The Church of the Exaltation of the Cross is the main above-ground structure of the Near Caves complex at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. It is located above the entrance to the caves, which were founded in the 11th century by Saint Anthony. It is through this church that the path to one of the Lavra’s oldest underground spaces runs today.
The church was built in 1700 at the expense of Pavlo Herzyk, a Poltava Cossack colonel, an associate of Ivan Mazepa and father-in-law of the future hetman Pylyp Orlyk. He became one of the patrons through whose support the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra acquired its Baroque appearance during the Mazepa era. Herzyk himself became the first person buried in the newly built church — his grave was located under the right wall.
Originally, the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross was one of the finest examples of Ukrainian Cossack Baroque. Its architecture followed the traditions of Ukrainian wooden church building, but was realized in stone.
The main adornment of the church’s interior is a unique Baroque iconostasis from the 18th century, created by the carver Karp Shverin. The icons for it were painted by the Lavra monk Zakhariia Holubovskyi together with students of the monastery’s painting workshop.
A separate story is connected with the original silver, gilded Royal Doors of this iconostasis. In the 1930s, the Bolsheviks dismantled them and sold them abroad as silver scrap. Many decades later, researchers at the National Reserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” identified the artifact by an inventory number preserved on its reverse side. Today the Royal Doors are displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as a work of Ukrainian art taken from the Lavra.
How to visit the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross
The Church of the Exaltation of the Cross is part of the Near Caves complex, so it can only be visited as part of the “Upper Lavra + Near Caves” guided tour route, by advance booking. Tours run from Wednesday to Sunday at 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, and 15:00. Monday and Tuesday are closed days for the Near Caves.
Advance booking:
+38 (044) 406-63-75
+38 (066) 728-03-27
Tour price:
440 UAH (concession — 220 UAH) in a group of 5–10 people;
580 UAH (concession — 290 UAH) in a small group of 2–4 people.