Christianity was officially introduced into Kievan Rus by Grand Prince Volodymyr Sviatoslavych in the late 10th century, though before that Prince Askold and Princess Olha were baptised. As the chronicle has it, as far as the mid-10th century in Podil stood the first wooden Christian church of the Prophet Elias, and at the end of the same century Prince Volodymyr built the first brick Church of the Tithes. It was ruined by Mongol-Tartars in 1240.

To our days the most valuable Old Rus Orthodox sanctuary, the St. Sophia of Kiev, has been preserved. Till the 11th century the Sofiyska Square where it stands was but a field out of town where time and again the Kiev warriors fought desperately against nomads, who strove to conquer the rich town. To commemorate one of such victories, the chronicler states, in 1037 (or 1017 according to other statements) Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise founded the St. Sophia Cathedral dedicated to Divine Wisdom. He expanded the citadel and the cathedral became the centre of the city.

The St. Sophia Cathedral was the principal Metropolitan church of Kievan Rus, its social and cultural centre. It was there that Grand Princes were enthroned, and foreign ambassadors received. A scholar circle appeared at the cathedral that played a role of Old Rus Academy. There foreign books were translated, copied and commented, first chronicles were written, first original works composed, and a school worked. And the mysterious fate of the library collected by Prince Yaroslav and kept there, that disappeared in the Middle Ages, still intrigues the researchers.

In the course of its 950-year existence the St. Sophia Cathedral has endured numerous enemy attacks, destructions, plunders, repairs and reconstructions. In the 17th-18th centuries a stone monastic ensemble, a masterpiece of the Ukrainian Baroque, sprang up around the Cathedral. In the 19th century it was added with several structures and now consists of the bell tower, the Metropolitan's residence, the seminary, the refectory, cells of the Cathedral Elders, West (Zaborovsky) Gate and South Gate, the bakery and a stone fence. The Cathedral itself acquired Baroque features being adorned with decorative pediments and intricate Baroque stuccowork. To support the building strong buttresses were attached, while the facades were plastered.

Having been declared a preserve since 1934 (in 1994 it got the status of a national preserve), in 1987 the St. Sophia of Kiev, as a unique work of 11th-century architecture and monumental art of world significance and to mark works on its research and restoration, was awarded the European Gold Medal for preservation of historical monuments. In 1990 it was entered into the UNESCO World Heritage list.

This list includes also the unique ensemble of the Kiev-Pechery Lavra of the Holy Dormition, one of the oldest Orthodox monasteries in Rus. It was founded in the mid-11th century by monk Anthony in the caves (Old Rus pechery) of the hilly right bank of the Dnipro, not far from the Princes out-of-town residence at the village of Berestove. Being a great and most influential Orthodox monastery, it received the status of the Lavra (officially from 1688).

The Great Church, or the Dormition Cathedral, is a compositional centre of the architectural en semble and the main church of the monastery This first brick structure of the Lavra was built in 1073-1078 (consecrated in 1089) on the initiative of Hegumens Anthony and Theodosius and Prince Sviatoslav Iziaslavych In the 18th century the cathedral was rebuilt It acquired a new picturesque multi-domed outline and was solved in the Ukrainian Baroque style with characteristic ornate decorations and painting on fronts In olden times there was a burial vault of Kievan Princes, Ukrainian and Lithuanian magnates, and the higher clergy, the Lavra sacristy, as well as a library that kept invaluable treasures and cultural relics On November 3, 1941, during the city's occupation by the Nazi invaders the cathedral was blown up (the committers of this crime have not yet been identified) During 1999-2000 the Dormition Cathedral was reconstructed.

The Upper Lavra grounds accommodate beautiful Baroque structures from the 17th-18th centuries: the cells of the Cathedral Elders, the Kovnir Building (the former bakery, shop to bake communion bread, book shop, and cells), that got its name after the Lavra master builder S. Kovnir who merged in harmony four structures from different times; the Refectory Church of St. Nicholas of the former Infirmary Monastery attached to the Lavra, founded in the 12th century; the All Saints' Church; Dormition Cathedral, Greate Bell Tower of Lavra (1731/44) and the towers of fortified walls. The construction history of the well-known Lavra printshop, founded in 1615, that was built during the 18th-19th centuries found its reflection in its architectural aspect.

The impressive structure of the Refectory with the Church of Saint Anthony and Theodosius in the Russo-Byzantine style was built in 1895 after the design by architect V. Nikolayev. Its interior decoration, executed by artists I. Izhakevych, A. Lakov, and H. Popov, under the guidance of Academician of Architecture A. Schusev, was completed in 1910.

The wonderful view of the Lower Lavra opens from the ground near the 19th-century building of the former painting school. At the entrance to the Near Caves rises the three-domed Church of the Exaltation of the Cross with the refectory built in the Baroque style in 1700-1704. Its interior has preserved the carved gilded iconostasis of 1769 and paintings from the 18th-19th centuries. Two refined Baroque belfries enhance the Lower Lavra ensemble: one is at the Near Caves (built in 1759-1786 by master S. Kovnir) and the other - at the Far Caves (built also by S. Kovnir after the design by architect I. Hryhorovych-Barsky in 1761). One more unique monument of the 17th-century Ukrainian Baroque is the seven-domed Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin (now it is the Academy church). To the south-east of it stands the one-domed Church of the Conception of St. Anne, built in 1679, reconstructed in 1811, and painted by artist I. Kviatkovsky.

The underground labyrinths of the Near and Far Caves are the Lavra's main sanctuary. Originally, the caves served as dwellings for the monks, later on the Pechery saints were buried there. The labyrinths are an intricate system of underground corridors, 2 to 2.5 metres high and up to 1.5 metres wide, having been dug out in the dry loess soil. That, along with the constant temperature of 10-12°C and natural ventilation, provided favourable conditions for mummification. About 600 metres of cave galleries have been discovered and investigated. They are provided with niches where tombs with relics of Lavra's saints are set out. Buried here were the notable figures of Kievan Rus whose relics lie in loculi, crypts and shrines: Anthony, the founder of the monastery; Nestor, the writer and, possibly, a chronicler; Simon and Polycarp, compilers of The Kiev-Pechersk Patenkon, a collection of the lives of the Lavra monks (13th c.); artist Alipy and healers Agapit and Damian; Illia Muromets, a hero of folk epic; Nicholas the Pious (Chernihiv Prince Sviatoslav); the Roman Bishop Clement, and many others. Well-known also is a monastic aboveground cemetery where Lavra monks, statesmen, scholars, and honoured cultural figures were buried.

The unique collections of the preserve are displayed at exhibitions and several large museums in the Lavra grounds: the Museum of Book and Book Printing, the Museum of Historical Treasures, the Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art, and the Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema.

One of the most famous holy places in the Christian world, the Kiev-Pechery Lavra attracts as before thousands of pilgrims and tourists.

Beyond the earth ramparts of the old Pechery fortress of the 17th century, to the north of the Husbandry Gate of the Lavra, stands another Old Rus sanctuary, a small brick Church of the Transfiguration of Our Saviour, known more as the Church of Our Saviour at Berestove. It got its name from the birch grove (Ukrainian beresta stands for birch bark) that surrounded the suburban residence of the Grand Prince. Chronicle testifies that in 1015, there, in his out-of-town palace, died Prince Volodymyr Sviatoslavych who baptised Rus in the late 10th century. The church is first mentioned under the year of 1072. In 1096 it was ruined by the Polovtsians. A new church was erected by the Grand Prince of Kiev, Volodymyr Monomachus, between 1113 and 1125. Attached to it was the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration devastated by the horde of Batu Khan in 1240. Only its western part, the rectangular narthex, has survived of its original volume. The foundations of this ancient structure discovered in archaeological excavations are marked on the ground surface. The church was a cruciform three-domed structure built with the use of the stone-laying technique typical of the early 12th century and its facades were adorned with brick ornamentation made in the form of crosses, triangles and meander frieze. In 1640-1643 the survived part of the church was restored and painted on the initiative and donations of Metropolitan Petro Mohyla. In the late 17th-mid-18th century the narthex was enlarged with the western brick plastered pentagonal volume and new domes were built. Thus, the church acquired typical appearance of a five-domed Ukrainian church. The two-tiered Classical belfry to the design by A. Melensky was erected in 1813-1814.

The church served as a family burial vault of the Monomachus Princes. There were buried Monomachus's children Euphimia (1138) and Yuri Dolgoruky (1157), and his grandson Hlib (1172). In 1947, to mark the 800th anniversary of Moscow a symbolic Old Rus sarcophagus for Yuri Dolgoruky, the founder of Moscow, was installed in the narthex. The Church of Our Saviour at Berestove is included in the Kiev-Pechery National Historico-Cultural Preserve. Church services are conducted there on Sundays.

St. Michael's Monastery of the Golden Domes, along with the St. Sophia of Kiev, makes up an inimitable portrait of the historical part of the Old City. The territory where it stands began to be built up with paternal monasteries of the Iziaslavychi Princes from the mid-11th century. The son of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, Iziaslav-Demetrius, first founded St. Demetrius's Monastery with the church of the same name (built in 1062) in honour of his patron saint, St. Demetrius of Thessalonica.

In 1108-1113, to the north of St. Demetrius's Monastery Prince Sviatoslav-Michael Iziaslavych built the Church of the Holy Archangel Michael that got the name of the Golden-Domed and became the centre of the monastery of the same name. St. Michael's Cathedral of the Golden Domes was decorated, as other Old Rus churches, with frescos and mosaics, the floor was made of ceramic and inlaid slate tiles. During the Mongol-Tartar invasion only St. Michael's Cathedral escaped destruction, all the buildings of nearby monasteries were ruined. With time, St. Michael's Monastery was restored. In the 17th century it grew in fame as the residence of the Orthodox Metropolitans after the Uniates seized the St. Sophia Cathedral. Substantial construction works were undertaken in its territory in the 17th-18th centuries. The Monastery became one of the most powerful in Kiev. At that time the Cathedral was enlarged and it acquired features of the Ukrainian Baroque style, the Refectory was built with the Church of St John the Theologian, as well as the bell tower, walls, and the Husbandry Gate. Inside the Cathedral a fine iconostasis was installed, donated by Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky Kievan Princes, including Sviatopolk Iziaslavych, the founder of the cathedral, were buried there, and also Metropolitans lov Boretsky and Isaia Kopynsky, archimandrites and other famous men. In the 19th - early 20th century new structures were built in the Monastery territory St. Michael's Cathedral of the Golden Domes was one of the most revered sanctuaries not only as a masterpiece of art and outstanding monument of history but also because it was dedicated to the heavenly patron of Kiev.

In 1934 the construction of the governmental centre was begun at the upper terrace of Volodymyrska Hill, whose complex was to be located in the direction of Sofiyska Square (only the building of the Communist Party Headquarters was erected in today's Mykhailivska Square).

Some unique monuments of Old Rus art were dismantled Several frescos and mosaics were transferred to the St Sophia of Kiev Preserve, while part of them later came to Moscow and Leningrad museums. In 1934-1936 the Cathedral together with the 18th-century bell tower and some other structures was demolished. In 1997-2000 the monastery complex was re-constructed. Its architectural ensemble includes the re-created St. Michael's Cathedral of the Golden Domes and the bell tower, the refectory with the Church of St. John the Theologian built in 1713-1715 in the Ukrainian Baroque style and painted in the 19th century, three buildings of the Brotherhood cells of the 19th, early 20th century, the husbandry cellar (early 18th c), and hotels of the turn of the 20th century. New bells with a computer clock have been installed in the bell tower that every 15 minutes play Ukrainian melodies (23 in all). Works are going on for the reconstruction of interior paintings in the cathedral and bell tower after the design by I and L Totskys. Unique tasks face restorers to re-create the 12th-century frescos and mosaics (150 figures of saints in the central part of the cathedral), murals, and iconostases of the 17th-18th centuries. The museum has been organised in the monastery to acquaint visitors with the original works of art previously withdrawn from it.

The European Baroque in church architecture is represented in Kiev by an outstanding work of Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli, St. Andrew's Church, built in honour of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. Its elegant silhouette on Andrnvska Hill rises high into the sky above Andn-ivsky Descent, Podil and the Dnipro valley. It was built in 1747-1762 to order of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna whose monogram decorates the gilt cartouches on pediments. The church for the imperial retinue was designed in harmony with the Tsar's Palace in Lypky. B. F. Rastrelli supervised the construction and the Moscow engineer and architect 1. Michurin directed the works. The designer's conception was not realised in its entirety. It was accomplished later, during the 1974-1987 restoration made after Rastrelli's drawings found in the Albertina Museum in Vienna.

The church is saltire in plan, its facades and projections are effectively adorned with clustered pilasters and columns, exquisite lines of perfectly curved decorated domes, capitals, pediments, medallions and cartouches, garlands and window cornices. The central massive dome of 10 metres in diameter is lightened by four small ones resembling turrets. A 15-metre high stylobate, that housed the two-storey residence of the Prior, adds greatly to the effectiveness of the structure (its general height is 60 metres). The terrace with a balustrade runs around the church. The entrance is approached by the magnificent cast-iron staircase.

The interior decorations executed also after the sketches by Rastrelli fully fit the Baroque style of the exteriors. The stuccowork in the space under the cupola and the three-tiered carved purple icon-ostasis with numerous volutes, cartouches, putti, garlands, acanthus leaves, and The Crucifixion sculptural composition crowning the iconostasis, a pulpit with figures of angels supporting it, the gilt canopy over the altar-rotunda, vivid paintings on the cupola and walls give it a solemn and festive appearance. The decor was executed by Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Ukrainian artists.

Now St. Andrew's Church is a branch of the St. Sophia of Kiev Preserve. The stylobate houses the Theological Academy and Seminary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate.

The cathedral church of the Kiev Patriarchate is St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Shevchenka Boulevard. It is dedicated to the Grand Prince Volodymir who baptised Rus and was canonised for this deed. It had been built for 20 years on free-will donations that were not sufficient enough. In its designing took part architects A. Beretti, R. Bernhard, V. Nikolayev, P. Sparro, I. Strom. The construction of the Cathedral under the guidance of V. Nikolayev was completed in 1882, but its ceremonial consecration took place in August 1896 when the painting and decoration works were finished. Built in the Russo-Byzantine style, the Cathedral was solved as a monument to glorify Old Rus history and national traditions. In plan, it is a cruciform rectangular building of pyramidal composition crowned by seven domes with massive gilt crosses. The height to the cross of the main dome is 49 metres. The main entrance door is adorned with bronze sculptures of Saint Princess Olha (sculptor R. Bach) and Saint Prince Volodymyr (sculptor H. Zaleman) against a blue background.

The paintings are executed by famous artists S. Kostenko, V. Kotarbinsky, M. Nesterov, M. Pymonenko, R Svedomsky, V. Vasnetsov, M. Vrubel, and V. Zamyrailo, under the guidance of Professor A. Prakhov. The paintings made by V. Vasnetsov exhibit great emotional strength and colour saturation. He painted almost three thousand square metres of walls, including the nave. The austere sadness and resoluteness are felt in the beautiful eyes of the Holy Mother of God, foreseeing inevitable sufferings of Her Son and His death on the cross. Her monumental representation (10.5 metres high) in the chancel is the compositional centre of the picturesque ensemble of the Cathedral. Of great interest are Vasnetsov's historical compositions: The Baptism of Volodymyr and The Baptism of Kievites.

Kyev has always been a multinational city and representatives of non-Orthodox religious communities built their churches there. Thus, St. Nicholas's Roman Catholic Church with the building for the parish clergy stands in Chervonoarmiyska Street as an unexpected and original accent in terms of Kyev architecture. It was erected in 1899-1909 after the competition design of S. Volovsky by architect V. Horodetsky who revised the design and supervised the construction. Architect V Nikolayev, engineers 0. Kobelev and A. Straus (inventor of piles) took part in designing the complex structures of the cast-in-place concrete pile foundations. New progressive materials - artificial granite, stone-like plasters, reinforced concrete, facing ceramic tiles - were widely used in its construction. The scuiptural works were executed in the workshop of the Italian by birth sculptor E. Sala responsible for decoration of many Horodetsky's buildings in Kyev.The church is built in the medieval Gothic forms. Its height is 62 metres. Crowned with a high stepped pediment and pointed towers with octahedral tent-shaped spires, it is lavishly decorated with stuccowork (leaves, crabs, cruciform flowers), coloured glazed tiles, high stained-glass windows. Three portals are embellished with sculptures, turrets, balustrades, and a big rose window over the central portal. The fronts are faced with blocks of artificial stone, and all architectural and sculptural adornments are made of it. The plane surfaces of the walls are faced with small red glazed tiles. Its interiors are of the same style, also lavishly decorated.

In the 1930s the church was closed down for divine services. During World War II it was bitterly ruined. The last scientific restoration of 1979-1980 gave the structure its original appearance. Since 1979 it has been used as the Republican House of Organ and Chamber Music, and recently divine services have been recommenced there.

Numerous churches are an adornment of Kyev. Built at different times and by different masters they visually represent art and tastes of their time. Recently the Church of the Dormition of Our Lady (Pyrogoscha) has been re-created after Old Rus analogies in Kontraktova Square. The Old Rus Lay of Ihor's Host concludes with such words: "Ihor rides along Borychev Descent to the holy Church of Our Lady Pyrogoscha, lands are glad, cities are joyous. "The mention of the church in the poem is an evidence of its great significance in the life of Kyev. Construction works, begun by Kyevan Prince Mstyslav (son of Volodymyr Monomachus) in 1131, lasted to 1136. One of the versions of the origin of its name explains that the church's main icon, brought from Byzantium, had the representation of towers (pyrgos in Greek) of the Blachern Monastery in Constantinople. After the Mongol-Tartar invasion the church became the cathedral church of Kyev, there the city archives were kept, church festivals celebrated, and famous Kyevites buried (in particular, architect I. Hryhorovych-Barsky).

The church underwent numerous reconstructions, and in 1935 it was demolished. On the initiative of Kyevites, in the 1980s donations began to come in for re-creating this Old Rus monument, and a city competition was held for the design of the church. It was built in 1991-1998 in the forms of the 12th century (architects Yu. Aseyev, V. Shevchenko, M. Zharykov, R. Kukharenko, V. Otchenashko). The small one-domed church is a bold attempt to re-create the famous Old Rus structure.