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St Volodymyr's Cathedral (Template:Lang-uk also known as St Vladimir's Cathedral) is one of Kiev's major landmarks and the mother cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchy, one of two major Orthodox Churches in Ukraine, viewed, however, uncanocical by the Eastern Orthodox Communion. It is one of three greatest Orthodox churches built in the nineteenth century, on the par with St Isaac's in St Petersburg and Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
In 1852, metropolitan Philaret of Moscow suggested a large cathedral should be built in Kiev to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Kievan Rus. People from all over the Russian Empire started donating to this cause, so that by 1859 the cathedral fund had amassed a huge sum of 100,000 rubles. The Kiev Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) produced one million bricks and presented them to the cathedral as well. The design was executed in delightful Byzantine style by the architects Ivan Schtrom and Alexander Beretti. Much stymied by technical problems, the construction works dragged on for three decades. On August 20, 1896, the cathedral was finally consecrated to St Volodymyr in the presence of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna.
It is the cathedral's colourful interior that particularly strikes the eye. Mosaics were executed by masters from Venice. Frescoes were the work of three outstanding Russian painters of the day: Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, and Mikhail Nesterov. The iconostasis is carved from the white marble brought from Carrara.
During the Soviet Times, the cathedral survived from the massive anti-religion campaign from destruction, but not from closure. Until the war a museum of religion and atheism existed there. After the war the cathedral was opened and was not closed since. During this time it was the main church of the Kiev eparchy of the Ukranian Exarchate. It seen the revival of Orthodox religion in 1988 when the millenium celebration of the baptism of Rus marked a turn in the Soviet policy of religion. However afterwards it again became a subject of controversy. In 1992, following the controversy surrounnding after Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine Filaret refused to resign, the cathedral became the first building to be captured by the UOC-KP. After the Karkov sinod and with the return of the new Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine Vladimir, members of the neo-fascist UNA-UNSO barrikaded themselves inside the cathedral and refused entry to the new cannonical church leader and several thousand believers who gathered to meet them. Despite numerous protests from all the world Orthodox communities the cathedral is yet to return to the church and is still in the hands of the schismatics.