Nikola Pritiska Church, Eastern Orthodox church in Podil district, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Nikola Pritiska Church is a brick church on Khoryva Street in Podil, built between 1695 and 1707 in the Ukrainian Baroque style. Its plan is cross-shaped with an elongated, faceted western arm and shortened north and south arms; the dome sits on an octagonal drum above high, slightly pointed arches. The exterior combines Ukrainian Baroque and classicist elements.
A wooden church dedicated to St Nicholas stood here by 1612 and burned in the 1651 Podil fire. The present brick church was built in 1695–1707 with funds from a Kyiv burgher nicknamed Zalizny Hrish, as research by Dehtiarov, Nesterovska and Selivanova established in the 1980s. Fires in 1718 and 1811 damaged it; it was rebuilt in the 1820s to a design by Andrii Melenskyi, and the bell tower's second tier was added in the second half of the 19th century.
The name Prytyska likely comes from "prytyka", a mooring place, since Saint Nicholas was the patron of sailors and traders of Podil. Another legend says a thief was pinned by the window shutter or the icon of Saint Nicholas. A memorial plaque on the south facade honours Metropolitan Ivan Pavlovsky, who had his see here in 1934–1935.
The church sits on Horiva Street in the heart of the older Podil district and is easy to reach on foot. It helps to check service times beforehand, as visiting hours for tourists may vary depending on religious activities.
The church carries protected monument number 1 in Ukraine's register, the first entry in the national list. Its axis does not align with neighbouring buildings: the altar faces east by Orthodox rule, but the walls also follow the street grid that existed before the 1811 fire that destroyed Podil.
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