Ilyinskaya Church in Kiev

St. Elijah Church is the first Orthodox church of Kievan Rus. There is a legend that the temple was built by the Kiev princes Askold and Dir, who returned from the Byzantine campaign, during which they saw a divine miracle, after which they were baptized. In the "Tale of Bygone Years" it is mentioned that already in the middle of the X century, divine services were held in the Ilyinsk church.

Now it is impossible to establish what this ancient Christian shrine originally looked like. It is possible that several temples have changed in this place. In 1692, on the donations of the philistine Peter Gudima, a church was built in the form in which it can be seen today: a white temple with green domes. In 1718, the church suffered after a fire, and in the first half of the XVIII century, an iconostasis was erected and a two-tier bell tower was erected, and during the reconstruction in 1755, the Church of the Memory of the Beheading of the Head of John the Forerunner was attached to it, as well as an arch with side columns. In the first half of the XIX century, a porch with a portico on the west side was attached to the church, as well as a chapel on the south side.

The design of the church is brick three-part single-domed, the facades are made in the traditions of Russian architecture, characteristic of the XVII century. In 1957, under a layer of later painting were found fragments of paintings of the XVIII century.