K I E K I E 71
Cossack of the Russian epics. The foundation of the monastery is ascribed to two saints of the 11th century – Antony of Lynbeth, and Hilarion, metropolitan of Kieff. By the middle of the 12th century it had become wealthy and beautiful, but, completely ruined by Batu in 1240, it remained deserted for more than two centuries. Prince Simeon Oblkovitch was the first to start the restoration. A conflagration laid the buildings waste in 1716, and their present aspect is largely due to Peter I. The monastery contains a school of picture-makers of ancient origin, whose productions are widely diffused throughout the empire, and a printing press from which have issued a variety of liturgical and religious works, the oldest known examples bearing the date 1616.
The Podol quarter, as the name indicates, lies on the low ground at the foot of the bluffs. It is the industrial and trading quarter of the town, and the seat of the great fair of the "Contracts," the transference of which from Dubno in 1797 largely stimulated the commercial prosperity of the city. The present regular arrangement of its streets arose after the great fire of 1811. Lepki district (from the lepki or lime trees, destroyed in 1833) is of recent origin, and is mainly inhabited by the well-to-do classes. It is sometimes called the palace quarter, from the royal palace erected between 1868 and 1870, on the site of the older structure dating from the time of Elizabeth. Gardens and parks abound; the palace garden is exceptionally fine, and in the same neighbourhood are the public gardens with the place of amusement known as the Château de Fleurs.
In the New Buildings, or the Luibed quarter, are the university and the botanical gardens. The Ploskaya Tchast (Flat quarter) or Obolon contains the lunatic asylum; the Lukyanovka Tchast, the penitentiary and the camp and barracks; and the Bulvarnaya Tchast, the military gymnasium of St Vladimir and the railway station.
Kieff is the seat of the governor-general of the three provinces of
Kieff, Podolia, and Volhynia, and as such possesses a large number
of administrative institutions. In 1862 it was made the head
quarters of a great military district including the same provinces.
As a centre of intellectual activity it ranks among the principal
cities of Russia. The university of St Vladimir, transferred from
Vilna after the Polish insurrection of 1831, possessed 94 professors
in 1878, and was attended by 771 students; and the library con
tained 150,000 volumes. The theological academy and theological
seminary are large institutions; and the ordinary educational
establishments include three male and four female gymnasiums.
A daily paper, founded in 1864, and nine other periodicals are pub
lished in the town. Of the learned societies the more important
are the medical (1840), the naturalists (1869), the juridical (1876),
the historical of Nestor the chronicler (1872), the horticultural
(1875), and the dramatical (1879), the archæological commission
(1843), and the society of church archæology. There are three
considerable theatres.
In 1862 the population of Kieff was returned as 70,341; of this number 8604 were Roman Catholics, 1411 Jews, and 976 Protestants. In 1874 the total was given as 127,251, – 77.43 per cent. being members of the Greek Church, 10.85 per cent. Jews, 8.18 per cent. Catholics, and 2.45 per cent. Protestants. The clergy – regular and secular – amounted to no less than 3505, Russian and its dialects were spoken by four-fifths of the inhabitants. For 1881 the total population is estimated at 165,000.
The history of Kieff cannot be satisfactorily severed from that of Russia. According to Nestor's well-known legend it was founded in 864 by three brothers Ke, Shtehek, and Khofiff. It was in the waters of the Dnieper opposite the town that Vladimir, the first saint of the Russian Church, caused his people to be baptized; and Kieff became the seat of the first Christian church, of the first Christian school, and of the tirst library in Russia. For three hundred and seventy-six years it was an independent Russian city; for eighty years it was subject to the Tartars; for two hundred and forty-nine years it belonged to the Lithuanian principality; and for ninety- eight years to Poland. It was finally united to the Russian empire in 1667. In 1832 the headquarters of the first army corps, with all the departments of the general staff, were transferred to Kieff from Mogileff. The Magdeburg rights, which the city had previously enjoyed, were abolished in 1835, and the ordinary form of town government introduced; and in 1840 it was made subject to the onimon civil law of the empire.
A long list of works relating to Kieff will be found In Semenoff, Slov. Ross. Imp. Of more recent publication are the following: – Rambaud's La Russie épique, Paris, 1876; Avenarius, Kniga o Kievskikh Bogatuiryakh, St Petersburg, 1876, dealing with the early Kieff heroes; Zakrevski, Opisanie Kieva, 1868; the materials issued by the temporary commission for the investigation of the ancient records of the city; Taranovskii, Gorod Kieff, Kieff, 1881. See also Rambaud in Rev. de Deux Mondes, 1874. The standard geological map of the government is Theophilaktoff's (see Bull. Soc. imp. de Nat. de Moscow, 1872).
KIEL, the chief town of the province of Schleswig-Holstein in Prussia, is picturesquely situated at the southern end of the Kieler Föhrde, about 66 miles north-east of Hamburg by rail. It consists of a somewhat cramped old town and a better built and more spacious newer part, increased since 1869 by the inclusion of Brunswiek and Düsternbrook. In the old town stands the palace, built in the 13th century, and enlarged by Catherine II. of Russia in the 18th; it contains the university library of 150,000 volumes, and a small collection of casts of antique sculpture and of Thorwaldsen's works. Other interesting buildings are the church of St Nicholas, dating from 1240, with a lofty tower; the old town-house; the prison and court-house; the observatory; the theatre; the Government naval offices; and the Thaulaw museum, opened in 1877. The university, founded in 1665 by Christian Albert, duke of Schleswig, and named after him Christiana Albertina, had in 1881 a teaching-staff of 69, with 380 students. The new university buildings were completed in 1876. A naval academy was opened in 1875. Among the public charities there are three hospitals, a blind asylum, an orphanage, an idiot asylum, and a large institution for poor citizens and their widows. Kiel is the most important naval harbour of Germany, and the station of the German Baltic fleet; the port and its approaches are very strongly fortified. The land defences, not yet completed, are to consist of eleven forts, completely encircling the town. The imperial dockyards on the east side of the haven include two large basins (one 235 yards square, the other 271 yards by 235 yards), connected by a canal 70 yards long, four dry docks (each 100 to 120 yards long by 24 or 25 yards wide), and a wet dock. Near them are the yards of a large shipbuilding company. The excellence and safety of Kiel harbour, whose only drawback is that it is frozen in winter, have made the town one of the principal ports of the Baltic. It carries on a very active trade with the Danish islands as well as with the Continent. The chief imports are grain, coal, timber, and cattle; the chief exports, timber, coal, fish, and agricultural produce. Iron-founding and the manufacture of machinery, wooden wares, carpets, tobacco, and oil form the leading industries after the shipping trade. In 1879 there entered at Kiel 3074 ships, representing 279,099 tons; 3021 cleared, representing 275,600 tons. Near the town are large steam corn-mills. Kiel possesses a sea-bathing establishment, and is surrounded by fine scenery. The population in 1875, including the garrison, was 37,246.
The name of Kiel appears as early as the 10th century in the form Kyl. Kiel is mentioned as a city in the next century; in 1242 it received the Lübeck rights; in the 14th century it acquired other privileges, and in 1363 entered the Hanseatic league. It suffered much from neighbouring barons; and in the wars in which Schleswig was involved Kiel had its share of siege and capture. In recent times the name of Kiel has been associated with the peace concluded in 1814 between Great Britain and Denmark, and Sweden and Denmark, by which Norway was ceded to Sweden.
KIELCE, the chief town of a government in Russian
Poland, is situated about 50 miles north-east of Cracow, in
the mountainous district of the Lysa Gora. The copper-
mines which were in the 16th century the main support of
the place are no longer worked; but it has iron-works and
sugar factories of considerable importance. The principal
- buildings are the cathedral, the bishop's palace, and a
nunnery in which is an ancient statue of St Barbara fashioned out of a single piece of galena. In 1873 the population was 7838. Bishop Gedcow of Cracow is said to have founded Kielce in 1173.
