Great Lavra Belltower - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Great Lavra Belltower or the Great Belfry is the main belltower

Bell tower

A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...

of the ancient cave monastery

Cave monastery

A cave monastery is a monastery built in caves, with possible outside facilities. St. Anthony the Great known as the founder of monasticism lived in a cave.- List of cave monasteries :*Albania**St...

of Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Kiev Pechersk Lavra or Kyiv Pechersk Lavra , also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, is a historic Orthodox Christian monastery which gave its name to one of the city districts where it is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine....

in Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

, the capital of Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. It is one of the most notable buildings of the Kiev skyline (see picture).

The belltower was the highest free-standing belltower at the time of its construction in 1731–1745. It was designed by the architect Johann Gottfried Schädel. Its total height, with the Christian cross

Christian cross

The Christian cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity...

, is 96.5 meters (316 feet).

The Great Lavra Belltower is a Classical style

Classical architecture

Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...

construction with a total of four tiers

Storey

A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...

, surmounted by a gilded

Gilding

The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as "gilt"...

dome

Dome

A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....

. The diameter of the tower's lowest tier at its base is 28.8 meters (94 feet), and the thickness of the first tier walls is 8 meters (26 feet). The tower's foundation exceedes 7 meters (22 feet). The tower is decorated with many architectural columns: the second tier is decorated with 32 Dorian columns

Doric order

The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...

, the third tier is decorated with 16 Ionic columns

Ionic order

The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...

, and the fourth with 8 Corinthian columns

Corinthian order

The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...

.

On the third tier, there were some hanging bells, but they were later removed. To this day, only three small 18th-century bells have been preserved: the Balyk, Voznesenskyi, and Bezymiannyi bells. The former main bell of the Great Lavra Belltower, the Uspenskyi, had a total weight of one ton and was cast in 1732 by Ivan Motorin, who was also responsible for the Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

Kremlin

Moscow Kremlin

The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...

Tsar Bell. There is also a viewing platform atop the third tier, which provides visitors with a bird's-eye view

Bird's-eye view

A bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object from above, with a perspective as though the observer were a bird, often used in the making of blueprints, floor plans and maps.It can be an aerial photograph, but also a drawing...

of the region around Kiev.

On the fourth tier there is a chiming clock, manufactured in 1903, which has a total weight of 4.5 tons. The current belltower's clock, designed by the Moscow master A. Enodin and based on the Kremlin clock

Kremlin clock

The Kremlin Clock is a historic clock on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin. The clock dial is above the main gates to Red Square. For decades, the chimes have rung on the quarter hour, with bells tolling for each full hour.- Old clock :...

, replaced the older 18th-century clock of the master A. Levynskyi. The clock has stopped only once during its existence: it happened in September 1941 when the Dormition Cathedral of the Pechersk Lavra was blown up by army forces, during the Second World War

Eastern Front (World War II)

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...

.

The clock was repaired following the destruction of the nearby cathedral, which took a total of six years to complete. Since that time, the clock has never needed any repairs. The clock's mechanism is very accurate; up to within 10 seconds. However, it has been observed that its accuracy depends on the time of the year: in the Winter, the clock works somewhat slower than in the Summertime. The clock's mechanism has to be rewound once a week, and the clock's bells chime every quarter of the hour.

See also