Church Drama
Saint Andrew’s Church. You cannot think of it as just another structure. It stepped into my life suddenly, emerging before my surprised eyes as a shining unearthly image against the dark sky with billions of bright stars, as a deity standing guard of our ancient city and its residents. It has since served as my guiding star showing the way to the heavens. Weary with daily problems, my tired soul moaning under their heavy burden, it is enough to take one look at that heavenly structure atop St. Andrew’s Hill to make that burden vanish. Instantly my heart is filled with a life-giving elixir, raising my consciousness far above all earthly trifles.
This church is still a mystery to me. Until recently it was always closed for restoration work. For the first time I approached the church, meaning to step inside, with a great deal of excitement and joy, eager to perceive some higher sense of being. Inside, however, I stopped, totally confused, not knowing how to respond to the interior that looked more like a stage setting; the hot red background of the iconostasis and shining gilded ornament were totally at variance with my concept of the house of God. Their rude intrusion caused a hazardous disharmony in my soul. All that gild-the-lily dОcor was oppressive. It was as though the church itself were in pain, eager to share its grief with me, tell me something extremely important. Suddenly I was overwhelmed by a desire to find the reason for that grief and unveil its mystery. Later I would discover how right I was. Behind that outward luxury the church concealed the tragedy of its life, an endless struggle to survive, as evidenced by history.
Chronicles have it that Saint Andrew stood atop a hill, later named for him, in the 1040s, foretelling the appearance of a big city, and setting up a wood cross. A wooden church was built there in 1086 and named for the saint. The Church of the Exaltation of the Cross was erected nearby in 1212, commemorating the foundation of Kyiv. The Mongol Tartars destroyed both churches in 1240. With time, another Church of the Exaltation of the Cross was built atop the hill. Wooden churches bearing the name would disappear and reappear in the same place till 1724 when the last one was “torn down by strong winds” and finally dismantled in 1725.
Elizabeth of Russia visited Kyiv in the spring of 1744 and decided to have a summer retreat — a palace and a church — built in the vicinity of a grape orchard in Pechersk (today’s Maryinsky Palace). The church was erected atop St. Andrew’s Hill. Planning a church at such distance from the palace was a unique instance in the history of architecture. The reason was that Saint Andrew was regarded as the guardian of the Russian empire. The ceremony of founding St. Andrew’s Church took place September 9, 1744, marking the beginning of its tragic history and struggle to survive.
The struggle began with architects Johann Gottfried Schadel and Bartolomeo Rastrelli fighting for the right to design St. Andrew’s Church. The great Italian architect at the Russian court in St. Petersburg won. The fact remains, however, that Rastrelli never visited Kyiv and his design was implemented by Moscow architect I.F. Michurin.
Building the church took a very long time. Subsidies were scarce and irregular and the terrain made the project especially difficult. Finally, after 8 years of toil, main construction works were completed in 1755. The church, with one dome and five cupolas, was erected on a 14-meter cruciform stylobate with decorative towers mounted on sturdy pillars at each end. The cruciform interior was a single-vault ensemble without any columns, decorated using Rastrelli’s design. Most icons of the iconostasis (more than 30 in all) were created by the noted Russian artist I.Ya. Vishnyakov in St. Petersburg (1751-52), at the head of a creative team including Bilsky, Firsov, Semenov, and Pospelov. Aleksey Antropov was dispatched to Kyiv in 1725 to supervise the arrangement of the iconostasis and wall decorations. I. Romensky and I. Chaikovsky did painting on the reverse side of the iconostasis facing the altar.
Interestingly, the church has no belfry. The reason is that it was a palatial, “home” church and bells did not have to be rung to summon the faithful. As it was, its absence gave rise to various superstitions and legends among the believers telling all kinds of stories about a church without bells on St. Andrew’s Hill. The church was sanctified August 19, 1767. On the Kyiv Metropolitan’s orders, the divine cervices were celebrated by St. Sophia’s monks.
Several years later, however, the situation changed essentially: the Seven Years’ War (1756-63), the death of Elizabeth in 1761, and the coming to power of Catherine II in 1762 — all this caused St. Andrew’s Church to be struck from the lists of palatial structures, thus depriving it of governmental subsidies. Services were no longer conducted and the church fell in decay. The situation was aggravated by the presence of two spring water basins in St. Andrew’s Hill. Having no free outflow passages, they thinned the freely soluble soil. This and precipitation caused varying degrees of landslide for as long as the church existed, with ground waters gnawing away at the foundation, the running cracks in the walls, and strong winds blowing away exterior ornamentation, parts of the cupolas, even crosses (e.g., in 1784 and 1809).
Even in such hazardous conditions there were people determined to make every effort to save the church. They constantly wrote to authorities about the church’s lamentable condition, requesting money for repair. Regrettably, what subsidies were allocated and repair done could not keep pace with the fatal force of ruination. The first major repair was made in 1785-86. Before 1787, all damaged outbuildings had been dismantled, yet major repair again became a pressing necessity at the start of the 19th century. The ruining process was gaining momentum. Repair was made again in 1825-28. Seventy years after construction the church had lost the inimitable dОcor of its cupolas. The hill, heavily damaged by rain, was reinforced in 1832. Another repair was made in 1844-45, in the course of which the cupolas lost what was left of their original splendor for want of funds. Part of the stylobate collapsed in 1850; in 1853 a hurricane tore off the roof and experts said the whole structure could collapse. In 1866-67, there was another repair during which a church was built underground at A.N. Muravyov’s initiative and named for Saint Sergius of Radonezh. Works to reinforce St. Andrew’s Hill had been completed before the spring of 1869, but the church was again in need of major repair in the early 1890s (among other things it was struck by lightning in 1892). In the course of repair, in 1895-1900, the original design of the cupolas was distorted (it would be restored only in the 1980s, using original Rastrelli’s drawings discovered by sheer chance in Vienna). Meanwhile, landslides continued, damaging the structure.
In 1918, after the Bolsheviks came to power, St. Andrew’s Church was proclaimed an architectural site and placed under state protection. Repair and restoration works were carried out in 1936. For the first time the place seemed to be in good condition. That same year the church was made part of the so- called museum town of old Kyiv and given the museum branch status. In 1939, the church became a branch of the “Kyiv-Sophia Antireligious Museum” and the stylobate accommodated service rooms. In 1949-59, the Theological Seminary of Kyiv leased St. Andrew’s Church; it had become a seminary church. Another repair took place in 1965-67 and it was now an architectural history museum. Landslides followed in 1969. In 1970- 72, the slope was reinforced by a semicircle of driven cast-in-place ferroconcrete piles. This made it precipitous and landslides became disastrous. Since 1995 trees have fallen off, with the foundation being washed out from under the porch, forming cavities that would soon reach the church foundation proper.
And yet the church is now in full conformity with Rastrelli’s concept and is open to the public, although its life remains under threat. The main thing is that the church is still alive, showing us an example of courage and inspiring hope in Kyivans. Maybe it is its mission, but does this relieve us of the responsibility for the destiny of this guardian deity?
I walked down Andriyivsky Uzviz, turned and raised my eyes to see the azure crystal of St. Andrew’s Church shimmering on the clear blue horizon, amidst the white-golden dОcor.
