Stepan Kovnir
Kovnir, Stepan Dem’ianovich
(also Stefan Dem’-ianovich Kovnir). Born in 1695 in the village of Gvozdov, in present-day Kiev Oblast; died in 1786 in Kiev. Ukrainian architect.
Kovnir was a serf at the Kiev Pecherskaia Laura, where he worked for over 60 years under the direction of and in collaboration with P. I. Neelov, I. G. Shedel’, and I. G. Grigorovich-Barskii. The structures that he worked on were built in the Ukrainian baroque style. His works in the laura include the Kovnir building (1744–72) and the belfries of the Near Caves (1759–62; in collaboration with I. G. Grigorovich-Barskii [?]) and of the Far Caves (1754–61). Kovnir’s other structures in Kiev are the Klovskii Palace (1754–58, in collaboration with P. I. Neelov) and the belfry of the Bratskii Monastery at Podol (1756, not preserved). Near Kiev, he built the Church of St. Anthony and St. Theodosius and the belfry in Vasil’kov (1756–58) and a church in Kitaev (1763–67).