Kiev Ukraine Church of the Ascension

overview

Church of the Ascension was built in Kiev city in 1732, this is a rectangular three-aisled building with polygonal apses at the east end. There are three cupolas over the nave, and in this way the architect combined, as it were, the aisled four-piered type of church with the tripartite three-headed type widespread in Ukrainian wooden architecture.

Instead of a more common arched top the building is crowned by a cornice with elaborate Baroque waterspouts. The church is terse and monumental in form. The interior combines two principles of development of internal space - in depth and in height.

Bell-tower of Church of the Ascension was erected in the 1830s by Andrei Melensky, the bell-tower forms an important part of the ensemble. The central part of the ground floor houses an archway, on either side of which are service premises. The bell-tower's slender vertical form is divided into three tiers. The lower tier is decorated with flat pilasters; the middle one has Tuscan columned porticos on all sides, and the upper tier is topped with a cupola and a spire.