St. Michael's Golden-domed Monastery: description, history, decoration, frescoes and mosaics

St. Michael's Golden-domed Monastery, the oldestthe holy abode of Kiev, includes in its complex a majestic temple, erected in the name of the Archangel Michael, the patron saint of the city. In addition to the unquestionable artistic and architectural merits of the cathedral, its peculiarity is that it was the first in Russia temple, the cupola of which covered the gold. This gave the name to the whole monastic complex.

The cathedral, built by Prince Svyatopolk

It is believed that the construction of the monasteryis associated with the name of the Kiev Metropolitan Michael, an outstanding church figure of the 10th century. However, the erection of the famous golden-domed cathedral began only a century later, during the reign of Prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich. Having been baptized, he was called Michael, and the erection of the temple became a sign of his humble adoration before the heavenly patron granted to him.

Raised by a pious prince, the cathedral heldan important place in the lives of citizens, since Kiev was under the heavenly protection of Archangel Michael. It is no coincidence that the St. Michael's Golden-domed Monastery, in whose complex it was included, became the burial place of persons of the princely family from the 12th century. It was a kind of pantheon, depicting on its gravestones a significant period of the history of Kievan Rus.

The first golden domes in Russia

In 1108, a significant event waslife of the monastery: from the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, the relics of the great martyr Varvara were transferred to him, which became the main shrine of the monastery. By the same period, researchers attribute the birth of a new architectural tradition of gilding domes for those times. The Church of St. Michael the Archangel was the first in Russia, where architects implemented this innovation.

The invasion of the Tatars and Polish jurisdiction

Difficulty affected the fate of the monastery yearsinvasions of foreign invaders. Among them, the greatest damage to the monastery was caused by hordes of Tatars, who seized Kiev in 1482. They destroyed many buildings on the territory of the monastery and destroyed priceless monuments of Old Russian painting and writing.

When St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, togetherwith all of Kiev, fell under the jurisdiction of Polish kings, he was awarded with the diploma, which gave the right to independently elect hegumens and ensured independence from the ecclesiastical authority of the metropolitans and the arbitrariness of the governor. This served as an impetus to its development, and, as follows from historical documents of that era, by the middle of the XVI century the monastery became the largest and richest religious center of Kiev.

Fighting Uniates

Witness the dramatic events of MikhailovskyGolden-domed monastery began in the beginning of the XVII century, when the King of Poland handed it over to the Uniates - representatives of the Greek Catholic Church, which tried to spread its influence on the territory of the southern and south-western regions of Russia.

Their attempts to seize the monastery and the estates belonging to it put an end to the Cossacks, who stood up in defense of the fatherly shrines.

The blood of the defenders of the monastery was spilled not in vain. Thanks to their courage, the monastery remained under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church, and its hegumen, Job Boretsky, was elevated to the metropolitans. Remained to live within the walls of the monastery, he thereby significantly increased its status, making for many years a permanent metropolitan residence.

Events of the XVII-XVIII centuries

The next important stage in the life of the monastery was 1654the year when the accession of Kiev and its subordinate territories to the Russian state took place. Despite the fact that the St. Michael's Golden-domed Monastery lost some of its land estates, which became the property of the Commonwealth, this loss was more than compensated by the hetmans and Cossack sergeants, who wrote off to the possession of the monks considerable territories located in the Left Bank Ukraine. Since 1800 the monastery has also become the residence of the vicar of the Kiev diocese.

During the XVII-XVIII centuries the whole complex of buildingsunderwent considerable restructuring in the fashionable for that time baroque style. As a result of the work carried out, the ancient, pre-Mongolian church included the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael Mikhailovsky of the Golden-domed Monastery. From it there were only altar abyss, fragments of walls and the central dome. Particular attention was paid to the ancient mosaics and frescoes that adorned the walls of the temple. Suffice it to study art, they were later cleared and restored.

Remembering the pre-revolutionary history of the monastery,One can not help but mention the skit belonging to him, built not far from Kiev, and the nearby eponymous women's monastery, which was transferred to Podol in 1712. This holy abode was also founded in honor of the heavenly patron of the city - Archangel Michael.

The destruction of the cathedral in the Soviet period

Neither from the Tatar hordes, nor from foreignthe conquerors of the St. Michael's Golden-domed Monastery did not bear such irreplaceable losses as from its own citizens, engulfed in the Soviet period by atheistic madness. When the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was moved from Kharkov to Kiev, and it took a lot of space to build administrative buildings, the republican authorities ordered the demolition of the ancient cathedral.

Despite all the attempts of art historians to save fromdestruction of a unique monument of antiquity, in 1934-1936, work was carried out to dismantle it. Mosaics and frescoes of St. Michael's Cathedral of the Golden-domed Monastery were partially saved. They were fortified on a new foundation and placed in the St. Sophia Cathedral, located in the center of Kiev.

Orthodox shrines that have become museum exhibits

To preserve the mosaic panel "Eucharist"I had to build a wall in the premises of the exhibition hall of the St. Sophia Cathedral, exactly reproducing the outlines of the altar apse of St. Michael's Church. Other fragments of mosaic and frescoes were included in the collections of museums in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev.

During the German occupation, mosaics and frescoes,which once adorned the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, were taken to Germany. At the end of the war, they returned to our country, but not to the banks of the Dnieper, but to the museum funds of other cities. The relics of the great martyr Varvara, which for many centuries were the main shrine of the monastery, have been buried in the Vladimir Cathedral of Kiev since the early sixties. Mosaic images of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery could be seen in Moscow, Leningrad and Novgorod.

It is necessary to state a very sad fact. The plan for the construction of the administrative building on the site where the main cathedral of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery was formerly still was not realized. Destroying the most valuable monument of the ancient Russian temple architecture, the authorities left in its place a wasteland throughout the entire Soviet period testifying to their barbaric attitude to their own history.

Reborn shrine

Restored in the late nineties forproject of the architect Y. Lisitsky, the temple was inaugurated on May 30, 1999. Many items of former decorations that had been kept in museums of the country returned to it, and a gable decorated with a copy of the ancient sculpture of Archangel Michael.

On the bell tower, recreated according to ancient images, installed a modern musical instrument - carillon. With its help, professional musicians perform complex spiritual compositions.