The Lavra

One of the big sites in Kyiv is the Lavra.  Part of the Lavra is owned by the government and part by the church.  It is a complex of many churches.  We did not begin to see it all.  You pay to enter the part owned by the government.  Some of the parts owned by the church are open to visitors, but they expect you to remember that they are a place of worship.  Women need to wear a headscarf to visit the interiors of the churches.  Old women sell them on the street outside, if you don't have one.  One part of the Lavra called "the caves" women are required to wear skirts.  They will rent you one for about $1 if you aren't wearing one.  This area is where the original monks lived and died.  They have some underground churches and burial chambers.  Many devout women visit these caves and churches.

The gate is itself a church.  You can see the archway of the gate at the bottom of the picture.
The church you see straight ahead of you as you walk in the gate is a reconstruction.

Inside it you also find another church - a church within a church.

Both churches were orginially build with layers of bricks and mortar and fieldstone.

This large bell is topped by four figures.  Depicted are the head of the eagle, the head of the ox and the head of the lion.  Can you figure out what the fourth head is? 

St. Michael's with the striped gold and green domes allows, for a fee, photographs.  It is dark and the photos don't really do it justice.  It was beautiful.  Every surface, save one was decorated or painted.  Some of the painting is more decorative, some symbolic and some is pictoral.  I wish I had tried to take pictures of every motif.  They were all so beautiful.

This is Peter having swum to shore to great the resurrected Lord.















The caves were originally founded near a source of water, some springs.  People still come to get water from these springs.