Did you know that Chief Architect of the Imperial Court Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli created two plans of the caves of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra?

It was done in the 40’s – early 50’s of the 18^th century according to the order of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (1741–1761).

Interesting fact to be noted here is that Francesco Rastelli has never been to the Lavra caves or Kyiv itself. It seems that to make the plans of Lavra caves he used earlier schematic versions of those underground cavities, created by a team of military engineers in the mid-18^th century. We do not know the fate of the original cave plans developed by Rastrelli, but their later copies of 1781 with an explanatory text in French have survived.

Captions to the illustrations:

1. Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli

2. Plan of the Far Caves. Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. Copy of 1781

3. Plan of the Near Caves. Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. Copy of 1781

Yaroslav Lytvynenko