Kiev Ukraine Church of the Saviour in Berestovo
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Church of the Saviour in Berestovo was the burial-place of the Monomakhovich dynasty, a fact which has led scholars to link its construction with the reign of Prince Vladimir Monomakh (1113-1125).
Originally Church of the Saviour in Berestovo was a three-aisled, three-apsed, six-piered building, but with the narthex projecting slightly from the north and south facades. In the southern part of the narthex was a staircase tower; in the northern part was a baptistry and burial-vault with three apses in the thickness of the wall and a niche for a sarcophagus (arcosolium).
Kiev Ukraine Church of the Saviour in Berestovo view
Another peculiarity is the existence of three vestibules, equal in width to the nave and aisles. The fretwork frieze at gallery level and the decorative crosses made of plinth (a type of old Russian brick) set edgewise testify that the church was built by masons of the Kiev school.
Kiev Ukraine Church of the Saviour in Berestovo view
The Church of the Saviour was probably taller than other eleventh- and twelfth-century Kiev city churches, as can be judged from the height of the surviving narthex - ten meters to the top of the vault, whereas the height of the narthex of St Sophia's Cathedral was seven meters.
In 1240, during the Mongol-Tartar invasion, the church was destroyed. The west part was rebuilt in 1640-1642 in the time of the Kiev Metropolitan Piotr Mogila, and an apse was added at the east. Later a vestibule was erected at the west end, and the church acquired a five-headed cruciform outline. In 1813 a bell-tower was added by Andrei Melensky.
Kiev Ukraine Church of the Saviour in Berestovo view
In 1970, in the course of work to strengthen frescoes which were peeling away, early frescoes were discovered under some paintings dating from 1644. The restorers were able to uncover in its entirety a large scene of the Third Apparition of the Risen Christ on the Sea of Galilee (2.75X4 m). The fresco painters achieved a three-dimensional effect not by the use of ochre limewash, as is characteristic of the eleventh century (for example the frescoes of St Sophia's Cathedral in Kiev), but by a clear glaze of lime-water on an ochre base.
Compositionally the frescoes of 1644 are superbly integrated with the architecture of the Gothic rib-vaulted interior. As the inscriptions testify, they were done by Greek craftsmen, probably from Mt Athos. Side by side with them worked local artists - "Cossack painters", as they were called by the Syrian traveler Paul of Aleppo, who visited Kiev in 1654.
Kiev Ukraine Church of the Saviour in Berestovo inner view
Probably one of the "Cossack painters" was responsible for the portrait of Piotr Mogila, the church's warden. His face is striking for its plasticity of form and convincing likeness. The 1644 frescoes were repainted in 1813-1815, and subsequently renewed in 1830 and in 1863-1867. In 1916 the oil overpaintings were partly removed, and the cleaned 1644 frescoes are now displayed in the church vestibule.
Kiev Ukraine Church of the Saviour in Berestovo inner view
Kiev Ukraine Church of of the Saviour in Berestovo location - Ukraine, Kiev city, January Uprising Street, 15.
Kiev Ukraine Church of the Saviour in Berestovo inner view
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