Kiev Pechersk Lavra | Ukraine

The Kiev Pechersk Lavra is a common name for an entire complex of cathedrals, bell towers, cloisters, fortification walls and underground caverns. It was founded in the early 11th century by a Greek Orthodox monk who came to Kiev as a missionary. He didn’t want to live in the city and chose a cave on the bank of the Dnieper River.

A community of disciples around him grew quickly, and soon a Lavra was established. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, a “Lavra” stands for a large and important monastery, and the word “pechera” means “cave” in Russian (Kiev was the capital of Old Russia back then).

In the 1920s the site was totally vandalized, many monks were killed and others sent to prison or exile. It was reconstructed as late as 2000, in time for the 950th anniversary of Kiev Pechersk Lavra.