[Printable version]

To the southwest of the existing church of St. Illya (Elijah), on No. 10 Borysohlibska Street, was the Baroque Church of Sts. Borys and Hlib.

It was built in 1692 by Hryhorii Korovka-Volskyi, Colonel of the Kiev regiment (administrative region), on the site of an old wooden Roman Catholic monastery of the Dominican Fathers. In its interior were outstanding works painted by two wellknown Kiev artists, Vasyl Romanovych and Fedir Kaminskyi (1738-39). During the nineteenth century, a number of additions to the church and a neo-classical bell tower were constructed.

As of 1930, both the church and the belfry still existed. The small Baroque church and its interior wall murals have not been studied and very little has been published about them. Sometime in the mid-1930s the entire complex disappeared. All that remained of the demolished church was its name, after which the adjacent street was named. One can guess that the Baroque landmark was demolished in 1936, when, during the excavations in the Sts. Borys and Hub Street, wooden pipes of Podil‘s eighteenth century water distribution system were discovered.

As was the case of other demolished Baroque landmarks, the Commissar of Education, in accordance with Soviet Ukraine‘s legislation of June 16,1926, must have authorized dismantlement of the Church of Sts. Borys and Hlib.

Source: http://www.oldkyiv.kiev.ua/13_borhlib.htm