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St. Elijah
church
 On
the west of the Boldyn Hill above the boundless Desna high-water
bed among Slavic burial mounds the huge
ensemble of St. Trinity – St. Elijah
monastery rises. At the bottom of the hill there is a small St.
Elijah church which is the oldest memorial of this monastery
ensemble.First it was a place for
christening. It was a small domical church
which consisted of rectangular women part, nave and semicircular
apse. The smallish vestibule abutted
upon the west side of the women
part. Annals don’t recollect the time of church construction, so
there is no single viewpoint among the researchers about the time of
its building up. The criterion to date the monument is the study of
its architecture, building technology, material. The majority of
researches relate St. Elijah church to the end of the XII century.The
modern view of St. Elijah church is the result of the XVII – XVIII
century reconstructions. During the Mongol-Tatar invasion (1239)
the church was destroyed. At the end of the XVI century the walls
were adorned with the cornice. Small domes were built above the apse
and the women
part and the church turned into three-dome.
The vestry was attached to the south side of the apse. The monument
survived fundamental reconstructions
in the middle of the XVII century: instead of disassembled vestibule
a big faceted room was built to make the
church area bigger. A multi-tier top was built above the central
dome. The dome above the old women part
was disassemble and a new one was built above the annex. As a result
of these reconstructions the monument got features of Ukrainian
baroque style. Outside and inside the church was plastered and
whitewashed.
A
predominant feature of the interior is high-altitude principle
of opening the internal space. The main feature is using the elements
of Byzantine crusiform system along with pillarless temple
composition which is typical for wooden architecture. An ancient
décor
was lost. Neither fresco
nor glazed ceramic dalle remained.
Only
iconostasis (1774) in
rococo style with interpreted
Corinthian order remained. St. Elijah church was restored according
to M.M. Hovdenko’s project in 1970s. Nowadays St. Elijah church is
the only building of such type of Kyiv Russ architecture which
completely remained. It initiated the development of three-fraction
church type in Ukrainian brickwork architecture of the ХІІІ
– ХVІІІ
centuries.
In
1908-1910 a three-tier bell-tower like “octahedron on tchetverik”
was built to the north-west of St. Elijah church. The lower two-tier
tchetverik is made of bricks, the upper – octahedron – is wooden.
A two-tier baroque style dome crowns the tower.
Since 1967
St. Elijah church has affiliated National architectural-historic Park
“Ancient Chernihiv” and now is one of its museums.
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