This article introduces one of the ancient man-made wonders that Kiev is rich in. The Cyril Church, the temple-fortress, built in 1140 and surprisingly preserving its appearance to this day, remains a mystery and attraction in our time. This building of God will soon be nine hundred years old, it miraculously survived the cataclysms, avoided destruction from barbarians of all times: Tatar-Mongols, Uniates, Bolsheviks, fascist invaders.
This is a special church, and the feelings that people who enter it are also unusual. According to their reviews, it is as if filled with its individual tart mixed spirit of holiness, suffering and madness. Everything in it is genuine and dramatic, some primary, ancient energy is felt inside the temple, there is something free, not slavish. Frescoes from the times of Kievan Rus do not leave people indifferent, forcing them to distract from the fuss for a while and think about something higher.
However, no less than creations of hoary antiquity shock Vrubel, who has come to this very quiet abode, with a huge fresco “The Descent of the Holy Spirit” and the famous icon “Our Lady and Child”. Art connoisseurs put it on a par with Michelangelo's Pieta and Raphael's Sistine Madonna. Most tourists go to the temple museum to enjoy the perfection of the brush of a mad master.
About the temple
This monument to the triumph of the Chernigov princes, claiming Kiev, was dedicated to the saints of Cyril and Athanasius of Alexandria - the Cyril Church. A description of its architecture is canonical for Orthodoxy: the six-pillared cross-domed church is equipped with three apses (altar ledges) and six domes. The church has a large dome space.
The Orthodox Orthodox Cyril Church is fully consistent with the classical Byzantine canon of architecture. Exterior details during the restoration carried out in the XIX century, acquired the style of Ukrainian Baroque. Due to the antiquity of the structure, the temple is located half a meter lower than the surrounding buildings. However, he did not "sink into the ground", this is his "native" soil level, which was everywhere in Kiev until the 12th century.
Museum "Cyril Church" (Kiev) strikingly and subtly preserved the atmosphere of antiquity, bringing it to its visitors. On its walls, more than 800 m2 of frescoes are revealed to the eyes of tourists, which the princes of Kiev still admired in the 12th century. The value of these images is so great that services are limited in the temple and do not light candles.
Previously, the Cyril Church Church (Kiev) was considered a branch of the St. Sophia Cathedral complex, a World Heritage Site. It is curious that she first acquired this status in accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars No. 217 of 03/07/1939. In 1994, the state authorities of Ukraine met the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, and services began to be held there. And in 2011 the temple was finally transferred to the balance of the UOC MP, however, the leadership of the Sophia Kievskaya Nature Reserve (the old owner) signed an agreement to limit the number of services, while continuing to monitor the state of the historical memorial and the intensity of excursions.
Where is. How to get there
People who are not indifferent to the history of Russia are usually visited upon their arrival in Kiev the Kirill Church.
How to get to this monument of ancient architecture? The temple is located northwest of the main historical center of the Mother of Russian cities, in an area called the tract Dorogozhichi, located between the modern streets of Elena Teligi, Podolsky descent and Kirillovskaya (Frunze). Among the excursionists there are many people who believe.
They usually ask (they’re not only interested in the museum of the Kirill Church): “What patriarchy?” Kievans eagerly answer them: “Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Having left at the Petrovka metro station, take a trolleybus towards Kirillovskaya Street. ”
When moving past the Babi Yar Park, this temple, surrounded by greenery, can be seen on a hill. Thanks to this route, most tourists visit the Cyril Church (Kiev). Her address: 12 Helena Teligi Street.
However, this is not the only logistic option to travel to the temple. Directly from the railway station, tourists can get to the church by shuttle bus No. 181 or by transfer from minibus No. 18 to No. 7 at the stop "Spartak Stadium".
Cyril Church (Kiev): schedule of services and excursions
This temple is one of the visiting cards of the capital of Ukraine. For more than 870 years, Kiev has been adorned by the Kirill Church. The photo gallery of its icons and frescoes is well known not only to thousands of Orthodox priests. It is posted on the websites of many travel and excursion agencies. In addition to Kiev - art lovers, he attracts visitors from other regions of Ukraine and neighboring countries who visited Kiev and the Kirill Church for his fame.
A tour of it is ordered in advance by phone, at the moment (at the prices of 2017) it costs 80 UAH. per person (payment to the guide), while the excursionists themselves must also purchase a very inexpensive ticket, which actually allows for the excursion (the museum makes money on it). Traditionally in demand by foreign tourists who came to Kiev, the Cyril Church. The mode of work suits her most of the tourists. Admission is made daily, except Friday from 10-00 to 18-00. On Thursday, the visit ends an hour earlier.
However, this is not only a museum, but also a temple. People who want to personally come and see priceless icons and murals can do this for free. This is a long-standing Orthodox Christian tradition, performed everywhere. The Cyril Church, spiritualizing ancient Kiev, is not an exception to this rule.
Its working hours are acceptable for most believers who come to pray on their own (not in the service). The hieromonk conducts daily services not in the temple we are considering, but in the neighboring refectory church. Thus, due to the presence of many people, the temperature and humidity regime of the ancient building is not violated, where for obvious reasons it is also forbidden to massively burn candles. Only twice a week takes the service of the Cyril Church (Kiev).
The schedule of services is rather concise:
- Saturday night vigil begins at 16-30.
- Sunday Liturgy - at 09-15.
For the rest of the work of the temple-museum, it is open to visitors and for excursions.
However, the temple is also a museum at the same time, so its employees charge a fee for tourists. Administrators make sure that people arriving with a guide must pay a ticket to the museum.
About the saint who gave the temple a name
According to the canonical faith, the saint to whom the temple is dedicated becomes a solomonet of his flock, and the dates associated with it become patronal holidays.
Who was Cyril of Alexandria, whose name is this church named? He was born in a noble family, received a decent secular and spiritual education. He spent six years in a prayer monastery in the Nithrian mountains. He was a strong-willed and deeply religious person who became the Alexandrian patriarch. He was able to argue, polemicize and prove errors in faith. Cyril exposed the heresy of Novitian, who denied the return of the lost to Christianity through repentance, as well as the heresy of Nestorius, blaspheming the Virgin.
He twice headed the Ecumenical Councils, prescribed John Chrysostom in church books as a great saint.
Cyril also possessed the non-trivial abilities of an exorcist. He once managed to clear a demon-filled temple near Alexandria. This, of course, was a feat of faith. For comparison, imagine a modern priest who can cleanse and consecrate the well-known geopathic Lysa Gora in Kiev, a place originally holy, but desecrated by thousands and thousands of murders, changing its sign from “+” to “─”! St. Cyril was highly inherent in a calm, firm belief that the Lord would not leave, arrive, and protect the exorcist.
Perhaps that is why the warrior-prince Vsevolod Olegovich dedicated a temple to this holy and courageous man and took his name at baptism.
Chernihiv prince
We ask ourselves: “What are the components of the aura of the temple?” Obviously, there are many. We have already examined one of them - the saint to whom he is dedicated. However, besides him, the personality of its founder also contributes.
What was the faith of prince Vsevolod Olegovich, who did not have exemplary Christian humility, the charismatic and domineering ancient Chernigov prince? Indeed, thanks to her, the Cyril Church in Kiev was built. The photos of the temple’s internal frescoes presented in this article inform us of the image of an ancient Orthodox ruler trying to unite a power with a fire and a sword and fail. For a difficult matter, this is a strong man-warrior with a strong-willed face. For some reason, to characterize the prince, the phrase of Jack Nicholson from “Flight over the Cuckoo's Nest” comes to mind: “But at least I tried!” During feudal feuds, he believed in a miracle - that Russia would again become one, and therefore he erected a temple.
How did he ascend to the throne of Kiev? In 1139, after five years of unsuccessful wars, Vsevolod Olegovich received the news that his old opponent, the grandson of Monomakh Yaropolk, had died. After that, the Chernigov prince easily took power from his brother, Prince Vyacheslav, having actually conquered Kiev.
The Cyril Church as an outpost on the northwestern borders of its capital city began to be built immediately after being approved as a capital prince. And the very next year a new temple appeared before the eyes of Kiev. The princely architects erected a trinavna: a six-pillar three-apse building then with one more dome, oriented along the west-east axis, with dimensions: 31 m by 18.5 m and a height of 28 m.
The idea of such a rapid construction is understandable: whoever controls the access and trade routes controls everything. The new temple became a favorite for the ruler of Kiev. Therefore, later he, and not Sofia, became the family tomb.
However, in fact, the policy of Vsevolod Olegovich was not as wise as his plans, in practice it came down not to diplomacy, but to wars. The prince lived after building the temple for 6 years, during which he fought with the princes of Novgorod and Galicia, and once, having returned to Kiev from a campaign against Galich, he died.
Temple - Tomb
The new Kiev prince wanted to unite the feudally fragmented Kievan Rus under his rule, striving for a triune power: administrative, military and spiritual. His ambitions were reflected in the ancient frescoes of the altar of his temple, where he himself, Vsevolod Olegovich, was depicted in the style of the emperor of Byzantium.
According to the chronicles, later in the same church, Princess Maria Mstislavovna and Princess Maria Kazimirovna (both - 1179), Prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich (1194) were buried. The construction of the Cyril Church was completed by the widow of the prince, Maria Mstislavovna.
However, to this day the sarcophagi of the rulers have not survived. They were defeated and plundered during the Polish-Ukrainian wars.
The personality of Vsevolod Olegovich can be argued, debated, referenced in the annals. However, researchers of the Cyril Church, an unusual temple, have long noticed that ancient written testimonies sometimes say one thing, and the monument of architecture indicates the opposite.
What ancient faces tell us about
There are many ancient frescoes in the temple, far from the usual canonical writing. In one fresco we see the emperor sitting on a throne with his back to the audience and deprived of a halo (which is not typical). A boat with a saint marked with a halo swims not far from him. This is a plot from the life of the second titular holy church - Athanasius of Alexandria. Once, with the help of a boat, he sailed down the Nile from Alexandria, the emperor of whom, Julian the Apostate, ordered to kill the saint. However, Athanasius showed resourcefulness and escaped.
Also, the church can tell a lot about the personality of its organizer, about the extreme pathological vanity of Vsevolod Olegovich, a man who conquered, but did not restore Kiev to the level of the Mother of Russian cities.
The Cyril Church in its internal arrangement contains an architectural detail testifying to the above. Above the fresco depicting the Alexandrian saints Athanasius and Cyril there is one strange tiny balcony. To enter it, you should find a barely noticeable door in the southern church apse, right in the wall, and then climb up five meters along a steep staircase hidden directly in the wall. The balcony is completely compact, it can accommodate only one person. This place is clearly not for the choir, and why singers placed at a height of five meters?
Neither coffins at parting, nor holy relics for veneration could be exhibited here either. After all, the Orthodox are made to touch them. Moreover, such a balcony does not exist in any temple in the world!
There is no doubt that this architectural detail was created directly for Vsevolod Olegovich. Staying at the liturgy, he towered above the flock and priests, symbolically becoming like the emperor of Byzantium. The Prince of Chernigov stood facing his subjects, seeing the fresco “Cyril lectures the tsar”, on which he himself was depicted by the Byzantine emperor, and his subjects, while in church service, bowed not only to God, but also to him, Vsevolod Olegovich. Blinded by pride, he created from himself an idol of worship.
Artist Mikhail Vrubel and the Cyril Church
If in the year before last, the found and restored frescoes of Kievan Rus fueled interest in the ancient temple, then fame was undoubtedly brought to him by one of the most mysterious artists of the world of the late 18th - early 19th centuries, with the participation of which the Cyril Church (Kiev) was restored and painted.
Vrubel M.A. in 1884 was invited for this work by the famous art historian and archaeologist Professor Adrian Prakhov. It is noteworthy that many artists before him were not going to undertake this work. The church by that time had gained notoriety: a psychiatric hospital was located on its territory.
The student was shocked: such an offer - to touch history and enter it yourself - happens with the painter only once in a lifetime! He made a difficult decision for himself. To paint this temple, Vrubel left training at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. By the way, before that, Mikhail Alexandrovich, to the indignation of his father, also left the faculty of law at St. Petersburg University.
Looking ahead, we say that instead of moral and material satisfaction, this work brought Mikhail Vrubel deep disappointment and mental breakdown. Subsequently, art historians claimed that the occult, Gnostic personality of Vrubel was rejected by his mystical aura of Orthodox Kiev, the Cyril Church.
Reviews of his contemporaries testify to individualism, passion for the beyond, melancholy, philosophical throwing between God and the devil. This contradicted the principles introduced into the aura of the temple by its titular saints and the founder.
Prophecy
It's no secret to anyone, and judging by the reviews, visitors feel that the Cyril Church is the most mystical temple in Kiev, and this is due to the personality of Vrubel. To understand the reasons for further mysteries, we will tell about this brilliant artist.
His style of creativity did not imply a dull creation "by duty", but a completely different look: on the wave of inspiration, which was interpreted by him as a special state of mind.
Vrubel really tried to learn how to achieve this with a willpower. Persistent classes in introspection and meditation yielded results: he learned to enter the hypostasis of the artist-demiurge. In the young man there was something both attractive and repulsive. Art historians said that he, using elements of symbolism and the unique expressiveness of colors, was "not a slave, but a rival" of the existing schools of painting.
And now - Vrubel in Kiev, he gets out of the passenger car. Later, the artist himself will call what happened to him at the railway station mysticism. The Petersburger asked the first person he met about how to get to the Kirillovskaya Church. The answer shocked him: "You - in a psychiatric hospital." A passerby, obviously, had in mind a shelter for nervous patients, located in close proximity to the temple.
Fate is sometimes not only ironic, but cruel: once gone crazy from the influence of the beyond, the artist still finds himself in this very shelter. Wanting to die and unable to do this, he will be doused with cold water in winter and will stand at the open window in the hope of contracting pneumonia. Here, in the Kiev mental hospital, he will die.
Non-canonical artist in the temple
In the meantime, everything was just beginning ... Vrubel reacted kindly to his new work. An indestructible temple, the Cyril Church in Kiev, attracted him with its incomprehensible aura. The frescoes of the finest work of ancient masters seemed alive to the artist. At the request of Mikhail Alexandrovich, his sponsor Adrian Prakhov sent him to Italy, famous for its Venetian Christian painting. Then the artist for a long time and meticulously studied the frescoes of St. Sophia Cathedral and only then entered the St. Cyril's Church with a brush.
The painter, in addition to following the canons, introduced into the church icons his mystical and fairytale vision of the world, a subtle sensual aesthetics, a brilliant and painful beginning. So, restoring the fresco "The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles", he portrayed the saints as not faceless. Vrubel spent a lot of time observing the mentally ill, believing that in their appearance sometimes consciousness and some kind of reflection of God's revelation can be seen. The piercing expression of their faces captured by the painter, church visitors can still see.
The artist also painted for the Cyril Church frescoes "Cosmos", "Tombstone", "Moses", "Archangel Gabriel."
The Virgin of Vrubel
Once, the wife of the artist’s employer, Emilia Lvovna Prakhova, entered the church to be restored. Vrubel fell in love with an eccentric married woman who did not reciprocate and remained faithful to her husband. Having lost faith in his attempts to get closer, the painter suggested portraying her as Virgin Mary, to which Emilia agreed. So the famous Mother of God with a baby appeared in the mural of the Cyril Church.
Adrian Prakhov, seeing the face of his wife in the church, terminated the contract with Vrubel, exposing the artist from the temple. The painter subsequently until the end of his days was consumed with unrequited love for this woman.
After a couple of years, while swimming in the summer heat, the friend of Mikhail Alexandrovich, artist Konstantin Korovin asked him about the origin of large and deep ugly scars on his chest. To which the unfortunate Vrubel replied that he loved a woman, and she was afraid of him, because she could not understand. He could not explain to her the reason preventing the rapprochement. The lover suffered immeasurably, but when he cut the chest, the pain decreased.
Then Vrubel decides to take revenge on Emilia in his own way, starting to write on the canvases of the faces of demons. Who knows what reality Mikhail Alexandrovich portrayed, possessing the capabilities of a medium ...
Thus, the Rubicon, a turning point in the life of Vrubel, was the Cyril Church in Kiev. The frescoes restored by him, and especially the Virgin and Child created by the artist, brought him fame as a master, but not money. Later Anna Akhmatova will sadly say about this face: “Kiev Vrubel. Mad eyes of the Virgin ... "
Conclusion
Many people, having visited the museum "Cyril Church" (Kiev) once, come there again. They claim that they seem to be attracted to an ancient temple, transformed by the work of an artist brilliant to madness. And those 20% of his icons that remained from the time of ancient Russia did not fade in the neighborhood with Vrubel’s masterpieces, but on the contrary, became brighter, more tangible, more understandable.
The wall fresco “The Descent of the Holy Spirit” produces a strong effect on those who come to the temple. People, peering into the faces of the apostles, begin to understand their feelings. The image seems to come to life, reflecting the emotions of the characters, creating a sense of charm, admiration.
However, the Virgin Mary is the most expressive icon of the ancient temple. She brings down on the abyss of emotions looking at her. The piercing gaze of the Mother of God reflects the pain of all the women of the earth for her children, and the sorrow of the sinfulness and cruelty of this world, and a warning to all living.