Dear Friends!

Take a trip to our virtual museum during your coffee or tea break and make your #quarantinediscoveries!

Admire unique cultural assets of the Museum Fund of Ukraine!

Today we invite you to look at the photos selection of Lavra pilgrims (the late 19th - early 20th centuries) from the Preserve collection under the project “Memories of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”.

Our Preserve is especially beautiful in May. Architectural monuments framed by lush greenery and flowers are pleasing to the eye. In the 18th-19th centuries, it was in May that most pilgrims were gathering at the Lavra. The Cathedral Square in front of the Great Dormition Church has been filled with numerous worshipers.

It was more convenient to make pilgrimages in the warm season, and the period from late spring to early autumn was considered the most appropriate. This was also influenced by the seasonality of field work. The calendar of church holidays also played a significant role in this. Pilgrims who arrived at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra at this time of year had to go on a journey during the Lent, performing a personal feat, or after Easter, being in a special exaltation.

Pilgrims visited the caves and the Great Pechersk Church (Dormition Cathedral), where there was a miraculous icon of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin. They took part in divine services, public prayers, and inscribed their names in the Lavra commemoration books.

This year's spring and early summer differ from previous years; the Pechersk hills together with the Cathedral Square are silent…

We hope to meet you soon at the National Kyiv-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Preserve after the end of the quarantine.

Next week in the project “Memories of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” you will be able to see historical photos from the series “Children in the Lavra”. In the meantime,

let’s #stayathome and discover the beauties of the Preserve’s collection together!

#museumfromhome, #museumcoffeebreak, #museumteabreak

Photos:

1. Cathedral Square in the Lavra

2-3. Great Dormition Church

4. Icon of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin

5. Hospitium in the Lavra

6. Pilgrims in the Lavra. Early 20th c.

7. Last Pilgrims in the Lavra. 1920s