Patrons and entrepreneurs
Ivan Mazepa
1639–1709
- Hetman
- church builder
The hetman who made Kyiv a showcase of “Mazepa Baroque”: the Lavra’s stone walls, All Saints Church, St Nicholas Military Cathedral, a remodelled St Sophia and the Mohyla Academy building.
Biography
Ivan Mazepa probably studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium and in 1687 became hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine. During his two decades in power hundreds of churches were built or restored across the Hetmanate, and Kyiv gained whole ensembles in the style later called “Mazepa” or Cossack Baroque.
He did most for the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra: at his expense the monastery was ringed in 1696–1701 by a stone wall with towers (the Kushnyk, Clock, Painters’ and Onufriy towers), the All Saints Church rose over the Economic Gate (1696–1698), and the Trinity Gate Church and Dormition Cathedral were restored. In Pechersk he also built the St Nicholas Military Cathedral (1690–1696), demolished by the Soviets in 1934.
Mazepa paid for the remodelling of St Sophia’s Cathedral with new Baroque domes (1690s–1700s), the bell tower and walls of the St Sophia monastery, and, on Podil, the Epiphany Cathedral of the Brotherhood Monastery (1693, destroyed in 1935) and a new building for the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (1703–1704) — today’s Old Academic, or “Mazepa”, Building.
After the Battle of Poltava in 1709 he died at Varnytsia near Bender. Kyiv remembers him with a dove memorial in Pechersk (2009), a bust in the Lavra (2025) and Ivan Mazepa Street, whose name was restored in 2025; the Museum of Hetmanship on Podil has a permanent exhibition about him.
Kyiv in their life
- Kyiv Pechersk Lavra — walls and towers (1696–1701), All Saints Church over the Economic Gate, the restored Trinity Gate Church.
- St Sophia’s Cathedral — Baroque remodelling of the 1690s–1700s.
- Kontraktova Square, Old Academic Building of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy — built at the hetman’s expense (1703–1704).
- St Nicholas Military Cathedral in Pechersk (1690–1696) and the Epiphany Cathedral of the Brotherhood Monastery (1693) — both destroyed in the 1930s.
