Description of the attraction
The monument to the Baptism of Rus is a column that is located at the foot of the famous Vladimirskaya Gorka, just on the lower terrace of the stairs that leads to the Dnieper embankment.
In fact, this monument is considered the oldest in Kiev. Earlier, on the site of the monument there was a source in which the sons of Vladimir the Great were baptized (at least, so the legend says). This place was a shrine of the Orthodox Church, therefore, small chapels were repeatedly erected over it, as well as processions of the cross. The icons of the first saints of Russia - Princess Olga, Prince Vladimir, as well as his sons Boris and Gleb were kept here.
The monument dedicated to the baptism of Rus began to acquire its modern outlines at the beginning of the 19th century. It was then, in 1802-1808, that a new stone chapel was erected on the site of the old one that had fallen into disrepair. The project of the chapel was drawn up by the chief Kiev architect of that time, Andrey Melensky. Funds for the construction of the chapel were collected by the people of Kiev. A column was installed at the very top of the chapel, which was crowned with a small golden dome. The foot of the chapel was decorated with a commemorative inscription “Saint Vladimir, the enlightener of Russia”. The chapel stood in this form for a little over a century.
Already during the Soviet era, as part of the struggle against religion, the chapel was demolished without seeing it of any artistic and cultural value. Only arched passages remained from the chapel, and the inscriptions dedicated to the holy prince Vladimir the Great were erased. The monument itself was renamed the Column of Magdeburg Law, which was returned by Emperor Paul I to the city in 1798 (the city itself received it back in the 15th century). And only for the celebration of the millennium of the baptism of Rus in 1988, the monument was restored, and the cross was returned to its dome.
