This weekend we celebrate the great holiday - the 1030th anniversary of the Christianization in Kievan Rus
!
Do you know how that has happened
In 988 was ruling Prince Vladimir - the great reformer of Kievan Rus. He conducted both political reforms and religious ones in an ancient pagan state.
In local Chronicles there is a story about "choice of faith" by Prince Vladimir. Deciding to give up paganism and choose a monotheistic religion, the prince spoke with representatives of different faiths. He talked with a Muslim, and he really liked the idea of polygamy, since Vladimir himself had up to 500 concubines. But the prohibition of alcohol did not suit the prince
. He talked with the Jew. This religion did not suit the prince from the political point of view, because what a religion without own country. So it was a choice of Christianity between the Western (European) and the Eastern (Byzantine) samples. The embassies went to different countries. After visiting Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium (modern Istanbul) and the church of St. Sophia it was compared with heaven
. Rus was baptized by Byzantines. 2000 people came from Byzantium to teach us not only religion, but also architecture, art, even the same names (Sofia of Kyiv, Golden Gate).
Today, Kiev is a city of contrasts
. On the one hand, the city has an active modern life: numerous events (we write you about weekend events), various activities and attractions especially in the warm season (trolleys, wakeboarding, bikes ...), national cuisine is represented by all sorts of restaurants (we should write a post about it). But on the other hand, Kiev is an ancient city. It’s age is more than 1500 years
Walking via streets of modern city you will find architectural historical dominants - churches. We have almost 1000 churches in Kyiv. Therefore, Kyiv is a capital of the faith and this weekend you can especially feel its religiosity not only by watching the golden domes of cathedrals , but also meeting the religious processions on the streets of the city.
P.S.
We have tours about churches and monasteries of Kyiv. But even when just sightseeing tour we can't avoid this subject with numerious churches surrounding us. Your tour will be interesting and exciting with #kiev_colours.
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