Description of the attraction
The Church of the Nativity of Christ was built in 1809-1814 in the style of classicism. The church was erected on the site of the dismantled old wooden church, only this time it was oriented in the southeast direction. The temple was located on the main street of Podol, leading to the Lavra. However, due to the fire of 1811 and the redevelopment of Podol caused by it, the location of the temple has changed radically, so today it looks somewhat unusual, especially when compared with other buildings of this type.
The temple, erected by the architect Melensky, was an octahedral structure with an apse on the east side, and a bell tower on the west. On the north and south sides, the building was decorated with four-column porticoes with columns, made in the Ionian style. The main room of the temple was covered with an octagonal ceiling, in the center of the apse there was also an octagonal space with a quadrangular dome with windows towering above it. The bell tower of the temple was two-tier, and the second tier was a rotunda made up of eight columns of the Ionic order, covered from above by a dome and a high spire.
The special popularity of the Church of the Nativity of Christ was given by the fact that it was here that the coffin with the body of Taras Shevchenko stood when he was transported from St. Petersburg to the place of final burial in Kanev. Right there, the rector of the church Zh. Zheltonozhsky and Archbishop P. Lebedintsev served a prayer for the poet. For this reason, the Church of the Nativity of Christ among the people of Kiev is often called Shevchenko.
The temple stood until the thirties of the twentieth century, when the struggle against religion and dissent unfolded with renewed vigor. By order of the government, the temple was demolished, like many other historical monuments of Ukrainian architecture.
