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BELL TOWER OF THE DORMITION CATHEDRAL IN THE KYIV-PECHERSK LAVRA.1731-1745 Kyiv
The Great Lavra Bell Tower is a focal point in the entire complex of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery and plays an important role in Kyiv's panorama viewed from the left bank of the Dnipro. It was constructed to the design of J. G. Schädel worked out on a design proposal of architect F. Vasilyev. The Lavra architects S. Kovnir, I. Rubashevsky and I. Horokhov also took part in the realization of the project. To build the 96.5-metre high bell tower 4,964,500 bricks were specially pro­duced. In plan, it is hexagonal and consists of four tiers. The diameter of the first tier is 28.8 m. The first tier housed the book depository’ of the library, the second - the library itself. In the third tier, there were bells that weighed 96 tons. In 1744, the chimes were installed in the fourth tier. The chimes that work nowadays were made by Master A. Yenodin and installed in 1903. The bell tower is a unique creation of architecture and engineering.