Stepan Kovnir

Stepan Demianovych Kovnir was a Ukrainian builder and master mason in Kyiv. His nearly sixty years of labor brought aesthetic unity to the ancient, sprawling center of Ukrainian culture and education, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A serf without any formal education, he became an early master of Ukrainian baroque architecture as well as organizing a school for masons.