St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral

St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery
Києво-Михайлівський Золотоверхий чоловічий монастир
The reconstructed monastery with cathedral and bell tower seen in front of St. Michael's Square.
50°27′20″N 30°31′22″E / 50.45556°N 30.52278°E / 50.45556; 30.52278Coordinates: 50°27′20″N 30°31′22″E / 50.45556°N 30.52278°E / 50.45556; 30.52278
Location	Kiev
Country	Ukraine
Denomination	Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate
Website	http://www.archangel.kiev.ua/
History
Founded	1108–1113
Founder(s)	Sviatopolk II of Kiev
Dedication	Saint Michael the Archangel
Architecture
Architect(s)	Ivan Hryhorovych-Barskyi
Style	Ukrainian Baroque
Completed	1999
Demolished	1934–1936 (original)

St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery (Ukrainian: Михайлівський золотоверхий монастир, Mykhaylivs’kyi zolotoverkhyi monastyr) is a functioning monastery in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The monastery is located on the right bank of the Dnieper River on the edge of a bluff northeast of the Saint Sophia Cathedral. The site is located in the historic administrative Uppertown and overlooks the city's historical commercial and merchant quarter, the Podil neighbourhood.

Originally built in the Middle Ages by Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych, the monastery comprises the Cathedral itself, the Refectory of St. John the Divine, built in 1713, the Economic Gates, constructed in 1760 and the monastery's bell tower, which was added c. 1716–1719. The exterior of the structure was rebuilt in the Ukrainian Baroque style in the 18th century while the interior remained in its original Byzantine style. The original cathedral was demolished by the Soviet authorities in the 1930s, but was reconstructed and opened in 1999 following Ukrainian independence in 1991.

Some scholars do not believe that Prince Iziaslav Yaroslavych, whose Christian name was Demetrius, first built the Saint Demetrius's Monastery and Church in the Uppertown of Kiev near Saint Sophia Cathedral in the 1050s. Half a century later, his son, Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych, is recorded as commissioning a monastery church (1108–1113) dedicated to his own patron saint, Michael the Archangel. One reason for building the church may have been Svyatopolk's recent victory over the nomadic Polovtsians, as Michael the Archangel was considered a patron of warriors and victories. In 1906, a medieval hoard of silver and gold jewellery was discovered in a metal casket on Trekhsvyatytelska Street (Street of the Three Saints), opposite the gates of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery. Gold jewellery from the hoard is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York while the silver jewellery and two ingots are in the British Museum, London. The hoard is dated to the 11th-12th centuries and was probably hidden at the time of the Tartar invasions and the Sack of Kiev in 1240.