Ukrainian Baroque Churches

The Church of St. Elijah was built in the 1650s in the style of early Ukrainian Baroque. After the Second World War, a museum of the national hero Bogdan Khmelnytsky (1648 - 1657), who was allegedly buried here, was opened in the church. In 1954, a symbolic granite tombstone in his honour was erected in the church according to the design of architect I. Shmulson. Since 1990, the church has been returned to the religious community.

The Yelets Assumption Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest monasteries in Ukraine, founded in 1060 by Prince Sviatoslav II of Kiev. It was destroyed in 1239 during the Mongol invasion. In 1623 it was restored under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and handed over to the Greek Catholic Church. In 1649 it was taken over by the Orthodox Church and was completely rebuilt in the Ukrainian Baroque style between 1669 and 1688.

The Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral is an Orthodox church that was built at the time of the city's foundation in the early 1680s. The five-domed cathedral, with a cross-shaped plan, was consecrated in 1684 and in 1751 it was renewed after repairs. From 1846 to 1866, the church was enlarged by adding a vestibule and a bell tower on the west side. In 1902-03 the building was rebuilt according to the design of the engineer M.I.Lovtsov: the pear-shaped domes were replaced by onion-shaped domes and corbelled arches were placed above the vaults. In the 1930s the church was closed and at the beginning of the Second World War the cathedral was looted and used as a warehouse. In the autumn of 1941, the Soviet army blew up the bell tower and the narthex during its retreat. In 1953-55, the cathedral was rebuilt in large moulded bricks, as it was, according to the restorers, before the renovations in the early 20th century.

The Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God was the most important Ukrainian Orthodox church in Kharkiv until the construction of the Annunciation Cathedral in 1901. The first mention of the cathedral in written sources dates back to 1658. However, the present cathedral was built in the years 1771-1777 in the style of Russian Baroque. To commemorate the victory over Napoleon, a 90-metre high bell tower was built in the years 1821-1844. In 1929, the atheist authorities closed the cathedral, demolished its domes and removed the bell from the tower. The decorative elements of the façade were also destroyed. In the 1950s, however, several renovations took place. A tornado damaged the tower in 1975.

The Trinity Cathedral, built between 1775 and 1778, is a historical Orthodox religious building and the largest wooden church in Ukraine. The cathedral is an outstanding work of art of Ukrainian wooden architecture and a monument of Ukrainian Baroque. It was built by Cossacks without the use of metal nails. The church was restored in 2012.

The Cathedral of the Holy Dormition, built in the second half of the 18th century, is an emblem of Cossack Baroque. It was the first stone cathedral in Poltava. The cathedral building is two-storey in the style of a Byzantine basilica, with three domes. About 10 years later, around 1780, the cathedral was rebuilt. Two more domes were added above the altar.