Catherine's Church

Catherine's Church (Tserkva Ekateryny) at the edge of Val Hill is the baroque jewel of Chernihiv — a church built at the end of the 17th century in the distinctive Ukrainian baroque style that flourished under Cossack patronage. The exterior is covered in green and white ornament: elaborate white stucco frames around the windows, cornices of stylised scrollwork, and the characteristic massing of Ukrainian baroque with its vertical emphasis and onion-domed cupolas.

The church stands on the slope below Val Hill with a view over the lower town. Its scale is modest but its detailing is extravagant — the facade combines Renaissance pilasters with Ukrainian folk ornament in a way that is unlike any Western European baroque. The interior retains its original iconostasis. The church is used for regular Orthodox services; check opening hours before planning a visit specifically to see the interior.

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A story
Catherine's Church was built between 1693 and 1700 as a memorial to the Chernihiv Cossack regiment that distinguished itself at the siege of Azov in 1696 under Peter the Great. The Chernihiv colonel who commissioned it was rewarded for the regiment's performance in battle with the right to build a regimental church. The result is the finest example of Ukrainian baroque architecture in the city and one of the finest in Ukraine — a style that developed independently of the Russian baroque and shows a completely different sensibility.

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