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HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

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MASONRY CHURCHES OF MEDIEVAL CHERNIHIV 373Sviatoslav Iaroslavich, who in 1073 moved from Chernihiv to take theKievan throne, began construction in 1076 of a large and rich church inVyshhorod dedicated to Boris and Gleb, where he intended to transfer thesaints' relics. But Sviatoslav died that same year, and the church was completedby Vsevolod Iaroslavich during his reign in Kiev (1078-1093). Thechurch had scarcely been completed when it collapsed. It was rebuilt, andin 1115 it was solemnly consecrated by Sviatoslav's sons, Prince David ofChernihiv and Prince Oleg of Novhorod-Sivers'kyi, and by VolodimerMonomakh, Vsevolod's son, who had ruled Pereiaslav until 1113, when hebecame prince of Kiev. 28Occupied with the construction of the grandiose Church of Boris andGleb in Vyshhorod, the princes of Chernihiv built no masonry churches intheir own town until 1115. In the last quarter of the eleventh century monumentalbuilding activity in Chernihiv was <strong>also</strong> hindered by the struggle ofVsevolod Iaroslavich and Volodimer Monomakh with Oleg Sviatoslavichfor Chernihiv and its domains. After the death of Sviatoslav Iaroslavich in1076, Chernihiv on several occasions changed hands from one prince to theother. The chronicle records the capture and burning of the outer town in1078 and the destruction of Chernihiv's suburbs in 1094, in the course ofthese princely internecine wars. 29 Northern Rus' chronicles mention theburning of the town in 1111. 30 It was during the troubled times of the lateeleventh and early twelfth centuries that the two known towers of theprincely court next to the Cathedral of the Transfiguration burned down. 31The struggle for the Chernihiv throne ceased only in 1097, after the meetingand agreement of the Rus' princes in Liubech', where the rights of SviatoslavIaroslavich's heirs to the land of Chernihiv were recognized as inviolable.In 1097, David, the eldest of Sviatoslav's clan, received Chernihiv,while Oleg was allotted Novhorod-Sivers'kyi, and Iaroslav was given Riazan'.In the late eleventh or early twelfth century, the Cumans cut Trautorokan'off from Chernihiv's domains, and in 1097 the Novhorod-Sivers'kyi land was <strong>also</strong> divided from the Chernihiv principality. So, too,in the twelfth century were the Putyvl', Kursk, Murom, and Riazan' lands,28Close examination of the building of the Vyshhorod Church of SS. Boris and Gleb hasrecently been done by Martin Dimnik in his article "Oleg Svyatoslavich and the Cult of SS.Boris and Gleb," Mediaeval Studies 50 (1988), forthcoming.29Russian Primary Chronicle, pp. 256, 270.30PSRL, vol. 7: Letopis' po Voskresenskomu spisku (St. Petersburg, 1856), p. 22;Novgorodskaia pervaia letopis' starshego i mladshego izvodov (Moscow and Leningrad,1950), p. 20.31Kholostenko, "Chernigovskie kamennye kniazheskie teremaXI v.," p. 12.

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