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Kovnir, Stepan

Image - Kyivan Cave Monastery: view of the Bell Tower at the Far Caves and Church of the Nativity of the Virgin.
Image - Stepan Kovnir

Kovnir, Stepan [Ковнір, Степан], b 1695 in Hvizdiv, Kyiv county, Kyiv gubernia, d 1786 in Kyiv. Master builder. For over 60 years he worked under various architects on building projects of the Kyivan Cave Monastery—the so-called Kovnir building (1744–5) and the belfries of the Near (1759–63) and Far (1754–61) Caves (designed by Ivan Hryhorovych-Barsky)—on the belfry of the Kyiv Epiphany Brotherhood Monastery (1756–9), on the Klov Palace in Kyiv (1752–6, designed by P. Neelov), on the church and belfry in Vasylkiv (1756–9), and on the Trinity Church of the Kytaieve Hermitage near Kyiv (1763–7). With their elaborate plaster facades Kovnir’s buildings are fine examples of the Ukrainian baroque style.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]



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