The Church of St. Theodosius of Chernigov was built in 1908-1909 and was originally located on the site of the current Darnitsky market. It was a wooden temple, lined with brick. The church was cruciform in plan and ended with a dome on an 8-sided drum; a bell tower with a hipped roof was built above the vestibule. The dome drum and bell tower were not lined with bricks. The church estate was surrounded by a wooden fence and was a plot of pine forest, partially cleared of trees.
The church was most likely closed at the end of 1935 – beginning of 1936, since in the document “List of all closed prayer houses of the Orthodox religious cult in the Kiev suburban area as of March 26, 1936” there is also the Church of Theodosius of Chernigov in Darnitsa, “synodal orientation”. In 1937, the church was used as a gym for the Darnitsa meat processing plant, but the building was soon dismantled. In the 1940s, during the Nazi occupation of Kyiv, a new Church of Theodosius of Chernigov was opened nearby in a converted residential building.
After the war, believers not only of Novaya Darnitsa, but also of Staraya Darnitsa, Liski and the village DVRZ went to this church. Children from these areas were also baptized in the Church of St. Theodosius of Chernigov. The church was closed and destroyed in 1962 by order of the Soviet government. Vladimir Prikhodko spoke about its destruction in the book “DVRZ”: “In 1962, the church suffered a sad fate. It was dismantled by soldiers from a nearby military unit in one night. The army was combat-ready then, the soldiers were disciplined, so they got down to business in the evening twilight, and in the morning there was only a flower garden in place of the church.”
In the 1990s, the temple was temporarily located in an adapted room on the first floor of a residential building. Construction of the temple in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” began on January 25, 2007, and on November 21, 2007, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church consecrated the crosses and domes for the church-chapel in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow.”
Where is the Church of Theodosius of Chernigov?
Privokzalnaya street, 2
(050) 923-48-12
08:00 – 18:00
services: morning: Sat, Sun 08:30 and 12:00, evening: Fri, Sat 17:00