Wikipedia

Mezhyhirya Monastery

This article is about the Ukrainian monastery demolished in the 1930s. For a former official residence of Ukraine, see Mezhyhirya Residence.

The Mezhyhirya Savior-Transfiguration Monastery[nb 1] (Ukrainian: Межигірський Спасо-Преображенський монастир, romanized: Mezhyhirskyi Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Monastyr) was an Eastern Orthodox female monastery that was located in the neighborhood of Mezhyhiria outside of the Vyshhorod city limits.

Mezhyhirya Savior-Transfiguration Monastery
The Mezhyhirya Monastery, located on the right bank of the Dnieper. Fyodor Solntsev, 1843.
Monastery information
Other namesMezhyhiria Monastery
DenominationOrthodox
Establishedunknown[1]
Disestablished1935
Controlled churchesGate Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Transfiguration Cathedral
People
Founder(s)unknown[1]
Site
LocationNovi Petrivtsi, Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast
Coordinates50°37′7″N 30°27′55″E / 50.61861°N 30.46528°E / 50.61861; 30.46528
Visible remainsWater well
Public accessRestricted
Map

The monastery was located just 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to the north of Vyshhorod. Today, the territory is part of the Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. The location is situated in the Mezhyhirya ravine, on the right bank of the Dnieper River in close proximity to the Kyiv Reservoir.

It is unknown when the monastery was founded, although several different legends and stories about its founding exist.[1] Throughout its existence, it was destroyed, and then restored numerous times, yet it was not spared destruction by Soviet authorities in 1935. At the time of its height, the Mezhyhirya Monastery was considered a spiritual center of Rus royal Rurikid house and later Cossacks.[2][3] Currently, the area of the former monastery is located on a fenced-in woodland territory next to Novi Petrivtsi village and is now a museum.

As an important monastery of the Zaporozhian Host, the Mezhyhirya Monastery left a rich legacy behind it. The monastery was mentioned in one of Taras Shevchenko's poems, "Chernets," written in 1847,[4] and was the subject of a drawing by him. Nikolai Gogol's novel, "Taras Bulba," published in 1835, also mentions the monastery.[5]

History edit

Foundation and early history edit

Although it is unknown when the monastery was founded, there are several different legends and stories about its founding.[1] Some Rus' chronicles mention that there was a nun in Mezhyhirya in the 12th century, which might indicate that the Mezhyhirya Monastery existed at the time, although this is uncertain.[1] A 19th-century Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia, Yevgeniy Bolkhovitinov, claimed[6] that it had been founded by the first Metropolitan of Kiev, Michael, along with Greek monks arriving from Byzantium in 988 AD.[1] The claim is likely spurious, since Mezhyhirya is not listed by modern authors among the monasteries of Kievan Rus'.[7]

In 1154, the Prince of Suzdal Yuri Dolgorukiy divided the territory surrounding the monastery's grounds amongst his sons.[8] His son Andrey Bogolyubsky received the lands nearest to the monastery, now the city of Vyshhorod.[8] Not too long afterwards, he is alleged to have moved the monastery to its current location in the hills of the Dnieper,[citation needed] giving the monastery its name, "Mezhyhirya."[nb 2]

In 1482, the Mezhyhirya Monastery was attacked by the Crimean Tatars under Meñli I Giray.[1] In 1520, the monastery was restored.[1] In 1523, the monastery was transferred to the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund I.[1] In addition, the monastery was given a full reign over its territory.[1] In 1555, the complex consisted of four churches, including one cave church on Pekarnitsky Hill.[1]

Cossack monastery edit

 
The Mezhyhirya Monastery as drawn by Abraham van Westerveld during the 1650s.
 
A drawing of the monastery by Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Shevchenko, 1843.

During the 16th century, the monastery frequently lost and regained its ownership rights.[1] On the funds of the monastery's new hegumen Afanasiy (a protégé of prince Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski), the monastery's old buildings were demolished, and new ones were built in their place.[1] In 1604, the Gate Church of Ss. Peter and Paul was constructed, in 1609 - the Mykilska Refectory, and the Transfiguration Cathedral in 1609-1611. Under his rule, the monastery was considered as the second lavra (cave monastery) in Ukraine.[8][nb 3]

After its reconstruction, the Mezhyhirya Monastery became a regional center of the Zaporozhian Host, serving the host as a military monastery. In 1610, the monastery received the status of a stauropegic monastery (orthodox church autonomy), under the Patriarch of Constantinople. The universal (act) of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky issued on May 21, 1656 transferred the neighboring settlements of Vyshhorod, Novi Petrivtsi, and Moshchun under control of the Mezhyhirya Monastery. In effect, the universal made Khmelnytsky the monastery's ktitor.[8][nb 4] After the destruction of the Trakhtemyrivskyi Monastery by a Polish szlachta army, the Mezhyhirya Monastery replaced it as the main cossack military monastery.[1] As a military monastery, retired and elderly cossacks from the Zaporozhian Host would now come to the monastery to retire and live in until the end of their lives.[1][9] At that time, the monastery's expenses were paid off with the help of the cossack's Sich Host.[citation needed]

In 1676, the area was burned down after a fire started in the wooden Transfiguration Cathedral. With the help of Ivan Savelov, a monk who lived in the monastery and later became a Patriarch of Moscow,[10] the complex was reconstructed. Two years later, with the help of the cossack community, the Annunciation Church was constructed near the monastery's hospital.[citation needed]

In 1683, the Sich Rada voted that the ministers in the Sich's Pokrovskyi Cathedral (the main cathedral of the sich) should be only from the Mezhyhirya Monastery.[1] In 1691, monasteries located near the Sich were placed under the Mezhyhirya Monastery's authority. Under hegumen Feodosiy at the end of the 17th century, considered as a period of prosperity,[8] the Mezhyhirya Monastery became one of the largest monastery's in Ukraine.[1] The Mezhyhirya Chronicle, covering the period of 1608 to 1700, was completed around the turn of the century.

At the request of Peter I of Russia, the stauropegic status of the monastery was revoked; it was later reinstated in 1710.[1] In 1717, a large fire destroyed a large portion of the monastery's buildings. The monastery's "military" status was reconfirmed by cossacks in 1735. In 1774, with the funds of the last Koshovyi Otaman Petro Kalnyshevsky, the Ss. Peter and Paul Church was reconstructed. Ukrainian architect Ivan Hryhorovych-Barskyi designed some of the buildings, including the monk's residence.[11]

 
The monastery as seen on an early 20th-century postcard.

Decline and Soviet demolition edit

A period of decline began with the abolition of the Zaporozhian Host by Catherine II of Russia. In 1786 the Russian Imperial government closed the monastery and confiscated its valuable treasures. The remaining Zaporozhian Cossacks soon afterwards left Zaporizhia, and moved to the Kuban region. There they founded the Kuban Cossack Host, which still exists to this day. The cossacks were able to leave with some of the monastery's manuscripts,[12] some of which are now kept in the Krasnodar Krai Archive.[13]

In 1787, Catherine II of Russia came to Kyiv for a visit and wished to see the Mezhyhirya Monastery. She never got to see it, because the monastery mysteriously burned down the night before her arrival.[1]

 
The Transfiguration Cathedral seen shortly before its demolition, 1934.

In 1796, a German engineer found that the area had suitable clay for the making of faience, and two years later, founded the Mezhyhirya Faience Factory, the first one in Ukraine, at the site of the unused monastery.[8] By 1852, the faience factory had become the largest industrial complex in Kyiv.[14] During its existence, the factory produced a variety of crockery and ornamental vases and figurines.[15] In 1884, the faience factory was closed down after it failed to bring any profit.[16]

In 1894, the Mezhyhirya Monastery was rebuilt and transformed into a women's monastery. After its reconstruction, the monastery was transferred to the authority of the Intercession of the Saints Monastery in Kyiv.[17]

After the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's capital moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv in 1934, and the city was in need of a suburban residence for government officials. Mezhyhirya was chosen as the site of the new government residence.[13][18] The decision of the Politburo in April 1935 ordered the demolition of the whole complex. Before the scheduled demolition in 1936, the architecture and buildings of the monastic complex were photographed.[13] During the demolition, an underground library was supposedly discovered, full of handwritten manuscripts.[19] There were speculations that the discovered books belonged to the lost library of Yaroslav the Wise,[20][21] or perhaps of a later period, during the times of the Zaporozhian Host.[22] But during archaeological excavations from 1990 to 1994, neither the alleged basement nor the purported manuscripts were found.[20] The only thing that remains now of the monastic complex is a water well.[23]

During Soviet times, the area served as a residence for Leonid Brezhnev and Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, who worked in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's government at the time.[24] During this period, its location was concealed from the public.[citation needed]

Hegumen edit

See also edit

References edit

Notes
  1. ^ The monastery's inhabitants referred to the monastery as the "Place of the Mezhyhorod Saviour" (Russian: Обитель «Межигорского спаса»). See: "Malorossiya, Podoliya, and Volyn". Kiev, its sacred places and attractions. 5th volume (in Russian). Nostalgiya. Archived from the original on 2009-06-30. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  2. ^ In this sense, "Mizh" (or "Mezh") translates as "between", while "hora" (or "hir") is equivalent to "hills" as in "between-the-hills".
  3. ^ It was referred to as the "Sviato-Mezhyhirska Lavra" (Ukrainian: Свято-Межигірська Лавра).
  4. ^ A "ktitor" is someone who provides funds for the construction and decoration of a monastery.
Footnotes
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "Kyievo-Mezhyhirya Monastery (did not survive) (ХІІ-ХІХ c.)". OKO-architectural and local interest site (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2007-11-12. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  2. ^ Redko, Dmytro (August 2, 2007). "American dream. In Ukrainian". Lvivska Hazeta (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on January 14, 2013. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  3. ^ "Ivan Mazepa: Hetman, which let the world honour Ukraine". Prosvita (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  4. ^ Shevchenko, Taras (1847). "Chernets". Poetyka (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on February 26, 2001. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  5. ^ "Successor of the Hetmans". Krymska Svitlytsia (in Ukrainian). June 28, 2007. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  6. ^ Lysenko, Valeriy (2007). "Legends and treasures of the Mezhyhorod place". 1000years.uazone.net (in Ukrainian). The Ukrainian Information Project. Archived from the original (Word document) on 2006-06-15. Retrieved 2007-01-05.
  7. ^ "Л.Х. Азкунбю. Лнмюяршпх Мю Псях Xi - Яепедхмш Xiv Бейю". Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2014-03-08.
  8. ^ a b c d e f "Kyievo-Mezhyhirksyi Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Monastyr". Government historical-cultural reserve in the city of Vyshhorod (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  9. ^ Vikovan, I. (November 12, 2007). "What is hidden behind the walls of the presidential residence?". UAКлув (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  10. ^ "Mezhygorskiy Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy, men's, 1st class monastery". Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  11. ^ "Hryhorovych-Barksyi Ivan Hryhorovych". National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2007-11-03. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  12. ^ "Section I. Slavic books with Cyrillic alphabet XVI-1st half of the XIX century". Krasnodar Krai Scientific Library of A.S. Pushkin (in Russian). Archived from the original on November 11, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  13. ^ a b c Vikovan, I. (May 20, 2006). "Kyievo-Mezhyhirskyi Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Monastyr" (in Ukrainian). Nova Sich. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
  14. ^ Makarov 2002, p. 277
  15. ^ "Exhibit of items from porcelain and faience factories of Ukraine from museum collections (July 6-August 31, 2005)". Museum of the National Ukrainian Decorative Art (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2008-03-20. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  16. ^ "Mezhigorye - Mezhigorskiy monastyr". oldkyiv.org.ua (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2007-11-08. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
  17. ^ "Sviato-Pokrovskyi Monastery. Second continuation". Nice-Places.com (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2007-12-21. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  18. ^ Oleksandr, Kutsyi (August 3, 2007). "On the residence of Viktor Yanukovych an underground passage is being built". Gazeta po-ukrayinski (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on November 9, 2007. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
  19. ^ Tsalyk, Stanislav. "Tale of the library of Yaroslav the Wise". Biblioteka Sovremennika (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2013-07-09. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  20. ^ a b Sverbyhuz, Volodymyr (September 14, 2001). "Secrets of the Mezhyhirya Saviour". Den (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2011-08-07. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  21. ^ Pavlov, Mikhail (July 9, 2007). "Life of Yaroslav". uatoday.net (in Russian). Archived from the original on December 12, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  22. ^ Slutskiy, A. "This book is of the Mezhigorskiy monastery". cossackdom.com (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2012-08-10. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  23. ^ "Yanukovych is living in a medieval monastery". Obozrevatel (in Russian). August 3, 2007. Archived from the original on 2011-05-25. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  24. ^ Stakhovsky, Dmytro; Tetyana Chornovil (August 13, 2007). "Residence of Yanukovych". UNIAN (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2007-12-13. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
Bibliography
  • Makarov, A.N. (2002), Little Encyclopedia of Kiev's Antiquities (in Ukrainian), Kyiv: Dovira, ISBN 966-507-128-9

External links edit

 
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