According to the National Research Restoration Center of Ukraine, St. Cyril’s fragile artworks need a proper microclimate to survive.
A medieval Kyiv church decorated with priceless murals is at the center of an escalating dispute between museum administrators and a local church subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate.
For the last decade or so, the 12th century Church of St. Cyril of Alexandria has been functioning as both a place of worship under the administration of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate (UOCMP) and as a state historical museum open to visitors.
Now museum officials say that daily religious practices, such as the burning of candles and incense, are damaging the murals.
According to a report issued last October by the National Research Restoration Center of Ukraine, St. Cyril’s fragile artworks, dating back to Kyivan Rus years, need a proper microclimate to survive.
According to preservationists, the UOCMP doesn’t think the murals, some painted by 19th century Russian artist Mikhail Vrubel, are “iconic,” and therefore they can simply be painted over or covered up.
Sergiy Geruk, editor of Kyrylitsa news, a publication of the Metropolitan of the UOCMP, called these claims “distorted,” and meant to make his fellow churchmen look “uneducated.”
“What’s at issue is rights over use of the church, but that doesn’t mean that the church will suffer from that use,” he said.
According to him, it’s up to the government to resolve the issue. But preservationists claim that the UOCMP has already found a loophole in the law, allowing it to pay a small fee for the right to redecorate the church.
“We need to do everything in our power to make sure the St. Cyril’s remains under the stewardship of the museum,” said Iryna Marhodina, assistant director at St. Sophia’s National Conservation Area.
“We don’t think that the UOCMP has adequate resources and educated specialists to provide proper security and restoration, or to run the educational tours.”
“It should be primarily a museum, and there should be separate church services – not every day, but a return to the former schedule of church services only on Saturdays and Sundays,” she added.
Instead, according to Marhodina, the UOCMP could hold daily services at St. Basil’s church, which is adjacent to St. Cyril’s.
St. Basil’s was constructed using state funds for the express use of the UOCMP. However, due to shortfalls in financing, the interior walls are still bare. In 1965, The Church of St. Cyril was put under the care of the National Preserve of St. Sophia, which also administers the Pecherska Lavra complex, St. Sophia’s Cathedral and St. Andrew’s Church. In 1994, St. Cyril’s was designated a museum accommodating limited church services. The situation changed significantly in 2004, when an agreement was drawn up that made UOCMP the main steward of St. Cyril’s, limiting museum oversight.
Regulation of the monument falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine. But American and Canadian preservationists have recently begun writing petitions asking the Ukrainian government to stop the UOCMP from using St. Cyril’s.
Olenka Pevny, an art historian specializing in Late Antique, Byzantine and Medieval art history at the University of Richmond in Virginia, says that her letter campaign is having an impact, gaining the support of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Early Slavic Studies Organization of the United States, among others.
Pevny said the sole purpose of the campaign is to make sure that Ukraine’s cultural heritage is protected for prosperity.
“The issue I am raising is not whether there are qualified and earnest individuals in the church versus the museums.”
“What I am saying is that in all of Ukraine there survives only one 12th-century monument with frescoes. It is the second most important medieval monument in all of Ukraine after the St. Sofia Cathedral.The Church of St. Cyril should be designated a historical-cultural landmark belonging to all the Ukrainian people,” she said.
Pevny has started a campaign on behalf of St. Sophia’s National Preserve to apply to the World Monuments Fund to nominate St. Cyril’s for a place on the Fund’s Watch List of the World’s 100 Most Significant Endangered Sites. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine recently removed 300monuments from the protective list of historical-cultural sites, allowing them to be considered for “re-appropriation” and permanent Church use.
Pevny suspects that St. Cyril’s could be on this list.
