The Holy Trinity Cathedral of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) is an important architectural
monument of the Hetmanship era in Chernihiv (1695). It was the main
cathedral of the Chernihiv Trinity Monastery.
Since 1992, it
has been the cathedral of the Chernihiv Diocese of the Moscow
Patriarchate.
One of the most distinctive architectural ensembles of Ukraine is
the Trinity-Illinsky Monastery of the XI-XVIII centuries. in
Chernihiv. It consists of two parts - the former Illinsky Monastery
of the XI-XVII centuries. and the Trinity Monastery, built on the
highest plateau of the Boldyn Mountains during 1677-1780, united by
landscape and architecture into a single ensemble. According to the
annals, it was started by the monk Antony Pechersky in 1069. Over
time, the caves "excavated" by him and his followers in the gorge of
the Boldy Mountains turned into a large two-story underground
complex - the monument of the underground construction of Antonievi
Caves, known today throughout the world. In the 12th century near
the entrance to the caves, a cross-domed, pillarless, single-spired
Illina church was built. In 1239, the monastery was destroyed by the
hordes of Batia.
The initiator of the construction of the
Trinity Monastery was a well-known political, church figure and
writer of the end of the 17th century. Archbishop of Chernihiv Lazar
Baranovych. In 1672, he moved to Chernihiv from his former residence
in Novgorod-Siverskyi. Thanks to reconstruction, it took the form of
a triban temple, the most widespread in Ukraine during the Cossack
era. Founded in 1679 by Lazar Baranovych according to the project
and under the direction of the architect Johann Baptist (Johann
Baptist Sauer). It was built at the expense of Hetman of Ukraine
Ivan Mazepa. Construction was completed in 1695.
The
Troitsko-Illina Monastery operated until 1786, when by order of
Catherine II, the patrimony of the monastery was secularized. The
Trinity Monastery was assigned a special role: Chernihiv University
was set to be located on its territory, which was also helped by the
fact that the monastery had a printing press and a library that had
more than 11,000 books. After the death of Prince Tavrida Grigory
Potemkin, who took special care of this issue, the order was not
carried out. Therefore, in 1790, the fate of the monastery was
changed: the empress ordered the Chernihiv bishop to move from
Borysoglibskyi to the Trinity Monastery.
During the Second
World War, the buildings of the monastery were used by the Chernihiv
zootechnical school. During the occupation in November 1941, the
Trinity Monastery became an active nunnery; the abbess of which was
Abbess Antonia (Sorokina). Its buildings were significantly damaged
during the bombings of 1941 and 1943, so the diocese already in the
40s of the XX century. carried out repair work. The women's
monastery operated until 1961; since 1967, the complex of the
Trinity Monastery was part of the Chernihiv architectural and
historical reserve. In 1988, after the end of the restoration works
carried out under the leadership of the famous architect Marionila
Govdenko and painting restorer Volodymyr Babyuk, the buildings of
the former Trinity Monastery were returned to the Chernihiv Diocese.
Since then, the so-called "Bishop's House" was located on the
territory of the former monastery - the residence of the Archbishop
of Chernihiv. As for the men's monastery on Boldy Mountains, it was
closed again in 1918. The Trinity Cathedral functioned as a parish
church until 1929.
During the cathedral's existence, it
burned down and was rebuilt several times, but as a result of
restoration work in the 80s of the XX century. the cathedral was
restored in its original form of the 17th century. The author of the
restoration project is Kyiv architect M.M. Govdenko.
Today,
the monastery continues to be the residence of the archbishop of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Since the 90s of the 20th century, a
spiritual school for the training of priests and psalmist regents
has been operating in the abbot's house. The Trinity Cathedral, a
wonderful example of the craftsmanship of Ukrainian masters of the
late 17th century, is once again an active church of the Russian
Orthodox Church.
Despite the fact that the Russian Orthodox
Church anathemas Hetman Ivan Mazepa, the bishop of the Russian
Orthodox Church Amvrosii (Polykop) serves there.
The refectory with the Vvedenska church (1677-1679) was the first to
be built, the only two-bathroom among refectory churches preserved on
the Left Bank of Ukraine; later, three buildings of cells and utility
rooms were built, which created a picturesque baroque environment of the
main building - the Trinity Cathedral, built in 1679-1695 according to
the project of the architect John Sauer - the Baptist. An interesting
fact: a fragment of an inscription from the time of Hetman Mazepa about
the monetary donations of Lazar Baranovich and Ivan Mazepa for the
construction of the cathedral has been preserved in the drum of the head
of the cathedral.
At the end of the 18th century instead of a
wooden one, a brick fence of the monastery with square and octagonal
corner towers was built; from the north of the cathedral, a majestic
58-meter-high bell tower was built above the gate in lush baroque forms.
The bell tower was built between 1770 and 1780 by Archimandrite Ioil
(Bykovsky). The surname of the architect is unknown; according to some
reports, the design drawings of Johann Schedel, the author of the Great
Lavra bell tower, were used. Placed in the ensemble of the monastery,
the bell tower has become the main landmark for travelers from Kyiv,
Nizhyn, and Ljubech.
The cathedral is a landmark that reveals the
ways of formation and development of Ukrainian Baroque architecture.
It is a three-nave, six-pillared, three-apsed temple. According to
its plan, it follows the traditions of the brick temple building of
Russia. The top of the cathedral is succinctly decorated with seven
baroque baths: the main bath rises above the center, two smaller ones
rise on the side ridges of the western facade, and the rest are located
on the main volume of the building.
The walls of the cathedral,
windows, arched and square niches - recesses that imitate windows, are
richly decorated with baroque vertical and horizontal profile lines and
semi-columns. The niches are filled with paintings. In the second tier
of the Trinity Cathedral above the entrance, a window in the form of an
Orthodox cross stands out, which is a special feature of Chernihiv
baroque churches. XVII — beginning 18th century
Majestic and
solemn interior of the temple. It is decorated with an iconostasis from
1942 to 1949, made after the Second World War by the local artist Pimen
Portny, as well as a whole complex of wall paintings of the 17th and
20th centuries.
Burial
The church now contains the relics of
Chernihiv saint Feodosius Uglytskyi, Filaret Gumilevskyi and Saint
Lavrentiy, and under the floor of the cathedral there is a crypt, which
testifies to the fact that the cathedral is the burial place of the
spiritual hierarchs, the feudal nobility of the 18th century. 20th
century
Gallery
The ensemble of the Trinity Monastery was
formed during the 17th-19th centuries. The construction of this majestic
complex became possible also because the Trinity-Illinsky Monastery was
a large feudal farm, which in the middle of the 18th century. owned
almost 10,000 serfs, 24 villages, 30 windmills, 31 factories, including
brickworks. The Trinity Monastery was connected to the Illinsky "gallery
arranged on stone arches and columns."