The oldest building in Kharkiv is the Intercession (Pokrovskyi) Cathedral, located in the monastery complex with the same name on Universytets’ka Street, 8/10. It is a national architectural landmark in the “Cossack Baroque” style. The church was built in 1689 at the request of Kharkiv Colonel Grigory Donets-Zakharzhevsky in his courtyard, serving as a family chapel and the family’s burial place. However, modern researchers are not so categorical regarding stylistic criteria and classify the church style similar to the Ukrainian wooden churches of the Severian school. There are also suggestions that this church was built by the same guild of craftsmen from the Severian region (with centre in Chernihiv) that had previously constructed stylistically similar churches in Izium (1685) and the Svyatogorsk Lavra (1682). There are also underground chambers on the monastery grounds.
Near Intercession Cathedral, you can see the Ozeryanska Church, built in 1896 according to a design by V. Nemkin. In pre-soviet times, the Ozeryanska Icon of the Mother of God was kept there during the winter (more precisely, from September 30 to April 22), and every year it was solemnly carried from the Kuryazh Monastery to Kharkiv.
Until 2019, the Intercession Cathedral was light blue, a shade close to white. Incidentally, the traditional 17th-century churches of Sloboda Ukraine were white, with black wooden shingled domes. At the end of 2025, the Intercession Cathedral was added to the International List of Cultural Heritage Sites under enhanced protection by UNESCO.
The bell tower was built in 1740.
The Ozeryanska Church (the light yellow building in the photo) was built because the Intercession Cathedral could no longer accommodate the people from the growing parish.
The men’s monastery was founded in 1726. From 1722 to 1817, the Kharkiv Collegium was located here, later transformed into the Kharkiv Theological Seminary. Hryhorii Skovoroda taught at the collegium.
The Intercession Cathedral is a two-story structure—the lower church is the “warm” (winter) church, and the upper one is the “cold” (summer) church.
On the monastery grounds, you can see historic bells featuring interesting engravings that list the names of patrons and foundries
The Ozeryanska Church is connected to the Intercession Cathedral by a passageway. Services are usually held at the Ozeryanska Church.
The Bishop’s Residence (Metropolitan’s Residence) is also an architectural landmark—it was built in 1825. In front of the Bishop’s Residence stand sculptures commemorating the 200th anniversary of the diocese and the 2000th anniversary of the Nativity of Christ
If you want to enter the monastery grounds, please be aware that men are not allowed to wear shorts, and women are not allowed to wear trousers there. While women are provided with skirts and headscarves at the entrance, men should consider wearing trousers or jeans in advance.