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

St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, the oldest holy abode of Kiev, includes in its complex a majestic church, erected in the name of 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 entire monastic complex.

Cathedral, built by Prince Svyatopolk

It is accepted that the construction of the monastery is connected with the name of Metropolitan Michael of Kiev, 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 worship before the heavenly patron granted him.

Built by a pious prince, the cathedral occupied an important place in the life of the townspeople, since Kiev was under the heavenly patronage 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 happened in the life of the monastery: from the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, the relics of the Great Martyr Varvara, which became the main shrine of the monastery, were transferred to it. 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

The years of the invasion of foreign invaders affected the fate of the monastery. Among them, the greatest damage to the monastery was caused by hordes of Tatars, who captured 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, along with 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 the historical documents of that era, by the middle of the XVI century the monastery became the largest and richest religious center of Kiev.

Fighting the Uniates

Witness the dramatic events of the St. Michael's Golden-domed Monastery at 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 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

Another important milestone in the life of the monastery was in 1654, when the annexation 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 sergeant-major who wrote to the monastic possession of significant territories located in the Left Bank Ukraine. Since 1800 the monastery has also become the residence of the vicars of the Kiev diocese.

During the XVII-XVIII centuries the whole complex of buildings underwent considerable restructuring in the fashionable Baroque style for that time. 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 subsequently cleared and restored.

Remembering the prerevolutionary history of the monastery, we can not fail to mention the skete it belonged to, 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 - the archangel Michael.

The destruction of the cathedral in the Soviet period

Neither from the Tatar hordes, nor from foreign invaders, the St. Michael's Golden-domed monastery did not bear such irreparable losses as from its own citizens, captured 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 from the destruction 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", it was necessary 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 collections of museums in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev.

During the German occupation, the mosaic and frescoes that 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 barbarous attitude to their own history.

Reborn shrine

Restored in the late nineties by 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 the archangel Michael.

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