Centre of the Eastern Orthodox faith
The Church was built in honor of Saint Andrew who is recognized as the "Apostle of Rus". According to the chronicle “The Tale of Bygone Years”, Saint Andrew came to the Dnieper river’s slopes in the 1st century AD and erected a cross on the current location of the church. He prophesied that the sparsely inhabited area would become a great city. As he predicted, the site arose to become the city of Kiev, a centre of the Eastern Orthodox faith.
Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus
In 1086, the Grand Prince of Kiev Vsevolod constructed a small church, dedicated to the erection of the cross by Saint Andrew. In 1215, Prince Mstislav of Galich built the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross nearby. However, the church did not survive after the Mongol invasion of the Kievan Rus in 1240. From that point after, wooden churches were constructed in the place where the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross had been located, although, they were destroyed and again replaced with another one. The current structure of the Saint Andrew Church began when Russian Empress Elizabeth (1709-1861) decided to construct a summer residence for herself in Kiev, consisting of a palace and a church. The commencement of construction took place during an official ceremony on September 9, 1744 which consisted of the Empress laying the first three founding stones herself. The construction was finished in 1754 and it is a major Baroque church located in Kiev and is one of four architectural landmarks of Ukraine. The church has not only preserved its authentic architectural forms and most of the exterior’s elements, but also its interior decorations. To-day the church is open to the public as a museum but at the same time it belongs to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
