Researcher of the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra: to the 120th Anniversary of the Birth of M. V. Kholostenko

Abstract

December 7, 2022 marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Ukrainian architect, historian of national architecture, researcher and restorer of architectural monuments, teacher Mykola Viacheslavovych Kholostenko (1902—1978). After graduating from the Kyiv Institute of Architecture in 1929, he taught at the Kyiv Institute of Civil Engineering and Art Institute, managed the design workshop of the Kyiv City Council (1938—1941), worked at the Kyivproject Institute (1953—1958, 1961—1977), held the position of chief architect of the Republican Special Research and Restoration Production Workshops State Construction Committee of the USSR (1959—1961). In addition to the development of projects of residential and public buildings in Kyiv, M. V. Kholostenko had done a lot of work on the study, protection and restoration of architectural monuments of the 10th—18th centuries of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Putyvl, Novhorod-Siverskyi. M. V. Kholostenko’s contribution to the study of the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is significant. Many years of research (1952—1954, 1962—1963, 1969—1972) allowed him to trace the architectural and construction history of the entire ecclesiastical complex. M. V. Kholostenko found out the construction and technical features of the ancient part of the cathedral — the technology of making plinths, the method of masonry of the main walls, arches, vaults. He was the first who systematized and classified the bricks of the Cathedral of the Dormition of the 11th—17th centuries. During the research, new, previously unknown elements of the architecture of the ancient part of the cathedral were discovered, hidden behind later extensions. M. V. Kholostenko developed a scheme of dimensions and proportions of the cathedral of the 11th century and corrected the general plan of the temple and its individual parts. The results of architectural and archaeological research of the remains of the cathedral and the analysis of iconographic sources provided sufficient grounds for the scientific reproduction of the entire cathedral complex. M. V. Kholostenko was one of the first to recreate the original appearance of the Cathedral of the Dormition and reconstructed the Church of St. John the Baptist. The results of his research became the basis for the development of the project for the restoration of the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, implemented in 1998—2000.