St Andrew's Cathedral, Kiev

 

I wrote the following in the heart of lockdown from COVID in February 2021. The final comments about visiting are particularly poignant now in March 2022 as Russian soldiers surround Kiev and bombardment begins and te future of the whole city and Ukraine hang in the balance.

So far I have neglected Eastern Europe and Russia on this blog. It is time to put this right.  Orthodox Russia has meant ancient domed churches to me in the past and I realise now that Orthodox churches went through stylistic periods just like our Catholic churches. This came across to me last week very forcibly. Lockdown has encouraged me to binge  on arm chair travelling on Youtube.  Almost by chance I was confronted by this jewel box in Kiev. Yes in Kiev, now capital of Ukraine, and formerly part of Russia. This city with its ancient St Sophia Cathedral and Pechersk Lavra is  the cradle of the Church in what became Russia. How did this modern interloper fit in ? It looked familiar too. The Frauenkirche at Dresden came to mind : very easily as I glimpsed at my model on top of the piano. This interloper was not German Protestant but more like  Italian Baroque. The bright colours and style also reminded me of St Petersburg (Winter Palace and Smolny Convent). The answer is of course that it was designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastelli. (1700-1771).

Rastelli was influenced by Bernini,  Baltasar Neumann, Fischer von Erlach,  Francois de Cuvillies and others. He went on to create his own style -  Rastellian Baroque. Most of his buildings were secular but St Andrew's shows he could also produce fine ecclesiastical designs. There are clear similarities to the Smolny Convent. Fortunately the interior in Kiev is also Baroque exuberance rather than the later colder neo-Classical interior in Smolny. To me the exterior of St Andrew's is the joyful Baroque which I love ; colourful, yet solid and not quite rococo. 

There had been several churches on this hilltop site but these had all been wooden : the last was demolished in 1726. Empress Elizabeth, the great patron of Russian Baroque, decided she wanted a summer palace with church in Kiev. She laid three foundation stones in September 1744, but that was the last she saw of it. The actual building was supervised by Ivan Machurin, a Russian architect. The Maryinsky Palace was finished in 1752 and the church exterior in 1752 and interior in 1767. She died in 1762 and did not visit. Only in 1787 did Catherine the Great deign to come. 

The Church was meant to be a Royal church and therefore had no bells to summon the people because it had no parish. This has meant that its progress has been chequered. Private and voluntary funding and then Kiev Council funding had to suffice. In 1939 it even had an Anti Religious Museum on the premises. Services began again during the War and went on until 1961. In 1968 it opened as a Museum. It is now a Church again and since October 2018 has been under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Some changes have been made to the  design over the years. The biggest problem has been the insecurity of the foundations on this hilltop.  Recently the original Rastelli designs were found in the Albertine at Museum in Vienna and a major restoration has been undertaken, particularly to restore the domes (in 1978) as Rastelli had intended. The exterior is, I think, finished but the interior maybe is still undergoing work. 

I can say little about the interior. The main cupola has an impressive painted ceiling. The iconostasis and icons are as planned by Rastelli.

I doubt that I will ever visit. Great to hear from someone who has for Kiev looks a good short vacation destination - great churches, interesting filling food and local beer.