Collegium.
In
the center of Chernihiv on the border of former fortress rampart –
ancient historical center, one of the most wonderful buildings of the
city now known as Collegium is situated. Once this building was
included to the cathedral Borys and Hlib monastery - residence of
Chernihiv archbishops. It consists of a long two-storey building of a
monastery refectory and a bell-tower attached to it.
Chernihiv
archbishop Lazar Baranovych who moved in Chernihiv in 1672 started to
expand the cathedra. Maybe building of a refectory was started on
his initiative.
In 1700 – 1702 Chernihiv archbishop Ioann Maksymovych got
encouragement and financing from hetman Ivan Mazepa and built a
bell-tower attached to it, connected it to the second floor of a
refectory which had All
Saints Church in its eastern part. Two domes of this church have not
remained. Dome
foundation board with Ivan Mazepa’s emblem and recording of his
money offerings is exhibited here to be an evidence of hetman’s
patronage.
The dome
had a
church named
in honor of saint hetman patron – St. John the Precurser. A
well-known regional descriptor of the XVIII
century Opanas Shafons’kyi informed that during the foundation
digging a silver idol was found. Silver Holy gates for cathedral
monastery were made of it. Hetman Ivan Mazepa’s emblem was also
engraved on the gates.
In the end
of the XIX
century a porch in Russian architecture style was attached to the
western side of the dome. In researchers’ opinion a volume-space
arrangement of this building comes from Russian complex buildings
lengthened west-east, which included two-storey refectory (on the
ground floor) with church and dome. The decoration of a building is
close to Russian style especially of its south facade faced to Borys
and Hlib monastery: platbands
of different shapes, semi-columns, lines of arrises, majolica
inserts, niches,
columnar frieze
make thick carpet with traceries.
The top of a dome is decorated with ceramic icons “God’s Mother”
and “The Vernicle Image of the Saviour”.
Since 1749
classes of philosophy of Chernihiv Collegium (which was located on
the territory of this monastery in 1700-1776) were held in the
refectory because of lack of apartments in Borys and Hlib monastery.
Chernihiv Collegium is the first educational institution of higher
level in Left-Bank Ukraine which operated from 1700 to 1786.
Collegium
was founded on the sample
of Kiev Mohyla Academy,
which imitated principles of organization, tutorials
of Western Europe universities and
collegiums. Basic
attention was paid to
the study of Latin, less attention - to
the Church Slavonic language,
later they began
to study Russian. They
studied also
Polish, Greek,
German, French and Theory
of poetry, Rhetoric,
Philosophy, Mathematics, and Geography etc. Cossacks, citizens,
clergy, peasants studied here
too. Collegium trained well-educated
personnel
for government
service,
interpreters,
literary men, clerics and physicians.
Among the
students of Chernihiv Collegium there are names of about twenty known
physicians of the XVIII century: they are P.A. Zagorskyi (an
academician, founder of the first anatomic school in Russia), Y.T.
Bilopol'skyi (a chief doctor in O.V. Suvorov’s army), F.I.
Politkovskyi (professor of Moscow University, prominent clinician)
and others. In 1786 Collegium was reorganized to become a theological
seminary. During the reconstruction of the
monument and adaptation for different establishments after monastery
closing the remains of decorations were destroyed. During the Second
World War the building was burned out. In 1954 – 1959 it was
restored according to the project of Kyiv architect M.M. Hovdenko,
architectural decor was also renewed.
Nowadays the administration of National
architectural-historical
park “Chernihiv ancient”,
permanent exhibitions of Ukrainian icon-painting, display devoted to
Chernihiv Collegium and the exhibition “Chernihiv
and Chernihivites hundred years ago” take place here.
