Askold's Grave

For the opera, see Askold's Grave (opera)

Information sign of the park

Askold's Grave (Аскольдова могила) is a historical park on the steep right bank of the Dnieper River in Kiev. After establishing the Soviet regime in 1934 Kiev City Council issued an order to convert the old graveyard with some 2,000 burials around the Church of St. Nicholas in a park.^[1] As the story goes, it marks the place where Prince Askold of Kiev was buried in the 9th century.

In the Middle Ages, Askold's Grave was known as the Hungarian urochishche ("plot of land", "tract"). According to the Primary Chronicle, it was the place where the Magyars crossed the Dnieper on the way from the Russian steppes to Pannonia. Archeological excavations have revealed a 9th-century dirham hoard and some remains of Izyaslav II's wooden palace. There's a modern stele commemorating the Magyar migration.

Back in the 15th and 16th centuries, Askold's Grave was settled by the Orthodox monks of St. Nicholas's Monastery. Hetman Mazepa had the monastery moved to a nearby hill where a new Baroque penticupolar cathedral was then erected. The existing church of St. Nicholas "Slupsky" is a modest Neoclassical rotunda designed by local architect Andrey Melensky in 1810.

On 31 May 1919 the Soviet authorities closed the historical necropolis. After the necropolis was transformed into a park, the Church of Saint Nicholas was converted into a park pavilion with café. With fall of the Soviet Union in 1997-98 the pavilion was transformed back to its original use and handed over to the local community of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

A new golden-domed chapel was built on the bank of the Dnieper in 2000. The style is Ukrainian Baroque revival.^[2] The chapel is dedicated to Saint Andrew Protokletos and belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).^[3]

Gallery

• 

  Askold's Grave, a painting of Vasily Sternberg, 1837

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  Askold's Grave by Taras Shevchenko, 1846

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  Askold's Tomb, a photocopy of 1911

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  Saint Nicholas Church at Askold's Grave, 2009

References

External links

• Media related to Grave of Askold at Wikimedia Commons