Lemeshi is a small village near Kozelets, from which the Rozumovsky family originates. Here, right by the Kyiv — Chernihiv highway, stands the Three Saints Church built in 1755 — the first and most prominent tetracorch-type temple in Ukraine, meaning it features four semicircular apses (conchs) around the central core. Taras Shevchenko mentions the village in his story "Kniahynia" ("The Princess").
The Church Over the Father's Grave
The temple was built by commission and at the expense of Count Oleksii Rozumovsky over the grave of his father, registered Cossack Hryhoriy Rozum, who died around 1730. Oleksii, the son of a simple Cossack from Lemeshi, became a favorite of the Russian Empress Elizabeth, while his brother Kyrylo became the last Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host. Construction was most likely overseen by their mother, Nataliia Demianivna.
Construction began in 1755, and the church was consecrated in 1760. Its architect is not known for certain: Andrii Kvasov, Semen Karin, or Ivan Hryhorovych-Barsky are named. The naming after the Three Hierarchs — Gregory the Theologian, Basil the Great, and John Chrysostom — is no coincidence: Gregory the Theologian was the patron saint of Hryhoriy Rozum.
From Baroque to Classicism
The church is made of brick, featuring a dome on a circular drum decorated with paired pilasters. The facades are articulated by Tuscan pilasters, above the walls are broken pediments containing eight small oval windows. The details show the transition from Baroque to Classicism that took place in Ukraine in the second half of the 18th century. In 1865, a narthex with a bell tower was added to the west, with the western conch being dismantled in the process.
Boichuk's Murals and a Fertilizer Warehouse
In 1913–1914, at the invitation of the family descendant Kamil Rozumovsky, Mykhailo Boichuk, his wife Sofia Nalepynska-Boichuk, and Tymofii Boichuk worked here. They restored the Rococo iconostasis and interior, but World War I interrupted their work. The iconostasis and Boichuk's murals were destroyed in Soviet times, and until 1980 the temple served as a mineral fertilizer warehouse. The church was restored only because the Olympic flame was scheduled to be carried past it.
Fragments of 18th-to-19th-century oil paintings have survived in the eastern apse, and the icon of the Three Hierarchs was donated by descendants of the Rozumovskys who visited the homeland of their ancestors.
How to Get There
Lemeshi lies on the Kyiv — Chernihiv highway, a few kilometers north of Kozelets. The church is visible right from the road. Combine your trip with Kozelets, which boasts the majestic Nativity Cathedral, also connected to the Rozumovskys, and with Baturyn, the hetman capital of Kyrylo Rozumovsky.
