Ukraine
Kyiv Cathedral and Lavra
Kyiv: Saint Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra consists of two monuments known for their decorative art and architecture.
The Saint Sophia Cathedral (1037) was designed to rival the Saint Sophia of Constantinople. In its interior, the Byzantine frescoes and mosaics have been preserved. The 16th-century Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is a monastery renowned for its underground churches and catacombs. It has been modernized in the style of the Ukrainian Baroque.
Community Perspective: St. Sophia’s cathedral is worth visiting for its frescoes, while the Lavra is an active pilgrimage site, where in its caves the mummified bodies of saints can be viewed in almost total darkness. Tsunami has put both buildings into a religious-political perspective.
Site Info
Official Information
- Full Name
- Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (ID: 527)
- Country
- Ukraine
- Status
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Inscribed 1990
Site history
History of Kyiv Cathedral and Lavra
- WHS Type
- Cultural
- Criteria
- i
- ii
- iii
- iv
Links
- UNESCO
- whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
- whc.unesco.org — whc.unesco.org/
Related Resources
- lavra.ua — Kyiv Lavra
- sofiyskiy-sobor.polnaya.info — St Sophia Cathedral
News Article
- June 11, 2025 reuters.com — A Russian attack overnight damaged St. Sophia Cathedral
- Dec. 22, 2023 abcnews.go.com — Authorities return restored golden crosses to the domes of Kyiv's St Sophia Cathedral
- Nov. 23, 2022 reuters.com — Ukraine's security service raids Kyiv monastery, suspects Russian sabotage
- Jan. 15, 2019 urdupoint.com — Kiev Pechersk Lavra Catches Fire
Community Information
- Community Category
- Religious structure: Christian
Travel Information
One million visitors or more
Recent Connections
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Red Zone Travel Advisory
Ukraine fully off-limits -
Depicted in Mizielinska Maps
Saint-Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv-Pechersk L… -
Kyivan Rus'
"The Cathedral has preserved its ancien…
Connections of Kyiv Cathedral and Lavra
- Geography
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Located in a Capital City
Kiev (Capital of Ukraine)
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- Trivia
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Depicted in Mizielinska Maps
Saint-Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Church of the Saviour at BerestovoSee i.pinimg.com
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Dubbed as another WHS
New Constantinople -
On Banknotes
2 Hryvni (also Pechersk Lavra on 10 Hryven); 1992See ukrainetrek.com
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One million visitors or more
Kyiv Pechersk Lavra attracted over a million tourists in 2011, reports the press service of the museum
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- History
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Sieges and Battles
Turcic Pechenegs 968 (lifted) -
Kyivan Rus'
"The Cathedral has preserved its ancient interiors and the collection of mosaics and frescoes of the 11th century is unique for its integrity (...) The architectural ensemble of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra comprises unique surface and underground churches from the 11th to the 19th centuries" (Official description) -
Byzantine Empire and Civilization
an outstanding example of Byzantine art ... a result of the cultural interaction of the Kyivan Rus’, the Byzantine Empire and Western Europe. (OUV) -
Located in a Former Capital
Kievan Rus 882-1169
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- Architecture
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Gold Surfaces
Dome and cupolas -
Baroque
Pechersk Lavra
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- World Heritage Process
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First inscriptions
Ukraine 1990 -
Extensions on Tentative List
St. Cyril's Church, St. Andrew's Church (PENDING - DEFERRED 2010, 2012)
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- Religion and Belief
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Holy Tunic
Fragments of the Robe were held in St Sophia cathedral. There is no mention of them being there today. -
Saints' Caves
Pechersk Lavra: St Anthony of Kiev - "Anthony returned to Kiev, and founded several monasteries .... These .... were not as austere as Anthony was used to from his time on Mount Athos. He instead chose to live in a small four-yard cave which had been dug by the presbyter Hilarion". This cave developed into the "Monastery of the Caves" (Pechera = "Caves") -
Cathedrals
St Sophia Cath -
Lavra
Kiev Pechersk Lavra (Orthodox Church of Ukraine)
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- Human Activity
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Mummies
Pechersk Lavra: hundreds of mummified bodies of monks
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- Constructions
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Catacombs
Pechersk Lavra -
Necropolises
Pechersk Lavra -
Freestanding Bell Tower
Bell tower of Kiev Pechersk Lavra
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- WHS on Other Lists
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U.S. Ambassadors Fund
Conservation of 12th-Century Mosaics in the Collection of the National Preserve of St. Sophia in Kyiv (2011)
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- Timeline
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Built in the 11th century
Construction of the Cathedral started in ca. 1037, "It is one of the major edifices of Eastern Christianity in the 11th century" and "the stylistic features of its decoration were spread throughout Kievan Russia in the 11th century by the icon painters working in Kiev." (AB ev)
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- Science and Technology
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Early Printing
Pechersk Lavra: early 17th century printshop, now Book and Book Binding Museum
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- Visiting conditions
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Red Zone Travel Advisory
Ukraine fully off-limits
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- WHS Names
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Name changes
2019 - changed from Kiev in Russian to Kyiv in Ukrainian
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- 18
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In The Simpsons
“The Falcon and the D'ohman” (2011)
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News
- reuters.com 06/11/2025
- A Russian attack overnight damaged…
- abcnews.go.com 12/22/2023
- Authorities return restored golden…
- reuters.com 11/23/2022
- Ukraine's security service raids K…
Recent Visitors
Reserved for members.Community Reviews
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Having had lived in Chernihiv, Ukraine, over 18 months, I was compelled to do justice to the Kyiv WHS, the country's most important WHS, by visiting all the associated sites, including the ones on the proposed extension, I had not visited before. (I had visited St. Sophia Monastery and Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in the core zone and St. Michael's Monastery and St. Andrew's Church in the buffer zone.) By doing so I have learned a little more about this WHS, and that is what I would like to talk about here.
WHS has to do with OUV and not with politics or religion. But I feel that visitors should at least know what they are visiting. I have encountered some foreign visitors to Japan who had no idea whether they were visiting a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple. One even thought that the Himeji Castle was a Shinto shrine!
The original St. Sophia (Hagia Sophia/Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople/Istanbul is now an Islamic mosque again. So what about St. Sophia (photo) in Kyiv? The importance of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, founded 40 years before Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, can't be exaggerated but today lies in the fact that it is sort of a neutral place of worship, as all major Christian denominations in Ukraine had made claims to St. Sophia Cathedral, creating much conflict. So it remains a museum today, just like St. Sophia in Constantinople/Istanbul was before 2020.
If you visit St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, …
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I have been to Kiev many times in my childhood, but those visits never included any sightseeing. Decades later, I found myself in Kiev on a business trip. It was January of 2014, in a period of relative calm of the Maidan revolution before its final eruption. The city did not feel unstable or dangerous to navigate, so on my only free day I spent time exploring some of the city major sights, including both parts of the WH site.
Inscribed for the spiritual and intellectual influence these religious complexes had on the "Russian world" in 17th-19th centuries, Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Kiev-Pechersk Lavra are on the most basic level fascinating architectural monuments with history going back nearly a thousand years. Seeing these close up is highly recommended if you are in town.
This is not a single site, but two distinct compounds that both date back to the 11th century. The great church of Saint-Sophia assumed its current form by 1767, along with the cluster of buildings surrounding it. The Lavra also underwent significant expansion in 16th-17th centuries, although some of its original caves remain and are accessible for a visit.
Both sites are located in the central part of Kiev, well served by public transportation (although not within walking distance of one another). At the time of my visit, general entry was free, but interior access for non-worship purposes required tickets. Saint-Sophia Cathedral could only be visited with a guide. A walking tour of the Lavra …
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This was my first real experience of an eastern orthodox cathedral and the interior of St Sophia’s cathedral certainly didn’t disappoint. I wasn’t quite expecting to see such a beautiful set of frescos. I found myself wandering from arch to arch staring up and marvelling at the next new impressive sight. I spent quite some time wandering around the interior, losing my travelling companion only to be reunited with broad grins across our faces; neither of us was really expecting a site of this quality. The rest of the precinct of St Sophia’s was reasonably nice but not especially interesting.
A day later we visited the Lavra Monastery a little further to the south of the centre. This is a much larger complex and is still an active site of pilgrimage. The upper part of the Monastery was fairly busy, the Bell Tower was closed for renovations so we headed into the Cathedral, and this has been mostly rebuilt and was only mildly interesting inside. The highlight of the Upper Part was the Refectory Church, which had a magnificent interior, really showing the Byzantine heritage of the architecture of the buildings.
We then proceeded down to the lower part of the monastery, taking in the wonderful views over the Dnieper flowing through the centre of Kiev. The Lower part of the complex is the focal point for pilgrims as this contains the caves for which the site is famous. All are welcome to enter some of the caves to view …
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Kiev proved to be quite a surprise for me. But it was not the first time I travelled to former Eastern European countries in order to find that it’s not all concrete, Stalin-architecture and generally miserable.
Same thing happened again in Kiev, a town that turned out to be a relaxed place, with beautiful buildings where even the post-Stalin architecture blends in well. A city filled with nice restaurants, cafés, incredible parks, good shopping and - of course - the magnificent churches and monasteries of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and Santa Sophia Cathedral, the World Heritage Site of Kiev.
The monasteries and churches are really the landmark of Kiev and someone said that there are over 200 churches in this orthodox “junction” of Slavic Europe. To even further grasp the religious history I took a trip to Tchernigov, some 170 km north of Kiev, today a small town of northern Ukraine but once a religious centre with some of the oldest churches and monasteries in the country. Even one of the monasteries is located complete underground. Tchernigov is also found on the tentative list and might become a real World Heritage Site one day, which it well deserves.
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Saint Sophia's?
Spectacular! Breath-taking! Beautiful!
In fact, it's so good that My Wife and I are considering re-marrying (without a divorce) in Saint Sophia's. If you are going to get married in Kiev (and why not) then Saint Sophia's is the place to do it.
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I lived in Ukraine for a couple of years, and visited Saint Sophia a number of times. I always found it a beautiful cathedral, and along with the grounds was always a spectacular visit. These visits became more significant to me when my father, an avid geneologist, found out that one of our ancestors was Yaroslav the Wise, who built the cathedral and is buried in a sarcophagus there. I highly recommend a visit to Saint Sophia Cathedral on your next visit to Kiev.
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