Pyatnytska Church in Chernihiv — A Temple from the Era of „The Tale of Igor's Campaign”

Pyatnytska Church — the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva Pyatnytsia at the Market in the center of Chernihiv. It was erected in the late 12th to early 13th century in the outer bailey, near the city market. This is one of the most famous monuments of Kievan Rus architecture: soaring, as if reaching upwards, it became a symbol of a new style from the era of „The Tale of Igor's Campaign”. Today, the church belongs to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The Merchants' Church

Saint Paraskeva Pyatnytsia was considered the patroness of trade, so the church near the market was dedicated specifically to her. According to one version, the church was built at the expense of wealthy merchants, and according to another, with funds from Prince Igor Svyatoslavych, the hero of „The Tale of Igor's Campaign”. In plan, it is a four-pillar, three-nave, three-apsidal single-domed church, almost square in cross-section.

Baroque Attire

In 1670, Chernihiv Colonel Vasyl Dunin-Borkovsky provided funds for a new roof, and in 1676 and the 1690s, he completely rebuilt the church in the Ukrainian Baroque style, presumably under the guidance of architect Ivan Zarudny. The church became seven-domed, with Baroque gables, on the eastern one of which was the coat of arms of Hetman Ivan Mazepa. At that time, the church was the center of the Pyatnytsia Convent with wooden cells and a wall separating it from the market.

After the fire of 1750, the church was restored and Baroque parts with small pear-shaped domes were added. In 1786, during secularization, the monastery was liquidated, and the wooden structures were dismantled. In 1818–1820, a two-story bell tower-rotunda was erected nearby, which was dismantled in 1962.

Destruction and Discovery

For a long time, no one suspected that beneath the Baroque decoration stood a Kievan Rus structure in an almost pristine state. On September 25, 1943, a bomb blast across the road destroyed most of the annexes. In Soviet times, it was said that the church was destroyed by German air raids in 1941, but photographs show that it stood intact throughout the entire occupation.

The altar part, two pillars, part of the northern wall, and the remains of the zakomaras survived from the church. The authorities decided to dismantle the ruins for the sake of the future Victory Square, but in December 1943, Petr Baranovsky, a researcher of Kievan Rus architecture, arrived in Chernihiv. He discovered that this was not a 17th-century building, but a church from the Rus era of a new, previously unknown type. Over the following years, Baranovsky recreated the church in its original forms — with a high drum and stepped completion.

In 2023, during a missile strike on the center of Chernihiv, the Pyatnytska Church was also damaged.

How to Get There

The church stands in a park near Krasna Square, in the very center of Chernihiv, a few minutes' walk from the Val and the Spassky Cathedral. It is convenient to view during a walk „Val and Tretyak”.