Dear Friends!

Today's photo story is dedicated to the production and installation of the domes and crosses at the Dormition Cathedral in the summer-autumn of 1999.

As it is known, only one of the seven domes of the Cathedral has survived after the explosion – the one above St John the Evangelist Chapel. It was gilded during the restoration works of 1998–2000. The total area of the gilded surface of the dome together with the cross was almost 180 m². The other six domes including the main one and the five side ones had to be reconstructed. As it turned out during the research, all the domes of the Cathedral had different volumes and weights which somewhat complicated the work. The largest dome, after the main one, was the western dome above the central entrance; the smaller ones were the domes over the north-eastern St. Stephen and south-eastern St. John the Evangelist chapels, even smaller dome was the eastern one over the apse, and the smallest were the south-western domes over the sacristy and the north-western one. Each dome had its own characteristics, and it was reproduced by a separate group of craftsmen.

Almost simultaneously with the brickwork of the domes vaults (Fig. 1) in the courtyard between the building № 21 (so-called “Kliroshansky”) and the northern section of Mazepa's wall, the masters assembled metal frames. The frames were then covered with gilded copper plates 0.6 mm thick (Fig. 2-5). It should be noted that more than 12 tons of copper were used to cover the six domes, and more than 23 tons for the roof of the Cathedral.

The metal frame for the main dome was assembled on the Cathedral Square near the western facade of the restored Great Pechersk Church (Fig. 6). It was installed like other domes on top of the Cathedral in the fall of 1999 with the help of tower cranes.

Immediately afterward, crosses were consecrated and erected on the dome: first, in mid-October, side crosses (Fig. 7-11), and on October 28, in the presence of the President of Ukraine and other officials, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Volodymyr (Sabodan) solemnly consecrated the cross of the Dormition Cathedral main dome (Fig. 12-15).

The main cross of the Cathedral is 4.2 meters high, the side ones have a height of 3.3 (above the side chapels) and 3.55 meters (above the central entrance and apse) respectively (Fig. 16).

Thus, the reconstruction of the Cathedral as a whole was carried out within one year. However, a significant amount of work was still ahead including the decoration of facades, installation of windows and doors, setting up of utilities system, arrangement of electric floor heating, etc. And most importantly - a long and arduous work on decorating the interiors of the Cathedral had to be started. It continues to this day.

In the next release of the “Memories of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” photo project you will learn about the decoration of facades of the reconstructed Dormition Cathedral in the spring-summer of 2000.