The Saints Constantine and Helen Church is one of the oldest shrines of Kyiv’s Podil district, whose history reflects the resilience and spiritual revival of the city. The first mention of a wooden church on this site dates back to 1734, when it was built at the expense of residents of the surrounding quarters. However, already in the mid-18th century, the development of the parish was undertaken by the well-known Kyiv burmistr and philanthropist Kyrylo Meleshko, with whose support a majestic stone church was erected between 1743 and 1757 in place of the wooden one. The design of the church is attributed to the outstanding Ukrainian architect Ivan Hryhorovych-Barskyi, who gave the building refined features of Ukrainian Baroque.
The architectural ensemble of the church was once impressive in scale: it included the main church, a warm refectory church dedicated to Saint Dimitry of Rostov, and a tall three-tier bell tower. A decisive moment for the building came in 1811, when a devastating fire in Podil severely damaged it. During the subsequent reconstruction, according to the project of architect Andrii Melenskyi, the church was rebuilt, with a classicist portico added and a gallery connecting the church with the bell tower. In this form, the monument became an important dominant of the district, combining the richness of Baroque forms with the strict harmony of classicism.
The most difficult trials for the shrine occurred during the Soviet period. In the 1930s, the Soviet authorities destroyed the main church and the upper tiers of the bell tower, leaving only the first tier and the adjacent refectory part. For a long time, the premises were used for domestic purposes, including as a school gym. Only in the early 1990s was the church returned to the faithful, and a long restoration process began.