Arbitrariness under the golden domes
Returning the Kyiv Cave Monastery to state ownership may be the only way to protect it from falling into disrepair.
While the market economy-mindset is asserting its hegemonic position, national treasures are gradually degrading and deteriorating. The current situation of the Kyiv-Pechersk historic-cultural complex on the territory of the Lower Lavra (the Near and Far Caves), which is rented by the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, can serve as a clear example of such a situation. The territory of the Upper Lavra is still under the jurisdiction of the heritage site directorate.
According to the Ukrainian legislation on the protection of monuments, any construction activity in the complex should be aimed at preserving the historical and architectural environment of past centuries. The only other types of activities which are allowed relate to the necessary restoration and repairs, reconstruction of engineering networks and drainage systems, and activities linked to foundation reinforcement.
The situation on the territory of the Lavra architectural ensemble remains extremely delicate, almost critically so. Soon after the reconstruction of the Uspensky Cathedral (in winter 2001) a gully appeared and a tractor fell through it. A little later, in another Upper Lavra site, a large tree, together with its crown, fell down into a new gully. The gullies are constantly covered with broken stones, sand, clay, and then filled up with concrete, but it’s of little help: they emerge in new places. There are now disturbing signs near building No. 30 (the former art school), on the area of the Upper Lavra.
The instability of the soil leads to the deformations of the buildings’ foundations. The tall, dominant structure of the Lavra ensemble and, one can say, a face of Kyiv – the Big Lavra Belltower — is now in a dire condition. Visiting the observation area on the third tier of the belltower is already forbidden; a fence is put around the perimeter to protect people from falling fragments of ruining facades.
Anxiety regarding the future of the Lavra architectural ensemble is most frequently observed in the mass media and in letters by specialists in hydro-geology to the government. Recent studies by specialists from the Center for Aerial Space Surveys of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences prove that in recent years the intensity of landslide processes on the slopes near the Dnipro considerably increased, especially in the area of the Kyiv Cave Monastery.
Based on these facts specialists of the National Kyiv-Pechersk historical and cultural heritage site advocate that extreme measures be taken, at the highest state level, to remove the threat of ruining the unique architectural ensemble. It should be noted that the ensemble, together with the ancient buildings complex of the site Kyiv Sophia, could be excluded from the UNESCO World Heritage List because of unlawful new buildings.
The territory of the Lower Lavra has been transformed into a real building site, in violation of the legislation. Most of the construction activities are aimed at erecting new alien objects (rather than preserving the historical environment), which introduce aesthetic disharmony into the environment, and obviously don’t enhance its physical stability. The monastery’s administration shamelessly calls everything taking place there: “a manifestation of God’s will.”
Due to building and construction activities base walls holes in some places of the Lower Lavra were broken to make space for heavy building machinery: trucks, concrete mixers, bulldozers, truck cranes, etc. This led to shaking of the Lavra hills. As a result, some parts of the Upper Lavra were repeatedly ruined (which is occasionally reported in the press). Historical buildings of the Lower Lavra are often completely demolished, and instead of them new ones are erected, in incongruous “kitschy” forms, which contrast with stylistic peculiarities of historical monastery building plan. The traditional monastery layout is unceremoniously violated for no reason on some plots.
For example, in the former Lavra’s Hostynny Dvir (Shopping Arcade), instead of a number of demolished hotel buildings (which stretched in the direction of Dnipro and due to this served as some anti-landslide buttresses), a “cottage town” of new houses was erected: private buildings with extra amenities, administrative buildings, hotels, garages, cellars, etc. Their stretched axes are for some reason perpendicular, relative to the randomly preserved ancient buildings. The sense of dissonance is worsened by Hollywood-like architectural forms of the buildings on the Hostynny Dvir, as well as spontaneous parking of luxury cars.
INSTEAD OF BAROQUE – THE NEW MOSCOW STYLE
Many precious architectural monuments in the Lower Lavra are not restored, but illegally reconstructed (rebuilt, extended, and redesigned). Consequently, their original authentic appearance is changed beyond recognition. As a result of such a barbarous reconstruction great exemplars of the classic epoch are incorrigibly disfigured – like the building of the Near Caves’ chief, erected at the beginning of the 19th century and based on the layout of the hetman’s architect Oleksii Yanovsky.
In recent years the territory of the Lower Lavra has seen a number of small forms exemplars ruined, especially the tabernacles over the St. Antony and St. Feodosy wells in the Far Caves – great works from the end of the 19th century, artistic iron-castings made on the basis of projects by the architectural scholar Volodymyr Nikolaiev. Instead of these light bowers, dumb brick octahedral cabins were built. It would seem that the main purpose of many of those activities is to launder money.
Again, in the Far Caves, on the small territory near the Virgin Mary Nativity Church, one can encounter two big bronze statues to St. Cyril and St. Methodius (three times human height). Our Orthodox ancestors supposed three-dimensional sculpture to be idolatry, and to honor saints they built temples, chapels or separate sanctuaries in temples. The statues not only look alien, but are also not to scale: the area for their observation should be three times bigger.
What happened near the Virgin Mary Nativity Church itself is equally surprising. The ancient necropolis located around the temple has been subject to unceremonious re-planning, and authentic epitaphs have been replaced by unified, boring, but perhaps, in the opinion of the clergy, “canonical” monuments. Looking at the interior of the Virgin Mary Nativity Church in the Far Caves, the serious violations of the building are immediately visible: painting-fragments of the Ukrainian baroque epoch which were here before are now brought down from the walls and replaced by modern compositions in the “new Moscow” style.
One can’t help mentioning one more acivity of the monastery's clergy that threatens the architectural ensemble of the Lavra, — the monastery’s lively economic activities that bring considerable profits but are apparently harmful to the historical environment. For example, on the territory of the Lower Lavra there are plots supposedly for vegetable gardens (right over the cave complexes), which are abundantly watered. It is done despite the fact that in some places of the caves landslides occur, and no ways to renew them are developed! In the past, monks placed orchards and vegetable gardens outside the monastery, mainly on the hill where the giant sculpture to the Motherland now rises.
That is why any new construction in the heritage site, as well as the violation of its territory by vehicles, should be banned. Anyone who wants to visit this scared place should be obliged to act as our pious ancestors did in the old times. I experienced a shock when I came up to the Book History Museum. Here, in a dangerous landslide zone, almost directly above the underground complex of the Near Caves, a building site the size of half a soccer field is being cleared. In response to my questions, the workers answered that candle works would be built here.
But how can anything like this be tolerated? These utilitarian use objects will hide the view of the historical ensemble from the left bank. Moreover, they will also create additional landslide threats, both to surface and underground historical objects, which are under strict protection.
HOW TO PRESERVE NATIONAL HERITAGE
I decided to get together with the general director of the National Kyiv-Pechersk historic-cultural monument Serhii Krolevets. And he completely agreed with my keen criticism on what is happening and stated that he himself undertook the hard but inefficient struggle for order in the heritage site. “Problems are accumulated over years and decades, and it looks as if the state has washed its hands; there is no reaction to our protests from public procurator’s office,” stated Krolevets, spreading his hands.
A very difficult legal collision, Krolevets supposes, appeared because of contradictions in the recent presidential decrees and governmental resolutions. Many monuments were given to the disposal of clergy from different confessions according to the order — confirmed by the resolution of president Leonid Kuchma, from March 21, 2002. “On returning the property seized during Soviet times to the ownership of church communities.” Our politicized public servants, giving monuments of architecture to the clergy’s disposal, were thinking about attracting votes of believers during elections. Moreover, they were happy to pass the cost of restoring and maintaining the monuments on to the clergy.
The monastery’s administration doesn’t consider it necessary to consult with specialists regarding the project-estimate documentation for objects under restoration and reconstruction, and in any way complicates access to these objects. The clergy keeps the names of the project authors and information about companies and organizations involved secret. The site administration doesn’t receive reports about archaeological researches which are mandatory before any building can take place; the information whether they are done at all, and how archaeological operations are undertaken, is not reported.
According to Serhii Krolevets’ information, currently on the site's territory, thanks to the initiative of the monastery's clergy, 11 new buildings have appeared with a total area of about 15,000 sq. meters. However, the site administration doesn’t know to whom and on what basis those buildings belong, or if they are registered in the Technical Inventory Bureau.
Isn’t it high time for representatives of the scientific community to have their say? Can further ruining of the Lavra architectural complex be tolerated? Will we fail to preserve for our descendants such a unique Kyivan relic?
In my opinion, the state should absolutely take back the architectural complex, assuming all expenses for its maintenance. Losses of the Lavra clergy can be compensated by giving them more land in the locations belonging to them, — Kytaivsky Hermitage, Holosiivo and so on.
National spiritual heritage, notably the complex of the Kyiv Cave Monastery buildings, shouldn’t belong to some religious communities or confessions. This is the heritage of the entire nation. The whole progressive community of Ukraine should unite its efforts to save the unique Lavra architectural complex and its caves, demanding decisive measures from the country's government on this matter.
