Vydubitsky monastery in Kiev

Adress of the sight: 40 Vydubitskaya Str., Kiev, Ukraine.

Looking for the best excursion in Kiev? Click here.

Vydubitsky monastery is an ancient convent in Kiev. The monastery was founded between 1070 and 1077 by Vsevolod, Yaroslav the Wise’s son. It was a family monastery of Vsevolod’s son, Vladimir Monomakh and his descendants.

It is considered that the cloister and its vicinity of Vydubichi take their names from an ancient legend about Vladimir Baptist and prostrate pagan god Perun. It narrates about how prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, at the day when he decided to christen Rus’, ordered to dump Perun’s all wooden idols and other gods to Dnieper. The laymen who were faithful to ancient belief ran along the river and urged gods to seem and come up, shouting «Perun, vydubai! «. Place in which idols, at last, came up on the bank, called Vydubichi. So the legend narrates. The doubts are raised by how Perun’s extremely heavy idol with an iron helmet on the head and gold moustaches (the chronicle says so) could float from Pochayna’s mouth through Dnieper thresholds more than 10 km and come up.

Other version of an origin of the name comes from the crossing. It is authentically known that before the Christianization of Kievan Rus’ there was a crossing through Dnieper around the monastery. Laymen were transported on «oaks» — the boats hollowed from integral trunks of an oak. Here, in the Vidubitsky natural boundary, there was a huge oak grove. Its name Vydubichi could also get from an underground monastery, which existed before the Christianization of Kievan Rus’ in the area of Zverinetski caves which after official acceptance of Christianity «vydybai» (came out) from under the ground and occupied the territory of the pagan temple at the bank near the crossing which became then a ferry. In keeping with the legend, «Yaroslav the Wise Library» could be stored in Zverinetski caves.