Zach Crawford
Declared a World Heritage Site in 1990, the majestic Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, the pride and pride of the city with its golden and green domes and monastic buildings, and the Kiev-Pechersk Lora, is the thousand-year-old symbol of Ukrainian capital and the unity of the homeland primarily in treasures not to be missed in All tour guides. Over the centuries it has suffered from attacks, looting and fires. But if the Russians really bombed it, as the Ukrainian Embassy to the Holy See denounced today, the world will lose one of its treasures forever. Its construction began in 1037, thanks to Yaroslav the Wise (1016-1054). His father, Vladimir I Svyatoslavic of Kyiv, converted to Christianity in 988 by converting to the Orthodox rite and was the first church dedicated to the Virgin (which collapsed two centuries later). Yaroslav, in turn, built another much larger building, taking its name from the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, commissioned by Emperor Justinian 500 years ago. To make the company possible, Byzantine workers and local workers were called in and the work continued for twenty years. The new church was erected on the highest hill in the city at the crossroads of the four main roads to Kyiv, and was supposed to strike pilgrims on the spot because of its grandeur. So that was and still is today, although the building’s current appearance dates back to 1700, when the church underwent a major renovation. The monastic dependencies that surround it were built beginning in 1663, initially in wood and then after a fire destroyed them in stone. With its splendor, Hagia Sophia was the place of coronation of the Ukrainian princes. Here at the beginning of the eighteenth century Peter I the Great celebrated the victory over the Swedes. Also during the eighteenth century, the bell tower, the Metropolitan Palace, the seminary, the west door, the south entrance tower and new dependencies were built. Behind the soaring four-story bell tower, topped by a golden bulb dome, the 12 smaller domes were built in a style reminiscent of Baroque luster. Designed as a basilica of 5 naves, the interior of the church is made instead of old Russian churches and features splendid 11th-century mosaics in the Byzantine style, covering a total area of 260 square metres, as well as numerous paintings. The mural, which is among the best examples of Byzantine art. After the revolution of 1917, the Russian government decided to destroy it, and it was avoided only thanks to the allure of historians and scientists. In 1934, the Soviet authorities confiscated the complex and turned it into a museum. Today the entire complex is a museum of Ukrainian Christianity.
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Laurence Malcom
