Kyiv residents woke on June 15 to find their city’s most revered religious monument in flames after Russia launched a massive drone and missile barrage on sites throughout Ukraine. It is the latest war damage inflicted on the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in the monastery's turbulent, nearly 1,000-year history.
A 1651 sketch of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. A lavra is a monastery that includes cells for hermits, while pechersk means “of the caves.” The monastery complex was founded in the 11th century on a prominent hill overlooking the Dnieper River. Between 1096 and 1416 the Lavra was variously sacked and burned by Cuman raiders, and later Mongolian and Golden Horde invaders.
A courtyard within the monastery photographed in 1902, when Kyiv was a city within the Russian Empire. The monastery complex features catacombs holding the mummified remains of saints revered by Orthodox Christians, including Nestor the Chronicler, a monk credited with writing the Primary Chronicle of Kievan Rus.
An entrance to the monastery complex photographed in 1918. During the Ukrainian-Soviet war, pro-Bolshevik militants executed the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church near the walls of the Lavra in early 1918. After the Soviet takeover of Ukraine, the monastery’s valuables were confiscated by the state and the complex was converted into a museum.
