Kiev-Pechersk Lavra rises on the high hills of the right bank of the Dnieper. Crowned with golden domes, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is the inheritance of the Most Holy Theotokos, the cradle of monasticism in Russia and the stronghold of the Orthodox faith.

The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Monastery was founded in the 11th century and built up over the next 9 centuries. The name "Pecherskaya" comes from the word "caves", which were found in this area and in which the first monks settled. Lavra is an honorary name given to very large and significant monasteries. The architectural complex of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Monastery makes a grandiose impression even today. On a sunny day, the reflections of the numerous domes and belfries of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra even blind your eyes. Most of the buildings of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra date back to the 17th and 18th centuries, and they are an excellent example of the Ukrainian Baroque style in architecture.
The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra began its existence in 1051. Prince Izyaslav, the son of Yaroslav the Wise, and the Kyiv nobility, who donated funds for the construction of an above-ground temple and cells, became frequent visitors to the cave monastery, when the caves became cramped for the rapidly growing number of brethren. Since the 12th century, only one church has survived in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra with minor architectural changes that were made later. This church is above the gates of the main entrance to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and it is called "Nadbramna" (or Over the Gate). The full name of the Church is Trinity Nadbramnaya Church - "Church of the Holy Trinity over Brama". It is a miracle that it has survived, as the Monastery has suffered numerous raids throughout history, devastating fires and other storms that have caused significant damage to it. The church was created in 1106-1108. Greek architects and icon painters. The Monk Alipy also participated in the painting, who is considered the founder of a special, different from Greek, icon-painting art.
The monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and, first of all, hermits, were distinguished by morality and asceticism. This attracted educated and noble people to the Lavra. The monastery became a kind of academy of Orthodox hierarchs. Until the beginning of the 13th century, 50 bishops were appointed from among his monks to different parts of Kievan Rus. Playing a significant role in the unification of the East Slavic lands, being a spiritual, social, cultural and educational center, the Lavra enjoyed well-deserved fame not only in Russia, but also in Poland, Armenia, Byzantium, Bulgaria and other countries. Since the 40s of the XIII century. until the beginning of the 14th century. Lavra witnessed the Tatar-Mongol invasions. The monastery, like the whole of Kyiv, was also badly damaged in 1399 and 1416.

By the end of the 16th century, overcoming various difficulties associated with the political upheavals of the Ukrainian lands, as well as interference in the internal life of the secular authorities, the monastery, rebuilding churches and acquiring new lands, was actively revived.
As follows from the name of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Kiev caves became the place where the Pechersky Monastery was founded. The chronicle reports that the “small cave”, from which the monastery began, was dug out on the banks of the Dnieper by the priest of the church of St. Apostles in the village of Berestov - the future Metropolitan Hilarion - to retire in it for prayers. Having become a metropolitan, Hilarion stopped visiting the cave, and in it between 1051 - 54. settled the hermit Anthony. According to the "Kiev-Pechersk Paterikon", Anthony used a cave for housing, which was arranged by the Varangians to store their treasures there.
Monks began to gather around Anthony, setting up a cave settlement on the mountain (now these are the Far Caves). When the brethren gathered 12 people, Anthony appointed the monk Varlaam as hegumen over them, and he himself moved to another mountain, where he again retired to an underground cell. Over time, an underground labyrinth arose on this mountain - the current Near Caves. The brethren, led by Varlaam, first erected a "small church" over the first cave, and in 1062 they built a church in the name of the Virgin. At the same time, Prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich, at the request of Anthony, presented the monks with a mountain above the caves, which they fenced and built up, creating the so-called Old Monastery. Since that time, the monastery became ground, the caves began to serve as a cemetery, and only ascetics-ascetics remained to live in them.
Soon Varlaam was transferred by Izyaslav Yaroslavich to the princely family Dmitrievsky monastery, and Anthony "appointed" another abbot - Theodosius, under whom the number of monks increased from twenty to one hundred, and the first (so-called Studian) monastery charter was introduced. Under Theodosius (in 1073), Prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich presented the Lavra with land between the Old Monastery and Berestovo. Here the Assumption Cathedral was laid, around which the New Monastery was formed under the next hegumen Stefan. On its territory, fenced first with a wooden and then with a stone wall, an architectural ensemble arose - the stone Trinity Gate Church and the refectory, wooden cells and outbuildings, a hospital with the church of St. Nicholas. The fenced space between the New and Old monasteries was partly occupied by kitchen gardens and orchards, and partly by the housing of the monastery artisans and servants; here Theodosius also arranged a courtyard for the poor and the sick.
The independence of the monastery from princely power (unlike other monasteries) contributed to the fact that at the end of the 11th century. it became not only the most authoritative, largest and richest religious organization in the country, but also the center of chronicle writing, the school of painting and medicine. The illustrious names of Alipiy, Agapit, Nestor and other Chernorizians were well-known. From 1171 the Abbots of the Caves bore the title of archimandrite. Even before the Mongol invasion, about 50 Cave monks became bishops in various cities of Russia.
After the annexation of Kyiv to the Muscovite state, the Lavra continued to receive benefits from the highest authorities, although the followers of Peter Mohyla, Joseph Trizna and Innokenty Gizel, did not show a desire to transfer it under the authority of the Moscow Patriarch. This happened only under Archimandrite Varlaam Yasinsky, after which the Lavra in 1688 received confirmation of stavropegy and the honorary title of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (however, the monastery was called Lavra in everyday life as early as the 12th century). Until the end of the XVIII century. Lavra continued to expand its possessions, becoming the largest church landowner in Ukraine - it owned hundreds of thousands of acres of arable and forest land, as well as a myriad of agricultural enterprises, where 76 thousand serfs worked.
At the same time, grandiose stone construction was being carried out in the Lavra. Back in the 17th century. a new refectory, Nikolskaya, All Saints, Annozachatievsky, Nativity of the Mother of God, Vozdvizhenskaya churches were built. Hetman Ivan Mazepa surrounded the Lavra with a stone wall. After a great fire in 1718, the burnt wooden buildings were replaced with stone ones, and the stone ones were repaired and enlarged. This is how the cells of the cathedral elders, the Economic Building, the printing house, and the Metropolitan's house appeared. In the middle of the XVIII century. Johann Schedel and Stepan Kovnir enrich the Lavra ensemble with the governor's house, the Kovnir building, the tallest Great Bell Tower in Russia, the bell towers in the Near and Far caves.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries the architectural ensemble of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra gradually acquired completeness. Covered galleries to the Near and Far caves were landscaped, and the territory of the caves was surrounded by a fortress wall. Several residential buildings for pilgrims were built on the territory of the Gostiny Dvor, a hospital, a new refectory, and a library. Lavra's printing house remained one of the most powerful Kiev publishing houses, and the icon-painting workshop occupied a prominent place in art.

At the beginning of the XX century. The Lavra numbered about 500 monks and 600 novices who lived in four united monasteries - Pechersky, Nikolsky or Trinity hospital proper, on the Near and Far caves. In addition, the Lavra owned three deserts - Goloseevskaya, Kitaevskaya and Preobrazhenskaya. The management system of this large farm was quite complex.
After the October Revolution of 1917 the most difficult times in its history began for the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. According to the Decree of the Soviet government "On the separation of the Church from the state and the school from the Church," all the property of church and religious societies was declared the property of the people. The gradual isolation of the church community, its displacement by the created museum ended by the beginning of 1930 with the complete liquidation of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Enormous damage to architectural and historical values ​​was also caused during the Great Patriotic War. On November 3, 1941, the Holy Assumption Cathedral was blown up. In 1961, the active monastery, which was renewed on the territory of the Lower Lavra during the Nazi occupation - in 1941 was abolished, its inhabitants were expelled.
In June 1988, in connection with the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Kievan Rus and in accordance with the decision of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, the territory of the Far Caves with all ground structures and caves was transferred to the newly created church community of the Lavra; in 1990, the territory of the Near Caves was transferred. In 2003–2004), the Holy Assumption Cathedral, blown up during the Great Patriotic War, was restored.