Architectural forms corresponding to a new stage in the development of Russian architecture appeared with full clarity already in the first half of the 12th century. The temples of this time go back not to the huge cathedrals of the Kievan Rus era, but to monuments such as the Assumption Cathedral of the Pechersk Monastery. These are simple, balanced buildings with clearly defined facade planes, crowned by one massive dome. Their appearance becomes more withdrawn, detached from the world, retaining these features even in the presence of an external gallery. The dominant type is a small three-nave cross-domed church with small choirs only in the western part. The desire to create a more compact volume forced the abandonment of stair towers and their replacement with narrow staircases located in the thickness of the wall. If in large cathedrals of the era of Kievan Rus the interior is picturesque and diverse, has a large number of different aspects, then in the monuments of the 12th century the construction of interiors is clear and clear, they could be seen immediately from one point. The nature of the interior decoration also changes; fresco, as a rule, replaces mosaic; stacked mosaic floors are replaced by floors made of glazed ceramic tiles.

However, if this was the general nature of the changes that took place in Russian architecture by the middle of the 12th century, then the forms in which these changes manifested themselves had their own special flavor in each architectural school. At the same time, the basic principle of architecture of the 11th century - the correspondence of the external appearance of the building to its planned scheme and design - was fully preserved in the 12th century. Likewise, the correspondence between construction techniques and decorative elements has been preserved. Structures, building materials, and forms of decorative decoration were still inseparable for the architect. Therefore, changes in construction technology or the transition to the use of other building materials immediately changed the entire decorative system of the building.

Monumental structures were built exclusively by order of princes or the church. Only from the second half of the 12th century they were gradually joined by large boyars, corporations of artisans and traders. At first, while this principality did not yet have its own cadre of builders, craftsmen were invited from the land with which the closest political or church relations existed. As a result, where strong political and church ties remained, the formation of independent architectural schools proceeded slowly; on the contrary, the isolation of the principalities almost always determined the originality of its architecture.

Many Russian lands throughout the 12th century continued to follow Kiev in architecture to one degree or another, even when it had practically lost its significance as the leading political center of Rus'. Yes, no
Despite the presence of their own masters, the architecture of such principalities as Chernigov and Ryazan, Smolensk, Volyn, preserved the Kyiv tradition almost until the end of the 12th century. In other lands - Galicia, Vladimir-Suzdal, Novgorod, Polotsk - already by the middle of the 12th century, their own architectural schools had developed, significantly different from the Kyiv one.

Monuments of Kyiv architecture of the 12th century differ from more ancient compositions and construction techniques. The walls are now laid exclusively from brick and not in the previous, almost square, but more elongated shape. The new technique made it possible to abandon masonry “with a hidden row” and move to a simpler equal-layer masonry, where the ends of all rows of bricks faced the front surface of the walls. This reduced the decorativeness of the wall surfaces. In order not to impoverish the facades, architects began to introduce additional decorative elements that could easily be made from brick - arcature belts, multi-stage portals, windows combined into one composition, etc. An important element of the facades became massive half-columns leaning against the blades and making the wall more plastic. At the same time, only the intermediate blades were complicated with half-columns, while the corner blades were left flat. As in the 11th century, each division of the facade ended with a semicircular zakomara. Since the principle of matching the wall decor with the building material was preserved, the walls, as before, were often not covered with plaster.

Few monuments of Kyiv architecture from the 12th century have survived. The six-pillar St. Cyril Church in Kyiv (after 1146) and the somewhat smaller church in Kanev (1144) have been preserved in all their main parts, although they are greatly distorted on the outside. Very close to them is the Church of the Assumption on Podil in Kyiv (1131-1136, now defunct). The four-pillar type includes the Church of Vasily (or Trekhsvyatitelskaya, 1183) in Kyiv, which has not survived to this day, and the small church of the Zarubsky Monastery on the Dnieper, discovered by excavations.

Several monuments of the 12th century have been preserved in Chernigov. Such is the six-pillar Cathedral of Boris and Gleb, recently restored to its original forms, but without an adjacent gallery, the former appearance of which has not been precisely established. Probably, its decoration included the white stone capitals found here during excavations, covered with magnificent carvings. The Cathedral of the Yeletsky Monastery, also with six pillars, instead of a gallery had vestibules in front of each portal and ended with a three-domed structure, rare for monuments of the 12th century. A small chapel was built into the southwestern corner of the temple. The Annunciation Cathedral (1186), discovered by excavations, rivaled the Kyiv buildings of the 11th century in the luxury of its decoration: its central part was covered with a magnificent mosaic floor depicting a peacock. Outside the temple was surrounded by a gallery. Chernigov masters also created an example of a pillarless solution used for the smallest churches - the Elias Church. The girth arches supporting the drum of the dome rest here not on pillars, but on pylons in the corners of the room. This is the only pillarless church of the 12th century that has preserved its vaults and dome. The facades of some Chernigov buildings were partially plastered and laid out in squares, imitating masonry from white stone blocks. This apparently reflected the interest in the white stone architecture of Galich and Vladimir Rus'.

Politically connected with Chernigov, the Ryazan principality followed the architectural tastes of its metropolis. The capital of the principality was a huge city, beautifully located on the high bank of the Oka, protected by giant earthen ramparts (now the site of Old Ryazan). Here, excavations have uncovered the ruins of three stone temples, two of which date back to the mid-12th century. These are six-pillar cathedrals; one of them had three porches. As in Chernigov, carved white stone parts were used in brickwork in Ryazan buildings. It is possible that they were erected by Chernigov craftsmen. Ryazan, which lived in very difficult military-political conditions, apparently did not have its own builders.

The monuments of the capital city of Volyn - Vladimir-Volynsky - belong to the same Kyiv architectural tradition. The Assumption Cathedral (mid-12th century, restored at the end of the 19th century, Fig. 16) differs from the Kyiv and Chernigov monuments only in minor details. Excavations there also uncovered the remains of a second similar, but much smaller church - the so-called Old Cathedral.

Smolensk became one of the largest centers of monumental construction in the 12th century. Advantageously located between Kiev and Novgorod on the great Dnieper-Volkhov route “from the Varangians to the Greeks,” it quickly grew rich and strengthened its military-political significance in the conditions of inter-princely struggle. The city lay on the picturesque heights of the left bank of the Dnieper, where hills and plateaus with deep winding ravines were combined in spectacular contrast. Nature itself created the relief here, calling architects to build. Unfortunately, most of the monuments of Smolensk architecture have been destroyed and are known only from excavations.

In 1101, Prince Vladimir Monomakh founded the city cathedral in Smolensk. It has not survived, but found samples of building materials (bricks, mortar) suggest that the cathedral was started by South Russians
masters. Subsequently, apparently with the participation of Chernigov architects, extensive construction began in Smolensk, and by the middle of the 12th century it undoubtedly already had its own fairly experienced personnel.

Of the Smolensk buildings of the mid-12th century, only the Church of Peter and Paul has survived almost entirely - a classic example of a four-pillar, single-domed temple, powerful, static and strict (ill. 19). Blades with half-columns add plasticity to the walls, enlivened by spots of windows and a portal. The curb belt, the arcatures at the heels of the zakomars and the convex crosses laid out on the wide planes of the angular blades only emphasize the harsh power of the walls. Compared to the impressive heaviness of the main volume, the large twelve-sided head is relatively light and graceful; an elegant belt made of ceramic tiles was introduced into the decoration of its cornice. The interior of the temple amazes with its grandeur and some coldness. A narrow, poorly lit staircase in the thickness of the western wall leads to the choir, the southwestern corner of which is occupied by a separate chapel with its own apse.

16. Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir-Volynsky. Mid-12th century
17. St. George's Church in Staraya Ladoga. Second half of the 12th century.
18. Transfiguration Cathedral in Pereslavl-Zalessky. 1152
19. Church of Peter and Paul in Smolensk. Mid-12th century

Church of St. John the Evangelist in Smolensk. Plan

Dating back to the 60s-70s of the 12th century, the Church of St. John the Evangelist almost completely repeats the forms of the Church of Peter and Paul, but it has survived to only a little more than half its original height. Both churches had tomb galleries. Among the monuments of this time, uncovered by excavations in Smolensk, there are several more modest in size, four-pillar, devoid of galleries, but there are also larger ones, for example, the Boris and Gleb Cathedral of Smyada of a certain monastery - a six-pillar temple with a gallery (1145-1147).

Of interest was a small pillarless church discovered by excavations in the Smolensk Detinets, the facades of which are dissected by flat blades, as in an ordinary four-pillar temple. This is a successful attempt to create a new type of religious building with a spacious, pillarless interior. In Detinets, the remains of another building have been discovered - a small rectangular building, apparently a princely mansion. He stood on the high edge of the mountain, from where a wide panorama of the city opened up. The pillarless church and tower were erected in the middle of the 12th century.

Near the Church of St. John the Evangelist, archaeologists also found a very unusual, round structure - a rotunda with a diameter of about 18 meters with four pillars placed quite closely in the center. This is the Church of the German Mother of God, which served foreign merchants living in Smolensk. In terms of plan, it exactly corresponds to the northern European Romanesque churches of the second half of the 12th century; The construction was probably supervised by a Scandinavian architect, but the building was obviously erected by Smolensk craftsmen using their usual bricklaying technique.

In most of the listed centers - in Kyiv, Chernigov, Smolensk - construction in the 12th century was carried out by local craftsmen. This is evidenced by differences in architectural forms and details of construction equipment. But all of them affect only in particulars, without affecting the general artistic, compositional and technical principles. The presence in Rus' in the 12th century of a large area of ​​the Kyiv architectural tradition is beyond doubt.

The architecture of the Novgorod land is developing differently. Gradually, during the first half of the 12th century, new architectural forms were developed here, which led to the formation of a completely independent school, different from the Kyiv one. The change in the social appearance of Veliky Novgorod and the uniqueness of its political fate had a great influence on the isolation of Novgorod art. In the 12th century, Novgorod gradually freed itself from the power of the prince and became a feudal republic, headed by the top boyars and the archbishop. Under the dominance of the city nobility, a significant role is still played by the trade and craft population - the “black people”, who have repeatedly stated their demands at the assembly. Culture is becoming more democratic, which also affects architecture.

Since the middle of the 12th century, stone construction in the Novgorod land was mainly led by the boyars, merchants and townspeople. Only small four-pillar churches are erected, which are either the parish church of the street or the home church of a rich boyar. Small chapels appear in the choirs dedicated to the patron of the customer. The interior space is simplified, acquiring a chamber character. Construction technology is also changing. Novgorod residents are increasingly using local limestone slabs, sandwiching them with rows of bricks to level them, which has led to a change in the design of the facades. The Novgorod slab is easily destroyed (eroded) over time. To prevent this, the surfaces of the walls began to be rubbed with mortar, leaving only the brick areas exposed. Decorative details that arose in the conditions of brickwork - belts, multi-broken openings, semi-columns on blades - were difficult to make from slabs, and they were abandoned. A flat reinforcing belt on a drum under the head, several niches, a decorative cross inserted into the wall masonry - that’s all that is included in the decoration of the facade. With the widespread use of slabs, it was difficult to achieve the same clarity and geometric lines as when building with brick or dense cut limestone. This natural feature in Novgorod was perceived not as a drawback, but, on the contrary, as a specific aesthetic device. The unevenness of the planes, the beveled corners, and the somewhat crumpled shape of the arches give the buildings a characteristic plasticity. The simplicity and modesty of Novgorod churches in the second half of the 12th century reflects the well-known democratism of architecture.

Typical for this time are the St. George (second half of the 12th century, ill. 17) and the Assumption churches in Staraya Ladoga. They are simple in composition; the facades are devoid of any decoration and are divided into three fields by flat blades. The Assumption Church originally had three porches. There are no internal blades, the pillars are not cross-shaped, but square in plan. Thanks to this, the interior has a clear configuration and is easy to see. The choirs occupy the western third of the church, with their corner divisions resting on vaults, and the middle part is an open balcony on wooden beams. The choir is reached by a narrow staircase running through the thickness of the western wall. The interiors were originally entirely frescoed; a significant number of them have been preserved in the St. George Church.

This type includes the Church of Cyril, preserved in its lower part or uncovered by excavations, the Church of the Annunciation near the village of Arkazhi near Novgorod, two more churches in Staraya Ladoga, the Church of the Savior in Staraya Russa, Dmitry Solunsky in Pskov and others.

20. Panteleimone Church near Galich. Turn of the XII-XIII centuries. Apse
21. Church of the Savior-Nereditsa near Novgorod. 1198
22. Church of Panteleimon near Galich. Turn of the XII-XIII centuries.

Of particular importance among the monuments of this type was the Church of the Savior-Nereditsa near Novgorod (1198), destroyed by the Nazis and now restored (ill. 21). This small temple amazed with its power and monumentality. Its interior space, immersed in twilight, seemed squeezed by thick walls, heavy and massive pillars, and a log choir hanging overhead. In the interior of the church, ancient painting was almost entirely preserved (Fig. 23). The value of the compositions, and especially the entire complex, was enormous - a rare example of picturesque interior decoration of the 12th century.

The six-pillar type of temples, less popular at this time in Novgorod architecture, is represented by the three-domed cathedral of the Ivanovo Monastery in Pskov, which was then part of the Novgorod land. At two similar churches in Novgorod - the Church of Ivan on Opoki (1127) and the Assumption on Torg (1135) - only the lower parts of the walls survived.

A special option is the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral of the Mirozhsky Monastery in Pskov, built in the middle of the 12th century. It is unusual in composition for Russian architecture. The central cruciform space is clearly expressed in the configuration of the volume thanks to the sharply lowered side apses and western corner divisions. The building is completed by a massive dome on an unusually wide drum. Apparently, the construction was led not by a Russian, but by a Byzantine architect. At the same time, in terms of construction technology, the monument does not differ from other Novgorod and Pskov churches of this time; Apparently, it was built by local craftsmen. The cathedral has preserved magnificent fresco paintings. In addition to this structure, another building was carried out by order of the Novgorod bishop Nifont, repeating the design of the Mirozh Cathedral: the Church of Clement in Staraya Ladoga, revealed by excavations. Both temples had some influence on the development of Novgorod and Pskov architecture, but did not make significant changes to it. The Greek current, which Nifont tried to infuse into Novgorod architecture, could not shake the local traditions that had been firmly established by that time.
The architecture of the Galician land, which lay on the southwestern borders of Rus', in the Dniester region, took a completely different path. Here, in the first quarter of the 12th century, in the village of Peremyshlya, the Church of John the Baptist was built, the first to be built from hewn stone. Obviously, the Galician land at that time did not yet have its own architects, and new construction equipment was borrowed from neighboring Poland. If we take into account that the Prince of Przemysl Volodar, as a rule, was at enmity with Kiev, it becomes clear why they had to turn to Poland for craftsmen to organize monumental construction. The remains of this temple have been discovered by Polish archaeologists. It turned out that, despite the Romanesque technique, the type of Przemysl temple was not Romanesque, but a typically Russian four-pillar cross-domed building.

In the middle of the 12th century, in the capital city of Galich, picturesquely located on a high plateau above the Lukva River, a large temple was built - the Assumption Cathedral. Its walls on the inner and outer surfaces were made of blocks of well-hewn limestone, and the space between them was filled with broken stone and lime mortar. The temple had a profiled base and flat blades. Its decoration uses bas-relief sculpture. Both the masonry technique and the decoration are directly related to Romanesque architecture. At the same time, according to the plan, it is a four-pillar cross-domed church, typical for Russian architecture of the 12th century, surrounded on three sides by a gallery, with a passage to the choir located in the thickness of the western wall. Thus, in the middle of the 12th century, Galich already had its own cadre of craftsmen. They combined the experience of Romanesque and Kyiv architecture and had sufficient skill for independent creativity.
Unfortunately, the monuments of Galician architecture have not survived; only a small part of them is known from archaeological excavations. Written sources testify to large construction in the Galician land. The chronicle tells about the princely palace in Galich in the mid-12th century, which consisted of a two-story residential building, a transition from the second floor to the choir of the court church and a staircase tower. The entire ensemble, except for the temple, was probably made of wood.
The only surviving monument of Galician architecture is the Church of Panteleimon near Galich (the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries). This is a typical four-pillar temple, three-apse, probably single-domed (Fig. 20, 22). There are no Romanesque elements in its plan, but they are clearly expressed in such details as a profiled plinth, thin apse columns with bases and carved capitals, and carved portals. Particularly interesting is the western portal, which belongs to the promising type.

Stone structures were also erected in other cities of the principality (Zvenigorod, Vasilev), which indicates the large number of Galician architects. The originality of forms and the wide scope of construction determine the outstanding significance of the Galician school in the history of Russian architecture.

One of the most prominent Russian architectural schools of the 12th - first half of the 13th centuries was the Vladimir-Suzdal school. From the beginning to the end of its development, it is connected with the lofty idea of ​​​​unifying the Russian lands, put forward by the Vladimir princes and supported by powerful social forces - townspeople interested in overcoming feudal fragmentation, a new social stratum - the nobility and the church.

The beginning of monumental construction in the northeast is associated with the creation under Vladimir Monomakh at the turn of the 11th-12th centuries of the cathedral in Suzdal, known only from excavations. It was a six-pillar brick building, apparently erected by Russian craftsmen from the south. However, in the future the Kiev tradition did not develop here. By the middle of the 12th century, the time of Yuri Dolgoruky, there are single-domed four-pillar churches made of hewn white stone in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yuryev-Polsky, in the princely residence of Kideksha near Suzdal and at the princely court in Vladimir. The Transfiguration Cathedral in Pereslavl-Zalessky (1152, ill. 18) has been completely preserved, and the church in Kideksha for the most part. The buildings of that time are almost devoid of decorative elements; only a belt of arcature with a curb runs along the facades and the upper part of the apses, emphasizing the harsh power of the smooth white walls. A heavy head reinforces the impression of irresistible physical strength. The temples had choirs and were connected by a passage with the feudal lord's palace. These first buildings in the Suzdal region were apparently built by invited Galician architects.

Under Andrei Bogolyubsky, architecture is experiencing rapid flowering. The capital is moved to Vladimir. The city, beautifully located on the high bank of the Klyazma, in the 50s - 60s of the 12th century was quickly built up with new buildings, surrounded by mighty ramparts with wooden walls and white stone gate towers. Of these, the Golden Gate (1164) with a huge ceremonial passage arch, above which the gate church towered, has been preserved. The gate was both the strongest point of defense and a triumphal arch.

Intensive construction indicates the formation of numerous experienced builders in Vladimir. They adopted the traditions of Galician architecture, quickly reworked them and further developed them completely independently. At the same time, the direct participation of Romanesque architects is felt in the monuments of Vladimir architecture of this time. There is information that Andrei Bogolyubsky turned to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa for craftsmen. However, the participation of Romanesque architects does not transform Vladimir-Suzdal architecture into a variant of the Romanesque style. Romanesque features appeared mainly in details and carved decoration, while all-Russian forms, dating back to Kyiv traditions, are noticeable in plans, compositions of volumes, and design. The features gravitating from different sources are so organically fused that they create a completely original architecture that clearly characterizes the culture of one of the strongest Russian principalities of this era.

The largest building of Andrei Bogolyubsky's time is the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir (1158-1161). Placed in the center of the city on the high edge of the coastal plateau, it became the main link of a magnificent ensemble. Although after the fire of 1185 the cathedral was rebuilt on three sides, received a new altar and additional four corner domes, its original appearance is clear. The slender proportions and height of the six-pillar temple are emphasized by exquisite decor: an arcature-columnar belt covers the walls, the blades are complicated by thin half-columns with lush foliate capitals. The columns of the wide perspective portals had carved capitals, and some architectural details were framed with gilded copper; the helmet of the twelve-window drum of the head sparkled with gold. The interior was equally spectacular, well lit and richly decorated with precious utensils. The majestic and solemn Assumption Cathedral figuratively affirmed the idea of ​​​​the primacy of the Vladimir-Suzdal land, turning its capital into the church and political center of Rus'.

The best creation of Vladimir masters, the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl (1165, ill. 24, 25) is one of the greatest masterpieces of ancient Russian and world architecture. It is made using magnificent white stone technique. Complexly profiled pilasters with light semi-columns emphasize the upward movement of the composition of the elegant temple, giving it a plastic, almost sculptural character. An arcature-columnar belt, the thin columns of which rest on carved brackets, runs along all the facades and under the apse cornice. Above the arcature-columnar belt, the walls are decorated with reliefs, and luscious carvings decorate the perspective portals. In general, the image of the temple is very poetic, permeated with a feeling of lightness and bright harmony. It is no coincidence that they talk about the musical associations that the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl gives rise to.
However, the original composition of the temple was more complex. Excavations near its walls showed that the creators of this masterpiece were solving a very difficult task: they had to erect a temple at the confluence of the Nerl into the Klyazma as a solemn monument that marked the arrival of ships sailing from below along the Klyazma at the princely residence - the neighboring Bogolyubovsky Castle. The place designated by the prince for construction was a low-lying floodplain and was filled with water during high water. Therefore, having laid the foundation on dense continental clay, the architects placed on it a kind of pedestal about four meters high made of cut stone, which exactly corresponded to the plan of the church. At the same time as the masonry, earth was added, thereby creating an artificial hill, which was then lined with stone slabs. The church stood on it. It seemed as if the earth itself was lifting her to the sky. The temple was surrounded on three sides by an arcade gallery, in the corner part of which there was a staircase to the choir. Only the foundation of the gallery has been preserved, and the original appearance of the building as a whole can only be restored tentatively.

The princely castle - Bogolyubov-city was built in 1158-1165 on the high bank of the Klyazma, near the mouth of the Nerl. It was surrounded by earthen ramparts with white stone walls. Only one staircase tower with a transition to the choir of the cathedral has survived. The foundations of the walls of the latter, as well as the remains of other parts of the ensemble, have been uncovered by excavations.

The palace ensemble was located on a square paved with white stone slabs. Its center was the cathedral, connected by a passage with a staircase tower, from which a white stone passage also led to the second floor of the palace. To the south of the cathedral through the second tower and passages leading to the fortress wall. Under the passages there were arched passages - passages. All these parts were united by an arcature- -o-(column belt into a single picturesque and solemn whole. The facades were decorated with bas-reliefs, fresco paintings, some parts were upholstered in gilded copper. The tall and slender palace cathedral had round pillars-columns, unusual for ancient Russian architecture, painted under white marble and completed with huge gilded foliate capitals. The floor of the choir was covered with majolica tiles, and in the temple itself there were copper plates, sealed with tin and shining like gold. According to the chronicle, there were many precious utensils in the temple. In front of the cathedral on the square stood a unique in Russian architecture, an eight-column ciborium (canopy) with a gilded tent over a white stone holy bowl.

The construction of the time of Vsevolod III marks a further brilliant rise of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture. Two trends arise in architecture: the episcopal one, which has a negative attitude towards the development of the sculptural decoration of churches and is committed to the severity of their appearance, and the princely one, which makes extensive use of plastic arts.

The largest monument of the first movement was the Vladimir Assumption Cathedral after its construction in 1185-1189. The facades are almost devoid of sculptures; only a few carved stones were transferred to them from the walls of the old cathedral. The building actually became a new, more grandiose structure; its volume acquired a stepped structure; since the galleries surrounding the old building were somewhat lowered. Four new chapters were placed on the corners, forming a solemn five-domed structure. The architectural image of the new cathedral revealed even more clearly the idea of ​​strength and royal grandeur, which permeates all the art of the time of the mighty “autocracy” Vsevolod.

26. Sculptural decor of the Demetrievsky Cathedral in Vladimir. 1194-1197. Detail
24. Church of the Intercession on the Nerl.
25. Sculptural decoration of the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl. 1165. Detail

The same idea - the apotheosis of power and might of the Vladimir land - is expressed with greater force in the Demetrius Cathedral in Vladimir (1194-1197, ill. 26, 27). Initially, like the cathedral in Bogolyubovo, the temple was part of the palace ensemble, had staircase towers protruding from the western corners and was connected by passages with the palace buildings. The cathedral belonged to the usual type of single-domed, four-pillar temples, but the architects filled this traditional design with new content. The solemn pomp and representativeness of the temple are emphasized by the majestic rhythm of its divisions and especially enhanced by the richest carved decoration. Dmitrievsky Cathedral most clearly characterizes the second trend of Vladimir architecture, sharply different from episcopal construction by the love for the magnificent carved decoration of buildings.

In the first half of the 13th century, the Vladimir principality was divided into a number of appanage principalities. In architecture, two main lines are defined: Rostov-Yaroslavl, where construction is carried out both from stone and plinth brick, and Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod, developing the traditions of white stone construction and decorative sculpture. The second group includes the cathedrals of the Nativity of the Virgin in Suzdal (1222-1225) and St. George in Yuryev-Polsky (1230-1234).

The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary has not been completely preserved. After destruction, its upper part was completely rebuilt from brick in the 16th century. This large six-pillar temple with three porches initially ended with three domes. Its creators freely treated the requirements of constructive logic in the decoration of facades, crossing wickerwork with ribbon and carved stones across the blades, covering the columns of the portals with carvings and breaking them with beads. In the masonry they used an uneven slab, against the background of which the white stone blades and rods, the carved white stone belt and reliefs stand out especially clearly. The luxurious copper doors of the cathedral, painted in gold, reflect the love of ornamentation. The interior fresco painting also becomes more flowery and ornamental. The temple is losing its ceremonial ceremonial presence; its appearance is picturesque and cheerful.

These tendencies close to folk culture reach full development in the St. George Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky (ill. 28). After reconstruction in the 15th century, its appearance was distorted and its decorative system was damaged. Initially, the cathedral was much taller and slimmer. Only the lower half of the building has been preserved without significant changes. This is a four-pillar temple with three porches open inward. Its bright interior, which has no choirs, is free and airy. The outside of the building was covered with carvings from top to bottom, from the base to the basement. A carpet floral pattern, skillfully applied to the surface of the wall, covers the lower part of the building with a transparent mesh, entwines the pilasters and portals. The arcature-columnar belt is interpreted as a wide ornamental ribbon. The cathedral's zakomars, as well as the archivolts (arched ends) of the portals, acquire a keel-shaped outline. Against the background of a flat carpet pattern, images of animals and monsters, executed in high relief, acquire a folkloric coloring, stand out. The zakomars housed large high-relief compositions on Christian themes. Religious-political and folk-fairy tale themes are intertwined in the unique carved decoration of the cathedral, a kind of hymn to the Vladimir land.
This is the rapid and brilliant path traversed by Vladimir-Suzdal architecture in less than a century.

In the 12th century, along with others, the Polotsk architectural school played a major role, the monuments of which, unfortunately, for the most part did not survive.

It is characteristic that they were erected in the old way, as they were built in the 11th century, from plinth “with a hidden row” (for example, the buildings of the Belchitsky and Slaso-Euphrosyne monasteries in Polotsk). This, apparently, was explained by the desire to revive the features of the Polotsk St. Sophia Cathedral, which by this time had become, as it were, a symbol of the independence of the Polotsk region. It is possible that the primordial enmity with the Principality of Kyiv was the reason for the rejection of the new system of row brickwork developed by Kyiv builders. In the same 12th century, another construction technique was used in Polotsk architecture - stone-brick masonry, in which blocks of cut stone alternate with rows of plinth (Church of the Annunciation in Vitebsk). This type of masonry is well known in Byzantium and the Balkans, but is not found anywhere else in Russian architecture.

Polotsk architecture is also interesting due to its new compositional solutions. Thus, the cathedral of the Belchitsa Monastery, known from excavations, represented an original version of a six-pillar temple with three porches. Its dome rested not on the eastern pairs of pillars, but on the western ones, that is, it was shifted one division further west than usual, which, in combination with the vestibules, emphasized the centricity of the composition. Polotsk buildings of the 12th century, unlike those in Kyiv, have flat outer blades.

In addition to architectural schools associated with large Russian principalities and represented by many monuments, a small but completely independent Grodno school emerged in the 12th century. The monuments of ancient Grodno on the Neman (in Old Russian - the city of Goroden) are closest to the buildings of Kyiv and Volyn: they were built of brick using the technique of equal-layer masonry. However, here the brick facades were uniquely and effectively decorated with inserted blocks of polished stone and colored majolica, from the figured tiles of which images of crosses and simple geometric figures were made.

Such is the wide range of architectural schools of Rus' in the 12th century.
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By the end of the 12th century, Russian architecture entered a new stage of its development. The first signs of this appear in the middle of the 12th century.

Thus, new trends have already clearly emerged, for example, in the Cathedral of the Spaso-Euphrosyne Monastery in Polotsk, built by the architect John in the middle of the 12th century. The composition of the six-pillar temple is imbued with the desire to overcome the static nature of the cross-domed volume. The western part of the building is lowered, as is the strongly protruding apse corresponding to it from the east. The central quadrangle rising above them ends with a raised pedestal supporting the drum and the head, having the shape of a three-lobed arch on the side of each façade. The slender stepped silhouette of the building and its tower-like top create a new architectural image of the temple, imbued with strength and dynamics.
Judging by the plan, the Boris and Gleb Cathedral of the Belchitsa Monastery had a similar tower-like composition, apparently built by the same architect John. By the end of the 12th century, buildings with an even more pronounced tower-like volume structure appeared in Polotsk architecture. This is the church revealed by excavations in Polotsk Detinets. It is as centric as possible: it was adjoined on three sides by vestibules, and on the east by one large apse. The side apses, rectangular in their outer outline, were apparently sharply lowered, and the northern and southern porches also had their own independent apses. All this as a whole created a complex, vertically directed volume.

The artistic discovery of the Polotsk architects was immediately picked up in other lands, and above all in Smolensk. The Church of the Archangel Michael (Svirskaya), built there around 1190, is very close in plan to the Church in Detinets of Polotsk. However, Smolensk craftsmen developed these techniques: they opened the porches inside the temple, thereby ensuring the unity of its interior, and on the outside they complicated the multi-part pilasters, complementing them with a thin semi-colony. The great height of the main volume is emphasized by the porches subordinate to it and the high, strongly protruding apse. The dynamics of the complex masses of the building are enhanced by a large number of verticals created by complexly profiled beam pilasters. The three-lobed completion of the facades reflects the quarter-circle vaults covering the corners of the building, the head drum is raised on a special pedestal. The energetic and strong upward movement, expressed in the external appearance, is also noticeable in the free, high, choirless interior space of the temple. Instead of choirs, the second floors of the vestibules were intended for the prince and his retinue, forming a kind of lodges open to the inside of the temple. The Church of the Archangel Michael delighted contemporaries with the beauty and richness of its interior decoration; the chronicle noted the unusualness of this temple “in a midnight country.”

However, it was not the only monument of this type in Smolensk. The Church of the Trinity Monastery, discovered by excavations, at the mouth of the Klovka River is very close to Mikhailovskaya in terms of plan and, apparently, composition. The profiling of its pilasters is even somewhat more complicated.

The new trend also affected buildings that had a more conventional plan; among them there are large six-pillar cathedrals and very small four-pillar churches. As a rule, they do not have vestibules, but almost all of them are surrounded by galleries, creating a tiered volume. Their distinctive feature: the central apse is large and semi
round, and the side ones are smaller and have a rectilinear outline on the outside. The fact that such temples had a tower-like composition is evidenced by complexly profiled pilasters; Such pilasters, forming whole bunches of vertical divisions on the facades, could only make sense if they wanted to give the building a dynamic composition, create the impression of height and takeoff.

Along with such monuments, churches of a different type were built in Smolensk at that time: all three apses were flat and rectilinear on the outside. The largest monument of this group is the Cathedral on Protok, during the excavations of which many fragments of fresco paintings were found and taken to the museum.

At the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, Smolensk became one of the leading architectural centers of Rus', surpassing even Kyiv and Novgorod in the number of monumental buildings erected. Naturally, Smolensk masters were invited to other Russian lands. Undoubtedly, they erected the Spassky Cathedral in the capital of the Ryazan temple - Old Ryazan, known from the results of archaeological excavations. The Church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa in Novgorod (1207), which is similar in composition to the Smolensk Church of the Archangel Michael, is also associated with the work of Smolensk masters. Three-lobed curves that completed the facades of the high quadrangle, three slightly lowered in relation to the main volume of the vestibule, and very large beam pilasters gave the composition of the Church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa dynamism. Obviously, with the participation of Smolensk architects, at the very end of the 12th century, the main temple of Pskov, the Trinity Cathedral, was erected. Even in Kyiv, on Voznesensky, the remains of a small four-pillar church with rectangular side apses and beam pilasters, also apparently built by a Smolensk architect, were excavated from the start.

Of course, Kyiv at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries had its own masters. Moreover, it was at this time that several churches of exceptional significance were erected here and in Chernigov. One of these masterpieces is the Church of Friday in Chernigov (ill. 29). Despite the traditional plan, the four-pillar temple with three apses is completely unusual in appearance. Complex beam pilasters draw the eye to the completion of the building, striking with the originality of its constructive and artistic design. The Novagor architect completely changed the vault system: he not only covered the corners with quarter-circle vaults, but also greatly raised the girth arches supporting the drum. Thus, here, for the first time in Russian architecture, a system of arches rising stepwise towards the center was used: the dynamic growth of the top, the upward thrust of the building received a natural constructive basis. The facades ended with a three-lobed curve corresponding to the design of the vaults, and stepped arches formed the basis of the second tier of zakomari. The foot of the slender drum was surrounded by decorative zakomars - kokoshniks. The rapid upward movement was further emphasized by the pointed outline of the mosquitoes. The facades of the temple are very elegant: the master lovingly decorated them with a simple but elegant lattice brick belt and meander ribbons.

The Church of Vasily in Ovruch (90s of the 12th century) belongs to the same group. The obvious proximity of this monument to the Church of Friday in Chernigov suggests that initially its vaults were also stepped, and the composition of the volume as a whole was not static, but dynamic. The facades are decorated, like the monuments of Grodno, with decorative inserts in the form of large boulders, and two round staircase towers adjoined the corners of the western facade. The dome was once covered with gilded copper. The Church of Vasily is the palace temple of Prince Rurik Rostislavich, who, according to the chronicler, had “an insatiable love for buildings.” It is almost certain that its author was the favorite master of the prince, Peter Milone, in whose work there is an enthusiastic mention in the chronicle comparing Milonega with the biblical architect Veselil. It is very likely that the same Miloneg built both the Chernigov Church of Friday and the Church of the Apostles in Belgorod, which was uncovered by excavations, and was distinguished by its particularly luxurious interior decoration.

Archaeological splits unusually expanded our knowledge of ancient Russian architecture and, in particular, showed that the variety of types and stylistic shades in the architecture of Southern Rus' at that time was very great. Thus, in Novgorod-Seversky a church was opened that had a completely special “Gothic” profile of pilasters, not found in either Kyiv or Smolensk churches. The church excavated in Putivl had, like Byzantine and Balkan churches, additional apses on the northern and southern sides of the building.

The process of differentiation of Russian architecture continued at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, creating new and new local variants. At the same time, it is clear that this diversity of creative thought does not break the ties between Russian architectural schools. Throughout the 12th century, architects did not limit themselves to working within their principality: Galician masters built in Vladimir, Chernigov in Ryazan and Smolensk, Smolensk in Novgorod, Ryazan and Kyiv. The mutual exchange of technical and artistic experience contributed to the rapid flowering of architecture and the spread of a new direction at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, which apparently embraced almost all Russian architectural schools. Even in Vladimir-Suzdal architecture, later monuments - the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin in Suzdal and especially St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky - according to all data, had a tower-like composition of completion and, probably, a stepwise rising system of vaults.

Thus, at the end of the 12th century, in the architecture of various Russian lands, general, or more precisely, all-Russian development trends were increasingly manifested. Kyiv traditions are being revised almost everywhere, the tower-like appearance and dynamics of the composition are evident, the interior is subordinate to the external appearance of the building, the facades are richly decorated. The compositional idea of ​​temples and their artistic image were more or less similar everywhere, although in each architectural school of Rus' they were solved in their own local forms.

What is the reason for the emergence of new artistic forms in Russian architecture at the end of the 12th century? Apparently, the decisive factor was the influence of urban culture, the growth and strengthening of cities, and the economic strengthening of towns. These conditions caused special attention to the architectural appearance of cities, in which the bright silhouette of temples and the decorative richness of their facades were supposed to play an important, accentuating role. The commonality of development trends shows that in Russian architecture there was clearly making its way, albeit still weak, but a strengthening and winning interregional movement, containing the features of an all-Russian architectural style, to which the future belonged. With good reason we can talk about the beginning of the crystallization of all-Russian national characteristics of the art of construction.

At this high level, the rapid development of Russian architecture was interrupted by the Mongol-Tatar invasion. .

The division of Rus' between the Yaroslavichs, which we talked about last time, marked the beginning of the process of feudal fragmentation. With every decade, and even every year, the number of princes increased, the number of dynasties within the Rurik family increased. The Chernigov dynasty of princes, dating back to Svyatoslav, stood out, the Monomashichi stood out, but the Monomashichi were also not on the best terms with each other. The line of Mstislav the Great and the line of Vladimir Monomakh's youngest son, Yuri Dolgoruky, constantly competed.

It was against the backdrop of this political struggle that Russian architecture developed in the second and third quarters of the 12th century, which is what we will talk about today. But we will begin, as always, traditionally with Kyiv, which continues to remain the capital city of the Grand Duke, although there is a constant struggle for it between the Russian princes. And, in fact, the entire architecture of Kyiv of this time is, in fact, the history of warring princes and their monumental representation.

After the great Kyiv construction of the 11th century, Kyiv became one of the architectural centers of Rus'. The temples here do not amaze with their grandeur. Their form is generally standard, the one that was set in its time by the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery and which spread throughout Rus', but small individual details indicate to us some kind of individuality of each building, often associated with the personality of the prince. We will start with the Church of the Assumption, which is also called Pirogoshcha, named after a certain mysterious Pirogost, built in 1132-1136 in Kiev on Podol, and this is important, since we have now moved from a princely city from top to bottom to a trading city, by order of the prince Mstislav Vladimirovich. According to the plan, as was said, this is a fairly simple building, a narthex and a four-pillar naos.

The temple was blown up in Soviet times, but before its destruction, measurements were taken from it, according to which it was restored already in the 90s. Before us is a building, on the one hand, of a typical Kyiv style, about which we have already talked a lot. On the other hand, new features appear in it, new for Kyiv. These are the same small arcatures that go under the lunettes that complete the spindles, which go along the apse, which go along the drum and which indicate that the fashion that appeared in Chernigov at the turn of the 11th-12th centuries was finally established in Kyiv.

Another temple, already in the 1140s, was built by a rival dynasty, the Chernigov Olgovich dynasty, whose representative, Vsevolod Olgovich, occupied the Kiev throne at that moment. According to the plan, this building differs little from the Mother of God of Pirogoshcha, however, there are small, unnoticeable differences that should still be noted. First of all, this is the maximum increase in the dome square. The side naves were narrowed so that they became half as narrow as the central one. This allows you to make the space even more open, more concentrated on its main part, the dome and the altar.

Now the temple stands as it was reconstructed in modern times, and the ancient forms are only slightly discernible here.

But if we look at the reconstruction of the temple, we will see a typical monument of Chernigov architecture. And this is not surprising. There is no doubt that along with the prince his artel came from Chernigov. Old Russian artels are not known to us practically by the names of their heads, by the names of the masters, but are known to us primarily by the names of the princes, that is, which prince this artel was. And when the prince moved from one table to another, and this happened constantly in Ancient Rus', then the artel followed him. And here is the Cyril Church - the fruit of the construction of this Chernigov artel. However, it must be said that in size this temple surpasses the Chernigov monuments, the same Assumption Cathedral of the Yelets Monastery.

And if we go inside and look to the east, we will see that the space here has really expanded, it has become wide, solemn, ceremonial, but if we raise our eyes upward, we will see a rather important reception, which will be destined for great future in Russian architecture, namely, that the vaults of the arms of the cross, both western, and lateral, and eastern, suddenly sank in relation to the large supporting arches. A stepped composition or a stepwise rising composition appears, which, in fact, will form the basis of future architecture, especially the architecture of the late 12th and early 13th centuries, which we will talk about next time.

Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir-Volynsky 1156–60.

We can very well trace the vicissitudes of architecture, the vicissitudes of buildings and artels using the example of the Assumption Cathedral in the city of Vladimir-Volynsky in Western Rus', which was built somewhere in 1156-1160 by Prince Mstislav Izyaslavich. Mstislav Izyaslavich, grandson of Mstislav the Great, was expelled from Kyiv in 1155 by another representative of the younger branch of the Monomashichs, Yuri Dolgoruky. He didn't run alone. He fled with his squad. He fled with the metropolitan, with the famous Klim Smolyatich, the second Russian metropolitan on the Kiev throne, whom Constantinople never recognized as the legitimate metropolitan.

And here, in Vladimir-Volynsky, the prince founded his new residence, and here a practically new metropolis was obtained, and, accordingly, the temple had to meet the prince’s needs. Indeed, this is a very large temple, with a narthex open to the naos - what in the history of Russian architecture is sometimes called, not entirely correctly, a six-pillar temple. But here suddenly a longitudinal orientation appears, because in the cross-shaped pillars their blades, which are directed not inside the dome square, but outward, suddenly turn out to be very stretched.

And the appearance of this temple, which, in fact, is such a reconstruction now, since it was also reconstructed in modern times and cleared of these later layers at the beginning of the 20th century, the appearance of the temple tells us that we see the same thing seen before, for example, in the architecture of the St. Cyril Church or the Mother of God of Pirogoshchaya. This is a combination of the Kyiv style and the Chernigov style. But, perhaps, this is the last large monument of the Kiev-Chernigov style in Southern Rus'. After this, essentially a completely different architecture will appear here.

Polotsk architecture of the 12th century.

Now you and I are moving northwest from Kyiv, up the Dnieper, towards Smolensk and further northwest to Polotsk, to that center of the Russian land, which we have practically not talked about with you yet. The branch of Rurikovich that was least connected with all the others, the so-called Bryachislavovichs, ruled here. These princes sometimes came into conflict with all the Russian princes and it was for this that they were expelled in the 30s of the 12th century. But even before their expulsion, they were able to lay the foundation for a very interesting architectural school, which, paradoxically, seems to be the future of Russian architecture.

Traditionally, Polotsk architecture began with Sophia of Polotsk, the first large stone church of Polotsk, dating it to the same time as Sophia of Kiev and Sophia of Novgorod, that is, to the 50s of the 11th century. However, in some paradoxical way, technically, that is, from the point of view of masonry, mortar plinth, this temple does not adjoin those cathedrals with which it is similar in plan, but to later Polotsk buildings from the beginning of the 12th century. Therefore, not so long ago, Evgeniy Nikolaevich Torshin expressed a completely sound hypothesis that this temple was built somewhere in the 70s-80s of the 12th century. And it is very interesting that in 1069, Prince Vseslav of Polotsk took Novgorod, plundered the city and, among other things, removed the bells from St. Sophia of Novgorod, which he moved to Polotsk, apparently for his new cathedral. So, in an amazing way, Sofia of Polotsk almost exactly reproduces Sofia of Novgorod.

Sophia of Polotsk now does not give the impression of an ancient Russian temple. This is, in fact, a church that was made by a Catholic, Jesuit temple and which hides only the remains of an ancient Russian building.

Here on the model we see what this cathedral looked like. Apparently very similar to Sofia of Novgorod. We see here five main chapters and two additional, high apses, two tiers, including choirs.

Inside the building itself, we see in places fragments of old masonry that appear from the whitewash of a later time.

And under the floor of the temple there is a kind of archaeological museum, where we can see with you the foundation of the ancient temple, including the masonry technique, huge boulders laid as the foundation, and the masonry with a hidden row that goes above them. Here we see the base of one of the cross pillars. The architecture of Polotsk, just like the architecture of other Russian centers, fully adopted this principle of cross-shaped pillars.

The heyday of Polotsk architecture occurred in the first half, the middle of the 12th century, despite the expulsion of the Polotsk princes, and they went into exile not just anywhere, but to Constantinople. Therefore, it was assumed that perhaps they brought with them new masters, Greek masters, although, as we will see, the latest research shows that most likely their main buildings, or at least the main architectural trends in Polotsk, were laid even before the expulsion of these princes.

The first building after Sofia in Polotsk is considered to be the Great Cathedral of the Belchitsky Monastery. Here we must, however, make a reservation that it is known to us only from archaeological materials. And besides, the name itself, Belchitsa Monastery, is a phenomenon of a later time, because in the 12th century in the chronicle Belchitsa is mentioned not as a monastery, but as a princely residence. True, it’s a big mystery why there are so many temples here, as many as four.

Please note that the Belchitsa Temple has two important features. Firstly, this is a temple of the type of inscribed cross of a complex design, that is, where additional cells were added from the east. This is rather a feature of Constantinople architecture, or at least high-level architecture. The second important feature here is the presence of three vestibules, which we have already seen in the famous building of Vladimir Monomakh, namely in the Church of the Savior on Berestovo in Kyiv.

The further history of Polotsk architecture begins from the large cathedral of the Belchitsky monastery, and we see that its basic type was reproduced further, only slightly, perhaps modified. For example, instead of rectangular vestibules, side chapels could appear, that is, the vestibules with the addition of an apse were thus transformed into separate additional temples. In addition, a new feature is being developed, characteristic of Polotsk, namely, that the side apses begin to retract into the thickness of the wall and are not expressed from the outside, unlike the central apse.

And these complications lead, in particular, to very interesting solutions. In particular, in the same Belchitsky monastery, a temple was excavated in the 18th century during the extraction of sand, on the sides of which there were not vestibules, not chapels, but two additional apses. Thus, it is similar to the temples of Athos, the temples of Greece, but which were also in Constantinople and Asia Minor, the so-called cross-domed triconchs, where on the sides there are two additional apses, which in Slavic are called singers, that is, a place for choir, place for singers. And here we see how receptive Polotsk is to some trends that come from Byzantium, perhaps due to the connection of its princes with Constantinople.

But, unfortunately, of all the Polotsk buildings, only one has been completely preserved, although perhaps the most amazing one. This is the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the monastery, Spassky Monastery, founded by St. Euphrosyne.

The daughter of the Polotsk prince, a noble woman, she immediately chose the monastic path and was a surprisingly educated person for her time. We see this from her life, from her biography. What is worth is the fact that she died on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

But the painting of the temple, which was recently revealed by our wonderful restorer, Vladimir Dmitrievich Sarabyanov, who died untimely, shows absolutely fantastic scenes, unknown in Rus'. Here are the rivers of wisdom, and Dionysius of Paris with his own head, and much more.

The plan of the temple itself, in principle, is not very different from the Polotsk buildings, only perhaps in size. This is a very small and very elongated temple, which, however, had a choir that was important for princely buildings. The height of the dome here is practically higher than all Russian buildings known to us in a proportional sense. Why it was needed, we will talk to you later.

Now the temple appears to us in a rather rebuilt form, although here we can discern a spinning wheel with zakomars, the windows are more or less in their places.

Moreover, during the latest restoration work, and this temple can be said to be an example of restoration, both painting restoration and architectural and archaeological restoration, very interesting elements of brickwork were revealed here. For example, amazing eyebrows above the windows, which have practically no parallels, or a row of pseudo-meander, that is, some kind of imitation of a real meander, made in the form of the Greek letters “pi”, above a row of second windows. And it is precisely this kind of meander and precisely in this place, which is very important for architecture, because for architectural decoration not only the motif is important, but also the place where it is used, this is exactly the combination that we find in Spas on Berestov. Therefore, a well-founded hypothesis was put forward that Polotsk architecture was created by the architects of Vladimir Monomakh, who moved to Polotsk after the construction of the Savior on Berestov.

Recent field studies of the temple made it possible to reconstruct its appearance, which turned out to be different from what we see now. The most important innovations here are the three-bladed zakomar ends. But if we go back a little, we remember that the same endings took place in Spas on Berestov. We saw them in the vestibule. But an even more important innovation is the appearance here, above this tier of zakomaras, of another tier imitating zakomaras. In fact, these are overhead three-blade zakomars, essentially the predecessors of future Russian kokoshniks. They do not correspond almost to the internal structure of the building, but mask the high base of the drum.

Thus, the temple acquires an increased pyramidal structure, rushes upward like the Byzantine temples of the 12th century, thus fitting into the general trend of Byzantine architecture, although in some ways it is even ahead of it. Such elongated temples, such narrow drums of Byzantium appear only in the late period.

And confirmation of what the architects found is a fresco in the temple dating back to the 13th century, where the Venerable Euphrosyne herself is depicted, offering this very temple, and in her hands she holds a model on which we see these completions, as they are drawn. Although, again, the latest architectural studies show that the roof went wrong, not with three blades, but, apparently, with some angles.

Inside the temple we see its incredible verticality, elevation and at the same time emphasis within the spatial cross. And this is no coincidence. Vladimir Dmitrievich Sarabyanov perceived this temple as a kind of reliquary temple, in the center of which stood the famous inset cross of Euphrosyne, which disappeared during the war and is known to us from photographs. The entire temple turned out to be like a spatial cross.

The choirs in this temple, unlike ordinary princely choirs, received a special function. The fact is that on the sides, right here, two special chapels were built. In one we know that Euphrosyne prayed and lived next to her. There is her bed there. And when she prayed in this chapel and looked out the small window that is in it, then in the gap of this window she saw from the east the image of a stylite, that is, her feat of life in the choir was akin to stylite. And in another tent, near the window, a semblance of a table was found, all around there were shelves as if for books, and above this table there was an image of a writing angel. That is, most likely, books were copied here and there was a library of the monastery.

Next to the Spassky Temple there was a second temple, we do not know it by name, the so-called tomb temple. And recently, during work near this temple, an amazing thing was found. This is a piece of plinth, on which, apparently, an image of a shoulder blade was drawn in the still damp clay, exactly the same as what we see in this very temple-tomb. That is, it is something like a working drawing of a Russian master. From Polotsk architecture came Smolensk architecture, which gave a new impetus to Russian architecture at the end of the 12th century, but we will talk about this next time.

And if at the beginning of the 12th century we talked about large monastic princely buildings, now the architecture is changing. It is becoming more accessible. And although the prince is still the customer, the temple he is building, the Church of St. John on Opoki, is already a temple on Posad. It is no coincidence that it later became a temple for Novgorod merchants. According to one principle, according to the principle that was laid down in the plan of the Anthony Monastery, the churches of St. John on Opoki and the Assumption on Torg were built.

The Temple of John on Opoki was completed in 1130, and in 1136 an important event occurred in the history of Novgorod. The prince was finally expelled, and after that the prince was already invited to Novgorod. Novgorod became the so-called boyar-veche republic. The Temple of John on Opoki has reached us in a revised form, in that rebuilt post-Mongol version, and at the same time we see a very modest decoration of its facades, which will be characteristic of all Novgorod architecture of the pre-Mongol period, until its end. For the period we are talking about, it is very important that for the first time in the history of Novgorod, an artel, which originally belonged to the prince, and then, perhaps, worked for the bishop, because we know the bishop as the customer of many buildings, this artel goes beyond the city limits and begins to build in other places.

And, strictly speaking, there will be two of these directions in the architecture of the Novgorod land. One direction is Pskov. This is the city that has always been something like the younger brother of Novgorod, which also had its own veche, also had its own identity and had its own prince. Expelled from Novgorod, Vsevolod, in fact, goes to Pskov and takes craftsmen there. Apparently, it was they who were building the cathedral of the Ioannovsky Monastery in Pskov, a simple building of the type already known to us in Novgorod. Its relative innovation is that in the western part all the pillars are no longer cross-shaped, and in the east there is a pair of T-shaped supports, which will become the basis of the Pskov style.

The decoration of the facades of this temple is extremely modest and unpretentious. Here, practically only small arches under the domes remain, but some new elements appear. The temple windows themselves are very narrow; indeed, others were not suitable for the Russian winter, but new small round windows appear. They are not at all similar to the round windows that came to Byzantium from ancient architecture. This is some kind of innovation.

It is also interesting that the domes here belong to the western corner cells, but the very scheme of the three domes, which we saw in both the Yuryev Monastery and the Anthony Monastery in Novgorod, is preserved.

If we look at the cross-section of the temple, we will see that everything here is not very neat. All the lines are slightly beveled, slightly shifted, and the structure itself, of course, has already lost that Byzantine tectonics that was present in the monuments of the 11th century, especially in the monuments of Southern Rus'. This is partly due to the transition to a different material. Along with plinth, these buildings actively use readily available stone, and not very well-hewn stone, often cobblestone, which becomes the main building material in the Novgorod land.

The same team that built the temple of the Ivanovo Monastery in Pskov also built the cathedral of another monastery, Miroshsky. Here, however, we see another, some new scheme, which is actually similar in appearance to the Byzantine scheme, because initially in this temple the corner cells were extremely lowered.

Now, after the restructuring, after the superstructure, the western cells have become taller, but these are separate rooms. Inside, the arch shows us that this is where they actually end, and the eastern ones were never built on like that. But despite the external resemblance to Byzantium, we see that in fact, inside this height is determined not by a column, not by a small girth arch of Byzantium, but in some arbitrary way.

The temple of the Mirosh Monastery is an order of the famous Novgorod Bishop Nifont, a man of amazing learning for his time, who, although he seemed to have been tonsured at the Kiev Pechersk Monastery, was so aware of all the latest trends in Byzantine literature, art, and so on, that it seems , must have been Greek, and he commissions paintings for this temple. And, in fact, this painting shows that that space, which in its whitewashed form seems rough and inept to us, begins to play wonderfully completely when covered with a fresco. And even such strange elements, such as, for example, large girth arches resting on consoles, are very subtly and wittily played out in painting here. The temple seems to acquire a new structure, a new axis around which it is built. And this is the so-called Christological axis, which goes from the dome from the “Ascension”, through the “Savior Not Made by Hands”, through the Deesis, through the “Savior on the Throne” and further, in fact, to the altar, where Christ is actually embodied in the holy gifts during Eucharistic celebration.

The second direction of architecture in the Novgorod land is the architecture of Ladoga. Ladoga is a city that is actually older than Novgorod, the so-called current Staraya Ladoga. As a matter of fact, some believe that Novgorod is called Novgorod because the old city was this Ladoga, a very important trade route on the way from the Varangians to the Greeks. Ladoga suddenly came to life again in the 12th century, in the middle of the 12th century, somewhere in the 50-60s. The princes attach great importance to it, and construction begins here. However, in this diagram we see how complex this construction developed and that the first temple in Ladoga was ordered by Bishop Nifont, the Church of Clement.

And further from it came the line of Ladoga architecture, which, unfortunately, has not all been preserved, but, in general, is represented by preserved buildings, including the Assumption Church in Staraya Ladoga, built in 1154-1159. It is likely that these are the buildings of the same artel that worked in Pskov, but, of course, not exactly the same, because people grew old, artel members changed, someone came, someone left, but the basic principles are the same .

These are the same principles that were laid down a long time ago, in the Anthony Monastery, by those masters who once came from Kyiv. But, of course, there is practically no trace left of the Kyiv masters here. This is a special, already Novgorod architecture.

And finally, after a long break in the surviving stone buildings, we see construction again in Novgorod. Perhaps there really was no construction because the artel was leaving, and this is surprising, because it turns out that even such a rich city as Novgorod could not provide itself with more than one, or maybe a maximum of two artels. Built in the 70s of the 12th century, this is a temple in Arkazhi, in a monastery that was once founded by Arkady, Archbishop of Novgorod, and one of his successors is building a temple here. Here we see the same scheme that we saw in Ladoga, that is, the isolation of the corner cells and two powerful square pillars in the west.

The facade decoration remains very simple, essentially reduced to small arches under the drum.

Nowadays, this temple in its rebuilt form does not give the impression of a pre-Mongol construction. This is a typical ending for post-Mongol Novgorod.

But if we go inside, you and I will see this very authentic pre-Mongol temple and see how heavy, bulky and powerful it has become. This is a temple of a small monastery, where the main thing is the strength and reliability of the structures. Therefore, the eastern pillars do not rise vertically upward, large arches do not form on the sides of them, and here additional arches are again introduced as additional powerful supports, which should make the entire structure of the building more stable.

Architecture of the Rostov-Suzdal Principality

And finally, in the middle of the 12th century, another, practically new school of Russian architecture appeared. This is the architecture of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus', or more precisely, it is more correct to say, the Rostov-Suzdal principality, because the old center of this land is Rostov, the new center since the time of Yuri Dolgoruky especially is Suzdal, although the first temple in Suzdal was founded by Vladimir Monomakh. Nothing remained of it except small remnants of the foundation. And finally, Yuri’s son Andrei Bogolyubsky moves the center a little further, to Vladimir, which he plans to make the new capital of Rus'.

So, the first stage of the architecture of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus' is associated with the city of Vladimir. But we will have to start from afar, because between the cathedral in Suzdal, built by Vladimir Monomakh, and the first buildings of Andrei Bogolyubsky, there is a gap of almost half a century. Where did Andrei get the masters who, as we will see now, are not at all similar to everything that we have seen before in Rus'? According to Oleg Mikhailovich Ionesyan, he received masters from Galician Rus', where, unfortunately, almost nothing remains of the monuments of this time. I am showing you a reconstruction of the plan of the cathedral in Zvenigorod, Zvenigorod on Belka in Southern Rus', built in the early 1140s.

From here these masters, familiar with the architecture of Poland or, more specifically, Lesser Poland, with the stone decoration of the provincial-Romanesque version, most likely moved to the principality of Yuri Dolgoruky, closely connected by allied ties with the Galician land. Of the buildings of Yuri Dolgoruky, of which there were more, two have reached us. These are churches in Pereslavl, Pereslavl-Zalessky, not to be confused with Pereslavl-Yuzhny, and in Kideksha at the residence of the prince near Suzdal. The temple in Kideksha, unfortunately, partially collapsed, but the temple in Pereslavl was preserved entirely.

Traditionally, in the history of Russian architecture, this temple was considered the beginning of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture due to the simplicity of its forms. There is practically no decor here. It is focused only on the apse, on the drum, and on the spinning wheels themselves we see only a small fracture in the middle. But the latest research, which I will talk about later, calls into question this clarity, this straight line: Pereslavl, Kideksha and then the architecture of Andrei Bogolyubsky.

Inside, you and I see, in general, a type of Russian church familiar to us, a clearly defined cross, but everything was suddenly built of white stone. And this is a novelty, which in fact will then turn out to be very important, because the stone has, in fact, completely different expressive capabilities than plinth. This stone was not visible inside, since the temple was covered with frescoes, the remains of which were known back in the 19th century.

The full potential of stone decoration begins to be realized under the son of Yuri Dolgoruky, Andrei Bogolyubsky. Let me remind you that Yuri took Kyiv in 1155, moved there, where he soon died, and Andrei, without his father’s will, moved to the Suzdal land, took with him the famous icon of Our Lady of Vladimir and began to rule here almost independently. Andrei hatched a grandiose plan to create a metropolitanate in Vladimir, independent of Kyiv, and conducted long negotiations with Constantinople, which, however, were not crowned with success. And, accordingly, in order to confirm both his claims to the new church center of Rus', and to confirm his status among other princes in general, Andrei, who in principle did not want to be a prince in Kyiv, is building something new.

He invites masters from the West, and these are, undoubtedly, not only those masters who worked for Yuri, perhaps they still remain, but also new masters who bring a new school of architectural decoration, including facade sculpture. Andrei's first building was the Assumption Cathedral, modeled after the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, such a transfer of the south to the north, but obviously more complicated, with vestibules, with towers that already have the character of a slightly palace, front facade.

Unfortunately, this cathedral soon burned down in a large city fire, and although its walls inside remained (they are shown in black on this plan), they had to be built on the outside, so the temple turned out to be a much more complex shape, somewhat similar to St. Sophia of Kyiv, but the new temple is like a casket, like a kind of frame around the ancient walls.

And what we see with you now conveys only the general structure of the building, but not the details of the old building.

They are visible only here, in the small gaps between the new supports attached, we see with you an important innovation in Andrei’s architecture. This is now not only an arcature, but also an arcature-columnar belt that goes around the entire temple, which includes windows and, as we will see later, sculpture.

Inside the temple, the central part, which has been preserved, shows us, on the one hand, its grandiose scale. On the other hand, if we look up, standing under the famous vault, painted by Andrei Rublev several centuries later, we will see one amazing detail. Instead of the usual sails of Rus', tromps suddenly appeared here. Tromps are a form that is more typical for the East or the West. This is probably the influence of the very Romanesque masters who came here. Where they came from is unknown. Tatishchev's message that the masters were given by Friedrich Barbarossa is a late invention.

Andrey is trying to organize Vladimir as a new capital in the likeness of Kyiv, which is why the Golden Gate appears here.

Unfortunately, the ancient temple on these Golden Gates was dismantled in the 18th century, but the gate arch itself, the opening, retained its ancient forms.

Just like Yuri, Andrei had his favorite residence, Bogolyubovo, not far from Vladimir, and here he built a luxurious complex, which included both his own palace and a temple with two towers on the sides connected to this palace by passages. Fortunately, after the collapse of the temple in the 18th century, the towers and part of the walls of the temple still survived, and we can understand how grandiose this structure was. The front facade, reminiscent of the facades of Romanesque buildings rather than even Byzantine ones, is a luxurious phial, that is, a vessel for water with a ciborium, with a canopy above it.

In front of him is a fantastic monument, which is being reconstructed in the form of a column with the heads of maidens (we have preserved them), interior mosaic decor, a polished copper floor, gilded pilasters of round columns - all this was supposed to create something unprecedented, something completely new in Rus'.

Alas, little of this splendor remains, and we can only guess how powerful an impression this palace and St. Andrew’s Temple could have had on visitors.

At the bottom of this very tower, Andrei was, as we know, killed. But if we raise our eyes upward, we will see the arcature-columnar belt we already know, and the triple window, and the completely Romanesque completions of these same angular rods. One can only guess where these masters came from.

The powerful beam pilasters that we see on the corners of buildings have caused enormous controversy among scientists. Alexey Ilyich Komech believed that these masters came from the Middle Rhine, Oleg Mikhailovich Ionesyan - that they came from Northern Italy, likening these profiles to the Cathedral in Modena. Be that as it may, these were masters from the empire, and Andrei’s imperial habits are felt in the architecture.

For the first time in a long time, he abandons the square, cross-shaped or octagonal pillars typical of Rus' and tries to reproduce the columns, which, as I already said, had gilded capitals. The richest sculptural decoration, completely alien to Russian architecture before.

It manifests itself especially well in that temple, which is considered to be one of the symbols of Rus', in the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, which stands so mysteriously and thoughtfully in the fields on the banks of the small river Nerl.

But archaeological research that was carried out here by Nikolai Nikolaevich Voronin showed that this temple looked completely different. It was a high, solemnly decorated hill, paved with slabs, with a grand staircase that led up from the river, and the temple itself stood not as a lonely candle, but rather as a powerful pyramid surrounded by a gallery, with a balcony at the top, from where the prince could survey his possessions . The function of this temple is unknown. Some believe that there was a small monastery here, some - that some other residence of the prince.

We don't know this, but we see that the facades of the temple are richly decorated with carvings. Where these masters came from is another mystery. The same Oleg Mikhailovich Ionesyan not so long ago suggested that these masters came from Poitou, from the west of France, where they suddenly found themselves without work due to the political situation. The main theme of these reliefs, along with decorative motifs, with these female heads, lions and so on, is the glorification of princely power in the form of the image of the prophet David, which appears on various facades and is supposed to symbolize some ideal prince.

The fine carving of the column, which becomes possible thanks to the white stone, shows the highest level of these craftsmen, who come here on the order of Andrei Bogolyubsky.

And finally, when we enter the temple, we immediately pay attention to its height, to its upward direction, which is generally a common feature of the architecture of the 12th century, but which, perhaps, is not so noticeable from the outside and was even less noticeable when around The temple had galleries. Of course, we pay attention to the choir for the prince in the west, because it was from these choirs that, perhaps, the correct, balanced view of this building opened up.

But this spatially expressed cross, these upward-pointing proportions and minimal carved decor inside, apparently there was fresco decor here, only in the bases of the arches we see small images of lions - all this was supposed to create the impression, on the one hand, of the greatness of the prince, and on the other hand, its completely innovative, in fact, function in Russian architecture, which was for the first time to fully combine the architecture of Old Russian, Byzantine in origin, with the architecture of Western Europe.

A special branch of the Volyn architectural school is the architecture of the small Grodno principality. The borders of the Volyn land reached the north of the Neman River, where the city of Grodno stands, which early came under the control of Lithuania. The attention of researchers has long been attracted by the only monument of the 12th century preserved here - the Boris and Gleb Church on Kolozha, a suburb of ancient Grodno. When considering the history of Russian architecture, it was usually added to the Polotsk-Smolensk circle of monuments, from which it nevertheless differs in many of its features.

Excavations on the territory of the ancient Kremlin in Grodno revealed new architectural monuments of the 12th century. In the center of the Kremlin’s high cape lie the ruins of the second brick six-pillar temple, conventionally called the “Lower Church”. Like the Kolozha church, it is made of thin plinth; Huge colored spots of polished and untreated flat gneiss and granite boulders are also used in the treatment of its facades; In addition to majolica tiles, green glazed dishes and bowls were introduced into the decoration of the upper parts of the walls. The composition of the plan differs from the Kolozha church. From the east, the arc of the middle apse protrudes very weakly from the plane of the facade, the side ones are cut into the thickness of the wall - this feature is reminiscent of the technique used in the cathedral of the Polotsk Spaso-Euphrosinev Monastery. The location of the pillars indicates that the head of the temple was shifted to the west, and the composition of the masses of the building was, as in Kolozha, asymmetrical. In this regard, it should be noted that flat blades of the facades with rounded corners are present only on the axes of the pillars, while the corners of the building are devoid of blades and are cut at an angle of 45°, like the corners of the internal square pillars. The choirs were located in the western part of the temple; the passage on them was also arranged in a unique way - in the southwestern corner, in a special semicircular brick box. As in the Kolozha church, numerous voices were placed in the walls. The picturesque decoration of the temple, apparently, was limited to icons placed on a small wooden altar barrier, decorated with gilded engraved copper. The wealth of decorative imagination was also manifested in the bright colors of the majolica floor of the temple. In the part under the dome, the floor was decorated with complex ornaments, and near the portals there were pavements made of polished granite. The Grodno Kremlin had not only stone churches. The towers of its fortifications were also made of brick; Insignificant fragments have been preserved from them, which do not allow us to judge any more fully about the architecture of the whole: from the western tower at the corner of the fortress, only part of one wall has survived; the southern tower (the so-called “terem”), overlooking the Neman, was built with the same “inlay” of the facade with colored boulder stones as the Grodno churches.

The chronology of these monuments has not been precisely established, but they all belong to the 12th century. Apparently, the “Lower Church” was built first, dating back to the first half of the 12th century. The Kolozha Temple most likely dates back to the third quarter of the 12th century. The brick towers, which replaced the wooden ones, were built, as there is reason to believe, later than the temples.

The originality of architectural forms and, in particular, the polychrome decoration of facades with majolica and natural stone, which is not found in the architecture of pre-Mongol times and involuntarily makes us recall the polychrome of Russian architecture of the 17th century, allow us to consider the Grodno architectural school as a special branch of Russian architecture of the 12th-13th centuries. We do not know whether the small Grodno principality had its own architects or used the construction forces of its metropolis - Volyn or Smolensk. But whoever these builders were, in Grodno they created monuments that had their own local appearance and did not find direct analogues in the buildings of other schools of feudal Rus'.

In the monuments of Volyn and Grodno, the connection with the technical and artistic culture of the Dnieper region and the Polotsk-Smolensk lands is still clearly felt. The architectural development of the second large city of the Galicia-Volyn land - Galich, which became one of the most important political and cultural centers of Rus' in the 12th-13th centuries, proceeded differently. The appearance of this wonderful city was clarified only as a result of a series of archaeological works, which determined its topography, location and character of its temples, which had long disappeared from the face of the earth. Ancient Galich is located on picturesque hills between a tributary of the Dniester river. Lukva and its tributary Mozolev Stream. In the northern, well-defended part of the hill there was a princely courtyard; to the south there was a vast trading area fenced with ramparts, on which stood the majestic Assumption Cathedral. Outside the ramparts lay an equally extensive settlement, protected in turn by a powerful defensive line of triple ramparts and ditches with gates guarded by towers pushed forward. In the immediate area of ​​the city there were separate villages and monasteries with their own churches, which played an important role in the defense of the approaches to the city.

The ruins of temples discovered by excavations of the 19th-20th centuries represent only more or less surviving parts of the foundations and lower parts of the walls, which makes it very difficult to judge their original appearance; most of them are undated, and their names are not precisely established. All of them were built from various types of local limestone, which replaced brick, using a very consistent masonry technique of hewn blocks, with the internal cavity of the wall filled with rubble and lime. In a number of temples, remains of majolica tile floors characteristic of the 12th century, fragments of internal fresco painting and external decoration made of carved stone were found. Among these buildings there are both ordinary cross-domed churches and churches of completely unusual types. These are the Church of the Resurrection - a small round chapel with a crown of three apses; “Polygon” is a building of unknown purpose in the shape of an irregular polygon; the pillarless Church of the Annunciation with a very elongated rectangular plan and the Church of Elijah, a round rotunda type with one apse.

The familiarity of Galich architects with Romanesque architecture is evidenced by a group of white-stone cross-domed churches of Galich: the four-pillar Church of the Savior, the six-pillar Church of Cyril and Methodius, the ruins of the church on Tsvintariski and the Church of Panteleimon (early 13th century) that has survived to this day. During the excavations of the first three monuments, fragments of white stone carved details were found, and in the Church of Panteleimon, beautiful processing of apses with arcatures on semi-columns with Attic bases and carved capitals and two carved portals were preserved. Tkachev V.N. History of architecture. M.: Nauka, 1987, - 234 p.

The most important among the Galich churches is the large white-stone Assumption Cathedral, discovered by excavations, which is believed to have been built around 1157 by Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl. Only the foundations and a small part of the basement have survived from the temple. The connection of the Assumption Cathedral with the Kyiv tradition was expressed in imitation of the planned scheme of the Tithe Church. But, unlike the latter, the external galleries of the Assumption Cathedral, surrounding the main core of the three-nave, four-pillar temple, were built simultaneously with the temple; the galleries were closed, being actually the outer walls of the building. In its southwestern corner there was a baptismal chapel in the form of a small closed chapel with an apse, reminiscent of the baptismal chapel of the Yelets Cathedral in Chernigov. Where and how the passage to the choir was built remains unclear, but there is no doubt that there were no staircase towers similar to those in Kyiv. A carved portal led into the cathedral from the west. The floors of the temple were covered with colored majolica tiles, which became a favorite type of interior decoration in the 12th century. The outer facades were divided by flat blades, corresponding to the inner pillars, and ended with zakomaras. The vaults were covered with tin. Fragments of capitals with volutes and palmettes, hewn plinths, and fragments of carved ornamented parts found during excavations indicate the use of plastic in the decoration of the white stone temple. The cornice of the apses was decorated with an arcature belt with carved masks instead of consoles and a curb. A comparison of these fragments with modern monuments of the Romanesque west establishes the closest analogies with the architecture of France and especially Germany of the 12th century. The architects of the border Galich, more actively than their brothers from the lands of the Dnieper region, mastered the artistic techniques of foreign masters, organically linking them with the Russian architectural basis. E.S. Smirnova “Ancient Russian Art”

Also in the middle of the 12th century, the palace of the Galician princes was built at the opposite end of the city Kremlin hill. The story of the Galician-Volyn chronicle about the reception of the ambassador of Prince Izyaslav by the Galician Prince Vladimir contains, in the course of the negotiations, several cursory remarks about the nature of this palace. When Vladimir drove the ambassador away from him, “Peter left the prince’s court, and Vladimir went to the shrine to the Holy Savior for vespers; and when I was on the crossing to the shrine, and then I saw Peter riding and cursed after him... and he said that, walking to the platform. And after singing Vespers, Vladimir left the goddess, and when he was in the place, on the step where he scolded Peter, he said: “Ole! Someone hit me on the shoulder” - and he couldn’t retreat at all from that place, and wanted to fly (throw himself) and then they grabbed him by the arms and carried him to the upper room...” The ambassador was returned, and the prince's servants in black mourning cloaks came down from the vestibule to meet him; Peter, rising into the entryway, found Yaroslav sitting “in his father’s place,” i.e. on the throne. Judging by this story, the Galician Palace was a vast architectural ensemble, which included the court stone Church of the Savior with choirs connected by a passage with the staircase tower of the vestibule; their second floor was a kind of throne room, also connected by a passage with the second floor of the wooden palace with its numerous chambers.

In the 12th century. a new type of temple appears in Kyiv, it includes the Three Saints (Vasilievskaya) Church in Kyiv and the church discovered during excavations in the Kudryavtse tract in the Kopyrevo end of Kyiv, both belong to the end of the 12th century. These buildings are small four-pillar, single-domed temples with three apses and, probably, with choirs in the western third. But it is characteristic that in these buildings of the end of the 12th century features appear that indicate the non-Kiev origin of their architects. The outer blades of the Church of the Three Saints are complicated by semi-columns, which is reminiscent of the monuments of Smolensk. The church on Kudryavets was built by a Smolensk master: its corner apses are rectangular on the outside, and the blades took the form of complex beam pilasters, known from the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael in Smolensk and the Church of Friday in Chernigov. The architecture of Kyiv at the end of the 12th century loses its local features; it is possible that the strong influence of Smolensk architecture was associated with the struggle for the Kiev throne between the princes of the Smolensk and Chernigov dynasties. All that is known about the interior decoration of these buildings is that there were simpler majolica floors and fresco paintings.

But these buildings, which contain memories of the architecture of Yaroslav Kyiv, brought to life by the political aspirations of the princes-builders, do not change the general course of development of architecture in the Dnieper region.

In the middle - second half of the 12th century. in Kyiv and the Principality of Kiev, which became the arena of fierce feudal struggle, the influence of regional architectural schools was felt. Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky of Vladimir was going to send his Vladimir architects to Kyiv to build a beautiful temple in the great Yaroslav’s courtyard; Smolensk architects built a church on Kudryavets; maybe they or the Volyn architects created the temple in Ovruch. Peter Miloneg, a friend of Prince Rurik Rostislavich, who became famous in the architectural history of Kyiv for the construction of a stone embankment under the Vydubitsky Monastery in 1199, was most likely a Smolensk architect. Regional architectural schools, which grew on the soil of the Kyiv artistic heritage, seemed to be paying their debt to the impoverished “mother of Russian cities.” "Monuments of urban planning and architecture of the Ukrainian SSR", volume 2, pp. 226-227.

Russian architecture follows traditions whose roots were established back in Byzantium, and then in the Old Russian state. After the fall of Kyiv, Russian architectural history continued in the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal, the Novgorod and Pskov Republics, the Russian Tsardom, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the modern Russian Federation.

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  The cultural influence of the Old Russian state can be traced in the architectural traditions of several modern states, including Russia.

  The large churches of Kievan Rus, built after 988, were the first examples of monumental architecture in East Slavic lands. The architectural style of Kievan Rus was established under the influence of Byzantine architecture. Early Orthodox churches were mainly made of wood. Until the end of the 10th century, there were developed traditions of wooden architecture, and there were already stone buildings.

  The first stone church of the Old Russian state was the Tithe Church in Kyiv, the construction of which dates back to 989. It is also known that it was founded by Prince Vladimir. The church was built as a cathedral not far from the prince's tower.

  In the first half of the 12th century. The church has undergone significant renovations. At this time, the southwestern corner of the temple was completely rebuilt; a powerful pylon supporting the wall appeared in front of the western facade. These activities most likely represented the restoration of the temple after a partial collapse due to an earthquake.

  Vladimir-Suzdal architecture (XII-XIII centuries)

  During the period of political fragmentation, the role of Kyiv as a political center began to weaken, and significant architectural schools appeared in specific centers. In the XII-XIII centuries, the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality became the most important cultural center. The uniqueness of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture lies in the fact that it not only continued the traditions of Byzantine and South Russian architecture, but also significantly enriched them with Western European ideas and elements. At the same time, the question of the direct participation of medieval European masters in white stone construction in the northeast of Rus' in the middle - second half of the 12th century remains open.

  Yuri Dolgoruky was the first to use European stone technology in Zalesye. Under him, white stone buildings were erected in Vladimir, Suzdal, Yuryev-Polsky, Pereslavl. Two of them have survived to our time - the Church of Boris and Gleb in Kideksha and the Spassky Cathedral in Pereslavl-Zalessky. Both temples date back to 1152.

  The architecture of Vladimir and Suzdal reached its heyday at the end of the 12th century under Bogolyubsky’s brother, the first Grand Duke of Vladimir Vsevolod the Big Nest. Vsevolod significantly expanded the Vladimir Assumption Cathedral and built the Dmitrievsky Cathedral - a masterpiece of white stone carving and the most architecturally representative white stone temple. Under the sons of Vsevolod in the 1220-1230s, the last major monuments of Vladimir-Suzdal Rus' were created - the Nativity Cathedral of the Suzdal Kremlin and St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky.

  The civil architecture of the Vladimir-Suzdal land has been preserved little and fragmentarily. Perhaps the oldest surviving secular building in European Russia is the remains of the white stone residence of Andrei Bogolyubsky in Bogolyubovo. A complex of restoration and research work in the mid-20th century made it possible to preserve the two-tier passage gallery and the lower part of the ancient tower of the princely palace. The main Golden Gate, the upper tier of which was the Church of the Position of the Virgin Mary, was significantly rebuilt at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries.

  The end to white stone architecture in Vladimir-Suzdal Rus' was put by the Tatar-Mongol invasion and the subsequent yoke. In 1992, seven white-stone monuments of the Vladimir-Suzdal architectural school of the 12th - early 13th centuries were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

  Novgorod-Pskov architecture (late XII - XVI centuries)

  The formation of the Novgorod architectural school dates back to the middle of the 11th century, the time of construction of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod. Already in this monument, the distinctive features of Novgorod architecture are noticeable - monumentality, simplicity, and the absence of excessive decorativeness.

  The temples of Novgorod from the era of political fragmentation are no longer striking in their enormous size, but they retain the main features of this architectural school. They are distinguished by their simplicity and somewhat heaviness of form. At the end of the 12th century, such churches as the Church of Peter and Paul on Sinichya Mountain (1185), the Church of the Assurance of Thomas on Myachina (1195) were built (on its foundation a new church with the same name was built in 1463). A notable monument that completed the development of the school in the 12th century was the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa (1198). Built in one season under the Novgorod prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich. The temple is single-domed, cubic, four-pillar, three-apse. Fresco paintings occupied the entire surface of the walls and represented one of the unique and significant painting ensembles in Russia.

  The heyday of Novgorod architecture dates back to the second half of the 14th century, during the era of maximum power of the Novgorod Republic. The pinnacle and standard of architecture of this period is the Church of Fyodor Stratilates on the Stream in Novgorod. The church building is a four-pillar, single-domed cubic structure. There are many decorative elements on the facade, especially on the drum and apses. Some niches of the facade were previously decorated with frescoes. It is also worth noting the Church of the Transfiguration on Ilyin Street, famous for the fact that it alone preserves frescoes by Theophanes the Greek.

  Pskov architecture is very close to Novgorod, however, many specific features appeared in the buildings of Pskov. One of the best churches in Pskov during its heyday was the Church of Sergius from Zaluzhya (1582-1588). Also known are the Church of St. Nicholas with Usokha (1371), Vasily on Gorka (1413), Assumption on Paromenye with a belfry (1521), Kuzma and Demyan from Primostya (1463).

  Few buildings of secular architecture of the Novgorod and Pskov lands are known, among them the most monumental building is the Pogankin Chambers in Pskov, built in 1671-1679 by the Pogankin merchants. The building is a kind of palace-fortress; its walls, two meters thick, are made of stones.

  Architecture of the Moscow Principality (XIV-XVI centuries)

  The rise of Moscow architecture is usually associated with the political and economic successes of the principality at the end of the 15th century, during the reign of Ivan III. In 1475-1479, the Italian architect Aristotle Fioravanti built the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. The temple has six pillars, five domes, and five apses. Built of white stone combined with brick. The famous icon painter Dionysius took part in the painting. In 1484-1490, Pskov architects built the Annunciation Cathedral. In 1505-1509, under the leadership of the Italian architect Aleviz Novy, the Archangel Cathedral, close to the Assumption, was built. At the same time, civil engineering was developing; a number of buildings - chambers - were built in the Kremlin, the most famous of which was the Faceted Chamber (1487-1496).

  In 1485, construction of new Kremlin walls and towers began; it ended under the reign of Vasily III in 1516. This era also includes the active construction of other fortifications - fortified monasteries, fortresses, and kremlins. Kremlins were built in Tula (1514), Kolomna (1525), Zaraysk (1531), Mozhaisk (1541), Serpukhov (1556), etc.

  Architecture of the Russian Kingdom (XVI century)

  Russian architecture of the 17th century

  The beginning of the 17th century in Russia was marked by a difficult time of troubles, which led to a temporary decline in construction. The monumental buildings of the last century were replaced by small, sometimes even “decorative” buildings. An example of such construction is the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki, made in the Russian patterned style characteristic of that period. After the completion of the temple, in 1653, Patriarch Nikon stopped the construction of stone tented churches in Rus', which made the church one of the last ones built using a tent.

  During this period, the type of pillarless temple developed. The Small Cathedral of the Donskoy Monastery (1593) is considered to be one of the first churches of this type. The prototype of pillarless churches of the 17th century is the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos in Rubtsov (1626). This is a small temple with a single internal space, without supporting pillars, covered with a closed vault, crowned on the outside with tiers of kokoshniks and a light dome, with an adjacent altar in the form of a separate volume. The temple is raised on a basement, has chapels on the sides and is surrounded on three sides by an open gallery - an entrance hall. The best examples of monuments from the mid-17th century are also considered to be the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Nikitniki in Moscow (1653), and the Trinity Church in Ostankino (1668). They are characterized by elegance of proportions, rich plasticity of shapes, slender silhouette and beautiful grouping of external masses.

  The development of architecture in the 17th century was not limited to Moscow and the Moscow region. A unique style was also developed in other Russian cities, in particular in Yaroslavl. One of the most famous Yaroslavl churches is the Church of John the Baptist (1687). The beautiful combination of a massive temple and bell tower, the grace of flowers, and beautiful paintings make it one of the most outstanding monuments of its time. Another famous monument of Yaroslavl architecture is the Church of St. John Chrysostom in Korovniki (1654).

  A large number of original architectural monuments of the 17th century have been preserved in Rostov. The most famous are the Rostov Kremlin (1660-1683), as well as the churches of the Rostov Boris and Gleb Monastery. The Church of St. John the Evangelist of the Rostov Kremlin (1683) deserves special attention. The temple inside has no pillars, the walls are covered with excellent frescoes. This architecture anticipates the Moscow Baroque style.

  Wooden architecture

  Wooden architecture is undoubtedly the oldest type of architecture in Russia. The most important area of ​​application of wood as a building material was Russian national housing, as well as outbuildings and other buildings. In religious construction, wood was actively replaced by stone; wooden architecture reached its peak of development in the Russian North.

  Northern Russian churches are very diverse in styles and forms (see Types of Russian wooden churches). One of the most common architectural types has become the tented temple. The most common reason for the appearance of a tent in wooden architecture is considered to be the extreme difficulty of making a traditional wooden dome. The construction of the earliest known tented church dates back to 1501, when the Clement Church was erected in the Una churchyard. Also notable are such wooden tented churches as the Assumption Church in Varzuga, the church in Panilov in the Arkhangelsk region, etc.

  One of the most notable tent churches is the Assumption Church in Kondopoga (1774). The main volume of the church is two octagons with a trench, placed on a quadrangle, with a rectangular altar area and two hanging porches. The baroque iconostasis and the icon-painted ceiling - the sky - have been preserved. The sky of the Kondopoga Church of the Assumption is the only example of the composition “Divine Liturgy” in an active church.

  The original monument of tent-type churches is the Resurrection Church in Kevrol, Arkhangelsk region (1710). The central quadrangle volume is covered with a tent on a “crossed barrel” with five decorative domes and is surrounded by cut-outs on three sides. Of these, the northern one is interesting because it repeats the central volume in reduced forms. A wonderful carved iconostasis has been preserved inside. In wooden tent architecture, there are known cases of using several tent structures. The only five-tent church in the world is the Trinity Church in the village of Nenoksa. In addition to tented temples, in wooden architecture there are also cube-shaped temples, the name of which comes from the covering with a “cube”, that is, a pot-bellied hipped roof. An example of such a structure is the Transfiguration Church in Turchasovo (1786).

  Wooden multi-domed temples are also of particular interest. One of the earliest churches of this type is considered to be the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God near Arkhangelsk (1688). The most famous wooden multi-domed temple is the Church of the Transfiguration on the island of Kizhi. It is crowned with twenty-two chapters, placed in tiers on the roofs of the cut-offs and octagons, which have a curvilinear “barrel” shape. Also known are the nine-domed Church of the Intercession in Kizhi, the twenty-domed temple of Vytegorsky Posad, etc.

  Wooden architecture also developed in palace architecture. Its most famous example is the country palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in the village of Kolomenskoye (1667-1681). The largest collections of wooden architecture in Russia are located in open-air museums. In addition to the famous museum in Kizhi, there are also such museums as Malye Korely in the Arkhangelsk region, Vitoslavlitsy in the Novgorod region, the wooden architecture of Siberia is presented in the Taltsy Museum in the Irkutsk region, the wooden architecture of the Urals is in the Nizhne-Sinyachikhinsky Museum-Reserve of Wooden Architecture and folk art.

  The era of the Russian Empire

  Russian Baroque

  The first stage of the development of Russian Baroque dates back to the era of the Russian Tsardom; from the 1680s to the 1700s, the Moscow Baroque began to develop. The peculiarity of this style is its close connection with pre-existing Russian traditions and the influence of Ukrainian baroque, coupled with progressive technologies that came from the West.

  An original page of Elizabethan baroque is represented by the work of Moscow architects of the mid-18th century - led by D. V. Ukhtomsky and I. F. Michurin.

  Classicism

  In the 1760s, classicism gradually replaced baroque in Russian architecture. St. Petersburg and Moscow became bright centers of Russian classicism. In St. Petersburg, classicism emerged as a completed version of the style in the 1780s, its masters were Ivan Egorovich Starov and Giacomo Quarenghi. The Tauride Palace by Starov is one of the most typical classicist buildings in St. Petersburg. The central two-story building of the palace with a six-column portico is crowned with a flat dome on a low drum; The smooth planes of the walls are cut through by high windows and completed with an entablature of a strict design with a frieze of triglyphs. The main building is united by one-story galleries with side two-story buildings bordering a wide front courtyard. Among Starov’s works, the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (1778-1786), the Prince Vladimir Cathedral, etc. are also famous. The creations of the Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi became a symbol of St. Petersburg classicism. According to his design, such buildings as the Alexander Palace (1792-1796), (1806), the building of the Academy of Sciences (1786-1789), etc. were built.

  At the beginning of the 19th century, significant changes took place in classicism; the Empire style appeared. Its appearance and development in Russia is associated with the names of such architects as Andrei Nikiforovich Voronikhin, Andreyan Dmitrievich Zakharov and Jean Thomas de Thomon. One of Voronikhin’s best works is the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg (1801-1811). The mighty colonnades of the cathedral cover a semi-oval square open to Nevsky Prospekt. Another famous work of Voronikhin is the building (1806-1811). The Doric colonnade of the huge portico is noteworthy against the backdrop of the harsh walls of the facade, with sculptural groups on the sides of the portico.

  The significant creations of the French architect Jean Thomas de Thomon include the building of the Bolshoi Theater in St. Petersburg (1805), as well as the building of the stock exchange (1805-1816). In front of the building, the architect installed two rostral columns with sculptures symbolizing the great Russian rivers: Volga, Dnieper, Neva and Volkhov.

  The complex of Admiralty buildings built according to Zakharov’s design (1806-1823) is considered to be a masterpiece of 19th-century classicism architecture. The idea for the new look of the building that already existed at that time was the theme of Russia's naval glory, the power of the Russian fleet. Zakharov created a new, grandiose (the length of the main facade is 407 m) structure, giving it a majestic architectural appearance and emphasizing its central position in the city. The largest architect of St. Petersburg after Zakharov was Vasily Petrovich Stasov. Among his best works are the Transfiguration Cathedral (1829), the Narva Triumphal Gate (1827-1834), and the Trinity-Izmailovsky Cathedral (1828-1835).

  The last major figure to work in the Empire style was the Russian architect Karl Ivanovich Rossi. According to his design, such buildings as the Mikhailovsky Palace (1819-1825), the General Staff Building (1819-1829), the Senate and Synod Building (1829-1834), and the Alexandrinsky Theater (1832) were built.

  The Moscow architectural tradition as a whole developed within the same framework as the St. Petersburg one, but it also had a number of features, primarily related to the purpose of the buildings being built. The largest Moscow architects of the second half of the 18th century are considered to be Vasily Ivanovich Bazhenov and Matvey Fedorovich Kazakov, who shaped the architectural appearance of Moscow at that time. One of the most famous classicist buildings in Moscow is the Pashkov House (1774-1776), presumably built according to Bazhenov’s design. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Empire style also began to dominate in Moscow architecture. The largest Moscow architects of this period include Osip Ivanovich Bove, Domenico Gilardi and Afanasy Grigorievich Grigoriev.

  Russian style in architecture of the 19th-20th centuries

  In the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, a revival of interest in Old Russian architecture gave rise to a family of architectural styles, often united under the name “pseudo-Russian style” (also “Russian style”, “neo-Russian style”), in which, at a new technological level, partial borrowing of the architectural forms of Old Russian took place and Byzantine architecture.

  The founder of the “Russian-Byzantine style” is considered to be Konstantin Andreevich Ton, who worked in the mid-19th century. Among his most important creations are the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (1860) and the Grand Kremlin Palace (1838-1849). The exterior decoration of the palace uses motifs from the Terem Palace: the windows are made in the tradition of Russian architecture and decorated with carved frames with double arches and a weight in the middle. There comes a period of fascination with small brick ornamentation, decorative forms of the 16th century - porches, tents, kokoshniks, etc. Rezanov, Gornostaev, etc. also work in this style.

  At the beginning of the 20th century, the “neo-Russian style” began to develop. In search of monumental simplicity, the architects turned to the ancient monuments of Novgorod and Pskov and to the architectural traditions of the Russian North. In St. Petersburg, the “neo-Russian style” found application mainly in the church buildings of Vladimir Pokrovsky, Stepan Krichinsky, Andrei Aplaksin, Herman Grimm, although some apartment buildings were also built in the same style (a typical example is the Kuperman house, built by the architect A.L. Lishnevsky on Plutalova Street).

  Architecture of the early 20th century

  At the beginning of the 20th century, architecture reflected the trends of the dominant architectural trends at that time. In addition to the Russian style, Art Nouveau, neoclassicism, eclecticism, etc. appear. The Art Nouveau style penetrates Russia from the West and quickly finds its supporters. The most outstanding Russian architect who worked in the Art Nouveau style is Fedor Osipovich Shekhtel. His most famous work - the mansion of S.P. Ryabushinsky on Malaya Nikitskaya (1900) - is based on a bizarre contrast of geometric tectonics and restless decor, as if living its own unreal life. Also known are his works made in the “neo-Russian spirit”, such as the pavilions of the Russian department at the International Exhibition in Glasgow (1901) and the Moscow Yaroslavl Station (1902).

  Neoclassicism received its development in the works of Vladimir Alekseevich Shchuko. His first practical success in neoclassicism was the construction in 1910 of two apartment buildings in St. Petersburg (No. 65 and 63 on Kamennoostrovsky Avenue) using a “colossal” order and bay windows. Also in 1910, Shchuko designed Russian pavilions at the international exhibitions of 1911: Fine Arts in Rome and Commerce and Industry in Turin.

  The architecture of post-revolutionary Russia is characterized by the rejection of old forms and the search for new art for the new country. Avant-garde movements are developing, and projects of fundamental buildings are being created in new styles. Examples of this kind of work are the works of Vladimir Evgrafovich Tatlin. He is creating a so-called project. Tatlin Tower, dedicated to the Third International. During the same period, Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov erected the famous Shukhov Tower on Shabolovka.

  The constructivist style became one of the leading architectural styles of the 1920s. An important milestone in the development of constructivism was the work of talented architects - brothers Leonid, Victor and Alexander Vesnin. They came to understand a laconic “proletarian” aesthetic, already having solid experience in building design, painting and book design. The closest associate and assistant of the Vesnin brothers was Moses Yakovlevich Ginzburg, who was an unsurpassed theorist of architecture in the first half of the 20th century. In his book “Style and Epoch,” he reflects on the fact that each art style adequately corresponds to “its” historical era.

  Following constructivism, the avant-garde style of rationalism also develops. Ideologists of rationalism, unlike constructivists, paid a lot of attention to the psychological perception of architecture by man. The founder of the style in Russia was Apollinaris Kaetanovich Krasovsky. The leader of the movement was Nikolai Aleksandrovich Ladovsky. To educate the “younger generation” of architects, N. Ladovsky created the “Obmas” (United Workshops) workshop at VKHUTEMAS.

  After the revolution, Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev also found himself in wide demand. In 1918-1923, he led the development of the “New Moscow” master plan; this plan became the first Soviet attempt to create a realistic concept for city development in the spirit of a large garden city. Shchusev's most famous work was the Lenin Mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow. In October 1930, a new building made of reinforced concrete, lined with natural stone, was erected

  The development of large land ownership and the associated exploitation of dependent peasants contributed to the strengthening of the political importance of the feudal nobility and the emergence of large princely and boyar estates. This process was accompanied by the continuous struggle of the peasantry for their freedom with the feudal lords. At the same time, handicraft production with market sales is developing in cities and the urban population is differentiated. New cities are emerging and their political significance is increasing. This period marks a new stage in the progressive development of society and is characterized by a deeper expression of an independent culture on a local folk basis.

  
  
  
  

  The process of economic and political isolation of individual Russian lands, which began in the 11th century, ended in the second quarter of the 12th century. the fragmentation of Rus' into a number of independent feudal principalities, independent of Kyiv, which led to the decline of the political role of Kyiv, to the intensification of princely strife and feudal wars.

  The collapse of the Kyiv state meant the weakening of the country politically and militarily, which was especially affected during the Tatar-Mongol invasion in the 13th century, when the divided Rus' was unable to decisively repel the invaders who devastated the Russian lands and slowed down the progressive development of Russian culture for a long time. In architecture, this was reflected in the fact that buildings became less monumental.

  The process of feudal fragmentation was accompanied by the formation and development of local economic and cultural centers in all parts of the Kyiv state, which was associated with the growth of Russian cities, with the development of urban crafts and trade and with the increase in the urban trade and craft population. In the new centers, a culture is developing, stronger than in the previous period, associated with local folk art. This results in great artistic diversity in the architecture of individual Russian lands, although in general, in its content, Russian architecture continued to remain unified, based on the unique creative development of the cultural heritage of the architecture of the Kyiv state.

  Residential and outbuildings from this period have not reached us. Archaeological and literary evidence indicates significant construction at this time of palaces of the feudal aristocracy and houses of urban artisans. There are also indications of the variety of urban residential buildings depending on the nature of the occupations of their inhabitants and their wealth.

  The volume of stone construction and the size of monumental buildings began in the 12th century. more modest than before. A complex six-pillar version of the cross-domed type of public and religious building was used in the cathedrals of large cities. At the same time, a simpler and more compact four-pillar version of the temple became widespread as the central building of a princely estate, a monastery, and sometimes a city.

  Technical progress was reflected in the use of very good ashlar masonry in Galician and Vladimir-Suzdal architecture or from single brick in other lands, in the appearance of cross vaults and the outstanding constructive technique of stepped arches, found only in Russian architecture.

  Characteristic general features of the social and religious building of the 12th century. It also consists of a centric composition, a compact shape of the external volume, strong, thick walls with a small number of very narrow window openings, slits, zakomari located on the same level, three altar apses and one drum topped with a hemispherical dome.

  It is easy to trace the connection between the buildings of individual principalities and their Kiev-Chernigov prototypes. The cathedrals in Rostov and Suzdal during the time of Vladimir Monomakh were built directly on the model of the Assumption Church of the Pechersk Monastery.

  The architectural composition of single-domed churches had in the 12th century. the nature of simple geometric volumes. However, decorative elements gradually multiplied, which brought elegance to the harsh appearance of the temple, for example, in Vladimirosuzdal and Galician architecture; The architectural volumes of the buildings themselves became in the second half of the 12th century. and at the beginning of the 13th century. less squat and lighter, more dynamic.

  The interiors of churches are decorated with frescoes. The latter were imbued with a religious principle, which in the hands of the feudal aristocracy played the role of an additional means of influencing the masses of peasants and townspeople in order to strengthen the authority of the church and feudal lords. Often they continue to use bright, multi-colored floors.

  The synthesis of architecture and outdoor sculpture in Vladimir-Suzdal architecture is remarkable. Carved reliefs, abundantly decorating the outer walls of some buildings, testify to the influence of ancient folk art of wood carving on stone architecture: they cover the outer walls of church buildings with an elegant decorative carpet of fantastic images of people, animals and plants, distinguished by a fabulous character. Russian architecture of this period was associated with folk epic, the images of which fruitfully influenced the work of Russian architects.

  Local building materials are widely used, and local design techniques are being developed. In the Kyiv, Chernigov, Polotsk and Smolensk lands they continue to build from brick. In Novgorod and Pskov they build from rough-hewn local stone in combination with brick, continuing the tradition that developed in the previous period. In the Galician and Vladimir-Suzdal lands, masonry made of carefully hewn white limestone is widely used.

  Based on individual chronicles that the tops of some stone buildings were “cut from wood,” it can be assumed that at that time the external architectural volumes of stone buildings were sometimes supplemented with wooden parts. This gave craftsmen the opportunity to freely express their architectural tastes and created a stronger connection between the large stone buildings commissioned by the princes and the extensive construction of wood, both public housing and other structures.

  Only on the basis of written sources and ancient drawings can we imagine in the most general terms the complex and picturesque nature of wooden buildings.

  1. ARCHITECTURE OF Kyiv AND CHERNIGOV LANDS

  In the XII-XIII centuries. The architects of the Kyiv and Chernigov lands developed construction techniques that had developed in the previous historical period, while introducing some significant changes to them.

  The foundation system remains essentially the same. In the 12th century. brick tiles become more oblong and thicker, approaching the shape of modern brick. The average size of a brick is 30 X 20 X 5.5 cm. Stone completely disappears from the masonry walls.

  The surfaces of the walls become similar to modern brick walls.

  In the 12th century. Cross vaults appear, which in some buildings, for example in the Cathedral of the Yelets Monastery and in the Boris and Gleb Cathedral in Chernigov, cover the corner rooms under the choirs. The brick decoration of external walls becomes more complex. Arched belts develop.

  A number of buildings built in the 40s and 50s that have survived to this day. XII century, represents the most characteristic religious buildings of southern Rus' of this period. Particularly typical is the Assumption Cathedral of the Yelets Monastery in Chernigov, which is adjacent in its architecture to the Cathedral of the Kirillov Monastery in Kyiv (after 1146) and the Cathedral in Kanev on the banks of the Dnieper (1144) - one of the southern outposts of the Kyiv state.

  A glimpse of the greatness of the architecture of the period of the Kyiv state is still noticeable in the 12th century. in the monumental buildings of the Kyiv and Chernigov lands, where the six-pillar version of the three-nave cross-domed church and the previous structure of the choir, occupying one or two western corner divisions, are preserved, which gives them greater capacity.

  The features characteristic of churches of this time are clearly expressed in the initially single-domed cathedral of the Eletsk Monastery (mid-12th century; p. 20). The simple volume of the building does not have any extensions: the baptismal sanctuary is included in the main massif and is placed in the southwestern corner under the choir, there is no tower, the staircase to the choir is built in the thickness of the northern wall. The interior has become much more compact and simpler: the internal blades, attached to the walls and pillars, protrude little from the plane of the walls and divide the internal space less clearly than before. From the outside, the building is a simple static architectural volume, the walls of which have small window openings, mainly in their upper tiers. The blades, with the exception of the corner ones, have wide semi-columns attached to them.

  A particularly characteristic decoration of the building is an elegant arcature belt with a curb located above it, placed outside at the level of the base of the zakomar and inside - above the apse of the baptismal sanctuary.

  In Chernigov, several carved stone capitals have been preserved, which were located in ancient times, apparently on the outer parts of buildings. They are decorated with relief carvings or carved images of fantastic beasts.

  Small buildings are also being built without pillars (the church in Pereyaslavl-Yuzhny and the Elias Church in Chernigov) (p. 20) or with only two internal pillars (the church in Starogorodka, built by Yuri Dolgoruky in the middle of the 12th century, about which the chronicle says that its top was wooden, and only the apse has survived).

  In the Pyatnitskaya Church in Chernigov (late 12th - early 13th centuries; p. 20), perhaps under the influence of the tiered “barrel” system of wooden architecture, the arches between the domed pillars are located a step higher than the cylindrical vaults of the branches of the cross. This was the expression of the further Russian processing of the Byzantine cross-domed system. This is how “stepped” arches arose, which over time became widespread in Russian architecture. Stepped arches protruded from the outside of the Pyatnitskaya Church in the form of a second tier of zakomari, rising above the main zakomari of the outer walls.

  Pyatnitskaya Church has a fairly developed external brick decoration: the apses are decorated with semi-columns, the entire building is surrounded by a wide frieze consisting of a complex brick pattern.

  There is an assumption that this building was built by the outstanding Russian architect of that time, master Peter Miloneg, who is also credited with the construction of the church in Ovruch and who erected in 1199 one of the largest engineering structures of ancient Kiev - a stone retaining wall and embankment over the Dnieper in the Vydubitsky monastery near Kyiv. This structure aroused the admiration of the people of Kiev, who loved to visit the high embankment, where, according to the chronicle, they “seemed to be floating in the air.”

  2. ARCHITECTURE OF POLOTSK AND SMOLENSK LANDS

  In the 12th century. Polotsk was the main city of the appanage principality, whose lands extended to the Gulf of Riga. Smolensk in the 12th century. was a large and rich trading city, the center of a vast principality that occupied almost the entire basin of the Western Dvina and the upper reaches of the Dnieper. Despite the fact that both principalities would be independent politically and
  only at the beginning of the 13th century. The Polotsk land became dependent on the Smolensk princes; Polotsk and Smolensk were in the XII-XIII centuries. culturally closely related to each other, which allows us to talk about a common Polotsk-Smolensk architectural school of this period.

  Four-pillar Peter and Paul Church in Smolensk in the mid-12th century. indicates that Smolensk architecture in its origins was closely connected with the architecture of the Kyiv and Chernigov lands, for example with the Yelets Church in Chernigov. However, the remains of Polotsk Sofia show that already in the 11th century. Polotsk architecture had its own local characteristics, which were further developed in the 12th century.

  The mutual proximity of Polotsk and Smolensk architecture is clearly evident in construction technology. Polotsk and Smolensk were the only regions in which, until the end of the 12th century. brickwork with hidden rows of bricks has been preserved.

  In Polotsk and Smolensk architecture, ceilings in the form of halves of barrel vaults were used over the corner rooms of buildings, which made it possible to complete the facades in some cases with three-lobed curves. Internal pillars were sometimes given an octagonal shape, which made the interiors more spacious.

  An outstanding work of Russian architecture of the 12th century. is a six-pillar, single-domed, single-apse church of the Euphrosyne Monastery near Polotsk (p. 23), built between 1128 and 1156. architect Ivan, whose name has been preserved for us by historical sources. It is distinguished by its very modest dimensions, which corresponded to its purpose as the main building of a small country princely monastery. The main part of the building, square in plan, has a tower-like shape and is the center of the entire composition. The covering was mosquito-free, but the western part was one step lower than the main part. The building is directed upward, which is especially emphasized by the high drum of the central dome, at the base of which there is a pedestal consisting of four three-lobed arches. Master Ivan was the first to decide to reproduce wooden barrels in brick, which, as one might assume, were often cut over the roofs of stone buildings. This technique, developed somewhat later by the architect of the Pyatnitskaya Church in Chernigov, marked the beginning of the construction of several tiers of kokoshniks over the building - a decorative technique that became widespread in Russian architecture of the 15th-16th centuries.

  The surfaces of the walls were enlivened by spots of brick decorative decoration of window frames in the form of “edges”, and the arches of the window openings were completely or partially covered with brown-colored cement mortar. Thanks to this, a rich decoration was created using purely architectural means, giving the external appearance of the building a festive, cheerful character characteristic of works of folk art.

  Situated on the high hills above the Dnieper, Smolensk was one of the foremost cultural centers of the time. The Smolensk princes, famous for their enlightenment, developed great construction activity, lavishly decorating their capital with monumental stone buildings. The architectural ensemble of the city was crowned by the unpreserved Assumption Cathedral, located on a high hill in the center of Detinets, built by Vladimir Monaco.

  The most outstanding architectural monument of Smolensk is the Svirskaya Church (1191-1194; p. 23), built in the princely residence, near the city, and remarkably placed on a high hill above the Dnieper.

  The close connection of the architecture of the Svir Church with the St. Euphrosyne Cathedral is reflected in the identical masonry, in the single-apse system with side altar rooms, distinguished by a rectangular outer shape, in the tower-like character of the main part of the building, in the external decorative edges above the windows and portals. However, these buildings represent different variations of the six-pillar system. The dynamic architectural composition of the external volume was achieved in the Svir Church with the help of three lower vestibules attached to the main part of the building opposite its domed parts. The corner rooms were covered with halves of barrel vaults; the facades were apparently completed with three-lobed arches. It is possible that at the base of the drum there was originally a pedestal, similar to the pedestal under the drum of the Cathedral of the Euphrosyne Monastery.

  Larger in size than the cathedral of the Euphrosyne Monastery, the Svirskaya Church, with its vast, light and spacious interior, surprised contemporaries with its beauty and grandeur.

  Polotsk-Smolensk architecture has created outstanding works under the influence of folk art.

  3 ARCHITECTURE OF NOVGOROD AND PSKOV

  ZEMEL
  In the second half of the 12th century. Novgorod architecture is changing.

  After the coup of 1136, when, as a result of a popular uprising, the prince was evicted outside the city and settled in a settlement opposite the Yuriev Monastery, a veche system was established in Novgorod, in which the leading role belonged to the boyars and the top merchant class; the princes remained only officials. These political changes were reflected in architecture. The scale of individual structures decreased significantly, the reason for which was a decrease in the economic capabilities of the princes.

  Since that time, in Novgorod and Pskov, the boyar-merchant construction of public and religious buildings has been developing, which has a more democratic character than the princely one. Unfortunately, these buildings have reached us only in small numbers and remain insufficiently explored.

  Masonry of stone walls of Novgorod and Pskov buildings of the 12th-13th centuries. was a further development of the masonry of Novgorod buildings of the 11th century. and the first quarter of the 12th century. In Novgorod, reddish-colored limestone from the shores of Lake Ilmen, as well as Volkhov gray flagstone of various colors, were used for buildings. In Pskov, almost all stone buildings from ancient times were built from local gray flagstone. The binder continued to be pink cement mortar with slightly larger brick chips. The stones were little chipped; they chipped off mainly on the front surfaces. The gaps between the stones, which had an irregular shape, were filled with mortar, as a result of which the outer surfaces of the walls turned out to be uneven, which created a picturesque texture of the wall. Brick was used in small quantities: it was used to lay the lintels of door and window openings, arches and partially vaults, which were also made of stone. Brick was used in the walls mainly to level the masonry and to fill the gaps between the stones.

  Cross vaults are not found; simpler barrel vaults predominate.

  Decorative details were placed on the walls of Novgorod churches in limited quantities. The miniature niches that previously decorated the outer walls have disappeared; the upper parts of the dome drums are crowned with simple arcatures.

  The last princely building in Novgorod was the small, modest Church of the Savior on the Front (pages 27 and 312), built by Prince Yaroslav in 1198 in a monastery near Novgorod. It was barbarically destroyed by fascist vandals, but before the Great Patriotic War it was preserved quite well, along with the wonderful interior frescoes.

  Nereditsa Church is a four-pillar, single-domed, three-apse building; its inner walls had no blades at all; its supporting pillars were square in plan. Thanks to this, the interior of the temple is less dismembered. Small choirs are built on a wooden ramp, and the staircase to the choir is placed in the thickness of the western wall. The side apses are much lower than the middle one.

  The walls, pillars and vaults of the Nereditsa Church had uneven surfaces and were outlined with curved contours. As a result, the architectural forms of the building acquired a free, picturesque character. This feature was perceived as a great artistic merit.

  The external architectural volume of the Nereditsky Church, located on a hill above the river, fit perfectly into the flat Novgorod landscape with small clumps of trees, enlivened by the mighty Volkhov and its numerous branches.

  Contrasting with the modest exterior of the building, the interior of the Nereditsa Church was full of harsh, colorful images of fresco paintings. The latter covered all the walls, pillars and vaults of the building from top to bottom with a continuous carpet.

  The oldest monument of Pskov architecture that has come down to us is the Cathedral of the Mirozhsky Monastery (pages 27 and 312), built around 1156. In its architecture, it is related to the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa, although it differs from it in its architectural type. Mirozh Cathedral originally had a roof covering and was a cruciform volume, the corners of which were occupied by low western rooms and the same low side apses, separated by walls from the main part of the interior. As a result, the building did not have internal pillars. Mirozh Cathedral is distinguished by its large concentration of architectural masses, monumentality and extreme simplicity of architectural decoration. It has well-preserved fresco paintings, close to the paintings of the Nereditsa Church.

  Back in the 12th century. the western corner rooms were built on, and closets were installed in them
  for storing valuable property, which is typical for a trading city. Later, a light belfry of the Pskov type was placed on one of the walls, softening the harsh appearance of the building and giving it grace.

  The Pskov Mirozhsky Cathedral is characterized by the same freedom and picturesque architectural masses as in the Novgorod Church of the Savior on Nereditsa.

  4. ARCHITECTURE OF GALICIAN AND VOLYN LANDS

  Galicia and Volyn, the westernmost Russian principalities, bordered Hungary and Poland. The six-pillar cathedral in Vladimir-Volynsky (1160) testifies to the close connection of Volyn architecture with Kiev-Chernigov architecture, being a very close analogy of the Yelets Church in Chernigov and the Assumption Church of the Pechersk Lavra. Galich on the river The Dniester, the capital of the Galich principality, was a vast and rich city, in the center of which was Detinets, located on a high hill between the river and a steep ravine, with the Assumption Cathedral. In Dytinets there was a princely palace with a small four-pillar Church of the Savior (until 1152) next to it, the choir of which was connected by passages, probably wooden, with the palace premises.

  Beautiful white stone half-rubble masonry was discovered during excavations of the largest building in Galich - the Assumption Cathedral, built at the end of the 12th century. On the outer surfaces of the walls, squares of stone were carefully hewn and well fitted to each other. The outer walls of Galician buildings, made of white Galician and green Kholm stone, were decorated with various sculptural images.

  In the Church of Panteleimon in Galich (12th century), some of the original white stone walls, a perspective portal and decorative decoration of the apses, consisting of thin columns connected by arches, have been preserved.

  Of the buildings of Daniil of Galicia, the chronicle preserved a description of a four-pillar temple in Kholm of the early 13th century, built by the master Avdei, lined with white and green stone, decorated with sculpture and painting. and gold.

  The Principality of Galicia, which was an advanced outpost of the Slavic lands in the west, had lively cultural relations with Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Balkans and could perceive, master and process elements of the architecture of these countries. Of the rich and once flourishing architecture of the Galician land, only ruins have survived.

  Close economic, political and cultural ties are known that existed in the middle of the 12th century. between the Galician, Volyn and Vladimir-Suzdal principalities. These connections explain the great similarity of the architecture of these lands. It is possible that the architecture of the Chernigov and Ryazan lands played a connecting role between them.

  5. ARCHITECTURE OF THE VLADIMIRO-SUZDAL PRINCIPALITY

  The Vladimir-Suzdal principality occupied vast lands between the Oka and the middle reaches of the Volga and was a forested country. Among the forests there were “opoles” - treeless and fertile areas of land, in the center of which the most ancient cities of the region arose - Rostov and Suzdal.

  Extensive construction in the Vladimir-Suzdal land began in the middle of the 12th century, during the reign of Monomakh’s son, Yuri Dolgoruky (1125-1157), who built a number of fortified cities on its southwestern and southern borders - Dmitrov, Yuryev-Polsky, Pe -Reslavl-Zalessky, etc. The founding of Moscow (1147), the future capital of the Russian state, also dates back to this time.

  Yuri's son Andrei Bogolyubsky (1157-1174), a major statesman of his time, moved to the north forever during his father's lifetime and made the new city of Vladimir the capital of his principality. Andrei richly built up Vladimir, which under him turned into one of the most beautiful cities of ancient Rus'.

  In an effort to revive the political unity of the Russian lands and create a new all-Russian state center in the northeast, Andrei defeated Kyiv, which resisted him (1169) and wanted to become the “unique ruler” of the Russian land, while simultaneously seeking the creation of a special metropolis in Vladimir, independent of Kyiv. For this purpose, he built the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir.

  Andrei, killed by the conspiratorial boyars. the reactionary tendencies of which he fought were succeeded by his brother Vsevolod the “Big Nest” (1176-1212), under whom the Vladimir-Suzdal principality achieved exceptional power.

  After the death of Vsevolod, the fragmentation of the Vladimir-Suzdal land began into separate small principalities, constantly at war with each other. This, naturally, weakened the military power of the principality, which could not withstand the onslaught of the Tatar-Mongol hordes, which brutally ravaged the flourishing region.

  During the reign of Andrei and Vsevolod, Vladimir-Suzdal architecture reached its peak.

  a) The early period of development of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture

  The powerfully fortified city with a high earthen rampart and a monumental stone cathedral is the leading type of construction of the time of Yuri Dolgoruky. Based on the currently preserved fortress ramparts, one can imagine in general terms the original appearance of Pereslavl-Zalessky (p. 29), Yuryev-Polsky and Dmitrov - fortified cities founded by Yuri Dolgoruky.

  The city ramparts adapted to the nature of the area. Inside the city, near the rampart, there was a stone cathedral, the drum and dome of which only rose slightly above the rampart and wall and were visible only at a great distance from the city. Near the cathedral there usually stood a wooden princely palace, connected to it by a special passage.

  A well-preserved architectural monument of this time is the cathedral in Pereslavl-Zalessky (1152; pp. 29 and 313). In this building, the ancient masters managed to create in a simple and perfect form the architectural image of a small but monumental public and religious building of a feudal fortified city.

  Pereslavl Cathedral is the oldest white stone building in the Vladimir-Suzdal land; in this it differs significantly from the brick cathedral in Suzdal at the beginning of the 12th century, associated with the building tradition of Kiev-Chernigov brick architecture.

  In Vladimir-Suzdal architecture of the second half of the 12th century. local white limestone became the dominant building material and completely replaced brick. In ancient times, the people of Vladimir were known as skilled masons. The Vladimir-Suzdal buildings are laid out entirely using the half-rub masonry system. The walls of the Pereslavl Cathedral each consist of two parallel outer walls, very carefully laid out of hewn stone, the gap between which is filled with white stone scrap and boulders and filled with lime mortar. The dimensions of individual squares of cut stone in the masonry vary in height from 20 to 45 cm, and in length from 15 to 80 cm. To secure the solid walls, oak ties were laid in them. Inside the building, the connections ran, as usual, openly at the base of the arches and were decorated with picturesque ornaments.

  The white stone masonry of Vladimir-Suzdal buildings is very close to the masonry of monumental buildings in the Galicia-Volyn principality. The plan of the cathedral in Perelavle-Zalessky exactly corresponds to the plan of the Spassky Cathedral in Galich. The construction of the foundations of Vladimir-Suzdal buildings, which are characterized by the foundations of the Pereslavl Cathedral, is similar to the system adopted in the architecture of ancient Galich. They have strip foundations made of large rubble and lime mortar. The foundations, which in their upper part are approximately twice as wide as the wall, slightly narrow downwards and are usually shallow (1 - 1.5 m). The Pereslavl Cathedral, like all Vladimir-Suzdal buildings, has a clearly defined basement part, which is not found, for example, in Novgorod and Pskov.

  With all its stern and impregnable appearance, the cathedral in Pereslavl-Zalessky suggests that it played the role of the main building of a fortified city. The number and size of window openings, concentrated only in the upper part of the building, are reduced to a minimum. The narrow stepped portals are devoid of any decorative details. The smooth slopes of the windows, going deeper into the massifs of the walls, reveal their thickness from the outside. The apses are decorated with an arcature frieze, still similar to its Kiev-Chernigov brick prototypes. The interior of the building is a space strictly divided by four domed pillars, the western part of which is occupied by choirs; the level of the latter corresponds to the outer ledge of the wall. The ancient frescoes with which the building was painted inside have not survived.

  In the Spassky Cathedral of Pereslavl-Zalessky, the future Vladimir-Suzdal architectural system has already been outlined in the most general terms. The double ledges of the blades and the modest arcature belt of the apses serve as prototypes of the future rich white stone decoration, and the middle ledge of the wall (passing over the blades) marks the location of the arcature belt of later Vladimir-Suzdal monumental structures.

  The church in Kideksha (1152; p. 29), rebuilt in the 17th century, was much worse preserved. and having lost its original vaults, dome and upper parts of the walls on the eastern side. It was built in the country estate of Yuri Dolgoruky near Suzdal, on the banks of the river. Nerl. Next to it stood a palace and other residential and commercial buildings built of wood. All these buildings, together with the church - the only stone building of the entire complex - were surrounded by an earthen rampart.

  In the Kidekshi church, an arcature belt is placed in the middle of the height of the walls, and the lower part of the blades has a ledge on each side, and their upper part has two ledges. The external volume of the building in its original form was slimmer than the squat massif in Pereslavl-Zalessky. The architecture of the church in Kideksha means, in comparison with the cathedral in Pereslav-le-Zalessky, a further step in the development of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture, a gradual complication of the architectural composition.

  These monuments from the time of Yuri Dolgoruky show that in the middle of the 12th century. In northeastern Rus', the Vladimir-Suzdal architectural system developed, which received its brilliant development in the construction of the time of Andrei Bogolyubsky.

  b) The heyday of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture

  Andrei Bogolyubsky's persistent desire to unite the Russian lands found its vivid expression in the creation of remarkable ensembles: a new state center - the city of Vladimir - and a country princely residence in Bogolyubovo.

  Founded by Vladimir Monomakh, beautifully located on the high, steep bank of the Klyazma, Vladimir (p. 31) 1 III. IV. was significantly expanded under Andrei, who built a complex system of ramparts with stone gates. The main gate has been preserved - the Golden Gate, to which in the 18th century. round decorative bastions were added; At the same time, the top of the gate was redone. The remains of the ramparts rising near the Golden Gate give an idea of ​​the former grandeur of the city fortifications of Vladimir.

  The Golden Gate in Vladimir (1164; p. 313) is, in imitation of the Kyiv gate of the same name, a rectangular vertical volume, cut through in the center by a passage arch and crowned with a large church building, rebuilt in the 17th-18th centuries. Having somewhat grown into the ground over the course of centuries, the gate still makes a strong impression with the grandeur and slenderness of its passage arch and the severity of its architectural forms. Inside the gate, a fighting device has been preserved, consisting of an arch spanning half the height of the passage; this arch carried a wooden flooring on which the defenders of the city stood during the siege. In the thickness of the southern wall there is an ancient white stone staircase that led upward - to the ramparts and to the church.

  The high steep bank of the Klyazma, on which Vladimir is located, dominates the river and the low opposite bank. Thanks to this, the city and its main buildings are visible from afar. From the top, from the city, there is a wide view of the opposite bank of the river and the distances beyond the river. At the highest point of the city, the Assumption Cathedral (1158-1161; pp. 31 and 315) was built - the main building of the capital. Unlike the four-pillar city cathedrals of Dolgoruky's time, this is a large six-pillar building, with choirs only in its western part.
  ____

  1 Designations on the plan of Vladimir XII-XIII centuries. on page 31: 1. The city of Monomakha (“Caves City”). I. “Vetchannay city”; fortifications 1158-1164 III. "New town"; fortifications 1158-1164 IV. Child.

  The cathedral was significantly rebuilt after the fire of 1185.

  The original single-domed cathedral survives as the middle part of the modern building. It protrudes from the outside above the roof of the later extension, as a result of which its zakomari form a second tier of zakomari above the semicircles of the later added galleries.

  The Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir was the most extensive, solemn and majestic building of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. Its interior and exterior decoration amazed contemporaries with its luxury, unheard of at that time, and the abundance of gilding and colored fabrics. The slender and graceful white stone building easily raised its head sparkling with gold and occupied a dominant position in the architectural ensemble of Vladimir.

  The walls and pillars of the Assumption Cathedral are very slender; they are much thinner and more elegant than they were in the previous period. Thanks to this, the architecture of its interior is distinguished by spatiality and airiness, which are combined with great geometric regularity of the plan.

  Not far from Vladimir, Andrei built himself a country residence, Bogolyubovo (pages 33 and 313), which was a castle surrounded by earthen ramparts with stone towers, the central building of which was a large palace connected by a system of stone passages to the church. In front of the palace and temple there was a vast courtyard paved with white stone, where there was a large stone bowl under a stone tent on eight columns.

  The Bogolyubov Cathedral (1158), known only from excavations, had four round pillars inside. The decoration of this building was luxurious. According to chronicles, it was richly decorated inside and outside with gold; the capitals and details of the outer arcature belts were probably gilded. The floors in the altar were copper, sparkling like gold; in the choir the floors were made of multi-colored majolica tiles. The chronicle says that the glitter of gold in this building was difficult to look at. There can be no doubt that the palace in Bogolyubovo was decorated no less richly.

  Only the staircase tower and the passage from it to the church choir are well preserved from the palace. These parts are decorated on the outside with arcatures on columns, similar to the arcature belts of church buildings. It is necessary to note the cross vault, which carries the transition from the tower to the temple, as well as the triple window of the civil type on the eastern facade of the tower and the two-tier arcade on columns on its western facade.

  The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl (pages 33 and 314) was built in 1165 near Bogolyubov, at the confluence of the river. Nerl to Klyazma, at the final point of the river trade route that led east to the Volga. The monastery church on the Nerl marked the entrance to Bogolyubov and Vladimir, architecturally highlighting the entrance to the capital. The well-preserved church is marred only by the late onion dome and the hemispherical roof around the drum.

  The plan of the church on the Nerl repeats the plans of the cathedral in Pereslavl and the church in Kideksha. When compared with the cathedral in Pereslavl-Zalessky, the strongly pronounced vertical proportions are especially noticeable, giving it remarkable lightness and airiness. In ancient times, the building was surrounded by monastic buildings. The amazingly elegant and slender structure harmonizes perfectly with the picturesque surrounding landscape. This was also achieved by the fact that the external division and architectural decoration of the walls became more complex, which are characterized by multi-stepped blades, fences, window and door openings and a large number of columns of various sizes.

  Large columns attached to the outer blades carried carved stone drains between the mosquito nets; the arches of the frieze rest on miniature columns that are located in the portals, on the drum and on the apses of the building. The blades are complicated by ledges of rectangular and rounded profile, which gives the outer walls a deep relief and saturates their surfaces with rich plasticity.

  A major role in the composition of the building is played by perspective portals, in which rich architectural decoration is combined with majestic monumentality.

  Stone reliefs depicting the biblical King David playing a musical instrument and surrounded by listening animals, placed in semicircles of the zakomara, serve as an additional means of enhancing the plasticity of the walls. This external sculptural decoration represents one of the most significant innovations in church architecture, which we did not encounter in any of the local schools of Russian architecture of that time, with the exception of Galich, and which subsequently received its brilliant development in the construction of the time of Vsevolod and his heirs. Reliefs destroy the heaviness of the wall, making it elegant, airy and light.

  The chronicle says that for the construction of the new capital, Andrei gathered craftsmen “from all lands.” This indicates that in Vladimir architects from other Russian lands and, first of all, from Galicia worked together with local masters. Andrei's heirs received not only a cadre of well-trained and exceptionally talented architects, but also a fully established, brilliant school of architectural excellence. Such pearls of Russian architecture as the Vladimir Assumption Cathedral and the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl are monuments of world significance and should be ranked among the best creations of human architectural genius.

  Both in politics and in architecture, Vsevolod continued and developed the traditions of previous times. He further expanded Vladimir, strengthened its fortifications and continued the construction of monumental buildings that were to make the capital of his principality the most beautiful, rich and powerfully fortified city of ancient Rus'.

  In 1194-1196. A stone wall (p. 31) with a gate and a gate church was added to the fortress ensemble of Vladimir, separating the detinets, which included the Assumption Cathedral and the princely palace with the court cathedral built by Vsevolod Dimitrievsky, from the rest of the city. This first white-stone city in the history of Russian architecture testifies to the increasing isolation of the ruling elite from the rest of the city’s population.

  After the fire that befell the Assumption Cathedral in 1185, Vsevolod in 1185-1189. surrounded Andrew's building on three sides with new walls (pp. 31 and 315), so that the original meaning was, as it were, in a case, and rebuilt its apses. This meant not only an increase in the cathedral, which had now turned from a single-domed to a five-domed one, but also a profound change in the architectural image of the previous building.

  A comparison of the parts of the Assumption Cathedral built under Andrei with those erected under Vsevolod shows a slight decline in architectural skill, especially in architectural decoration and in relation to the regularity of the plan. The walls of the added part are much thicker and less regularly laid out than the walls of the original building. The scale of the surrounding galleries is larger than the scale of the middle part of the cathedral.

  The architectural volume of the Assumption Cathedral after its reconstruction became more massive, received a more majestic and calm breadth of proportions, and the addition of four chapters created a new powerful architectural composition of the building, the scale of which was more consistent with the ensemble of the expanding city. Sculptural masks are placed on the sides of the windows. The southern façade of the cathedral, facing the river, stands out, on which the windows and arched belt are placed slightly lower than on other facades, and the columns of the arched belt stand at low tide, thereby increasing the thickness of the lower part of the wall.

  The grandiose monumental image of the new cathedral with great simplicity and expressiveness conveys the character of the era of the mighty Vsevolod, about whom the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” wrote that his warriors could “splash the Volga with oars and scoop up the Don with helmets.”

  Another remarkable work of Russian architecture of Vsevolod’s time is the four-pillar, single-domed, three-apse Demetrius Cathedral (pages 35 and 315) - a palace church built in 1194-1197. at the princely palace in Vladimir. For the first time, a large number of reliefs appear on its outer walls, occupying the entire upper half of the walls, starting from the arcature belt.

  Dimitrievsky Cathedral is one of the best works of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture and, along with the church on the Nerl, occupies an outstanding place in the history of world art.

  Demetrius Cathedral, both in plan and in external volume, is similar to the church on the Nerl, but is more massive and material. It was in the palace temple that white stone carved reliefs, dating back to folk art, were widely used. wood carvings that decorated residential buildings of that time. Their content is imbued with folk fairy-tale and epic images, which are intertwined with motifs of Christian legends. The subjects of the reliefs are close to the folk works of this time. Like “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” its contemporary, the Demetrius Cathedral, is enriched in the reliefs decorating it with fabulous images filled with ideas dating back to pagan times.

  The division of the external architectural volume of the building is excellent in its proportions. The three-part division of the walls is dominated by the middle division, in which the portal is placed. The architectural masses of the building gradually become lighter towards the top: a heavy lower tier, a lightweight upper tier with numerous reliefs and, finally, at the top - a light drum that completes the building. In ancient times, the drum stood on a rectangular pedestal, similar to the pedestal under the drum of the Assumption Cathedral. The dome has retained its ancient shape. The abundance of decorative details gives the building an elegant, lush character.

  Some time after the construction of the cathedral, a staircase tower was added to it, similar to a similar tower in Bogolyubovo. In its harmonious form, the Demetrius Cathedral embodies the contemporary ideal of beauty and grandeur, reflected in the crystalline clarity of the architectural composition of the building, in the solemn and elegant decorative decoration, in the calm and majestic monumentality of its architectural image.

  A comparison of the architecture of the Dimitrievsky Cathedral and the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl with contemporary monuments of Western European Romanesque architecture clearly reveals the superiority of the high artistic skill of Vladimir monuments, due to the amazingly harmonious balance of architectural forms, deeply different from the strong and expressive, but heavy and angular volumes of Romanesque buildings.

  I c) The final period of development of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture

  The fragmentation of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality into fiefs after the death of Vsevolod (1212) and the continuous wars between the sons of the latter contributed to the fact that during this difficult period little was built of stone. Not one of the few buildings built at this time has reached us in its entirety. There is a refinement of architectural forms, a loss of constructive clarity, and the architect's attention is focused on the sophisticated architectural decoration of the building's facades.

  The architectural volume of the temple is complicated by vestibules - low side extensions on three sides, reminiscent of “rubes” in wooden architecture. Their roofs have a barrel-shaped roof with a point, also characteristic of wooden architecture. Along with the widespread use of carved decorative patterns, these features indicate the influence of the picturesque and elegant architecture of princely and boyar mansions on monumental stone construction.

  The cathedral in Suzdal (1222-1225) retained in its original form only the lower parts of the walls up to and including the arcature belt. It collapsed back in the 15th century, and the modern upper
  part of it dates back to the 16th century. Compared to previous periods, the construction technique has also changed: the building is built from local material - pink tuff, roughly hewn and unevenly laid out, using bricks to level the masonry of the walls, and only the blades and the arcature belt are carefully hewn from white stone. The choirs of the cathedral were very large and occupied the entire western part of the interior, right down to the dome pillars. They were perfectly illuminated by two light domes placed above the western corners of the building. The inside of the cathedral was painted with bright and colorful frescoes, of which only small fragments have survived.

  The most outstanding work of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture of the 13th century. is the cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky (1230-1234; pp. 35 and 315), built shortly before the Tatar invasion. The upper part of its walls, the drum and the vaults fell in ancient times, and the collapsed building was partially rebuilt at the end of the 15th century. Moscow builder Ermolin, who during this restoration did not take into account the location of the reliefs of the external walls and rebuilt the upper part of the building.

  The cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky is a small structure of the four-pillar type, which has a number of features first encountered in Vladimir-Suzdal architecture. The most significant thing is that the cathedral, laid out of white stone, was entirely decorated with stone carvings on the outside, which is a further development of the external decorative decoration of the Demetrius Cathedral in Vladimir. The plan of the cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky differs from the plan of the latter in the square shape of the pillars, the absence of blades on the internal walls and three vestibules, as in the Suzdal Cathedral. The vestibules complicate the plan of the cathedral and give some flatness to its outer volume.

  The entire lower part of the walls, right down to the arched frieze, is covered with very rich and elegant in-depth ornamental stone carvings, beautifully shimmering with various shades of chiaroscuro. The carved patterns covering the blades, columns and arches are made in relief. The abundant decoration of the walls indicates the degeneration of the strict, constructive system of external division of earlier Vladimir-Suzdal buildings and the intensification of the beginning of decorativeness. This indicates some influence of the rich decoration of princely mansions on public and religious buildings, the disappearance of monumentality and majesty of the architectural image and speaks of the predominance of decorations in Vladimir-Suzdal architecture at the final stage of its development. In the Yuriev-Polsky Cathedral, the decorative principle, which was of great importance even in the Dimitrievsky Cathedral in Vladimir, reached its maximum development.

  Along with some fragmentation in the architectural composition of the cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky, it is necessary to emphasize the high skill in the art of stone carving of the most talented master carvers who continued the ancient tradition of wood carving in stone. The reliefs of the cathedral contain many bizarre and fantastic images of people, animals and birds - living and bright figures, imbued with the spirit of folk tales and epics.

  Architecture of the 13th century was only an episode in the general development of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture, the highest flowering of which dates back to its previous periods. Its further development was stopped by the Tatar-Mongol invasion, which crushed the fragmented principalities of ancient Rus' and slowed down its cultural development for a long time.

  ARCHITECTURE OF THE PERIOD OF THE UNIFICATION OF RUSSIAN LANDS AROUND MOSCOW (XIV and first half of the XV centuries)

  During the difficult period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, all the forces of the Russian people were aimed at uniting and freeing themselves from the power of the invaders. The need to fight the Tatar-Mongols for their liberation accelerated the formation of a centralized state in Rus'. The unification of individual Russian lands around Moscow and the beginning of the formation of a strong Russian centralized state is the main phenomenon of this historical period.

  In close connection with this process, Moscow faced a new task of collecting the cultural heritage of all Russian lands and creating a single, all-Russian culture. Similar tasks posed in the field of art and architecture.

  The Novgorod and Pskov lands were the only Russian regions that were not plundered by the Tatars. The traditions of stone architecture have been preserved in Novgorod and Pskov. They were reflected in the simultaneously developing architecture of Moscow, where in the XIV-XV centuries. the foundations of future all-Russian architecture were laid.

  1. ARCHITECTURE OF NOVGOROD AND PSKOV (XIV-XV centuries)

  The reduction in construction, characteristic of all Russian lands, after the Tatar-Mongol invasion also affected the Novgorod-Pskov land.

  In the 12th century. A boyar republic was formed in Novgorod, the administration of which was concentrated in the hands of representatives of the boyars and the largest merchants, elected at the veche. The construction of religious buildings was financed not only by the rich boyar and merchant elite of Novgorod and Pskov society, but also by the lower strata of townspeople and artisans. In the XIV and XV centuries. many temples were built by townspeople, united into “streets” and “ends” - separate areas of the city.

  In the architecture of Novgorod and Pskov, serf architecture played a very important role. The earthen ramparts of Novgorod Posad began to be replaced with stone walls. Pskov was surrounded by several belts of stone walls. As archaeological excavations in Novgorod have shown, at that time there was also a large construction of wooden urban residential buildings, which have not reached us.

  The leading architectural type in Novgorod and Pskov monumental stone architecture of the 14th and 15th centuries. There was a small Posad church, which was simple and laconic in its form, square in plan, four-pillar cross-domed building, with one or three apses. Pskov is characterized by numerous extensions to the main building and separate closets and hiding places in the interiors of churches, in which boyars and merchants kept valuable property. In Novgorod, with the appearance in the 15th century. Under the churches, goods were also stored in basements.

  Novgorod and Pskov churches were painted with frescoes inside, and in the 14th and 15th centuries. The very character of these paintings changed significantly. They demonstrate an intensification of realistic features: multi-figure compositions predominate, imbued with movement, characterized by a broad decorative character and bright colors, with architectural and landscape backgrounds. In the scenes depicted there is less church symbolism, the faces receive individual features. In the XIV and XV centuries. Easel painting (icons) developed widely, iconostases were created in the form of walls that separated the altar rooms from the main part of the temple. Among the painters who worked in Novgorod, it is worth noting Feofan the Greek, who later moved to Moscow. The iconostasis, which developed from the 15th century. simultaneously in Novgorod and Moscow, represents a specific Russian form of synthesis of architecture and easel painting, the monumentality of which is due to the subordination of painting to architectural tasks.

  Novgorod churches of this time were laid out from multi-colored local stone, not hewn and only slightly chipped on the surface of the walls, on gray lime mortar. The dome pillars, sometimes the vaults, the drum with the dome, the outer blades with multi-bladed curves crowning them, and the details of the facades were laid out of brick.

  a) Architecture of Novgorod

  Ensemble of Novgorod XIV-XV centuries. (p. 39) was significantly different from the ensemble of Novgorod in the 12th century. The majestic extensions continued to play the role of the main architectural structures, but along with them, urban residential development grew, the mansions of the nobility and the residential buildings of wealthy citizens became more spacious, comfortable and rich. The Novgorod Detinets and the settlement received stone walls with towers and gates, which turned Novgorod into a first-class fortress by the scale of that time.

  The saturation of urban development, coupled with the increase in the size of residential buildings, increased the proportion of civil architecture compared to church buildings.
  A significant innovation in the ensemble of Novgorod in the 14th-15th centuries. There was a construction of a large number of stone parish churches in the city. Small in size, as well as numerous wooden churches, they were scattered throughout the village, as a result of which large cathedrals no longer stood out above the general urban development as before. Rising above the wooden buildings and differing from them in their architecture, the stone settlement churches played the role of connecting links between the general mass of the city’s wooden buildings and the majestic cathedrals of old times. Thanks to this, the Novgorod ensemble was freed in the XIV-XV centuries. from that sharp contrast between large and small buildings, which was characteristic of the 12th century, and looked more architecturally unified and richer in stone buildings of churches and fortifications.

  Novgorod played the role of an outpost of the Russian land, defending it from Western enemies. The fight against the German-Swedish invaders during the years of the Tatar invasion was especially difficult. Despite these difficulties, Novgorod defended its independence and defended Russian soil from invasion from the west. The long and fierce struggle with the German and Swedish invaders led to the construction of an extensive system of Novgorod fortresses, among which especially noteworthy are Staraya Ladoga, Porkhov and Koporye. The brilliant victories of the Russian army over the German dog knights on the ice of Lake Peipsi in 1242 and in the Battle of Rakovor in 1268 stopped German aggression and made it possible to create a strong defense of the northwestern borders of Rus'.

  A strong fortress was Staraya Ladoga (pp. 39 and 316) in the lower reaches of the Volkhov, which had stone walls already in the 12th century. Located south of Lake Ladoga, it defended the lower reaches of the Volkhov from the Swedes.

  Koporye was rebuilt in 1280, when the wooden walls were replaced by stone walls and towers, later rebuilt again, forming a plan shape close to a triangle. This was the first Novgorod fortress after Staraya Ladoga, built entirely of stone. The Koporye fortress stands near the shore of the Gulf of Finland on a high cliff, surrounded on all sides by natural ravines, the depth of which reaches 50 m.

  In 1387, the Novgorodians erected, partially rebuilt in the 30s of the 15th century, the stone fortress of Porkhov on the river. Sheloni, perfectly preserved to this day (p. 39). Its powerful walls and towers have a pentagonal plan; The walls were 8-10 m high and 1 m thick.

  The total perimeter of the fortress walls of both Porkhov and Koporye reaches 500 m. The walls and towers are made of local thin flagstone on a strong lime mortar. Local flagstone is exceptionally durable and almost impossible to weather. The entrances to the fortress are complex and well protected.

  The general appearance of the fortresses was powerful and severe, which was facilitated by the lack of detailed architectural treatment of the walls and towers.

  Compared to fortress construction, church construction of this time until the middle of the 14th century. differs in modest scale and is less representative in nature than in the Grand Duke's period. As a result, we can talk about a certain democratic nature of Novgorod and Pskov architecture, which is reflected in the significant reworking of the planned structure and the interior, which becomes more intimate, as well as in the modesty of the external artistic appearance of the building.

  As the church of the former Peryn monastery in the vicinity of Novgorod, apparently built in the first half of the 13th century, shows, the architectural type of Novgorod parish churches of the 14th-15th centuries. developed back in the 12th century. or at the beginning of the 13th century. After the Peryn Church, country monastery churches serve as outstanding examples of churches of this type: the Church of St. Nicholas on Lipna (1292; p. 41), located near the mouth of the river. Meta, which flows into Lake Ilmen, as well as churches in Kovalevo (1345; p. 317) and Bolotov (1352; pp. 41 and 317) in the immediate vicinity of the city, to the east of it. It is characteristic that the Peryn and Bolotov churches, as their very names indicate (derived, apparently, from the pagan gods Perun and Volos), were probably erected on the sites of ancient pagan temples, which were destroyed and replaced by churches already in the first times of Christianity.

  The churches on Lipna and Bolotov were simple square buildings that resembled wooden log cabins; Thus, the Lipnensky church had blades only at the corners (the Bolotovskaya church did not have external blades at all); the facades of both buildings were originally completed with three-lobed curves. All three churches were cross-domed buildings with four domed pillars and one apse. In the Kovalevskaya Church the covering was covered with mosquitoes, but the blades were only at the corners.

  The peculiarity of the Kovalevskaya and Bolotovskaya churches was their vestibules, which were different in shape: there were three of them in Kovalevskaya and two in Bolotovskaya. The interiors of all three churches were decorated with fresco paintings of the greatest artistic value; The painting of the Bolotovskaya Church stood out especially - the most outstanding Novgorod painting of the 14th century. It was distinguished by its richness of color and amazing spontaneity in its realistic depiction of people and human feelings. The greatest loss for Russian art is the death of these three wonderful monuments of Russian art - the churches in Bolotov, Kovalevo and Lipna, almost completely destroyed by shells of the fascist barbarians during the Great Patriotic War.

  All these churches are of great importance in the history of Russian architecture. In their extremely modest and, at the same time, elegant architectural appearance, the influence of folk wooden architecture is noticeable, the features of which could be reflected precisely in these buildings, built not in the city, but as country monastery churches. Since ancient times, Novgorod was famous for its carpenters, just as Vladimir was famous for its masons. Talented architects from the people brought into their creations the wise and clear simplicity characteristic of the people's worldview; they were able to embody amazing truthfulness and sincerity in the architectural image of the modest buildings they created. The extremely simple composition of these three buildings, their beautiful interiors, filled with colorful paintings that are perfect in form and deep in content, reveal an ability rarely seen in architecture to turn the small and everyday into the great and brilliant.

  An essential feature of Novgorod construction, starting with the Lipnensky Church, was the technique of masonry from roughly hewn Volkhov flagstone, with the addition of boulders and partly brick, in a solution of lime and sand. The surfaces of the walls were rather uneven, which distinguished them from the geometrically more regular and carefully finished stone masonry used in Vladimir-Suzdal architecture.

  The most outstanding urban monumental buildings of Novgorod at that time are the Church of Fyodor Stratelates (1361; pp. 41 and 317) and the Spasopreobrazhensky Cathedral (1374)” both on the Trade Side. Both buildings contain remarkable remains of fresco paintings. They were built by the boyars “with the streets” (that is, with the residents of a given street).

  The interior of these buildings, along with the expansion of the central part of the building due to the approach of the pillars to the walls, is characterized by the presence of chambers (choir) with small aisles built by boyar families for personal use, and several hiding places for storing valuables.

  The Church of Fyodor Stratilates and the Transfiguration Cathedral are very close to each other in terms of their architecture and were probably built by the same team of Novgorod craftsmen. 3 they are based on the type of Lipnensky church, but. they have four blades on each exterior wall and the multi-bladed curves that completed the original façades.

  Both monuments, especially the Transfiguration Cathedral, are not only larger in size than country monastery churches, but also much more elegant in their architecture. Thus, stains from rollers on rentals are especially noticeable. However, the total mass of Novgorod parish churches of the 14th century. It is distinguished by the simpler nature of its architecture and modest decorative decoration.

  The architecture of this time reflects the artistic tastes of not only the noble boyars, but also the urban merchant and artisan population, which was characterized by more modest volumes of buildings combined with the festive elegance of their elegant decorative decoration. In simpler Novgorod buildings, multi-bladed coverings are replaced by gable ones.

  From the middle of the 15th century, when the leading role of Moscow as the center of all-Russian culture clearly became apparent, deliberate archaism began to predominate in Novgorod architecture, the desire to reproduce old Novgorod forms in new construction. Particularly indicative in this regard is the extensive construction activity of the Novgorod Archbishop Euthymius, aimed at strengthening the shaky authority and power of the Novgorod ruling classes, which, out of selfish interests, fought against the progressive desire of the lower classes to unify with Moscow.

  In conditions of intensified class and political struggle in Novgorod, which reached the point of open protests against the boyar oligarchy, the Novgorod archbishop expanded and strengthened his residence inside the Kremlin. Euthymius replaced the wooden “lord's courtyard” with a complex of stone buildings for various purposes, generally reminiscent of a feudal castle, with a complex system of fences, gates and passages. The architectural center of this complex is a three-story brick building, the top floor of which is occupied by a vast, square, single-pillar chamber (1433). The chamber served as a meeting place for the boyar “Council of Gentlemen,” headed by the archbishop and directing the activities of the veche and the main court, and was intended for reception of ambassadors and other official celebrations.

  The ensemble of the lord's court, which began construction back in 1433, was completed with the construction of a tower, which was later built on and called the bell clock (1443; p. 317). This is the tallest tower in the Novgorod Kremlin, which was important as an observation point for the fortress.

  In the person of Euthymius, the Novgorod boyars had an active and energetic ally in the fight against unification with Moscow. In order to revive local Novgorod patriotism, he undertook the “restoration” of especially revered ancient stone church buildings - the Church of Ivan on Opoki, Ilya on Slavna and a number of others.

  The broad masses of the Novgorod people gravitated towards Moscow, as the new political and cultural center of the Russian state, contrary to the wishes of the boyar oligarchy. The ruling elite betrayed Moscow and invited the Lithuanian king to reign in Novgorod, which caused a campaign against Novgorod by the Moscow Grand Duke Ivan III, which ended with the abolition of the self-government of Novgorod (1478). - These political events were reflected in the last period of Novgorod architecture (XVI century) , when it borrowed some Moscow architectural types and forms, although it retained its local features.

  b) Architecture of Pskov

  Pskov, which was originally part of the Novgorod lands, became in the middle of the 14th century. an independent feudal boyar republic, somewhat more democratic than Novgorod. Like Novgorod, Pskov played a very important role in the history of the struggle of the Russian people against the Germans. For several centuries, he successfully repelled the attacks of German knights who tried to invade Russian land and seize its western part, and dealt cruel blows to the invaders.

  Pskov was the largest and strongest fortress on the western border of Russian lands (p. 39) 1. Located on the eastern bank of the river. Great, at the confluence of the river. Pskov, the city, in addition to the fortified Detinets, which occupied a high and impregnable rock at the confluence of two rivers, had several rows of settlement fortifications, which arose gradually. First, the Dovmont Wall, named after Prince Dovmont, the hero of the Rakovor battle with the Germans, was added to “Krom” (detinets), then the Middle Town, and finally the Okolny Town.

  Continuous wars with the Germans during the 13th century. and the first half of the 14th century. did not create an environment favorable for construction, and the latter at that time was mainly of a defensive-fortress nature. It is known that during this period, in addition to the fortifications of Pskov, a number of fortresses were built, for example in Izborsk (p. 316), Ostrov, and Krasny. From the monumental construction of this time, only the remains of fortresses and the cathedral of the Snetogorsk Monastery (1310), which is a repetition of the ancient Mirozh Cathedral, have survived to us.

  In the 15th century construction from stone gets into. Pskov has a particularly wide scope. The Krom fortifications are repeatedly built and rebuilt. In the city itself and in the monasteries and villages surrounding it, many stone churches are being built, the appearance of which testifies to the formation of an independent Pskov architectural school. The connection with Novgorod architecture is clearly evident in these buildings; It is also necessary to note some commonality with early Moscow architecture (for example, in the presence of three apses, the absence of a choir, the use of stepped arches), which is explained by closer political ties between Pskov and Moscow than in Novgorod.

  In Pskov buildings of the XV-XVI centuries. missing brick; not only the walls themselves, but also the pillars and vaults, as well as the outer blades
  ____

  1 List of buildings indicated on the plan of Pskov on page 39: /.Ivanovo Monastery. 2. Church of the Assumption from Paromenia. 3. Church of St. Nicholas of Kamennograd. 4.. Church of Clement. 5. Mirozhsky Monastery, b. Church of St. George from Vzvoz. 7. Pogankin chambers. 8. Sutotsky's house. 9. Yakovlev's house. 10. Church of Sergius from Zaluzhye. 11. Church of St. Nicholas from Usokha. 12. Church of St. Basil on Gorka. 13. Lapin's house. 14. Trubinsky House. 15. Church of the Resurrection from the Stadium. 16. Church of Varlaam Khutynsky.
  lined with local slabs and lime mortar.
  The vaulted ceilings of the ends of the cross of Pskov churches have several varieties. In addition to the usual form, when the girth arches of the dome are located below the arches of the ends of the cross, as, for example, in the Church of Varlaam Khutynsky (1495), there are arches located flush with the vaults, so that the internal surfaces of the vaults and arches merge into one common surface (church Michael the Archangel in Kobylye settlement near Pskov, 1462; George from Vzvoz in Pskov, 1494), and stepped arches located one step above the vaults.

  The oldest known building of the 15th century. in Pskov - the Church of Vasily on the Hill (1413; pp. 45 and 318) - testifies to the close connection of Pskov architecture with early Moscow architecture. Covered along zakomaras (the current hipped roof is later), it has three apses and stepped arches. The apses and the drum are completed with triple ornamental friezes, which are typical of almost all Pskov buildings of subsequent times. They consist of motifs of Novgorod origin, arranged, however, in triple ribbons, in Moscow style.

  Typical Pskov features in this building are round pillars, thanks to which the interior of the temple became more spacious, and numerous extensions to the main building, giving the external composition a complex asymmetrical shape. These extensions, combined with the small height of the structure, bring it closer to the architecture of residential wooden mansions, with their numerous log buildings of different origins. Usually, extensions to Pskov churches also appeared only gradually and at different times. The architectural volumes of Vasilyevskaya Church seemed to spread out in breadth, and the building itself, thanks to its extensions, was compositionally connected with the surrounding residential buildings. Most of the outbuildings served as chapels, as well as storerooms, designed to store valuable items and goods in a place well protected from fire.

  The walls and internal pillars here are usually made much thicker than in Novgorod, which is due to the lower strength of the Pskov building material. The surfaces of the walls of Pskov buildings are even more uneven than in Novgorod: they seem to be sculpted from a soft mass, which gives them greater expressiveness and picturesqueness. The plastic richness of the architectural forms is combined with a small number of decorative details - simple arched rollers on the apses, modest rectangular edges above the windows, an elegant belt around the dome drum or the upper part of the apses. The wall is divided by massive stone blades, very wide and flat.

  Along with typical three-apse buildings, in Pskov there are also one-apse churches similar to those in Novgorod, for example the Church of Varlaam Khutynsky (1495). Mosquito coating is very rare. Typically, Pskov churches were covered with eight slopes along the pediment, such as the church in the Kobylye settlement.

  Pskov architecture retained its special character even after the final annexation of Pskov to Moscow (1510). For example, the Church of the Resurrection from the Stadium dates back to this time (1532; p. 318). Many earlier buildings were rebuilt and expanded at this time, for example the Church of the Assumption from Paromenia (1521; p. 45), St. Nicholas from Usokha (1536), etc. In the 16th and 17th centuries. belfries were attached to them or placed separately next to them, reaching, for example, in the Church of the Assumption of Paromenskaya, large sizes, as well as galleries, porches and chapels, which brought their architectural composition even closer to mansions. The lower rooms of the free-standing belfries served as storerooms and warehouses for merchants - their builders.

  Small, pillarless, single-apse churches deserve special attention, for example the Church of the Assumption in Gdov (16th century; p. 77). They are covered with a system of vaults (stepped vaults) that have developed in Pskov, supporting each other, carrying a narrow light drum. Such small churches are a characteristic feature of the Pskov architectural school. In these extremely simple and extremely elegant structures, Pskov craftsmen achieved great artistic perfection. Pillarless churches were often also built as chapels at large churches, as, for example, in the Cathedral of Demetrius in Gdov (1540). The facades of pillarless churches repeat the composition of the facades of churches with internal pillars.

  One of the most outstanding features of Pskov architecture are the belfries (p. 318). Replacing complex and expensive bell towers, small and modest belfry structures form an integral part of the Pskov architectural landscape. Their construction dates mainly to the 16th and 17th centuries.

  The organic combination of practical expediency and artistic imagery is a characteristic feature of these structures. Depending on the weight and size of the bells, belfry pillars in the same structure have different thicknesses, and span arches have different widths. The architecture of the belfries is laconic and expressive.

  Pskov architecture was closely connected with the life and needs of the trade and craft population of the big city. The relatively democratic nature of the socio-political structure of Pskov, which did not have a cohesive and powerful group of large feudal landowners, as in neighboring Novgorod, had a significant influence on the character of Pskov architecture. The modest external and internal decoration of Pskov buildings gives them coziness and friendliness. Pskov craftsmen were practical and at the same time inexhaustible in their ingenuity and ability to achieve great results with limited material resources.

  The Pskov plate is not very strong; it is destroyed under the influence of precipitation. Therefore, the exterior whitewashing of buildings, so attractive and characteristic of Pskov, served not only as a decorative device, but also as a necessary means of protecting buildings from destruction. The construction of porches, porches and porches was caused by the practical desire to increase the capacity of a small building without increasing the size of its main part.

  The appearance of round stone pillars was caused by the desire to expand cramped interior spaces without spending additional funds to enlarge the building itself and to give the pillar a more expressive shape. The same practical need determined the development in Pskov of small pillarless churches covered with stepped vaults.

  All these architectural techniques, testifying to the great ingenuity and high artistic skill of Pskov architects, have received wide recognition in Russian architecture far beyond the borders of Pskov. In the XV-XVI centuries. The artels of Pskov architects deservedly enjoyed wide popularity in the Russian state; we see their buildings in many cities, including Moscow.

  * * *
  During the difficult years of the Tatar yoke and the continuous struggle against the German invaders, Pskov and Novgorod masters, in new historical conditions, continued to develop and improve the art of architecture, using the traditions of stone monumental architecture of the Kyiv state. Talented masters of Pskov and Novgorod are creatively reworking the heritage of Kiev architecture, creating mass architecture accessible to wider sections of the population: instead of the luxurious unique structures of the Grand Ducal period, they are developing new types of buildings, simpler and more modest in their architecture, but no less beautiful in their artistic image.

  Architecture of Novgorod and Pskov XIV-XV centuries. with amazing spontaneity she embodied the best features of folk art - its truthfulness and simplicity. This is the reason
  enormous artistic value, inner strength and persuasiveness of modest Novgorod and Pskov buildings, placing them on a par with the best creations of human architectural genius.

  In the history of Russian architecture, their significance is especially great because in difficult and complex historical conditions, when stone construction almost ceased in all Russian lands, the architects of Pskov and Novgorod developed those realistic artistic principles that are so characteristic of Russian architecture: a close connection with the needs life, the ability to perfectly use the simplest and most accessible materials, the ability to create an organic unity of the practical purpose of the building, its artistic image and the surrounding ensemble and landscape.

  These traditions were subsequently developed in Russian architecture.

  2. EARLY MOSCOW ARCHITECTURE (XIV and first half of the XV centuries)

  The growth of the political and cultural significance of Moscow, as the most important economic center, as the center of the fight against foreign yoke, the seat of the Grand Duke and the head of the all-Russian church organization - the Metropolitan, contributed to the unification of individual Russian lands around it. Simultaneously with the continuous expansion of the territory of the Moscow Principality, the importance of the city of Moscow itself increased. Extensive stone construction in Moscow began in the 14th century, with the beginning of the strengthening of the Moscow principality.

  While retaining the title of Grand Duke of Vladimir, the Moscow princes in their construction continue the artistic traditions of Vladimir architecture, thereby emphasizing not only the political, but also the cultural continuity from Vladimir. After the Battle of Kulikovo, the political and cultural traditions of a single state, dating back to the era of Kievan Rus, strengthened in Moscow.

  The extensive fortress, residential and religious construction that was underway in Moscow at this time created a new architectural appearance of the young city, corresponding to its new position as an all-Russian cultural and political center. The Kremlin was built under Dmitry Donskoy with white stone walls with towers (1367), which meant the creation of a new type of stone city of the Moscow state, adapted. to the changed conditions of military defense technology.

  The combined efforts of the Russian lands under the leadership of Moscow led to a major victory over the Tatars on the Kulikovo Field (1380). This victory, known in folk tales as the “Mamaevo Massacre,” had enormous moral and political significance, showing that the united efforts of the entire Russian people would inevitably lead to the final victory over an enemy that until that time was considered invincible. The Battle of Kulikovo had a huge impact on the entire Russian culture, causing in the Russian people a feeling of confidence in their strength, which was clearly reflected in the optimistic and life-affirming art of the late 14th and early 15th centuries.

  Early Moscow churches are distinguished by very simple plans. They are characterized by a rectangular, almost square shape, four internal pillars and three apses. This corresponds to the type of ancient Vladimir-Suzdal temples.

  The Old Russian architectural heritage was deeply reworked in early Moscow architecture. The latter is characterized by the simple and modest nature of its architectural decoration, which brings it closer to Novgorod-Pskov architecture and indicates a close connection with folk architecture. It is especially characterized by new dynamic architectural forms: the keel-shaped outlines of portals, zakomaras and tiers of kokoshniks that end the buildings, helmet-shaped domes that begin to turn into onion-shaped ones. In these forms, Moscow architecture develops the Kiev-Chernigov architectural traditions. All this gives the buildings an upward thrust, expressing in unique, Russian forms the triumph of the victorious people.

  Of great importance in the forward movement of Russian art was the development of early Moscow painting, fresco paintings and, in particular, easel works - icons. Outstanding is the work of the wonderful Russian painter Andrei Rublev, whom we know from his famous “Trinity”, located in the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, from the well-preserved iconostasis of this cathedral (the work of his school) and from the frescoes of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir. Rublev's painting, imbued with deep humanity and elements of realism, is distinguished by the softness and warmth of colorful combinations and the monumental decorativeness of the composition, subordinate to the interior architecture. Working as an artist with the architects of his time, Rublev could not help but influence the development of early Moscow architecture, the simplicity and humanity of which are consonant with Rublev’s work.

  In the field of construction technology at this time, there was a desire to overcome some backwardness caused by the long absence of large-scale construction in Rus' during the time of Tatar rule. Early Moscow buildings are distinguished by their small size, which was caused both by the modest economic capabilities of Moscow and by the fact that the craftsmen did not yet dare to erect buildings on a large scale. Early Moscow buildings, according to the Vladimir-Suzdal tradition, were laid out of local, well-hewn white stone. The Moscow region has significant deposits of fairly soft limestone suitable for construction, found along the Moscow River in the villages of Myachkovo, Protopopovo and others, whose quarries were widely known in the 15th-17th centuries, in Podolsk and other places.

  Like the Vladimir-Suzdal buildings, early Moscow cathedrals have walls lined with half-ruble masonry, but the Moscow masonry is less careful and is distinguished by a smaller size and a slightly different shape of stone squares, the front surfaces of which are more close to a square shape.

  In early Moscow churches, the shape of the internal pillars is usually square, and there are no blades on the internal walls. The pillars are sometimes not only moved to the east, but also moved apart, which enlarges the central part of the building. The outer blades of the walls do not correspond to the internal position of the pillars, as a result of which the fences become decorative. The roofs were usually wooden. The floors were made of stone slabs.

  From the middle of the 15th century. Brick construction began to develop in Moscow, and initially brick was often combined with white stone.

  An outstanding constructive technique of early Moscow architecture was the use of stepped arches. The latter received artistic expression in the external architectural forms of the building in the form of keel-shaped kokoshniks surrounding the central drum. Thanks to this, the external architectural volumes of Moscow churches have become expressive, dynamic, festive and elegant. This architectural technique was later widely developed in Russian architecture of the 16th-17th centuries.

  Already in the 14th century. Moscow acquired an architectural appearance that distinguished it from the Russian humps. In Moscow, as in other centers of the Russian land, urban planning art has reached very great heights.

  The gradual expansion and strengthening of the city reflected the main stages of its historical development. Initially, Moscow was a small fortified town, and its center was the wooden Church of St. John, which stood not far from the Borovitsky Gate of the Kremlin. Ivan Kalita expanded the Moscow Kremlin, strengthened it with new oak walls (1339) and built of stone in the same places where these later rebuilt buildings still stand today, the Assumption Cathedral (1326) as the tomb of all-Russian metropolitans, Ivanovo Bell Tower - watchtower (1329) and the Archangel Cathedral - tomb of the Moscow Grand Dukes (1333). Next to these central public buildings of the capital, a large wooden princely palace was built, to which the stone court Annunciation Cathedral was later (1397) added. This is how the ensemble of Cathedral Square was formed, which to this day forms the center of the Moscow Kremlin. However, the buildings built under Kalita were significantly smaller than the existing buildings today.

  The Kremlin was expanded and rebuilt in 1367, under Dmitry Donskoy, when its first white stone walls were built, which was associated with the preparation of a carefully thought-out attack against the Tatar-Mongol invaders.

  Beautifully located on a smooth bend of the river, on a hill convenient for defense at the confluence of the Neglinnaya River with the Moscow River, the Moscow Kremlin was already at that time the strongest fortress and was visible from afar. The new white stone wall not only served as a reliable defense, but also decorated the future Russian capital, which already in the time of Demetrius Donskoy was, apparently, one of the most beautiful Russian cities. The wooden roofs of the fortress towers rose above the wall, and behind it one could see grand ducal and boyar mansions with various picturesque roofs and monumental white stone cathedrals, their heads sparkling in the sun. There was a vast suburb around the Kremlin. It can be assumed that already in the XIV-XV centuries. The trading part of Moscow, the future Kitay-Gorod, was surrounded by an earthen rampart adjacent to the Kremlin walls. Subsequently, a settlement began to form within the boundaries of the future White City (corresponding to the modern Boulevard Ring).

  The central core of Moscow was the shopping area near the Kremlin walls - the future Red Square, the main square of the capital. Streets that corresponded to the main roads of the Moscow principality, connecting Moscow with other cities, converged towards it in radial directions.

  Thus, in the XIV century. The main lines of development of Moscow were determined and a radial-ring system of development of the Russian capital was formed, which plays a significant role in the general plan of Moscow until the present day, continuing to develop and improve when drawing up Soviet plans for the reconstruction of the capital.

  Moscow was gradually surrounded by two semirings of fortress-monasteries, later reinforced by new monasteries. The northern semiring is located approximately along the ramparts of the White City (now the Boulevard Ring); the southern semiring, whose defensive significance was especially great, was moved further from the city center. The monasteries were strong fortresses, had ramparts, wooden walls and towers, some had a stone cathedral in the center of the ensemble, which could serve as a fortress building.

  The Cathedral of the Andronikov Monastery (1410-1427; p. 49) is one of the oldest monuments of stone architecture in Moscow that has come down to us. The building was built of white stone, according to the tradition of the Vladimir school. However, the compositional techniques of the Pyatnitskaya Church in Chernigov are developed in the architecture of the cathedral. The cathedral has high stepped arches that protruded outwards in the form of strictly constructive zakomari of the second tier. The corner parts of the cathedral were much lower than the central divisions of the facade. The external volume of the Andronikov Monastery Cathedral has a dynamic character, expressed in the pyramidal shape of parts of the building growing towards the central dome and emphasized by the second tier of the zakomar.

  Yuri Zvenigorodsky, the youngest son of Dimitri Donskoy, built a number of monumental buildings in his Zvenigorod inheritance that have survived to this day. They form a close group of monuments, very similar to each other. These are the Assumption Cathedral on Gorodok in Zvenigorod (1399), the Cathedral of the Savvin-Storozhevsky Monastery near Zvenigorod (1405) and the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery (1422-1423).

  The Assumption Cathedral on Gorodok (pages 49 and 319) was built in the center of the Zvenigorod Kremlin, located high above the Moscow River and surrounded by steep, impregnable ramparts. It differs from the other two monastery churches in that it has choirs, like the court church of the Zvenigorod princes, built near their palace in the city Kremlin, and its facades are richer in decoration. Early Moscow architecture is characterized by the perspective portals of the cathedral in Zvenigorod, completed with keel-shaped archivolts, with “melons” on the columns, as well as keel-shaped outlines of window frames cut into the stone surface of the walls. Under the modern, late roof of the cathedral, the remains of additional tiers of kokoshniks have been preserved; the arches of the vaults supporting the central drum were originally stepped.

  The general appearance of the Zvenigorod Cathedral testifies to the builder's desire to imitate the Dimitrievsky Cathedral in Vladimir, however, the Zvenigorod Cathedral is much simpler and more modest in its architectural decoration and somewhat squat in proportions. Early Moscow architects did not use the complex arcature frieze of the Dimitrievsky Cathedral, but replaced it with three horizontal belts of carved white stone ornament (p. 319), reminiscent of carved boards - valances that decorated wooden residential buildings, which can now be seen on some peasant huts of the 19th century. Such triple carved ribbons, decorating the upper parts of the apses and drum in the Zvenigorod Cathedral, as well as in the cathedrals of the Savvin and Trinity-Sergius monasteries, represent one of the typical features of early Moscow architecture. Only in the Zvenigorod Cathedral are there semi-columns attached, in imitation of the Vladimir buildings of the 12th century, to the outer blades.

  The original plan of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery served as a model for subsequent Russian monasteries. In the center there was a wooden temple, around which there were cells with windows facing the temple, then there were outbuildings and vegetable gardens. The monastery was surrounded by a wooden fence. The Trinity-Sergius Monastery was already in the XIV-XV centuries. a strong fortress that protected the northern approaches to Moscow.

  Fortress monasteries played an important role not only as serfs, but also as cultural centers in the early history of the Moscow state. One of the outstanding organizers of such monastic centers was the founder of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery (founded around 1340) Sergius of Radonezh, spiritual mentor and political adviser to Demetrius Donskoy. Numerous students and followers of Sergius were prominent figures in monastic colonization in the most remote lands of the Moscow principality.

  The cathedrals of the Savvin and Sergius monasteries (p. 49) are especially similar to each other and represent the most characteristic monuments of early Moscow architecture. They were burial churches of prominent church and state figures. Thus, the memorial task in these buildings was combined with the cult purpose of the building.

  The Savvinsky and Trinity Cathedrals are more squat than the Zvenigorod Cathedral, their external decoration is simpler, for example, there are no semi-columns on the facades. In both monastery buildings there is a similarity with the architecture of Pskov and Novgorod, consisting in the lack of geometric regularity of the plan, in the modesty of decorative decoration and in the sculptural nature of the architectural volumes.

  Compared to Vladimir architecture in the Trinity Cathedral, the outer masses noticeably expand downward, so that, for example, the northwestern corner blade has a curved shape, the surfaces of the walls are uneven, wavy, and the internal pillars and arches are far from regular forms.

  The existing coverings of the buildings represent later reconstructions that changed their original appearance, when they had diagonal kokoshniks, and, possibly, additional tiers of kokoshniks surrounding the central drum. This brought dynamism to the external composition of the building, distinguished the church from the surrounding buildings and gave a trifecta to the architectural appearance of the building.

  In the Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, the outer planes of the zakomars are separated from the main wall of the building by a horizontal ledge in line with the pilaster capitals. For the first time in Russian architecture, the blades do not become framed by zakomars; they have capitals, which allows us to call them pilasters, and zakomars - arches. These are signs of the emergence in Russian architecture of the early 15th century. order system, beginning to develop from the ancient Russian system of blades and zakomaras. This process prepared the development and independent Russian processing of the order in the architecture of the 16th century.

  At the same time, early Moscow architecture was limited in its capabilities, and buildings were erected in relatively small sizes, which was caused mainly by the lack of funds used to strengthen the military power of the Moscow principality.

  Imitating Vladimir models, as well as using the heritage of Kiev-Chernigov and Novgorod-Pskov architecture, early Moscow masters introduced new ideological content of the memorial building into the Russian cubic temple. The origin of the order in architecture indicates the further development of aesthetic perception of architectural forms. Early Moscow architecture laid the foundation for the development of architecture of the Moscow state.