The Church of the Saviour at Berestovo is a church located immediately north of the Monastery of the Caves

Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Kiev Pechersk Lavra or Kyiv Pechersk Lavra , also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, is a historic Orthodox Christian monastery which gave its name to one of the city districts where it is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine....

 in Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

, Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. Although it is situated outside the Lavra fortifications, the Saviour Church is part of the Lavra complex and the related World Heritage Site

World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

.

Architecture

Berestovo was a suburban residence of Vladimir the Great (who died there in 1015) and some of his descendants, including Vsevolod I 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

Vladimir II Monomakh |Basileios]]) was a Velikiy Kniaz of Kievan Rus'.- Family :He was the son of Vsevolod I and Anastasia of Byzantium Vladimir II Monomakh |Basileios]]) (1053 – May 19, 1125) was a Velikiy Kniaz (Grand Prince) of Kievan Rus'.- Family :He was the son of Vsevolod I (married in...

 (1113–1125). Indeed it has structural parallels with the churches of Pereyaslav, 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 Kiev 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

Cella

A cella or naos , is the inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture, or a shop facing the street in domestic Roman architecture...

, forming a narthex

Narthex

The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper...

, 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. Art historians believe that the Saviour Church introduced some structural innovations into architecture of Kievan Rus

Architecture of Kievan Rus

The medieval state of Kievan Rus incorporated parts of what is now modern Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, and was centered around Kiev and Novgorod. Its architectural style quickly established itself after the adoption of Christianity in 988 and was strongly influenced by the Byzantine...

. 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

Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...

 and Polotsk.

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 Kiev, 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

Yuri Dolgoruki

Prince Yuri I Dolgorukiy , also known as George I of Rus, was the founder of Moscow and a key figure in the transition of political power from Kiev to Vladimir-Suzdal following the death of his elder brother Mstislav the Great...

 (the founder of Moscow), his son Gleb and his daughter Eufemia

Eufemia of Kiev

Euphemia of Kiev was Queen Consort of Hungary. Euphemia was the daughter of Grand Prince Vladimir II of Kiev and his second wife whose name and ancestry are unknown. She was married to King Coloman of Hungary around 1112. However, her husband, who had been suffering from a serious disease, caught...

. The church was damaged in 1240 when Batu Khan

Batu Khan

Batu Khan was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Ulus of Jochi , the sub-khanate of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. His ulus was the chief state of the Golden Horde , which ruled Rus and the Caucasus for around 250 years, after also destroying the armies...

 sacked Kiev

Mongol invasion of Rus

The Mongol invasion of Russia was resumed on 21 December 1237 marking the resumption of the Mongol invasion of Europe, during which the Mongols attacked the medieval powers of Poland, Kiev, Hungary, and miscellaneous tribes of less organized peoples...

 and again in 1482, when Khan

Khan (title)

Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...

 Meñli I Giray

Meñli I Giray

Meñli I Giray , also spelled as Mengli I Giray, was a khan of the Crimean Khanate and the sixth son of the khanate founder Haci I Giray....

 ravaged the neighbourhood. Its walls collapsed and it stood in ruins until the 17th century. It was the Metropolitan

Metropolitan bishop

In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...

 Petro Mohyla who started to restore the Kievan churches, long neglected during the Polish-Lithuanian rule. He had the Berestovo church restored in the national Ukrainian

Ukrainian Baroque

Ukrainian Baroque or Cossack Baroque is an architectural style that emerged in Ukraine during the Hetmanate era, in the 17th and 18th centuries....

 ("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 surmounded 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 Fedir M. Korobka carved an elaborate altar

Altar

An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...

. At the same time, a two-tier

Storey

A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...

 belltower was constructed to Andriy Melenskyi's provincial Neoclassical design

Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

 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

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

 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 sarcophogus was installed by architect P.Ostapenko over the place where it is believed Yuri Dolgoruky, the founder of Moscow, had been buried.

In the early 1970s, a fragment of the 12th-century fresco Miraculous Fishing, depicting Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

 walking on water towards a boat, was uncovered in the church. Since Ukraine's independence after the fall of the Soviet Union

History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)

The history of the Soviet Union from 1982 through 1991, spans the period from Leonid Brezhnev's death and funeral until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Due to the years of Soviet military buildup at the expense of domestic development, economic growth stagnated...

, the church is part of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra Historical-Cultural Preserve and functions primarily as a museum, holding weekly church services on Sundays.