The monastery was founded by Grand Prince Vsevolod, the son of Prince Yaroslav the Wise and father of Volodymyr Monomakh, as his ancestral monastery between 1070 and 1077. It is situated in the southern part of Kyiv, the place called Vydubychi, which gave the monastery its name. The monastery operated the ferry across the Dnipro river. Many of the best scholars of that time lived and worked in the monastery. Among them, chroniclers Sylvester and Moisey, made a great contribution to writing "The Story of Bygone Days".
Only a few churches of this monastery have survived over the centuries. One of these is the Church of Saint Michael (in the foreground) that was built in the 11th century and restored in 1766-1769 by architect M.I. Yurasov. The monastery acquired its present appearance in the 18th century when the five-domed Saint Yuri (George) Cathedral, refectory, and bell tower were erected in the Ukrainian-Baroque style.
Many distinguished individuals are buried here, such as Ya. Handzyuk, Commander of the First Ukrainian Corps (1918), exectuted by the Russian Bolshevicks; B. Khanenko (1848-1917), collector, patron of the arts, the founder of the Kyiv Art Museum; K. Ushynsky (1823-71), pedagogue, advocate of teaching in Ukrainian, which was prohibited in the Russian Empire starting in the middle of the 19th century.
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