Saint Sophia Cathedral with Related Monastic Buildings, St. Cyril's and St. Andrew's Churches, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

Page on the UNESCO site

St. Andrew's Church in Kyiv is a monument of history, architecture and painting of the 18th century that gained the world significance. The church preserves not only authentic architecture and painting of the Baroque epoch, but also unique decorative stuccowork and woodcarving of the middle of the 18th century. Besides, the painting compositions of the 19th century executed in Classicism are also preserved in the interior of the church.

The church was constructed during 1747-1762 to the design of outstanding architect F.-B. Rastrelli. The building was guided by Moscow architect I. Michurin and the best Russian, Ukrainian and foreign masters were involved into the church's construction.

St. Andrew's Church was built on the Dnieper slope, which is connected with the annalistic legend about Apostle Andrew's sermon of Christianity on the lands of future Kyivan Rus. The building of the church blends harmoniously with the surrounding landscape, being the focus in the panorama of city. The perfection of lines, clear proportions, amazing harmony of forms and natural surrounding gained public appreciation and fame for the church.

The church is 31,7m long, 20,4m wide and 50m high (together with a cross on the dome) from a church-porch. The five-domed church consists of a central dome and four decorative turrets, which crowned supporting pylons-counterforts located on the diagonal axes of the building.

The drum, which is 10m high and with a diameter of 14m rises in the middle of the construction. Eight semicircular windows were cut in it. The sphere-shaped dome rises above the drum and takes a dominant place in the silhouette of the church. In the middle of the western facade there is the only entrance with the metal doors decorated with ornaments and crosses. In decoration of the facades the columns of Corinthian and Ionic orders were used, paired pilasters, intricately profiled cornices, cartouches with the monogram of Empress Elizabeth, gilded cast-iron and copper ornamentations of the Baroque style. Owing to a peculiar architectural composition the church construction looks slender and light. Plastic figurative expressiveness of the church is conditioned to a considerable extent by using white, turquoise colors and gilding in coloring of the facades.

The main feature of Baroque is a synthesis of arts that is vividly manifested inside the church: architecture, stucco work, woodcarving and oil painting are inseparably linked with each other here.

The iconostasis, the altar canopy and the pulpit are the unsurpassed examples of woodcarving art in St. Andrew's Church. They strike one by diversity of a combination of flat relief, bas-relief and high relief woodcarving, gilded and polychrome sculpture in the round. The iconostasis is a main decorative and artistic component of the interior. It plays the primary role in the arrangement of inner space of the church. The iconostasis attracts one's attention with its striking combination of red background with the gilded sculptures and wood carved details. The iconostasis of the church consists of three tiers. The Holy Doors is a centre of the first tier. The iconostasis and all wood carved details of its decoration were made from lime wood according to Rastrelli's sketches by the following masters as J. Domash, A. Karlovsky, M. Manturov, C. Oreydakh, D. Ustars and I. Grott. The gilding work was executed by F. Leprens and I. Yevstifeev.

The painting plays also an important role in decorative arrangement of the interior. In St. Andrew's Church there are 68 oil-painted canvases and the only one painting was executed directly on a plaster on the western vault. During 1751-1752, the group of Russian artists, the so-called (painting team) of the Petersburg Chancellery of Building under the guidance of I. Vyshnyakov worked at creation of the icons for the St. Andrew's Church iconostasis. The order was performed by the following artists - 0. Antropov, A. Yeroshevsky, P. Semenov, 0. Belsky, 0. Pospelov and I. Firsov. The most prominent artist from this group was 0. Antropov, who painted the border scenes of the pulpit, the icon The Repose of the Virgin from the iconostasis, the scene of The Annunciation from the Holy Gates, the image of St. Andrew on the western vault of the church and also the altar-piece The Last Supper. The icons from backside of the iconostasis were painted by Ukrainian artists I. Romensky and I. Chaikovsky.

In the transept of St. Andrew's Church there are two compositions of the 19th century St. Andrew Preaching a Sermon by Ukrainian artist P. Boryspolets and Prince Volodymyr Chooses the Faith by Lettish artist J. Eggink. Both canvases are attributed to historical genre and reflected the annalistic legend about sermon of Christianity, the foundation of Kyiv and the spread of Orthodox Faith on the territory of Kyivan Rus.