Kiev Pechersk Lavra

The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was established in 1051 A.D. – ten years earlier than St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, three centuries before the world-famous Notre Dame Cathedral, and four centuries before the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. The Russian Orthodox shrine is twice as old as St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

In the 13th century the church leadership of Kievan Rus was transferred from Kiev to Moscow due to the Mongol invasion and became the Moscow Patriarchate.

The monastery has survived the Mongol invasion, persecution of Orthodox Christians by Polish Catholics, the Western invasions of Napolean Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler, and the rule of the fiercely atheist Bolsheviks. The monastery's 1,000 year history is inseparably bound up with the history of Russia.

The monastery is where the Bible was translated into Russian and the burial site of its translator, St. Cyril.