The Transfiguration Cathedral in Novhorod-Siverskyi: Classicism above the Desna

The cathedral on the hill above the Desna changed its face three times, but never its place. First there stood a church of the princely era, then it was rebuilt in the Baroque, and at the end of the 18th century came Classicism, to the drawings of an Italian who built for St Petersburg.

In brief

History

According to tradition, the monastery was founded in the 11th century by Prince Mstyslav of Tmutarakan; the year most often given is 1033. In writing, the monastery is first mentioned only in 1552. The main church here was built of masonry as early as the late 12th – early 13th century and, according to researchers, was the only church of the Novhorod-Siverskyi principality to survive the Mongol invasion.

After that the cathedral lived with its time. In the 16th century it was adorned with white-stone carving, and in the 17th it was rebuilt into a three-aisled, many-domed Baroque church. This form became a model for the Trinity Cathedral in Chernihiv and other many-domed churches of the Left Bank.

The monastery meanwhile grew. In 1657–1672 it was the residence of Archbishop Lazar Baranovych; in 1674 a printing house was founded at the monastery, and in 1679 it was moved to Chernihiv. On 17 December 1668 Demian Mnohohrishnyi was elected Hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine in Novhorod-Siverskyi; the monastery has a memorial sign in his honour.

In 1791 the old cathedral was dismantled, and by 1796 a new one stood in its place, to a design by Giacomo Quarenghi. The building proved temperamental: the design did not take into account that the local hills are made of loess and slide towards the Desna, so because of the settling of the foundations the cathedral was already in a dangerous condition within some fifteen years. In 1817–1821 the architect Anton Kartashevskyi added pilaster buttresses to the walls and installed sixteen paired Ionic columns inside, which saved the church.

In 1923 the Soviet authorities ended the activity of the monastery. Here there was a prisoner-of-war camp in the years of occupation, an orphanage (1944–1955) and a regional home for the elderly (1956–1985). Since 1990 the complex has been the heart of the museum-reserve “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”. Monastic life was revived at the end of the 1990s, and the restoration of the ensemble was completed in 2004.

Timeline

The numbers in square brackets are source numbers in the list at the bottom of the page. The label "according to …" means that a fact is confirmed by only one source. The "Legends" section contains tales and legends: they are recorded in sources but not confirmed by documents.

The old monastery and the princely church

1. 11th century (1033?)

   According to tradition, the monastery was founded by Prince Mstyslav of Tmutarakan (Mstyslav Volodymyrovych); the Encyclopedia of Ukraine writes "believed to be 1033". There is no exact date. ^{[3, 7, 8, 16]}

2. Late 12th century

   The first masonry church was built at the monastery, the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The old church was almost square in plan, had three apses on the east, and four piers inside divided the space into three aisles (according to the results of excavations). ^{[1, 5, 7, 15, 16]}

3. 1185

   According to tradition, Prince Ihor Sviatoslavych set out from the Church of the Saviour at the monastery on a campaign against the Polovtsians (reflected in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”). According to sobory.ru, the foundation of the old church lies under the floor of the present cathedral. ^{[5, 7, 8]}

4. Mid-13th century

   A settlement on the monastery grounds perished; O. Chernenko and O. Kazakov regard it as the country residence of a local prince (this is a hypothesis, not an established fact). The author of the archaeological article notes that the Mongol sack of the town in 1239 is not confirmed archaeologically; guidebooks write of destruction in 1239. ^{[8, 9]}

5. After the invasion

   According to O. Chernenko, the cathedral of the late 12th – early 13th century survived the years after the Mongol invasion and was the only one of its kind in the Novhorod-Siverskyi principality. ^[1]

6. 16th century

   The old cathedral was adorned with white-stone carving. ^[1]

The monastery in the Muscovite state and the Commonwealth

1. 1552

   A charter of Ivan the Terrible, the first written mention of the monastery (EoU); according to O. Chernenko, Archimandrite Vassian received it as confirmation of the monastery's rights. ^{[1, 3]}

2. Second half of the 16th century

   Martin Gruneweg described a "wonderful church" at the monastery (according to O. Chernenko). ^[1]

3. 1635

   According to EoU, under Polish rule the monastery was handed over to the Jesuits. ^[3]

4. 1648

   After the outbreak of the Cossack–Polish war the monastery returned to Orthodoxy. ^[3]

The Cossack era

1. 1657–1672

   The residence of Lazar Baranovych, Archbishop of Chernihiv; according to EoU, he put up new buildings and increased the monastery's estates. ^[3]

2. 1657–1667

   According to travelsinua, a bursa (a seminary dormitory) was built. ^[7]

3. 1668, 17 December

   At a Cossack council in Novhorod-Siverskyi Demian Mnohohrishnyi was elected Hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine (EoU gives a full election on 13 March 1669). The sources do not confirm that the council was held on the monastery grounds; there is now a memorial sign to the hetman at the monastery. ^{[10, 11, 12]}

4. 1670

   According to the Ukrainian Wikipedia, Archdeacon Mykhailo Lezhaiskyi was appointed abbot (from 2 February 1670, with the rank of archimandrite); during his abbacy a masonry abbot's block, cells, walls and a bell tower were built. He died in 1699. ^[16]

5. 1674–1679

   According to EoU, the Novhorod-Siverskyi printing house, founded at the expense of Lazar Baranovych, operated at the monastery; in 1679 it was moved to Chernihiv. ^[6]

6. 1678

   The “Anthologion” published at the monastery contains an engraving in which the cathedral has seven tops, gables with small domes and a tiled covering (according to the Ukrainian Wikipedia). ^[15]

7. 17th century

   The cathedral was rebuilt several times into a three-aisled, many-domed Baroque church; according to O. Chernenko, it became a model for the Trinity Cathedral in Chernihiv and other churches of the Left Bank. ^[1]

8. 1699–1701

   Dmytrii Tuptalo (St Dimitry of Rostov) was abbot: appointed on 17 September 1699, on 23 March 1701 he was appointed Metropolitan of Siberia. At the monastery he completed the third part of the “Lives of the Saints” (Chetii Minei). According to the Ukrainian Wikipedia. ^[16]

9. 1709

   According to S. Pavlenko (Radio Svoboda), Ivan Mazepa gave 15,000 zlotys for the Church of the Intercession in Dikhtiarivka, which belonged to the Novhorod-Siverskyi Transfiguration Monastery. ^[13]

10. 1785

    A theological seminary was set up at the monastery, with one of the largest monastic libraries; its first rector was Varlaam Shyshatskyi. ^{[2, 3]}

The Classicist cathedral

1. 1787, 22 January

   According to sobory.ru, Empress Catherine II visited the monastery and ordered the old cathedral to be dismantled; about 75,000 roubles were allotted for the new one. ^[5]

2. 1791

   The old cathedral was dismantled so that a Classicist one could be built on its site at the expense of Catherine II. ^{[1, 15]}

3. 1791–1796

   The new cathedral was built to a design by Giacomo Quarenghi (so in EoU and O. Chernenko). Other sources give 1791–1806, and the work was directed by I. Yasnyhin. ^{[1, 3, 5, 15]}

4. 1797–1799

   The Novhorod-Siverskyi eparchy was abolished on 1 January 1797; Hilarion Kondratkovskyi stayed at the monastery and ran it until his death on 12 January 1799. He is buried on the monastery grounds. According to the Ukrainian Wikipedia. ^[16]

5. 1806

   According to sobory.ru, the cathedral was consecrated; Alexander I donated 20,000 roubles for its decoration. ^[5]

6. 1817–1821

   Because of the settling of the foundations the cathedral cracked; under the direction of the architect Anton Kartashevskyi pilaster buttresses were added to the walls and sixteen paired Ionic columns were installed inside. ^{[5, 15]}

The 19th century to the Soviet era

1. 1830–1832

   The tented roofs of the towers were dismantled and replaced with helmet-shaped domes; the top of the walls with loopholes and a wooden gallery was dismantled and a decorative attic built in its place. The moat in front of the main gate was filled in in 1850. According to the Ukrainian Wikipedia. ^[16]

2. 1838

   According to sobory.ru, Count Oleksii Rozumovskyi (1748–1822) was reburied by the entrance to the cathedral; the Ukrainian Wikipedia gives a crypt in the north aisle. ^{[5, 15]}

3. 1853

   Two side altars (of Dimitry of Rostov and of the Dormition) were added, together with a third tier of the iconostasis, painted by Lev Bohaievskyi. Repairs: 1858, 1910, 1968, 1983. ^{[5, 15]}

4. 1890, 27 May

   The Orthodox Brotherhood of St Dimitry of Rostov was opened at the monastery; the brethren opened a school for children from poor families. ^[2]

5. 1923

   In 1922 monastic life still continued; in 1923 the Soviet authorities ended the monastery's activity. ^[2]

6. 1929, 19 April

   By a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR the former monastery was declared a state historical and cultural reserve of all-Ukrainian significance. ^[14]

7. 1941, 26 August – 1943

   The town was occupied; a prisoner-of-war camp was set up on the monastery grounds. ^{[2, 5]}

8. 1943

   During the advance of Soviet troops the monastery buildings were badly destroyed, almost all set on fire; the abbot's quarters and the Church of the Prophet Elijah suffered especially. ^[2]

9. 1944–1985

   An orphanage (1944–1955), then a regional home for the elderly (1956–1985). The restoration of 1950–1990 was not carried through to the end. ^[2]

10. 1981–1983

    Research by A. Karnabida and V. Kovalenko revealed in the cathedral the foundations and the glazed-tile floor of the 12th-century church; for visitors an excavation pit with a viewing bridge was made (earlier, in 1954–1956, M. Kholostenko had excavated). ^[15]

11. 1983

    A project was drawn up for restoring the cathedral as a museum, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (architect Ye. Lopushynska). ^[5]

Recent history

1. 1990, 27 August

   By a decision of the Chernihiv Oblast Executive Committee the museum-reserve “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” began to operate. ^{[14, 17]}

2. 1997–2004

   Restoration of the ensemble; the museum was housed in the abbot's quarters. ^[14]

3. 1999, 27 July

   The monastery was registered as a community of the UOC; services were resumed. ^{[2, 14]}

Lost and restored

Architecture

The cathedral is square in plan, with four piers inside, and is crowned with five domes. Its Classicism is restrained: smooth walls, clear geometry, the order as the main ornament.

Below are two elements of the church, in a photograph and in a drawing. The drawings show the form, not exact dimensions.

The Tuscan-order portico

Three façades — all except the eastern, altar one — have Tuscan-order porticoes. The four columns of each are set in antis, that is, between projections of the walls. The Tuscan order is the simplest of the classical ones: a smooth shaft, a modest capital, not a line too many.

Five domes

The five-domed crowning leaves the cathedral a recognisable church silhouette, even when everything else in it speaks the language of an ancient temple.

The interior

Four piers with arches divide the space into nine bays. The centre is marked out by paired columns of the Ionic order, and the vault of the dome is painted to look like coffers — painting that imitates a stone structure.

The ensemble around

The cathedral stands in a ring of walls and towers of the 17th–18th centuries. Nearby are a gate tower-bell tower (the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine dates it to the 16th century, the Encyclopedia of Ukraine describes a Baroque gate of the late 17th century), a chambers block with a refectory and the Church of Sts Peter and Paul, a bursa (according to travelsinua, 1657–1667), and the abbot’s quarters with the Church of the Prophet Elijah. At the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries the abbot of the monastery was Dimitry of Rostov.

Stone and material

The cathedral is built of masonry, and all its expressiveness lies in the work of the order: Tuscan columns outside, Ionic ones inside. From the old church researchers study bricks of different periods, among them plinthos and a special brick known as the “palchatka”. The building material here is also an archive.

The story of the dangerous condition some fifteen years after construction is a lesson that repeats in every era: a good design does not forgive errors in execution, and a column carries exactly as much as its base allows. For columns, pilasters and capitals in stone see our section columns, pilasters, capitals. Another Transfiguration Cathedral in the Chernihiv region, from the 11th century, is in Chernihiv.

Did you know

Legends

Figures

• Mstyslav of Tmutarakan — according to tradition, the founder of the monastery.
• Ihor Sviatoslavych — prince who, according to tradition, set out on a campaign in 1185 from the monastery.
• Martin Gruneweg — described the monastery’s “wonderful church” (according to O. Chernenko).
• Ivan the Terrible — charter of 1552; Vassian — the archimandrite who received it (according to O. Chernenko).
• Lazar Baranovych — Archbishop of Chernihiv, residence 1657–1672, founder of the printing house.
• Mykhailo Lezhaiskyi — abbot from 1670, according to the Ukrainian Wikipedia the builder of masonry structures; died 1699.
• Demian Mnohohrishnyi — hetman elected on 17 December 1668 in Novhorod-Siverskyi; a memorial sign at the monastery.
• Dmytrii Tuptalo (of Rostov) — abbot 1699–1701; the brotherhood of 1890 and a side altar bear his name.
• Ivan Mazepa — gave 15,000 zlotys for the Church of the Intercession in Dikhtiarivka, which belonged to the monastery.
• Hilarion Kondratkovskyi — Bishop of Novhorod-Siverskyi, founder of the seminary in 1785, died 1799, buried at the monastery.
• Varlaam Shyshatskyi — first rector of the seminary, archbishop, buried at the monastery (EoU).
• Catherine II — in 1787 ordered the new cathedral to be built.
• Giacomo Quarenghi — author of the cathedral’s design.
• Ivan Yasnyhin — directed the construction (according to the Ukrainian Wikipedia and sobory.ru).
• Anton Kartashevskyi — architect, reinforcement of 1817–1821.
• Oleksii Rozumovskyi (1748–1822) — count, reburied in 1838.
• Hryhorii Korneiev, Lev Bohaievskyi — authors of the iconostasis and of its third tier.
• Ye. Lopushynska — architect of the 1983 project.

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