Take an excursion to Chernihiv, an ancient Ukrainian city steeped in history (05/02/04)

A Ukrainian Summer: where to go, what to do...

Take an excursion to Chernihiv, an ancient Ukrainian city steeped in history

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

CHERNIHIV - A city known across the Slavic world for its historic churches and church architecture, Chernihiv presents its case right from the outset. On the main approach to the city along the highway from Kyiv, as one turns a slight bend, St. Kateryna Church comes into view. Perched on the horizon squarely above the road, it is an extraordinary site inasmuch as the road seems to end at the church's very doorstep.

In Chernihiv historic churches are as numerous as casinos in Las Vegas or restaurants in Manhattan. With the exception of the city's commercial center, most anywhere you turn you will find an ancient church, either actively serving its purpose or functioning as a museum - the latter the result of a policy of atheism during the now bygone Soviet era. Religious historians and architects consider these churches some of the finest existing examples of Byzantine Orthodox and Kyivan Rus' architecture to be found anywhere.

Chernihiv, a city of more than 250,000 inhabitants, offers at least a dozen religious structures with medieval historical significance, among them the largest underground church in Ukraine and the subterranean monastery of Antonii Pecherskyi, who co-founded the Monastery of the Caves (Pecherska Lavra) in Kyiv.

For visitors to Ukraine who will spend some time in Kyiv this summer, it is well worth planning a one-day excursion to Chernihiv, a short one-and-a-half-hour drive from the Ukrainian capital along a modern, comfortable highway.

Chernihiv is steeped in history, and not only of the religious sort. The city was the ancient capital of the Siveriany, a Slavic tribe before it was incorporated into the Kyivan Rus' empire. The remains of several tribal burial mounds, known as kurhany dating from the 7th and 8th centuries, are on display on Boldyn Hill, the highest point within the city.

Chernihiv was also a key center of the Kozak Hetman state in the 17th century, and several Kozak-era structures financed by Hetman Ivan Mazepa still stand in Chernihiv today.

St. Kateryna (Catherine) Church, looming over the Desna River on the approach from Kyiv, functions as the Museum of National Decorative (Folk) Art. Completed in 1715, today it is in the process of being renovated. The church became a museum during the Soviet era and remains so today. It contains an extensive collection of 18th and 19th century embroidery, weaving, pottery and woodcarvings, as well as Kozak-era memorabilia.

St. Kateryna Church is found at the edge of the Val, or the rampart, one of the two historical districts of Chernihiv. The second historical area is centered around Boldyn Hill, where Chernihiv was founded as the trading center of the Siveriany, who were one of the eight tribes of the original Kyivan Rus' nation. The region was incorporated into the Kyivan Rus' state in the early 10th century.

The Val contains historic architecture predominantly from the 16th-18th centuries. Today it has been developed as a park, which allows visitors to stroll casually beneath tall shade trees along paved pathways as they visit the fortified walls and cannons that protected Chernihiv in times past and the several churches and museums located within.

Perhaps the most significant structure located in the Val is the Sobor of Ss. Borys and Hlib. Began in 1123, the building is an architectural masterpiece of the Kyivan Rus' Byzantine style. Today it houses a museum of the church's history. Inside you can see an unearthed parcel of the original foundation of the building, as well as the silver holy gates to an iconostasis and wooden icons donated by Hetman Mazepa in the 17th century.

Immediately next door to Ss. Borys and Hlib Cathedral stands the oldest church in Chernihiv and one of the very first masonry churches in Kyivan Rus', the Spaskyi Sobor (Cathedral of Our Savior). It was built in the 11th century after Chernihiv came under the rule of Prince Mstyslav Volodymyrovych, the son of Grand Prince Volodymyr the Great. Prince Mstyslav is buried beneath the church.

A stone's throw from the two historic churches, you happen upon the Chernihiv Collegium, among the oldest secondary schools in Ukraine. Built in 1700 on the model of the famous Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, it received much financial support from Hetman Mazepa before he was defeated along with a huge Swedish force by Tsar Peter I in the Battle of Poltava.

Initially the collegium provided a general education for its students, who were mostly the sons of priests and Kozak officials. In 1776, during the rule of Catherine II of Russia, the school was reorganized as a theological seminary, which it remained until its closing in 1917. Today it is a historical museum of education.

The Chernihiv Historical Museum is found in proximity to the two ancient churches and the collegium. During the 19th century and first part of the last century, it was a high school as well, the Chernihiv Men's Gymnasium. It counted several notable Ukrainians among its graduates, including the son of writer Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky.

Just outside the confines of the Val, but still within easy walking distance, is the Church of St. Paraskevia, today known as the Church of Good Friday Church. The church endured several cataclysms after it was built in the late 12th century. The most recent was during World War II, when it was leveled by two separate German air strikes; the first in 1941 as the Nazis moved forward and again in 1943 as they retreated. Earlier it survived the great Chernihiv fire of 1750.

Initially built as the Church of St. Paraskevia, it was renamed after it became home to the Monastery in about the 18th century. The church was reconstructed beginning in 1955 using much of the original brick not destroyed during the German aerial bombardment.

The Boldyn Hill district of Chernihiv is the more rundown, poorer section of the city. However, it is rich with some of the oldest historical sites in Ukraine. At the top of Boldyn Hill - beyond the Soviet monument to the heroes of the Great War for the Fatherland, built by the Soviets after World War II and comparable to similar monuments found in almost all Soviet towns - are found two of the oldest pre-Christian era burial mounds in Ukraine. These are thought to be the last surviving kurhany of the Siveriany. The tumuli, each about eight feet high, are located no more than several yards beyond the Soviet memorial.

Further back, along a winding trail, the early Ukrainian Christians left signs of their activity as well. Below the site of St. Illia (Elijah) Church, which is situated at the other side of Boldyn Hill, are the catacombs and caves of the monk Antonii Pecherskyi, better known as a co-founder of the world-renowned Monastery of the Caves in Kyiv.

In the early part of the 11th century, Prince Mstyslav, who was attempting to turn Chernihiv into the center of his principality, asked Antonii to return to Chernihiv, where he was born, to build a monastery on Boldyn Hill.

Antonii founded Chernihiv Monastery, a second monastery of caves modeled after the Kyiv cloisters, but on a much smaller scale, inasmuch as Boldyn Hill, the lone elevated terrain in the area, was not large enough to allow for development on the scale of the Kyivan monastery.

Around the beginning of the 12th century, the church of St. Illia was constructed on the spot. In 1239, the church and the monastery below it were destroyed by the invading Tatar Mongol hordes. The human remains on display in one of the caves found in the labyrinths below the church are thought to be the bones of monks massacred during the onslaught.

At the front of the monastery stands the largest underground church in Ukraine, the church of St. Theodosius of Totma. It occupies a space 8.4 meters high from floor to ceiling and 16.5 meters in length, a small house of worship by almost every standard except the one that applies to underground churches.

One can find several more unusual monasteries near Boldyn Hill, including the 17th century Yeletskyi Women's Monastery and the Dormition Cathedral found within its walls. Nearby is the Trinity Monastery, where one can see unique icons inlaid into the face of the Trinity Sobor and take in the view from the top of the monastery's bell tower, which is nearly identical in design to the St. Sophia bell tower in Kyiv.

While some visitors to Chernihiv, which has been spruced up since the end of the Soviet era, may want to enjoy an overnight stay, it is good to know that the city offers few quality hotels, only one of which meets Western standards. The Slaviansky Hotel and Business Center has only 30 guest rooms, while the Hradetsky Hotel, with 180 rooms, lacks the accouterments Western visitors have come to expect. Only the Prydesniansky Hotel meets the basic requirements. The entourage of President Leonid Kuchma stays there when he visits his home village (found in Chernihiv Oblast).

While Chernihiv restaurants provide interesting atmosphere, the food is basic, providing little in the way of innovation or exoticism. You will not starve in Chernihiv, but don't expect an unforgettable culinary experience either.

This is a city that is best experienced on a one-day jaunt from Kyiv. Leave just after rush hour and be in Chernihiv by 11 a.m. The trip to the land of the Siveriany is scenic and stimulating. As you drive along the divided highway, enjoy the fields and the wide open spaces that provide fodder for grazing cows and horses. Note how the typical Ukrainian villager lives.

Watch the treetops, too, for not often will you see cranes flying about in such numbers. Look for them atop utility polls in the large, meter-wide nests they build, which seem almost man-made in their symmetry and accuracy of construction. And, remember, these cranes are a symbol of good fortune in Ukraine.

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