At the end of the 18th century, Lutheranism appeared in what is now Ukraine: the new religion came to these lands with the Germans whom Catherine the Great invited to settle in the Russian Empire. In Kyiv, they chose the city center — Podil.
The most famous settler of that time was Georg Bunge — the founder of a pharmacy that for a long time was the only one in the city. Since the German community was small then, services were held in his house. And when more people arrived, it was decided to build a small wooden church on Spaska Street, which was named in honor of Saint Catherine.
However, in 1811 the church was destroyed by fire. It was decided to build a new church on a vacant lot in the Lypky area. St. Catherine's Church was built with funds from the church elders — the time when its construction began was not easy, as the war with the French was underway.
The modern building was laid down in 1855 and consecrated two years later. The new church was famous for its excellent acoustics, and so an organ soon appeared here. Not far from the church, a Lutheran school was also built, and the whole street was named Lutheran Street.
In Soviet times, the building was taken away from the community and returned to the Lutherans only in the late 1990s. Since the early 2000s, St. Catherine's Lutheran Church has been functioning again.
