococo church and art nouveau mansions
Seat of the Ukrainian Church, facing the Saint Sophia Cathedral, the blue church with the seven golden domes of the Saint-Michel monastery is a modern copy of 2001, the baroque building having been dynamited by the Soviets in 1936.
The true 18th-century gem of the city is instead the Church of St. Andrew, a magnificent example of Rococo architecture, perched at the top of a flight of stairs designed by the Italian Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the author of the Palace of St. Petersburg winter. It was the same architect who built the Mariinsky Palace in Kiev (today one of the residences of the presidency), to welcome the visiting Empress Catherine II.
The 19th century, in turn, left outstanding buildings in the city. The most astonishing are due to the architect Vladislav Horodestsky, nicknamed the Ukrainian Gaudi, author of the Roman Catholic church of Saint-Nicolas and especially of his very whimsical House of chimeras. Kiev also has a number of apartment buildings close to the Viennese Secession, without forgetting the Saint-Vladimir church with its typical Art Nouveau decorations.
Vulnerable museums
Among the wealth of the capital’s heritage, we must finally mention several museums: that of national art, whose collections range from ancient icons to avant-garde and even Soviet art, the Museum of Russian Art, the housing the former collection of Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko, the Contemporary Art Foundation of Victor Pintchouk. In the opinion of several experts, the outbreak of the war would have been too sudden for all these works to have been sheltered, especially since most museum reserves are already full.
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Thus, the fire, in recent days, of the Ivankiv museum, which notably houses fabulous paintings by the naive artist Maria Primatchenko, has aroused great alarm. Fortunately, it turned out that half of the works had been loaned to the Kyiv History Museum and others had been saved by the locals, although losses cannot be ruled out.
Will the Russian troops act bluntly, as in Ivankiv, with the great monuments and museums of Kiev? “It’s hard to predict what Vladimir Putin will do”says Tatiana Kilesso, lecturer at the Ukrainian section of the Institute of Oriental Languages (Inalco). ” However, she notes, for him, this city is the cradle of Orthodoxy. He leads a kind of crusade to get it back. Which could lead him to spare cathedrals, monasteries and historic churches…”