St. Cyril's Church was built in the middle of the XII century on the distant outskirts of ancient Kyiv - Dorohozhichy. From here, the founder of the church, Prince Vsevolod Olgovich of Chernigov, took Kyiv by storm in 1139 during the internecine struggle for the great throne of Kyiv. For representatives of the Olgovichi dynasty, the temple served as a country residence and a family burial vault. In 1194, Kyiv prince Svyatoslav, the hero of the ancient Russian poem "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", was buried here.
During its existence, St. Cyril's Church has known periods of desolation, repairs, renovations. In 1748-1760. here, with the participation of the famous Ukrainian architect I. Grigorovich-Barsky, stone monastery buildings were built, of which only part of the fence with a corner turret has survived to this day. After the reconstruction of the XVII-XVIII centuries. the ancient St. Cyril's Church received a modern appearance with the characteristic features of Ukrainian baroque architecture. In the 60s of the 19th century, St. Cyril's Church became the focus of public attention: under the plaster of the 18th century, frescoes of the 12th century were found on its walls. In 1881-1884. Under the guidance of Professor A. Prakhov, huge work is being done in the temple to clear the frescoes and renovate the murals. In 1884 Mikhail Vrubel worked here.
In May 1929, the St. Cyril's Church was declared the State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve. Here, research work was launched, interrupted by the Great Patriotic War. In the post-war period, great emergency work was carried out in the temple to strengthen the walls and foundations, which were deformed due to the destruction of ancient underground passages. Only after that architectural and archaeological research, cleaning and restoration of paintings were continued. The architecture of St. Cyril's Church has been well preserved since the 12th century. Perestroika of the 17th-18th centuries. expressed mainly in the relocation of part of the arches, the completion of four side domes, the erection of a magnificent pediment above the entrance, the design of windows and portals with stucco decoration. Ancient architectural forms are clearly visible under these additions.
The walls of the Church of St. Cyril are covered with paintings - frescoes of the 12th century, revealed from under oil records, separate fragments of tempera painting of the 17th century and oil works of the 19th century in areas where the frescoes have not been preserved. From the ancient frescoes that adorned all the premises of the temple, about 800 square meters of murals remained, which are valuable works of art from the period of Ancient Russia.