The Museum of the History of the Mikhailovsky Golden-Domed Monastery is a museum founded in June 1998 on the territory of the Mikhailovsky Golden-Domed Monastery, which at that time was being restored. Located in the bell tower and the adjacent building (Varvari cells).

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The replenishment of funds continues. Due to the destruction of the structures, there are few original fragments of the buildings left. First of all, these are the pillars of the cathedral. Somewhat damaged, they have survived and are available for research and are now under the floor of the restored cathedral.

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The highlight of the cathedral were the mosaics of Byzantine and local masters, created in the 12th century. Only the central apse of the cathedral in the interior had precious ornaments made of smalt. According to the plot, they were similar to those in Sofia of Kiev. But here the figure of the Virgin of Oranta is lost (preserved in Sofia). Lucky was the scene of the Eucharist — the communion of the Apostles by Christ himself. The central figures of the Eucharist belong to the masterpieces of world art. One of the mosaics with the image of the holy warrior Dmitry Solunsky was taken to an exhibition in Moscow and not returned to Kiev. Today the original mosaic is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery.

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The extraordinary jewel of creating mosaics limited their use. Therefore, the remains of the cathedral walls were decorated with cheaper and less time-consuming frescoes. Under the plot frescoes were created frescoes of an ornamental nature and frescoes imitating marble panels, which the cathedral did not have. During World War II, the frescoes were exported to Germany. In the post-war years, they managed to be returned to the then USSR, but they were transferred for safekeeping not to Kiev, but to the Hermitage Museum. It was they who managed to return to Kiev.

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Among the exhibits of the museum:

Slate carved slab with a holy warrior rider of the XI century

The copper gilded relief of Archangel Michael from the main pediment of the cathedral is a sample of the Kiev School of Metaloplastics of the XVII—XVIII centuries, found in 1956 in a landfill near the Kyiv Art School prof. P. Zholtovsky.

Silver Tsar's Gate of 1811 from the main iconostasis of the temple.
Portraits of Kiev metropolitans, Ukrainian hetmans, abbots and ascetics of the monastery.

Antiquities and liturgical editions of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Objects of worship: crosses, lamps, candlesticks, smokehouses, chorugas, potires, iconographic works, samples of priestly vestments of the XVIII-XIX centuries.

Unique photos of the dismantling of the mosaics of St. Michael's Cathedral, its destruction and reconstruction.”

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