Kiev Caves Monastery

Kiev It is the capital of Ukraine, but it is also the heart of the country, an ancient city, with centuries of history and cultural richness. Here is the famous Kiev Caves Monastery, or, more precisely, the Kyivan Monastery.

It is a beautiful orthodox christian monastery which was founded inside a group of caves back in the XNUMXth century. Today it is still valid and is, not only one of the treasures of Kiev, but also a great tourist attraction.

Kiev Caves Monastery

The real name is Kyivan Cave Monastery and as we said before it belongs to orthodox Christianity. It was founded by San Antonio de las Cuevas in the middle of the XNUMXth century, near the village of Berestove. Obviously at that time the cave was isolated, but time and the development of the population have determined that it will remain in the heart of the metropolitan area of ​​modern Kiev.

Archaeological excavations determined that the first monks dug more caves and then ended up building the church over them. The first "abbot" or hegumen of the monastery was Varlaam, in 1057, succeeded by Saint Theodosius of the Caves between the years 1062 and 1074. He introduced the ruler studite giving rise to the creation of the Studite Order. This rule actually developed in the Stoudios Monastery in Constantinople, from the XNUMXth century on, but it was Saint Theodore the Studite who brought it to Kiev.

Centuries later the communists tried to destroy this order of the Ukrainian church and there is even a martyr who died in the fields of Siberia in 1951, under the rule of Stalin. The studyite monks had to go underground and continued their faith in the catacombs. But going back in time, in those years of the beginning of the monastery, they were the princes and boyars of Kyivan who sponsored the monks with gifts, money, land and fortifications. Some even became monks.

The monastery was looted several times. The fact that a good part of his monks were wealthy people, noble or educated, made him a coveted prey. The cumans, a western Turkish nomadic tribe, attacked in 1096, worse also did some princes and the Mongol Batu Khan in 1240. After each attack came reconstruction and they rose new churches and more tunnels were dug underground, caves and catacombs grew.

The attacks, damages and fires did nothing but expand it, thus, By the XNUMXth century, the first monastery had become a complex of six cloisters. Every century brought more building disasters but still, after each one of them, there was reconstruction and expansion. Even came to have an important printing press and library which sadly swept away a great fire in 1718.

Despite the jealousy this situation brought with it, by the eighteenth century the monastery was very richIt had three cities, seven towns, 200 villages and smaller towns, 150 distilleries, 150 flour mills, 200 taverns and the list goes on. As happened in other parts of Europe, at some point the State secularized everything and kept these properties, in addition to changing some questions of the appointment of monastic authorities. Thereafter the Russification of the monastery.

Before the Russian Revolution of 1917 there were about 1200 monks and novices and it was the center of the orthodox world, attracting thousands of pilgrims. The attraction was some relics of canonized monks, but also the caves themselves, some of Neolithic origin, where the monks lived and were buried from the beginning. The labyrinth of tunnels, the cells, the catacombs dug out of sandstone and clay dust ...

The Far Caves and the Near Caves are five feet wide and two meters high. The burial niches are .05 meters deep and 2 meters long and one high, still with mummified remains of monks and saints. As well there are many underground chapels and churches, such as the Varlaam Church or the Church of San Teodosio.

The monastic complex is on Levantameinto de Enero Street, between wooded hills, near the Dnieper River. It occupies 28 hectares and is surrounded by walls. There are two areas, the high and the low or the far and the near and in both there are many buildings between churches, museums, monasteries and obviously, the famous caves.

What to see in the Kiev Monastery of the Caves

Churches tombs, tunnels and museumsbasically. The most important church in the complex is the Cathedral of the Assumption built between 1073 and 1078. The Soviets blew up the building in 1941 and reconstruction only took place in the late 80s. There is also the Church of All Saints, that of the Elevation of the Cross, that of the Nativity of the Virgin, that of the Resurrection, the Church of the Holy Trinity...

Among the most interesting buildings is the Faviana Library, Bell Tower of the New Caves, Pharmacy or Refectory. There are towers: the Painters Tower, Clock Tower and Onufrivska Tower, for instance. Among the museums is the Museum of Book and Advertising, Miniatures Museum, National Treasures Museum, among others. Do not forget the walls that completely surround the monastery. A beauty.

As we also said there are many graves and among the most notable is that of Saint Kusksha, that of Nestor the Chronologist, the tomb of Oleg, the son of Vladimir II Monomakh, that of his daughter Euphemia as well and that of Pope Clement I.

Today, unfortunately, the oldest remains have been separated into those two parts that we name above, lavra bajo and lavra alto. The caves and the still active monastery are in the lower part while the upper part works under the authority of the Monastery of Culture of Ukraine and is what It is known today as a Cultural and Historical Preservation Space.

A possible route? The following is recommended for pilgrims: if they enter through the Gates of the Caves they will see a street that runs along the monastery garden and is surrounded on each side by a gallery lined with vineyards. You can see the river and it is a beautiful postcard. In the second half of the seventeenth century the covered and paved gallery extended from the Near Caves to the Far Caves and continued towards the Hills of the Caves adding beauty to everything.

It does not matter if it is sunny or rainy, with care it is always advisable to walk along the slopes to admire the nature and architecture of this beautiful place. The gallery connecting the two groups of caves was restored in the XNUMXth century and is the same as it was then. Then you have to walk through the garden, stop in front of the memorial cross of the two thousandth anniversary of Christ, from where the view is panoramic of all the caves.

Below the garden are the Caves of Antonio (Nearby Caves), while the Caves of Theodosius are inside the hill opposite the Great Church. Everyone, pilgrims and tourists, flock to the Kiev Monastery of the Caves and the Caves Near and Far spread out on the foundations of the monastery. The trip will be incredible. Do you dare to undertake it?


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