The Church of Saints Boris and Hlib is located on a high promontory, within the boundaries of the Old Rus hillfort of Vyshhorod of the 10th–13th centuries, on the territory of the Vyshhorod Historical and Cultural Reserve.
After the stone church was destroyed by the Mongol army in 1240, a wooden one was erected in its place several times. Evidence of the first such church dates from 1614. The next church was built in the 1660s–1680s. It is assumed that it was destroyed in 1662 when the Tatar army ravaged the Kyiv lands during the Muscovite-Polish war. It lasted until about 1744, when a third wooden three-domed church was built.
In 1852, by Imperial order “On putting the Orthodox churches in the state estates of the western provinces in order”, the Ministry of State Properties of the Russian Empire was instructed to prepare Orthodox churches in the western provinces for repair and reconstruction, for which funds had been allocated in 1845.
In 1860 the former wooden church of Boris and Hlib was dismantled, and in 1861 construction of a brick church began on the foundation of the historic church. 8,333 roubles were allocated for its construction, received from the treasury and parishioners’ donations. Because of a lack of funds, the new church turned out smaller than the historic one and occupied only half of the original foundation. The architect was Konstantin Thon, who carried out the design in the Russian-Byzantine style. Construction and finishing work was finally completed in 1862, and on 17 July of that year the church was consecrated. Due to lack of funds, construction deviated from the design: instead of five domes only one was built, and of the three apses only one remained. After construction was completed, the iconostasis was transferred to the Vyshhorod church from the Intercession church. A bell tower was built in 1863.
After being closed by the Communists, it was inactive in 1929–1941 and 1943–1998. The main damage occurred in Stalin’s times and during the German-Soviet war. It was reconstructed in 1993–1998. It is subordinate to the Vyshhorod deanery of the Brovary vicariate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
