St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery is one of the oldest and most influential monasteries in Kyiv. It is located in the area of ??the Upper City, opposite St. Sophia’s Cathedral. The monastery was built in 1108-1113, destroyed by the communists in 1935-1936 and completely rebuilt in 1999. The monastery was built at the beginning of the 12th century during the reign of Prince Svyatoslav II. It is believed that the monastery was erected on the site of the Dmitrovsky monastery that stood here, and bore his name for several more centuries. The monastery, which was also called the cathedral, was dedicated to the Archangel Michael, who was considered to be the patron saint of Kyiv. 
Mikhailovsky Monastery was the first temple whose domes were gilded. Later, it became a tradition for many churches and cathedrals. Initially, the monastery was used as a princely tomb, and from the first days of its construction it became popular among the people of Kiev. Like most of Kyiv, the monastery was badly damaged during the Tatar-Mongolian war, and was partially destroyed. Its stagnation lasted until the end of the 15th century, until the restoration of the monastery began, and while the interior, with wonderful wall paintings and ancient frescoes, was almost untouched, the external appearance of the monastery acquired the features of classical Ukrainian baroque. During the 15th century, the St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery gained fame as one of the most important and richest monasteries in Kyiv, and in 1620 the monastery became the seat of the restored Kyiv Orthodox Metropolis. A great contribution to the development of the shrine was made by Hetman Ivan Mazepa, who presented the monastery with a casket with the relics of St. Barbara, which were transported to Kyiv from Constantinople in the 12th century. It was the relics of the saint that became one of the reasons for the incredible popularity of the monastery in the 1800s. The fact is that in 1719 and 1770, a terrible epidemic of plague and cholera swept across Kyiv, and not one of the inhabitants of the monastery was injured. The people of Kiev believed that it was the relics of St. Barbara that protected the shrine from disease, and hundreds of pilgrims rushed to the monastery. Legends began to exist that if you consecrate the ring in the cathedral, it will protect your house from evil spirits and diseases. 
But the glorious history of the monastery was barbarously terminated when Kyiv was captured by the Bolsheviks in 1918. At first, the monastery simply ceased to function, then its valuable frescoes and mosaics, the beautiful iconostasis were stolen, sold, sent to various galleries in Russia, and to private collectors. And in the 1930s, the communists blew up and completely wiped out the ancient shrine from the face of Kyiv – the Mikhailovsky Monastery was gone. It was only during the time of independent Ukraine that it was decided to reconstruct the cathedral, and in 1999 the works of the practically new, ancient St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery were completed. And, despite the fact that the buildings of the temple today are only a reconstruction of the former cathedral, some of the removed frescoes and mosaics from the times of Kievan Rus were returned to the monastery.
