2019 Eurasia Adventure - Kyiv, Because You KNOW You Are Waiting For More Churches

But not just any churches...churches and monasteries from the Ukrainian Orthodox tradition

Let's do the usual 'feel of the neighborhood' walking from the Daughter's place to the 'sights'

According to 2B the whole Botox scene is BIG in Kyiv

I have no idea what this stands for but the 'bear trap' image caught my eye

Old Russian made Lada

 

Statue of prominent historical Ukrainian

I looked up his name yesterday but that was a long time ago

He was involved in campaigns that re-established Ukraine independence in the 16th century

 Statue of less famous Hedgehog

On to Saint Sophia's Cathedral

 

The original St. Sophia dates from the very beginnings of conversion of the tribes of the Rus in the area around Kyiv by missionaries from Byzantium in the 11th century. Although the original church was damaged during the depredations of the Mongols and others later, it has still some of the best preserved early design elements from the 11th century primary among those are some fabulous mosaics

Let's take a look around the full interior of the Cathedral

(Click Here)

Now long-time readers know that I am completely mad about mosaic art and particularly the highest attainment of that (in my totally not professional or even art educated opinion) during the period of Byzantium. The time frame of the construction was well within the high art phase of Byzantium. So here is your regular dose of great mosaics lol.

Other interior art

Going up the Bell Tower

Our first act upon reaching St. Sophia's was to climb the Bell Bower

Have I mentioned how fabulous Wife is?

Probably but I will mention it again

Last year at this time she was in agony suffering from sciatica and bursitis wondering if she would ever be able to do the physical aspects of travel again, reconciled to pain shots

A year later via incredible hard work and commitment to a training regime she is bounding up the stairs of the St. Sophia Bell Tower!

Steep!

Hello down there

Scenes from the top (well almost the top)

 

Then we made our way to a second mega church

Ministry of Foreign Affairs I believe

View from overlook of bridge under construction...actually only view not blocked by trees!

St. Michael's Church and Monastery

Like St. Sophia's this was originally built in the Middle Ages, destroyed and reconstructed

Nothing from the interior as no photography was allowed

Which was just as well as it was because the art work in my opinion was nowhere near as impressive

Somewhere along the way the art work of the Orthodox church became highly stylized and lacking in the subtlety and nuance of the Byzantine art that it came from

Princess Olga Statues

Isn't she serene?

I suggest that you read the Wikipedia account of the Drevlian Uprising

The very short version is...

They killer her husband and then wanted her to marry their leader to make them the head of Kyiv Rus

They sent 20 men to present this proposal

She had them buried alive

Then she said she would accept the proposal but wanted 20 of their top leaders to come and accompany her

She had them feasted until drunk, bared the doors to the building they were in and set fire to it burning them to death

She then set siege on the Drevlian capital

She offered clemency if the citizens would give her a gift of few birds each from their homes (doves, sparrow that were in the thatch)

She tied strings with sulfur to each bird, let them loose, they returned to their homes in the thatch

The sulfur ignited causing all the city to go into flames at once

Residents were either killed, sold into slavery or turned into peasants that paid tribute

Kind of Girl You Want to Take Home to Mom!

And of course

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

Do not eat ice cream while carrying balloons and drinking beer please