Eastern Ukraine - Ukraine - page 395

9am-5pm winter) , which displays the same short, squat style as the St Paraskevy Pyatnytsi
Church. The building is now a worthwhile museum where the star attraction is a pair of
intricate silver Royal Doors , commissioned by the famous Cossack leader Ivan Mazepa.
An oil painting at the start of the exhibition shows the extent of the Dytynets at its zenith.
The building next to the cathedral is the 18th-century collegium ( 10am-6pm) , built
in a style known as Ukrainian baroque. It houses interesting changing exhibitions.
Nearby is the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral (Transfiguration of the Saviour;
1017), with its two distinctive, missile-like corner bell towers. Within its dark interior are
the tombs of several members of the Kyivan Rus royalty, including the younger brother
of Yaroslav the Wise. Lining the southwestern edge of the Dytynets is a row of 18th-cen-
tury cannons , from where you get a prime view of the five sparkling golden domes of St
Catherine's Church in the immediate foreground.
At the southern tip of the Dytynets stands a Shevchenko monument , or should that
be 'sits' as this one has an unusually young Shevvy chilling gloomily on a park bench,
momentarily distracted from his view of the sluggish river below.
Krasna Ploshcha SQUARE
Life in Chernihiv revolves around the huge Krasna pl (Red Sq). As with its Moscow
namesake, there is nothing remotely bolshie in the word 'red', which simply meant
'beautiful' in old Slavonic. In the park extending southeast of the square along vul
Shevchenko rises the St Paraskevy Pyatnytsi Church , named after the patroness of the
large outdoor market that once occupied Krasna pl. Despite its sturdy, fortress-like ap-
pearance, only about one-third of the church survived WWII. With its imposing brick
wall and slender single cupola, it reflects the style that was popular when it was built in
the 12th century.
Antoniy Caves,
Illynsky Church &
Trinity Monastery CAVE, MONASTERY
(bell tower admission 5uah; bell tower 10am-7.30pm) About 2km southwest of St Cather-
ine's Church you'll spot the 58m bell tower of the Troyitsko-Illynsky Monastery (Trin-
ity Monastery). The Antoniy Caves , Chernihiv's answer to Kyiv's Kyevo-Pecherska
Lavra, lurk beneath the ground a short walk north of this monastery, under the early 11th-
century Illinsky Church (admission church & caves 10uah; 9am-5pm Sat-Thu, to 4pm Fri) .
The caves consist of 315m of passageways, galleries and chapels constructed from the
11th to the 13th centuries. These are very different from those in Kyiv in that they both
lack dead mummies and, for the most part, live tourists. The conditions here were too