In the center of Kiev, not far from St. Sophia Cathedral, there is a famous monument of defensive and sacred architecture of Kievan Rus — the Golden Gate. Like Sophia of Kiev, the Golden Gate belongs to the oldest buildings in Eastern Europe. The monument is mentioned in a famous chronicle article of 1037, which tells about the construction activities of Prince Yaroslav the Wise: “Yaroslav laid the city — big Kyiv, and the city of this gate is Zoloti. He also founded the church of St. Sophia, the Wisdom of God, the metropolis, and then the church at the Golden Gate, the stone, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.. After that (he erected) the monastery of St. George (the Victorious) and the (monastery) of St. Oryna...” With this record, the chronicler summed up the building merits of Yaroslav for the entire period of his reign, praised them. In science, the territory of ancient Kiev built up by these structures is called the “city of Yaroslav”.

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However, the latest research by D.I.N. Nadiya Nikitenko proves that the construction of the Kiev fortifications with the Golden Gate was started by Vladimir the Great and completed by his son Yaroslav the Wise. Like the Sophia Cathedral, the Golden Gate fortifications arose at the end of Vladimir's reign — at the beginning of the reign of Yaroslav. If Vladimir built the Golden Gate, then Yaroslav erected on them the Church of the Annunciation, consecrated in 1022. So until now, the territory of Upper Kyiv was expanded and surrounded by new grandiose defensive ramparts. In terms of parameters, the defensive structures of the “city of Yaroslava” had no equal in the Old Russian urban fortification. The length of the shafts of the “city of Yaroslava” was 3.5 km. The ramparts covered the territory of Upper Kiev (“the city of Vladimir” and “the city of Yaroslav”), covering an area of 80 hectares.

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In the system of fortifications of the “city of Yaroslava”, the chronicle mentions three gates: Zoloti, Lyada and Zhidivske (Lviv). And only the Golden Gate was stone. This building was not only the most powerful link in the system of fortifications of the ancient city, but also the main entrance to Kiev. It was through these gates that the ambassadors from Byzantium and other states of Europe and the East entered, who tried to establish friendly relations with Russia. Under these vaults entered the city participants of military campaigns with glory and booty. Apparently, the embassy of the French King Henry I Kapeting solemnly entered through the Golden Gate to marry Yaroslav the Wise's daughter Anna.

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The Golden Gate was a battle tower with a passage crowned by the gateway Church of the Annunciation. The type of building that combines a gate and a temple is probably borrowed from Byzantium. Yes, the Byzantine historian of the XI century. John of Skilitsa reports on the construction in the second half of the 10th century of the Church of the Savior over the gates of Halka — the entrance to the palace of the Byzantine emperors in Constantinople. But there is an opinion that the gateway churches are structures peculiar exclusively to ancient Russian architecture. Architectural historian Yuri Aseev believed that “the construction of gateway churches was not typical of Byzantine architecture. It is not typical of Europe at this time.”

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The main gate in Kiev is called Golden, undoubtedly, by analogy with the main city gate of Tsargorod. The toponymy of the buildings, given by the chronicler in an article of 1037 (Sophia Cathedral, monasteries of St. George and St. Irina, Golden Gate), inherits Constantinople. The analogy can be traced not only in the names of temples and gates, but also in the ideas of urban planning and the planning structure of the “city of Yaroslavl”. In the Middle Ages, all spheres of life of the Christian country were permeated with religious worldview and symbolism. This was especially noticeable in the newly converted Christian states, in particular, in Russia. Yaroslav sought to build not just a city, but the capital of a Christian state, similar to Constantinople — New Jerusalem. The city was conceived as a single architectural ensemble, one harmonious whole, enclosed by a ring of defensive structures. S. Averintsev wrote: “And in its semantic aspect, the city is related to the medieval man with the temple: the city is, as it were, a spacious temple, the temple is like the heart of the city, and both are images of the same ideal — Heavenly Jerusalem.”

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Kyiv researcher Ph.D. Mariana Nikitenko notes that the architecture of Kyiv of that period creates “the image of a single sacred space, in the center of which in the church of St. Sophia the Mother of God Oranta appeared to Christ — as the personification of the ideal Church and as the first inhabitant of Heavenly Jerusalem, introducing into it the Russis Neophytes.” Both the image of Our Lady in the Sophia Cathedral, and the Golden Gate with the church, also dedicated to the Virgin, and the Church of the Virgin (Desyatynna) of the 10th century, testified to the perception of the Byzantine idea of the Virgin as the patroness of cities. The symbolic meaning of the Golden Gate Church is also indicated by monuments of ancient Russian literature. In the final part of “Words on the Law and Grace”, glorifying Yaroslav the Wise, Metropolitan Hilarion, addressing Vladimir, speaks of Yaroslav's completion of the construction of defensive structures and the Church of the Annunciation: “And the glorious city of your Kiev with majesty, like a crown, a crown chanced. He gave his people and holy, all-glorious hail, rather to the aid of Christians, the Holy Virgin. For her, he also created the church at the Great Gate in the name of the first feast of the Lord of the Holy Annunciation. Further, the author of the greeting, with which the angel addressed the Virgin, redirects to the city: “Rejoice, pious, play, the Lord is with you!”. So, Yaroslav, who dedicated the gateway church to the Annunciation, gave Kiev under the auspices of not only the Virgin Mary, but also to God himself. Hilarion calls Kiev “God-guarded city”. In written sources, this epithet characterizes Jerusalem. The main purpose of the gateway church at the Golden Gate is to carry out the “heavenly” protection of the city.

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The dedication of the church to the Annunciation explains as follows: “This wise great prince Yaroslav built (the church) of the Annunciation at the gate for this purpose, (in order) to give more joy to the city with the seventh holy Annunciation of the Lord and the prayer of the Holy Virgin and the archangel Gabriel.” Through the Golden Gate, according to medieval symbolism, “good news” should have come to Kiev.

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The main Kiev gate is mentioned in passing in another ancient Russian work — “Sayings about the Consecration of the Church of St. George”. St. George's Church was built by Yaroslav the Wise in the early 50s of the XI century. near the Golden Gate in honor of his heavenly patron. “Legend...” reports that the construction of the new temple was slow due to a shortage of labor. The prince ordered to announce at the auction what would be paid to the workers by the foot per day, “and there were many workers.” To pay for construction work, he “ordered the coons to be carried on carts to the mosquitoes of the Golden Gate.” Mosquitoes in ancient times were called vaulted ceilings in buildings. So, the kunas flocked to the vaults of the Golden Gate. (Nogata and kuna are the monetary units of Kievan Rus, which were equal to 3.41 g and 2.73 g of silver. Their equivalent may have been rabbit or sable furs). So, in the Golden Gate there was a room where the treasury could be stored.

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They knew about the Golden Gate outside the Old Russian state. Related to them is the famous Polish legend about the sword “scherbec”, recorded in the Polish chronicle of Anonymous Gall (p. XII century) and in later Polish chronicles. They say that in 1018 the Polish king Bolesław I the Brave, at the entrance to Kiev, struck the Golden Gate with his sword as a sign of the capture of the city. From the blow, the sword rose higher (hence its name). “Scherbec” is the coronation sword of Polish kings, which was stored in the first capital of Poland Gniezno and was one of the symbols of the Polish Kingdom. This legend, which arose in ancient times, is certainly reliable and not accidental, since the Golden Gate in 1018 already stood guard over Kiev, and their cutting meant its conquest. This testifies to the wide fame of the Kyiv Golden Gate and their importance in the defense of the city.

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The same symbolic gesture threatened to be resorted to by the Polovets khan Sevench in 1151 during the attack on Kiev together with Yuri Dolgoruky: “I will cut down the Golden Gate like my father.” However, the army of Dolgoruky, having suffered losses, was forced to retreat to Belgorod. Sevencz Bonyakovich did not carry out his threat, he was killed, according to the chronicle, near the Golden Gate in the same year 1151. Sevench recalled his father, the famous Polovets khan Bonjak, who in 1096, having raided Russia, plundered the outskirts of Kiev and burned “the princely court on Berestov”. Bonjak almost broke into the city, perhaps trying to “hack” at the Golden Gate. Cutting (drawing) with a sword of the Golden Gate, which is found in chronicles and legends, in the Middle Ages meant not only the conquest of Kiev — such a gesture was a sign of sacrilege, sacredness, because the Golden Gate was the sacred guarantor of the inviolability of the city.

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The story of the loss of the city's defensive symbol — the Golden Gate — is based on the legend of the hero Mikhailik. The legend appeared in the records of the XVIII-XIX centuries, but it is connected with the Old Kiev epic and tells about the events of gray antiquity, when the city was besieged by the troops of Khan Batya. In Kiev at that time lived a young hero Mikhail. Father understood that he would not take Kiev from him while Mikhail was there. The enemies began to threaten to destroy all the inhabitants of the city if the people of Kiev did not give them a hero. Mikhail assured the people of Kiev that he would defend the city. But the fear of the enemies took hold, and the people of Kiev agreed to hand over their defender to Batyeva. Then Michael lifted up the Golden Gate on his spear and brought them out of Kiev. Having lost the symbol of intransigence, the Kiwis were defeated.

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In ancient times, inheriting the Byzantine tradition, sacred images were placed on the gates. Perhaps a fresco or mosaic image of Our Lady was placed on the facade of the Golden Gate. The chronicle mentions him, telling about the military actions of 1151. Grand Prince Iziaslav Mstislavich together with his allies — princes Vyacheslav Vladimirovich and Rostislav Mstislavich — at the Golden Gate negotiated with Ambassador Yuriy Dolgoruky. During the negotiations, Vyacheslav, looking at the Holy Virgin who was above the Golden Gate, said: “And she shall judge us, Most Holy Lord, with her son and our God, in this age and in the future.” Presumably, the Golden Gate contained an image of Our Lady with the Infant (Odigitria). The plans of the National Reserve include the installation of a mosaic gate of the Virgin Mary in the iconographic type of Nicopeia (the Victorious) on the battle tower, like the altar fresco of Sophia of Ohrid (1040 year). The author is hood. L. Totsky, consultant — Ph.D. N.D. Nikitenko. Mary holds the Infant Christ in front of her like a shield. Nicopeia was considered miraculous, one that protects the people and statehood.

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The chronicle of the XIIth century mentions the Golden Gate mainly in connection with the military actions and sieges during the time of the princely troops. Thus, in 1146 “... the Berendichs, having moved through Lybid, captured Igor's oboz in front of the Golden Gate...” (we are talking about the Berendian tribes). In 1151 “... without entering the city, Vyacheslav (and) Izyaslav became a camp in front of the Golden Gate around the ravine...” In 1161 we read: “... and Berendychi ran: (some) — to the (tract) of Hungary, and the others to the Golden Gate...”. The Kiev prince Mstislav Izyaslavich in 1170 “... stood with his brothers in front of the Golden Gate in the gardens...” Archaeological finds found in the ditch in front of the gate (along the Golden Gate) testify to the battles in front of the Golden Gate: human bones, stones, tips arrows, stone cores. The Golden Gate personified the power of the state, its greatness and invincibility. Indeed, for its time, the gate was impregnable. The chronicle, reporting on all sorts of calamities suffered by Kiev in the day of princely assassins and attacks by nomads, never mentions the invasion of the city by enemies through the Golden Gate, although there were such attempts. In December 1240, Baty concentrated his main forces near Kiev: “And there was nothing to be heard from the sounds of the creaking of his telephones, the roar of his many camels, and the rustling of his herds of horses, and the land of Russia was full of enemies.” Khan Batyi did not dare to storm the Golden Gate. He concentrated the main forces near the Lyada Gate and the fortifications of the Khreshchatya Valley. On this side were the Goat Swamp and the Hand, but they had already frozen and ceased to act as a protective factor. For ten weeks and four days, the defense of Kiev lasted. The city fortifications were beaten day and night by “vices” (metal machines, wooden artillery — the highest achievement of military equipment of that time). Having broken the walls of the fortifications and overcoming the heroic resistance of the defenders of the city, numerous brigades of Batya rushed to Kiev through the Lyada Gate.

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After 1240, references to the Golden Gate disappear from written sources for a long time, so it is not known in what condition the gate was in after the Mongol invasion. Only at the end of the fifteenth century. messages about the Golden Gate reappear in official documents and records of travelers. Thus, the letter of the Grand Duke Alexander of Lithuania indicates that in the second half of the fifteenth century. The Golden Gate ruled for the main entrance to the city, the city guard was traditionally stationed here and customs were collected from merchants. In travel notes and diaries about the Golden Gate, merchant Martin Grueneweg (1584), envoy from Austrian Emperor Rudolf II to the Zaporozhye Cossacks, Erich Lyasot (1594), Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo (1654), who accompanied his father, Patriarch Macarius of Antioch, to Moscow. From written sources of the XVI-XVII centuries it is known that even then the Golden Gate was dilapidated. Gruneveg wrote: “The golden gates are still standing, but most of them are broken... A chapel is arranged above them — according to the custom of the Rusyns, who decorate their gates on top with beautiful churches, giving them to God for protection.” The appearance of the gate of that time is told by the drawings of the Dutch artist Abraham van Westerfeld, who was in Kiev in 1651 together with the Polish-Lithuanian troops of Prince Janusz Radziwill and painted many famous monuments of Kiev's antiquity. According to Westerfeld's drawings, the Golden Gate of XVII ct. was a picturesque ruin, but some arches, vaults of the passage and the remains of the gateway temple were still preserved. In the middle of the 17th century, the construction of a fortress began in Kiev in order to protect the city from Polish troops, and later - from Turkish aggression. The basis of the Starokievsky fortress was the ancient ramparts of the “city of Yaroslav” and “the city of Vladimir”. This fact confirms the great viability of the fortification plan of the ancient Russian architects. But with the advent of artillery, the design of the old fortifications no longer met the new requirements of warfare, so a new system of urban fortification was created. The old wooden defensive structures were dismantled, the shafts were filled up, guns were installed on the upper platforms. The Golden Gate was also adapted to the new conditions: in front of them were built earthen bastions, which can be seen on the plan of Kiev in 1695 by Colonel Ivan Ushakov. Thus, the Golden Gate until the middle of the 18th century. was part of the system of the Old Kiev fortress. There was a garrison guard. The gate was a place of solemn meetings. In 1648, the people of Kiev welcomed Bohdan Khmelnytsky with the army at the Golden Gate after the victory over the Poles near the Yellow Waters, Korsun, Pylyavci.

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Years passed. The building was increasingly destroyed, becoming dangerous for the guard, arriving in the city and passers-by. After examining the gates in 1750, engineer Lieutenant Colonel Danilo Debosket concluded that they were not subject to repair. In the middle of the 18th century. The golden gate was covered with earth. In this way, they hoped to save the remains of the monument from final destruction. At the same time, a new active gate of the same name was built nearby, which existed until 1799. The ruins of the Golden Gate were underground until the 30s of the XIX century. At the beginning of the 19th century, in connection with the reconstruction of the streets of the Upper Town, it was decided to demolish the earthen ramparts that surrounded the “city of Yaroslava”. In the 20s of the XIX century. archaeological investigation of the ancient city on the Dnieper began. The excavations of the Golden Gate in 1832 became one of the first in Kyiv. They were carried out “by a collection of lovers of sacred antiquities”, that is, by subscription. In 1832, Tsar Nicholas I, inspecting the open ruins of the gate, noted that “the monument is worthy of preservation.” Since 1833, small state funds began to be allocated for the excavation of the gate. Archaeological excavations were conducted with the permission of Kiev Governor-General Vasily Levashov, at the initiative of amateur archaeologist Kindrat Lokhvytsky, who served as an official on special assignments to the governor-general. The unearthed remains of the Golden Gate were significantly different from their ruins of the mid-eighteenth century. An attempt to save the “look of antiquity” of the monument by covering it with earth failed. The attraction was in a much worse condition. For almost 80 years of the remains of the Golden Gate underground (1755—1832), the monument was forgotten, and its discovery became a kind of sensation. This event was celebrated by the citizens of Kiev on June 25, 1834. The solemn consecration took place on the birthday of the emperor. K. Lokhvytsky wrote that after the prayer gates were sprinkled with holy water, and in the evening they were “illuminated”. Since that time, the Golden Gate has become one of the favorite monuments of antiquity, a visiting card of Kiev for residents and guests of the city.

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The open structure consisted of two parallel walls (pylons) 25 m (east) and 13 m (west) long and about 8 m high. The inner surfaces of the passage walls are dissected by seven pairs of pilasters, the lower part of which rests on the base of the foundation. The masonry of the main mass of the structure is characteristic of the stone structures of the first half of the XIX century. and close to the masonry of the St. Sophia Cathedral. It is made in the Byzantine, so-called mixed masonry technique (“opus mixtum”), which is characterized by the alternation of natural stone (granite, quartzite, slate, etc.) of different sizes with rows of plinths (ancient bricks). Immediately after the opening of the Golden Gate, an important question arose: how to protect the remains of the walls from final destruction? In 1835—1836, the upper part of the walls was poured with lime mortar, and turf was laid on top of it. In 1837, at the suggestion of the architect Vincentius Beretti, the architect Franz Mekhovich built three counterforts near the east wall and connected the gate walls with iron connections with rings. In the middle of the XIX century. there was a need to add two more counterforces to the eastern pylon. At the same time, under the leadership of the architect Nikolai Samonov, the territory around the monument was fenced with an openwork cast iron lattice according to the drawings of V. Beretti. In the 80s of the XIX century. the ancient walls for reinforcement were lined with bricks and covered with a metal roof. Although it was then that the appearance of the ruins changed significantly, but it should be noted that in the XIX century. measures to preserve the monument were carried out quite delicately. The drawings of artists and photographs of those times help us to imagine what the Golden Gate was like in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The general attention and interest in the Golden Gate prompted their study, description and archaeological research in 1915, 1927, 1948 and 1961. Many scientists of the XIX — XX centuries worked on the study of the Golden Gate. (K. Lokhvytskyi, F. Solntsev, P. Pokryshkin, O. Ertel, V. Lyaskoronsky, V. Bogusevych, Yu. Aseev).

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In the 70s of the XX century. the ruins of the Golden Gate were in poor condition. Despite the measures taken to preserve the ruins, the monument, located in the open air, gradually collapsed. In the conditions of the local natural area with characteristic fluctuations in temperatures in winter, it was impossible to prevent the destruction of the masonry remains of the Golden Gate. Thus, during the thaw, the walls absorbed water; when the temperature dropped, the moisture in the cracks froze and, expanding, spoiled the ancient wall. In 1970, the Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the USSR created a special commission to survey the condition of the Golden Gate, which included historians, archaeologists and architects. The commission concluded that in order to preserve the monument, it is necessary to revive it in its original form. In 1971, an author's group was created to rebuild the Golden Gate. It includes specialists of different profiles: restorer practitioner Yevhenia Lopushynska (“Ukrproektrestavratsiya”), archaeologist Sergey Vysotsky (Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR), a famous researcher of ancient Russian architecture Nikolai Kholostenko (“Kyivproekt”). In October 1977, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution No. 549 “On the celebration of the 1500th anniversary of Kiev”, one of the items of which provided for the reconstruction of the Golden Gate. After that, the matter of restoring the monument in its hypothetical original form moved into the practical plane. In 1972—1973, fundamental architectural and archaeological investigations and careful measurements were carried out, which yielded a significant amount of new material about the Golden Gate. Archaeological excavations of the 1970s were led by S. Vysotsky. The study of architectural analogies was essential for the development of the reconstruction project of the Golden Gate. The only such analogy, well preserved under later additions, is the Trinity Gate Church of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery, built in the XII century. The closest analogy to Kiev's main gate is the Golden Gate in Vladimir-on-Klyazm, built in 1158—1164. In the 1970s, M. Kholostenko, S. Vysotsky and E. Lopushinskaya proposed the reconstruction of the gate taking into account the new materials obtained during the excavations of 1972—1973. In the future, the basis for the development of the pavilion-reconstruction project over the Golden Gate was the reconstruction of E. Lopushinskaya, significantly corrected and supplemented. Construction of the pavilion began in June 1981 and was completed in April 1982. During the construction of the pavilion, the late masonry adjacent to the walls of the first half of the 11th century and the counterforces of the XIX century were preserved. The modern superstructure does not press on the old walls, it rests on the metal structures hidden in its thickness.

The pavilion reconstruction recreates the Golden Gate in this form: the main part is a battle tower with a passage, on top of it - a gateway church, along the side of the gate - segments of the shaft with prohibitions above them. If natural architectural and archaeological studies were involved in recreating the volume of the battle tower, then the second tier of the reconstruction pavilion, that is, the gateway church and the ban, was built quite hypothetically. The restored church is a three-nave, four-storied temple with one bathhouse, located above the passage. The facades of the rebuilt temple are dissected with pilasters according to the plan of the interior rooms and decorated with two-stage niches, arched window openings.

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The temple bath is gilded. In ancient times, the interior of the Church of the Annunciation, according to the tradition of Kiev architecture of the XI century, was decorated with mosaics and frescoes, confirming archaeological finds. No monumental painting has been recreated on the walls of the new church. Today, the temple is decorated only with a mosaic floor, the drawing of which was made under the direction of the artist-monumentalist Leonid Totsky based on the ancient floor of Sophia of Kiev. The gates stood within the shaft and were organically connected to it. In the built pavilion, segments of shafts adjacent to the tower were recreated. From the side of the field they have modernized slopes, from the city side — stepped terraces. Inside the restored sections of the shafts there are stairs leading to the crest of the shaft to the Church of the Annunciation. In 1983, the renovated pavilion “Golden Gate” became a museum. It is part of the National Reserve “Sofia of Kiev”. Without the Golden Gate it is impossible to imagine Kiev, this attraction is inextricably linked with the city and is its symbol.”

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