HISTORY AND I/CULTURE

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Kyivan Cave Monastery loses its gate

Mid-19th century architectural monument destroyed in Kyiv

Photo by Mykhailo MARKIV

Unpleasant news awaits visitors to the National Kyivan Cave Historical- Cultural Preserve: they will no longer be able to feast their eyes on the gate at the entryway to the Lower Lavra. This architectural monument, erected in 1850, disappeared from the preserve during the night of Monday, Oct. 8. Employees arriving for work at the Lavra were the first to notice that the gate was missing. They found the remains of this mighty structure later: a pile of old bricks, the metal covering, and parts of the gate made of wrought iron. The malefactors left all this rubble in Olenivsky Courtyard at the Hostynny dvir.

According to Olena Cherniakhivska, the director of the scholarly- research department, all this happened without the knowledge of the preserve’s administration and without any project-budgetary documentation.

“We learned that the dismantling of the gate was done on the order of the Holy Dormition Kyivan Cave Lavra,” Cherniakhivska explained to The Day. “Its administrators explained this situation by claiming that the monument has to be restored. Our employees saw similar information posted on a plaque near the turnpike next to the place where the gate used to stand. It stated that visitors have to enter the preserve through the park alley because the Western Gate is being restored. Of course, our institution, being a preserve too, also deals with the restoration of architectural monuments, but we don’t need any assistance here.”

The representatives of the preserve have appealed to the community for help, and they will be preparing letters to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of Ukraine with a request to implement necessary measures: it is not inconceivable that the case will reach the Prosecutor’s Office. According to the data of the preserve, the book value of the destroyed monument is nearly 6,000 hryvnias, and its estimated value is over 290,000.

Speaking about the value of the dismantled architectural monument, Cherniakhivska underlined that structures on the territory of the Kyivan Cave Historical-Cultural Preserve are considered not only national but world relics. The destroyed gate was also on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

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