Tour description

The men Monastery of the Saviour Transfiguration was founded near the village of Mgar in 1619 by the cost of princess Rayina Vyshnevetska on the land gifted by her. The building was ruled by abbot Isiah (Kopynsky). Monastery complex repeatedly suffered devastating fires and was restored. In different epochs Ukrainian hetmans (Cossack military leaders) donated their homesteads as well as rebuilding funds to the Monastery. The stone cathedral of the Saviour Transfiguration was founded on the ground of the burnt wooden church of the Transfiguration in 1684 through the initiative by hetman Ivan Samoylovych. The cathedral was built by architect Johann-Baptist Sauer and is a six-column, three-altar, and five-dome with two towers at the west front wing. External walls were decorated with floral fretwork. The Monastery is a sample of Baroque architecture that was built and blessed in 1692. In 1785 the Monastery complex was expanded through the stone walk-through four-storey belfry crowned with semi-spherical dome. The building composition is dynamic and graduated. The lower storey is a square with rounded corners and four porches of Doric order. Upper storeys are cylinders with twinned Corinthian and Ionic columns. During ХVІІІ – ХІХ centuries two-storey hotel, Prior house and church of the Annunciation were built in the Monastery territory surrounded by stone fence. In 1919 the sanctuary was ravaged by Bolsheviks. The cathedral, belfry and cells were robbed while other buildings were destroyed and part of the monks were shot. In 1923 the Monastery stopped functioning and juvenile detention was first set up in its territory instead, then disciplinary battalion and a pioneer camp since mid-1980s. Since 1963 the Monastery complex has been under governmental protection as an architectural and town planning monument with a guard number 593. In 1993 Monastery of the Saviour Transfiguration in Mgar returned to Church.