An Orthodox church in historically established forms means, first of all, the Kingdom of God in the unity of its three areas: Divine, heavenly and earthly. Hence the most common three-part division of the temple: the altar, the temple itself and the vestibule (or meal). The altar marks the region of God's existence, the temple itself - the region of the heavenly angelic world (spiritual heaven) and the vestibule - the region of earthly existence. Consecrated in a special manner, crowned with a cross and decorated with holy images, the temple is a beautiful sign of the entire universe, headed by God its Creator and Maker.

The history of the emergence of Orthodox churches and their structure is as follows.

In an ordinary residential building, but in a special “large upper room, furnished, ready” (Mark 14:15; Luke 22:12), the Last Supper of the Lord Jesus Christ with His disciples was prepared, that is, arranged in a special way. Here Christ washed the feet of His disciples. He himself performed the first Divine Liturgy - the sacrament of transforming bread and wine into His Body and Blood, talked for a long time at a spiritual meal about the mysteries of the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven, then everyone, singing sacred hymns, went to the Mount of Olives. At the same time, the Lord commanded to do this, that is, to do the same and in the same way, in His remembrance.

This is the beginning of a Christian church, as a specially designed room for prayer meetings, communion with God and the performance of the sacraments, and all Christian worship - what we still see in developed, flourishing forms in our Orthodox churches.

Left after the Ascension of the Lord without their Divine Teacher, the disciples of Christ remained primarily in the upper room of Zion (Acts 1:13) until the day of Pentecost, when in this upper room during a prayer meeting they were honored with the promised Descent of the Holy Spirit. This great event, which contributed to the conversion of many people to Christ, became the beginning of the establishment of the earthly Church of Christ. The Acts of the Holy Apostles testify that these first Christians “continued with one accord every day in the temple and, breaking bread from house to house, ate their food with joy and simplicity of heart” (Acts 2:46). The first Christians continued to venerate the Old Testament Jewish temple, where they went to pray, but they celebrated the New Testament sacrament of the Eucharist in other premises, which at that time could only be ordinary residential buildings. The apostles themselves set an example for them (Acts 3:1). The Lord, through His angel, commands the apostles, “standing in the temple” of Jerusalem, to preach to the Jews “the words of life” (Acts 5:20). However, for the sacrament of Communion and for their meetings in general, the apostles and other believers gather in special places (Acts 4:23, 31), where they are again visited by the special grace-filled actions of the Holy Spirit. This suggests that the Temple of Jerusalem was used by Christians of that time mainly to preach the Gospel to Jews who had not yet believed, while the Lord favored Christian meetings to be established in special places, separate from the Jews.

The persecution of Christians by the Jews finally broke the connection of the apostles and their disciples with the Jewish temple. During the time of the apostolic preaching, Christian churches continued to serve as rooms specially built for this purpose. residential buildings. But even then, in connection with the rapid spread of Christianity in Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy, attempts were made to create special temples, which is confirmed by later catacomb temples in the shape of ships. During the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire, the houses of wealthy Roman believers and special buildings for secular meetings on their estates - basilicas - often began to serve as places of prayer for Christians. The basilica is a slender rectangular oblong building with a flat ceiling and a gable roof, decorated from the outside and inside along its entire length with rows of columns. The large internal space of such buildings, unoccupied by anything, and their location separate from all other buildings, favored the establishment of the first churches in them. Basilicas had an entrance from one of the narrow sides of this long rectangular building, and on the opposite side there was an apse - a semicircular niche separated from the rest of the room by columns. This separate part probably served as an altar.

Persecution of Christians forced them to look for other places for meetings and worship. Such places became catacombs, vast dungeons in ancient Rome and in other cities of the Roman Empire, which served Christians as a refuge from persecution, a place of worship and burial. The most famous are the Roman catacombs. Here, in granular tuff, pliable enough to carve out a grave or even an entire room with the simplest tool, and strong enough not to crumble and preserve the tombs, labyrinths of multi-story corridors were carved. Within the walls of these corridors, graves were made one above the other, where the dead were placed, covering the grave with a stone slab with inscriptions and symbolic images. The rooms in the catacombs were divided into three main categories according to size and purpose: cubicles, crypts and chapels. Cubicles are a small room with burials in the walls or in the middle, something like a chapel. The crypt is a medium-sized temple, intended not only for burial, but also for meetings and worship. The chapel with many graves in the walls and in the altar is a fairly spacious temple that could accommodate big number of people. On the walls and ceilings of all these buildings, inscriptions, symbolic Christian images, frescoes (wall paintings) with images of Christ the Savior, the Mother of God, saints, and events of the sacred history of the Old and New Testaments have been preserved to this day.

The catacombs mark the era of early Christian spiritual culture and quite clearly characterize the direction of development of temple architecture, painting, and symbolism. This is especially valuable because no above-ground temples from this period have survived: they were mercilessly destroyed during times of persecution. So, in the 3rd century. During the persecution of Emperor Decius, about 40 Christian churches were destroyed in Rome alone.

The underground Christian temple was a rectangular, oblong room, in the eastern and sometimes in the western part of which there was a large semicircular niche, separated by a special low lattice from the rest of the temple. In the center of this semicircle, the tomb of the martyr was usually placed, which served as a throne. In the chapels, in addition, there was a bishop's pulpit (seat) behind the altar, in front of the altar, then there was the middle part of the temple, and behind it there was a separate, third part for the catechumens and penitents, corresponding to the vestibule.

The architecture of the oldest catacomb Christian churches shows us a clear, complete ship type of church, divided into three parts, with an altar separated by a barrier from the rest of the temple. This is a classic type of Orthodox church that has survived to this day.

If a basilica church is an adaptation of a civil pagan building for the needs of Christian worship, then a catacomb church is a free Christian creativity not bound by the need to imitate anything, reflecting the depth of Christian dogma.

Underground temples are characterized by arches and vaulted ceilings. If a crypt or chapel was built close to the surface of the earth, then a luminaria was cut out in the dome of the middle part of the temple - a well going out to the surface, from where daylight poured.

The recognition of the Christian Church and the cessation of persecution against it in the 4th century, and then the adoption of Christianity in the Roman Empire as the state religion marked the beginning of a new era in the history of the Church and church art. The division of the Roman Empire into the western - Roman and eastern - Byzantine parts entailed first a purely external, and then a spiritual and canonical division of the Church into the Western, Roman Catholic, and Eastern, Greek Catholic. The meanings of the words “Catholic” and “catholic” are the same - universal. These different spellings are adopted to distinguish the Churches: Catholic - for the Roman, Western, and catholic - for the Greek, Eastern.

Church art in the Western Church went its own way. Here the basilica remained the most common basis of temple architecture. And in Eastern Church in the V-VIII centuries. The Byzantine style developed in the construction of churches and in all church art and worship. Here the foundations of the spiritual and external life of the Church, which has since been called Orthodox, were laid.

Temples in Orthodox Church were built differently, but each temple symbolically corresponded to church doctrine. Thus, churches in the form of a cross meant that the Cross of Christ is the basis of the Church and the ark of salvation for people; round churches signified the catholicity and eternity of the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven, since a circle is a symbol of eternity, which has neither beginning nor end; temples in the form of an octagonal star marked Star of Bethlehem and the Church as a guiding star to salvation in the life of the future, the eighth century, for the period of the earthly history of mankind was counted in seven large periods - centuries, and the eighth is eternity in the Kingdom of God, the life of the future century. Ship churches were common in the form of a rectangle, often close to a square, with a rounded projection of the altar apse extended to the east.

There were temples of mixed types: appearance cruciform, and inside, in the center of the cross, round, or external form rectangular, and inside, in the middle part, round.

In all types of temples, the altar was certainly separated from the rest of the temple; temples continued to be two - and more often three-part.

The dominant feature in Byzantine temple architecture remained a rectangular temple with a rounded projection of altar apses extended to the east, with a figured roof, with a vaulted ceiling inside, which was supported by a system of arches with columns, or pillars, with a high domed space, which resembles the internal view of the temple in the catacombs. Only in the middle of the dome, where the source of natural light was located in the catacombs, did they begin to depict the True Light that came into the world - the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course, the similarity between Byzantine churches and catacomb churches is only the most general, since the above-ground churches of the Orthodox Church are distinguished by their incomparable splendor and greater external and internal detail. Sometimes they have several spherical domes topped with crosses.

The internal structure of the temple also marks a kind of heavenly dome stretched over the earth, or a spiritual sky connected to the earth by the pillars of truth, which corresponds to the word Holy Scripture about the Church: “Wisdom built herself a house, she hewed out its seven pillars” (Proverbs 9:1).

An Orthodox church is certainly crowned with a cross on the dome or on all domes, if there are several of them, as a sign of victory and as evidence that the Church, like all creation, chosen for salvation, enters the Kingdom of God thanks to the Redemptive Feat of Christ the Savior.

By the time of the Baptism of Rus, a type of cross-domed church was emerging in Byzantium, which unites in synthesis the achievements of all previous directions in the development of Orthodox architecture.

The architectural design of the cross-domed church lacks the easily visible visibility that was characteristic of basilicas. Internal prayer effort and spiritual concentration on the symbolism of spatial forms are necessary so that the complex structure of the temple appears as a single symbol of the One God. Such architecture contributed to the transformation of the consciousness of ancient Russian man, elevating him to an in-depth contemplation of the universe.

Together with Orthodoxy, Rus' adopted examples of church architecture from Byzantium. Such famous Russian churches as the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral, St. Sophia of Novgorod, Vladimir Assumption Cathedral were deliberately built in the likeness of the Constantinople St. Sophia Cathedral. While preserving the general and basic architectural features of Byzantine churches, Russian churches have much that is original and unique. Several distinctive architectural styles have developed in Orthodox Russia. Among them, the style that stands out most is the one closest to Byzantine. This is a classic type of white-stone rectangular church, or even basically square, but with the addition of an altar with semicircular apses, with one or more domes on a figured roof. The spherical Byzantine shape of the dome covering was replaced by a helmet-shaped one. In the middle part of small churches there are four pillars that support the roof and symbolize the four evangelists, the four cardinal directions. In the central part of the cathedral church there may be twelve or more pillars. At the same time, the pillars with the intersecting space between them form the signs of the Cross and help divide the temple into its symbolic parts.

The Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir and his successor, Prince Yaroslav the Wise, sought to organically include Rus' into the universal organism of Christianity. The churches they erected served this purpose, placing believers before the perfect Sophia image of the Church. This orientation of consciousness through liturgically experiential life determined in many ways the further paths of Russian medieval church art. Already the first Russian churches spiritually testify to the connection between earth and heaven in Christ, to the Theanthropic nature of the Church. The Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral expresses the idea of ​​the Church as a unity consisting of multiple parts with a certain independence. The hierarchical principle of the structure of the universe, which became the main dominant of the Byzantine worldview, is clearly expressed both in the external and internal appearance of the temple. A person entering a cathedral feels organically included in a hierarchically ordered universe. Its mosaic and picturesque decoration is inextricably linked with the entire appearance of the temple. In parallel with the formation of the type of cross-domed church in Byzantium, there was a process of creating a unified system of temple painting, embodying the theological and dogmatic expression of the teachings of the Christian faith. With its extreme symbolic thoughtfulness, this painting had a huge impact on the receptive and open-to-spirit consciousness of Russian people, developing in it new forms of perception of hierarchical reality. The painting of the Kyiv Sophia became the defining model for Russian churches. At the zenith of the drum of the central dome is the image of Christ as the Lord Pantocrator (Pantocrator), distinguished by its monumental power. Below are four archangels, representatives of the world of the heavenly hierarchy, mediators between God and man. Images of archangels are located in the four cardinal directions as a sign of their dominance over the elements of the world. In the piers, between the windows of the drum of the central dome, there are images of the holy apostles. In the sails are images of the four evangelists. The sails on which the dome rests were perceived in ancient church symbolism as the architectural embodiment of faith in the Gospel, as the basis of salvation. On the girth arches and in the medallions of the Kyiv Sophia there are images of forty martyrs. The general concept of the temple is spiritually revealed in the image of Our Lady Oranta (from Greek: Praying) - " Unbreakable Wall", placed at the top of the central apse, which strengthens the chaste life of religious consciousness, permeating it with the energies of the indestructible spiritual foundation of the entire created world. Under the image of Oranta is the Eucharist in the liturgical version. The next row of paintings - the holy order - contributes to the experience of the spiritual co-presence of the creators of Orthodox worship - Saints Basil the Great , Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Gregory Dvoeslov... So already the first Kiev churches became, as it were, mother soil for the further development of the spiritual life of Russian Orthodoxy.

The genesis of Byzantine church art is marked by the diversity of church and cultural centers of the empire. Then the process of unification gradually occurs. Constantinople becomes a legislator in all spheres of church life, including liturgical and artistic. Since the 14th century, Moscow began to play a similar role. After the fall of Constantinople under the blows of the Turkish conquerors in 1453, Moscow became increasingly aware of it as the “third Rome,” the true and only legitimate heir of Byzantium. In addition to the Byzantine ones, the origins of Moscow church architecture are the traditions of North-Eastern Rus' with its universal synthetic nature, and the purely national system of the Novgorodians and Pskovites. Although all these diverse elements were included to one degree or another in Moscow architecture, nevertheless, a certain independent idea (“logos”) of this architectural school, which was destined to predetermine all further development of church building, is clearly visible.

In the 15th-17th centuries, a significantly different style of temple construction developed in Russia from the Byzantine one. Elongated rectangular, but certainly with semicircular apses to the east, one-story and two-story churches with winter and summer churches appear, sometimes white stone, more often brick with covered porches and covered arched galleries - walkways around all walls, with gable, hipped and figured roofs, on which they flaunt one or several highly raised domes in the form of domes, or bulbs. The walls of the temple are decorated with elegant decoration and windows with beautiful stone carvings or tiled frames. Next to the temple or together with the temple, a high tented bell tower with a cross at the top is erected above its porch.

Russian wooden architecture acquired a special style. The properties of wood as a building material determined the features of this style. It is difficult to create a smoothly shaped dome from rectangular boards and beams. Therefore, in wooden churches, instead of it there is a pointed tent. Moreover, the appearance of a tent began to be given to the church as a whole. This is how wooden temples appeared to the world in the form of a huge pointed wooden cone. Sometimes the roof of the temple was arranged in the form of many cone-shaped wooden domes with crosses rising upward (for example, the famous temple at the Kizhi churchyard).

The forms of wooden temples influenced stone (brick) construction. They began to build intricate stone tented churches that resembled huge towers (pillars). The highest achievement of stone hipped architecture is rightfully considered the Intercession Cathedral in Moscow, better known as St. Basil's Cathedral, a complex, intricate, multi-decorated structure of the 16th century. The basic plan of the cathedral is cruciform. The cross consists of four main churches located around the middle one, the fifth. The middle church is square, the four side ones are octagonal. The cathedral has nine temples in the form of cone-shaped pillars, together making up one huge colorful tent.

Tents in Russian architecture did not last long: in the middle of the 17th century. Church authorities prohibited the construction of tented churches, since they were sharply different from the traditional one-domed and five-domed rectangular (ship) churches. Russian churches are so diverse in their general appearance, details of decoration and decoration that one can endlessly be amazed at the invention and art of Russian craftsmen, the wealth artistic means Russian church architecture, its original character. All these churches traditionally maintain a three-part (or two-part) symbolic internal division, and in the arrangement of the internal space and external design they follow the deep spiritual truths of Orthodoxy. For example, the number of domes is symbolic: one dome symbolizes the unity of God, the perfection of creation; two domes correspond to the two natures of the God-man Jesus Christ, two areas of creation; three domes commemorate the Holy Trinity; four domes - Four Gospels, four cardinal directions; five domes (the most common number), where the middle one rises above the other four, signify the Lord Jesus Christ and the four evangelists; the seven domes symbolize the seven sacraments of the Church, the seven Ecumenical Councils.

Colorful glazed tiles are especially common. Another direction more actively used elements of both Western European, Ukrainian, and Belarusian church architecture with their compositional structures and stylistic motifs of the Baroque that were fundamentally new for Rus'. By the end of the 17th century, the second trend gradually became dominant. The Stroganov architectural school pays special attention to the ornamental decoration of facades, freely using elements of the classical order system. The Naryshkin Baroque school strives for strict symmetry and harmonious completeness of a multi-tiered composition. The work of a number of Moscow architects of the late 17th century is perceived as a kind of harbinger of a new era of Peter’s reforms - Osip Startsev (Krutitsky Teremok in Moscow, St. Nicholas Military Cathedral and the Cathedral of the Brotherly Monastery in Kiev), Peter Potapov (Church in honor of the Assumption on Pokrovka in Moscow), Yakov Bukhvostov (Assumption Cathedral in Ryazan), Dorofey Myakishev (cathedral in Astrakhan), Vladimir Belozerov (church in the village of Marfin near Moscow). The reforms of Peter the Great, which affected all areas of Russian life, determined the further development of church architecture. The development of architectural thought in the 17th century prepared the way for the assimilation of Western European architectural forms. The task arose to find a balance between the Byzantine-Orthodox concept of the temple and new stylistic forms. Already the master of Peter the Great's time, I.P. Zarudny, when erecting a church in Moscow in the name of the Archangel Gabriel ("Menshikov Tower"), combined the tiered and centric structure traditional for Russian architecture of the 17th century with elements of the Baroque style. The synthesis of old and new in the ensemble of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra is symptomatic. When constructing the Smolny Monastery in St. Petersburg in the Baroque style, B. K. Rastrelli consciously took into account the traditional Orthodox planning of the monastery ensemble. Nevertheless, it was not possible to achieve organic synthesis in the 18th-19th centuries. Since the 30s of the 19th century, interest in Byzantine architecture has gradually revived. Only towards the end of the 19th century and in the 20th century were attempts made to revive in all their purity the principles of medieval Russian church architecture.

The altars of Orthodox churches are consecrated in the name of some holy person or sacred event, which is why the entire temple and parish get their name. Often in one temple there are several altars and, accordingly, several chapels, that is, several temples are, as it were, collected under one roof. They are consecrated in honor different persons or events, but the entire temple as a whole usually takes its name from the main, central altar.

However, sometimes popular rumor assigns to the temple the name not of the main chapel, but of one of the side chapels, if it is consecrated in memory of a particularly revered saint.

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The exhibition has ended in Moscow “Canon and outside the canon”, dedicated to the architecture of modern temple building. On this occasion, we are duplicating a previously rewritten sketch about new trends in this area from modern architects and an extremely informative article about the history of Old Believer temple construction from the Burning Bush magazine. The magazine itself, which became the prototype of the Old Believer Thought website, can be downloaded at the end of the article: it was one of our most successful issues!

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In order to digest the cultural shock of what they saw, we offer readers of our site the most valuable material from our parishioner, artist and architect Nikola Frizin. This article was written by him in 2009 specifically for the magazine “Burning Bush”, which was published by an initiative group of Rogozh parishioners within the framework of the Youth Affairs Department of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ways of Old Believer temple construction

Nikola Frizin

Every reader knows that a Christian church is a house of prayer and a house of God. But can everyone say why the temple looks like this, and what an Old Believer temple should ideally look like?

Throughout Christian history, although church architecture existed, it was not regulated in strict canons, as happened with worship, hymnography, and icon painting. Architecture initially seemed to “fall out” from the canonical field. It was not determined by a complex system of rules and canons.

From the emergence of the Old Believers to late XIX centuries of Old Believer architecture proper did not exist because there was no need for any special correctness of architecture. Few general requirements were imposed only on the internal structure of the temple, paintings and icons. However, there is something elusive in Old Believer churches that distinguishes them from any other...

In this article, the author examines the legacy of the Old Believers in the field of temple construction of the 17th–19th centuries and the prospects for its development in our time. It is interesting that the author gives quotes from temple building researchers specifically from the 20th century.

And the development of the “historical style” occurred in the 20th century, and the heyday of Old Believer church building occurred precisely in the 20th century. That is, only in the last 100 - 170 (since the times of eclecticism) years has the problem of the identity of Russian temple architecture in general arisen - even in the community of architects. The Old Believers accepted this problem only after the possibility of building churches appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. The points of perception of tradition at the beginning of the 20th century are very well covered by the author.
Will the tradition begun a hundred years ago be accepted, or will temple building return to its original indifference? More likely it will be both.

A. Vasiliev

In the last 15-20 years, for the first time since 1917, Old Believers have had the opportunity to build churches. Temple construction is not a big deal; few communities can afford such an expensive undertaking. However, some temples have been built and more will probably be built. In the hope of the emergence of new Old Believer churches, one can ask the question: what modern churches should be like, how they relate to the Old Believer and Old Russian tradition. To understand this, it is useful to look back, to see what modern Old Orthodox Christians inherited from their ancestors in the 17th–19th centuries, what from the pre-schism period, and what, in fact, this heritage is expressed in.

In Byzantium, from which Christianity came to Rus', a perfect temple interior was created, ideal for prayer and worship. The main type of church, centric, cross-domed, had a deep symbolic and theological meaning, and maximally corresponded to the characteristics of the sacrament of the Liturgy performed in it.

In any temple, the space created by the architect dictates a certain course of action for the person in it. The main spatial motif of the centric Byzantine and Old Russian temple is the antechamber. The centric church is most consistent with Orthodox worship and faith itself.

Outstanding art critic A.I. Komech wrote about Byzantine cross-domed churches: “He who enters the temple, after taking a few steps, stops without being prompted by anything to actually move. Only the eye can trace the endless flow of curvilinear forms and surfaces running vertically (a direction not available to real movement). The transition to contemplation is the most essential moment of the Byzantine path to knowledge.” The Byzantine temple interior carries the idea of ​​eternity and immutability; it is perfect and strict. There is no development in time or space; it is overcome by the feeling of accomplishment, achievement, stay.

In Byzantium, a perfect temple interior was created, ideal for prayer and worship. The main type of church, centric, cross-domed, best suited the characteristics of the sacrament of the Liturgy performed in it
Interior of the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (now Istanbul)

In such a church, a Christian stands in prayer, like a candle in front of an image. Each person praying is not moving anywhere, but is facing God. The temple is the earthly sky, the center of the universe. The temple space stops the person praying, takes him out of the vain, rushing and running world of everyday life, and transfers him to an ideal state of heavenly peace. No matter where a person stands in such a temple, space “centers” him, he finds himself in the center of the Universe and stands before God. He stands there himself, and he himself listens to the word of God, and he himself turns to Him in prayer (although at the same time he is among the same people praying and prays with them). In some churches, space even “compresses” a person on all sides, does not allow him to move, completely focusing his mind on the contemplation of the heavenly world, evokes a feeling of reverence and trembling of the soul, a person almost physically experiences being in the house of God. The temple, man and prayer are in amazing harmony. We can say that the temple space is formed by prayer, and vice versa, it itself determines the nature of this prayer and the entire course of action of the person praying.

This is the ideal of the temple that Byzantium and Ancient Rus' gave. The architectural forms correspond to the nature of the worship service in it. But since there is nothing permanent and immovable in the earthly world, it is difficult to maintain the perfection once achieved. The departure from the ideal of the ancient Christian temple and the degeneration of principles began long before the schism. In the middle of the 17th century and later, the situation in temple architecture, from the point of view of the correspondence of the temple architecture to worship, was far from ideal. Under these conditions, Old Believer temple building arose.

Old Believer art and literature began to take shape simultaneously with the emergence of the phenomenon itself called Old Belief. Since the split of the Russian Church, the guardians of ancient Orthodoxy had to justify their separation from the New Lovers and give their spiritual life (often in exile, in new uninhabited places) material embodiment. That is, to write liturgical and apologetic books, icons, make church utensils, and also erect buildings for prayer and the celebration of the sacraments - temples, chapels or prayer houses. This is how Old Believer art appeared.

In large centers of Old Believer life - on Vyga, on Vetka, in Guslitsy, etc., art schools were formed that inherited and developed primarily the traditions of Russian art of the 17th century, but at the same time did not shy away from modern artistic trends imported from Europe. Some of these schools have received national significance. For example, Vygov cast icons, remarkable in beauty and quality of execution, also called “Pomeranian casting,” spread throughout Russia. Book design, icon painting, wood carving, and church singing reached high perfection.

Among the church arts that flourished in the Old Believer environment, architecture was not the only one. That is, the construction of temples and chapels existed, but this construction was not constant, systematic and professional activity, which is what architecture is. Temples and chapels were built when circumstances permitted, rarely and not in all places where Old Believers lived.

With such meager temple construction, neither the Old Believer architectural school nor a set of traditions for the construction and decoration of temples was formed. There is no set of signs by which one could say with complete certainty that the temple (or chapel) possessing them is definitely Old Believer, and that it cannot be New Believer, Catholic or anything else.

Panorama of the Old Believer Vygov hostel, which existed for about 150 years and was destroyed by punitive operations during the reign of Nicholas I
Fragment of the wall sheet “Family tree of Andrei and Semyon Denisov” Vyg. First half of the 19th century

The Old Believers’ lack of their own architectural traditions can be explained simply: the Old Believers were almost always forbidden to build temples and chapels. On common prayer they gathered mostly in prayer houses - buildings without external signs temple. However, internal signs Besides the abundance of icons and candlesticks, the prayer rooms often did not have either. It was much easier to set up a prayer room in your own home or public building, indistinguishable from a barn in appearance, without external “signs of schism” than to build a temple or chapel. Much less often, it was possible to build chapels and very rarely - full-fledged churches. The rarity of churches is explained not least by the absence or small number of priests and, accordingly, by the rarity of the Liturgy. For prayer in the secular rite, chapels without an altar were sufficient.

The Old Believers could build something resembling a temple in appearance either with the connivance of local authorities (in the event that the authorities turned a blind eye to it), or without asking permission, but somewhere in the impassable wilderness, where no authorities could go. won't be able to reach it. But a temple of more or less significant size and decoration can arise only in a fairly populated area or settlement, and in a secret and remote monastery a large church is not needed. In addition, if you need to hide from constant persecution and persecution, you cannot take a church or chapel with you, like an icon or a book.

It is completely pointless to build a temple, which requires large financial outlays and organizational efforts to construct, and then immediately hand it over to be desecrated by the persecutors. For these reasons, the Old Believers engaged in architecture in rare moments when circumstances were favorable for it. There were no architects of their own due to their almost complete uselessness and impossibility of engaging in professional activities, if such architects suddenly appeared. Thus, we have to state: Old Believer architecture does not exist as a separate direction in Russian architecture.

Almost all wooden architecture of the Russian North of the 18th-19th centuries. is largely Old Believer. Although wooden Old Believer churches are almost unknown, and all the famous northern churches were built by New Believers, their forms are absolutely Russian, inheriting and developing Orthodox pre-schism traditions in architecture. Chapel in the village of Volkostrov

Nevertheless, although Old Believer architecture was not created in an explicit form, in some areas the Old Believers had a strong influence on the New Believer environment, in particular on the appearance of the churches built by the New Believers. First of all, this concerns the Russian North. A significant part of its population were Old Believers who were priestless, while the other part, although formally belonging to the Synodal Church, practically largely adhered to the old church and national customs. Including in architecture. Thus, almost all wooden architecture of the Russian North of the 18th–19th centuries. is largely Old Believer.

Although almost no wooden Old Believer churches are known, and all the famous northern churches were built by New Believers, their forms are absolutely Russian, inheriting and developing Orthodox pre-schism traditions in architecture. At this time, throughout the country, baroque and classicism brought from Europe dominated in church building, introducing Protestant and Catholic features into religious consciousness and aesthetics. In the North, until the middle of the 19th century, wooden architecture developed in a purely national (Orthodox) direction.

In the scientific literature, it is customary to explain this by the remoteness of the North from the cultural and economic centers of the 18th–19th centuries and by traditions that were mothballed for this reason. This is certainly true, but the Old Believer influence, the high authority of the Old Believers and the traditions of Vyg, in our opinion, played an important role here.

This was the situation in the North: wooden chapels and temples were built in the national tradition.

In cities, due to the lack of their own architectural traditions, the Old Believers were forced to build in the forms that were around them - in the architecture of their time. The well-known desire of the Old Believers to follow the traditions of their ancestors and antiquity was difficult to implement in architecture. Already in the 18th century, traditions in stone architecture were largely forgotten, and due to the lack of architectural history at that time, architects and clients - enlightened representatives of the Old Believers - had a very approximate and mythical idea of ​​ancient and primordial forms.

Love for antiquity was expressed in the desire to reproduce ancient forms as they were understood at that time. Since the end of the 18th century, “national” trends periodically arose in Russian architecture - romanticism, historicism. They were popular with Old Believers customers, who tried to order churches in the “national style” that existed at that time. Examples include the churches of the Transfiguration Cemetery and the Church of the Nativity of Christ at the Rogozhskoye Cemetery. They are built in the national-romantic direction of classicism.

An abundance of elaborate carved details, red and white painting, pointed arches and other signs of Gothic - this is exactly how ancient Russian architecture was imagined by the architects of the late 18th century. early XIX centuries Major architects – V. Bazhenov and M. Kazakov – paid tribute to her passion. This is how her customers saw her too. But “pure” classicism did not frighten merchants and community leaders. Confirmation of this is the Intercession Cathedral of the Rogozhsky cemetery.

The main cathedral church of the Old Believers-Priests in Rogozhskaya Sloboda. Built in 1790-1792. It is believed that the author of the temple was the architect M.F. Kazakov. Before the restoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Church of the Intercession at the Rogozhskoye cemetery was the most extensive of Moscow churches.

Some churches of the late 18th – mid 19th centuries. built in the Baroque tradition. This architecture was widespread mostly in the provinces. These are the churches in Novozybkov.

During the period of the XVIII – XIX centuries. the construction of churches was unsystematic, temples were rarely erected. Therefore, it is difficult to identify any general signs and trends in Old Believer architecture of that time.

Only after the granting of religious freedoms in 1905 did mass Old Believer church building begin. The forces that had accumulated over decades of secretive existence rushed out, and during the 12 years of the “golden age” hundreds of temples were built throughout the country. Many of them were built by professional architects. It was during this period that one can speak, if not about specifically Old Believer architecture, then at least about its Old Believer features that were formed then.

It is possible to identify several trends, or paths, of Old Believer architecture of that time, which, in general, coincided with the development of all Russian architecture.

Eclecticism

The dominant style in Russia throughout the second half of the 19th century was eclecticism. This style was very common, existing from the 1830s until the 1917 revolution. Eclecticism replaced classicism when it had exhausted itself. The architect is given the right to choose the style, direction of work, as well as combine elements from different styles in one building.

An architect can build one building in one style, and another in another. Such an arbitrary combination in work of art heterogeneous features are usually recognized as a sign of decline, degradation of the corresponding movements or schools.

There are wonderful buildings in eclecticism, but basically eclecticism is a creative dead end, the inability to say one’s own word in art, the absence of path, meaning, movement and life. Approximate reproduction of forms and details from different styles, their mechanical connection without internal logic.

By and large, the same person cannot work in different styles, but works in one. Style cannot be faked. As the poet said: “As he breathes, so he writes...”. And the style of the era was eclecticism - a kind of impersonality and mishmash. They worked in it, and no decoration borrowed from the wonderful styles of the past could save them from the emptiness inherent in eclecticism.

Pseudo-Russian style, historicism

In Russian church architecture, including Old Believer, one thing was very popular
One of the eclectic trends is historicism, also called the pseudo-Russian style. It appeared in the 1850s, and received special development in the 1870-80s, when interest in national traditions in art arose.

The model was mainly taken from Russian architecture of the 17th century - the so-called “Russian patterned design”. But only external forms were reproduced according to the concept of them at that time. But this idea was still quite vague. And although some factual knowledge about ancient buildings had been accumulated, there was no understanding of the essence of this architecture. Architects and artists brought up on classicism did not perceive a fundamentally different architecture. The principles of constructing space, forms, details and volumes were the same as in the eclecticism prevailing around them. The result was buildings that were dry and devoid of expressiveness, although outwardly intricate.

Historicism played a positive role in the second half of the 19th century, and by the beginning of the 20th century, that is, by the time of the massive construction of churches by the Old Believers, it had completely outlived its usefulness and looked somewhat anachronistic. At this time, historic buildings were rarely built and mostly in the provinces. Although it was high-quality, it was cheap architecture, with a touch of official patriotism, and it employed not first-class architects or simply artisans. Some churches were maintained in pure historicism, maintaining a certain “purity of style” and using only pseudo-Russian motifs, but in most others, pseudo-Russian features were mixed in the most incredible way with classical, Renaissance, Gothic and others.

The former Old Believer Trinity Church of the Belokrinitsky community of the city of Vladimir. Construction in 1916 was timed to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, architect S.M. Zharov. Operated until 1928. Since 1974 - a branch of the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum, the Crystal Foundation. Lacquer miniature. Embroidery".

Trinity Church turned out to be the last religious building of Vladimir. Residents call it “Red” because it is made of red brick in the so-called cross masonry. It combines many styles in its architecture, and, rather, belongs to pseudo-Russian. The red color and upward direction are reminiscent of the bonfires on which adherents of ancient piety were burned.

As a similar example of this style, we can cite the Historical Museum and the Upper Trading Rows (GUM) in Moscow. In the 1960s, they wanted to demolish the church, but the public, with the active participation of the writer V. A. Soloukhin, opposed it, and it was converted from a dormitory into a crystal museum.

"Byzantism"

In addition to the “Old Russian” motifs in historicism, there was a “Byzantine” direction, which was as unrelated to Byzantium as the pseudo-Russian direction to the architecture of Muscovite Rus'. The Church of the Intercession was built in the “Byzantine style” on Novokuznetskaya Street in Moscow.

Modern

Copying external forms and details without understanding the essence of ancient Russian buildings did not give the expected effect of reviving national forms and traditions in art. All this soon became clear to the architects, and they moved away from direct copying of ancient monuments. And they took the path not of copying, but of creating a generalized image of an ancient Russian temple. This is how the Art Nouveau style appeared, in particular, Art Nouveau of the national-historical direction, which is also sometimes called the neo-Russian style. One of the main principles of shape-building in modernity was stylization: not literal copying, but identifying and emphasizing the most characteristic features ancient buildings.

Baroque, classicism and eclecticism (closely related to historicism) are not the most suitable styles for an Orthodox church. The first thing that catches your eye in these styles is the completely non-Christian, unnecessary decoration in the temple, dating back to pagan antiquity and in no way reinterpreted by Christianity.

But the non-Christian decor inherent in styles imported from Europe is not the biggest problem. The space and volumes themselves were far from Orthodoxy. Attempts to combine the principles of constructing an Orthodox liturgical space with the canons of classicism are, as a rule, unsuccessful. In some churches built in pure classicism, according to the priests (New Believers), it is frankly inconvenient to serve.

Classicism, as a style oriented towards antiquity, uses certain forms that arose mainly in ancient times. In classicism there are no traditional forms and compositional techniques for an Orthodox church. The ancient Greeks did not know the dome, but in Christian architecture The dome is the most important, one might say, iconic thing. Classicism is a very rational style, but Christian architecture is in many ways irrational, just as faith itself is irrational, based not on logical constructions, but on Divine Revelation.

How to rethink such an irrational form as the church dome in classicism? What would an apse look like in classicism, protruding beyond the rectangular, clear and logical volume of the temple? How to arrange five chapters in classicism? Russian architects found answers to these questions, but from a Christian point of view they are completely unsatisfactory.

Both historicism and eclecticism created space and detail on the same classical basis. And ancient Russian architecture is fundamentally non-classical. It does not use an order system. It has internal harmony, logic, clarity and hierarchical subordination of parts, coming from antiquity, but externally, in details, the order is almost not manifested.

An attempt to revive the medieval principles of constructing architectural form and space was made by Art Nouveau architects. It was from this desire that the style arose. He contrasted eclecticism with integrity and organicity, unity and purity of style in every detail and in the principles of creating space.

The best architects of the country worked in the Art Nouveau style. It was to them that the richest Old Believer communities and philanthropists tried to commission temple projects. This is how the bell tower of the Rogozhsky cemetery appeared, which can be considered a masterpiece of architecture of the early 20th century and one of the most beautiful bell towers in Moscow. Its features can be discerned in a number of other Old Believer bell towers, built later by less outstanding architects. Apparently, the customers recommended that they focus on the building they liked. The facade of the bell tower is decorated with relief images of fabulous birds of paradise: Sirin, Alkonost and Gamayun.

The architect I.E. built many wonderful churches for the Old Believers. Bondarenko. Authored by the most outstanding architect of Moscow Art Nouveau F.O. Shekhtel owns a temple in Balakovo (now transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church). The St. Nicholas Church on the Belorussky Station Square and the Sretensky Church on Ostozhenka were built in the same style.

1. 2. 3.

2. Church of the Holy Trinity in Balakovo(Saratov region) architect. F.O. Shekhtel 1910-12 Contrary to historical justice, transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church MP.

3. Old Believer Church of St. George the Victorious(village Novo-Kharitonovo, at the Kuznetsov factory)

St. George's Church with a ceramic altar was built for the centenary of the victory over Napoleon at the expense of porcelain makers Kuznetsov, the main care of which was provided by Ivan Emelyanovich Kuznetsov. It should be noted that during the church reforms of Patriarch Nikon, hipped-roof churches were recognized as inconsistent with the “church order,” and their construction was prohibited since 1653, with the exception of the construction of hipped-roofed bell towers. But the Old Believers considered this architecture theirs.

Moscow. Church of the Presentation of the Vladimir Icon of the Virgin Mary on Ostozhenka. 1907-1911 arch. V.D. Adamovich and V.M. Mayat

Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker at Tverskaya Zastava- Old Believer temple; built on the site of a wooden chapel on Tverskaya Zastava Square.

Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker at Tverskaya Zastava. Construction of the temple began in 1914, consecrated in 1921. Architect - A. M. Gurzhienko.

The first design of the temple was carried out by I. G. Kondratenko (1856-1916) in 1908 by order of the Old Believer merchant I. K. Rakhmanov, who owned a plot on the spit of Butyrsky Val and Lesnaya Street in the style of white-stone Vladimir architecture. For Kondratenko, who built dozens of apartment buildings, this was his first project in temple construction. The project was then approved by the city government, but construction was postponed for unknown reasons. Six years later, the community called on another architect - A. M. Gurzhienko (1872 - after 1932), who completed a completely different project. For Gurzhienko, a specialist in road work and reconstruction of old buildings, this was also the first temple project.

Probably, by the time Gurzhienko was called, the zero cycle had already been completed, since the external outlines of the building exactly coincide with Kondratenko’s design. But the temple itself is made in the style of early Novgorod architecture, approaching the historical Church of the Savior on Nereditsa, while inside it is pillarless (in Kondratenko it is six-pillared). The temple's tented bell tower also imitates Novgorod belfries. Construction during the First World War was financed by P.V. Ivanov, A.E. Rusakov and others. At that time, near the Tverskaya Zastava there were two more large churches in the Russian style: the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky (architect A. N. Pomerantsev, 1915) on Miusskaya Square and Holy Cross Church at the Yamsky schools (1886). Both were destroyed.

By the beginning of the 20th century, researchers of ancient Russian architecture had achieved serious success; they discovered and studied a large number of monuments of ancient Russian architecture of different schools and periods. On the basis of this knowledge, a movement arose in architecture, inheriting the principles of historicism, but at a new, much more advanced level of understanding. Architects tried to build a temple in some ancient “style” (Novgorod, Vladimir-Suzdal, etc.), reproducing details and some compositional techniques with literal accuracy. The accuracy was such that some elements could not be immediately distinguished from the ancient ones. There was no longer any eclectic jumble or fictitious details, everything was done with archaeological precision. It was more difficult or even completely impossible, for various reasons, to reproduce the temple space and structure in a similar way.

Church of the Intercession and Dormition of the Virgin Mary on Maly Gavrikov Lane in Moscow. 1911, architect. I.E. Bondarenko

Architects never dared to copy literally any ancient temple - that would be plagiarism. Therefore, they tried to create something of their own in the “ancient style”, copying details and hanging them on their own composition. But the details of an ancient temple do not exist on their own; they grow organically from the internal space, they cannot be torn off and stuck on another wall. They have their own logic and meaning that is unclear to us now. And the interior space turned out to be ignored by the architects. The result is one external appearance of an ancient Russian temple, a form without content, although sometimes very impressive, and also interesting for us to study now.

Since Old Believer art is very characterized by the desire to copy forms consecrated by antiquity, be it churches or icons, some customers did not fail to turn to architects who professed such a literalist approach.

The clearest example is the Church of the Assumption on Apukhtinka, built on the model of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Thus, during the period of mass Old Believer temple construction from 1905 to 1917, two main styles dominated, as in the architecture of the whole country - eclecticism and modernism (in their national-historical version). Then, as we know, the opportunity to build temples disappeared, and with it the temple-building traditions in architecture, and in many ways the old school of architecture itself, disappeared.

Old Believer Assumption Cathedral on Apukhtinka at the time of closure in 1935 and in the early 2000s (dormitory)

Dulevo. Old Believers are like builders of Orthodox churches: this temple was built in 1913-1917, the Kuznetsovs helped the construction by allocating land and giving an interest-free loan. The predecessor of this temple, a wooden church in the name of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian in Dulevo was built in 1887 through the efforts of the Kuznetsovs’ confidant Anufriev and the help of Kuznetsov

Read more about the temple construction of the Kuznetsov porcelain makers.

XXI Century

15-20 years ago the situation in the country was Once again has changed. The oppression ended, and believers of various hopes began to build churches again. Orthodox Christian Old Believers also took up this to the best of their ability.

And then the question arose: what should these temples be like? This question is equally important for the New Believers, and since they have more opportunities, it has received greater development among them. Tradition, knowledge and concepts were so lost that at the competition announced in the late 1980s for the design of a temple for the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus', some works were submitted without altars.

Soviet architects did not know why, in fact, the temple was needed; they perceived it as some kind of external decoration, a sign, a monument, and not as a place for celebrating the Liturgy.

In the late 1980s - early 90s, New Believer historian and publicist V.L. Makhnach said that the interrupted and lost tradition of temple building would resume at the breaking point, that is, the revival would begin with the Art Nouveau style and other trends that existed in 1917. And he turned out to be right.

In modern Russian temple construction we can see all these trends - for the most part, either ridiculous eclectic churches are being built, or more stylistically pure ones, oriented towards the Art Nouveau tradition. The path of copying ancient buildings and trying to work in some kind of “Old Russian style” has not been abandoned either. In this direction, today the Siberian Old Believers are building a cathedral in Barnaul in the forms of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture.

Now, as at the beginning of the 20th century, the main motto of temple construction is “return to the roots,” to classical antiquity. At the beginning of the 20th century. The “Novgorod-Pskov style” was taken as the ideal. Both the Old Believers of the “Golden Age” and the scientists of that time considered him a model.

E. N. Trubetskoy in his famous work “Speculation in Colors” wrote: “... the temple personifies a different reality, that heavenly future that beckons, but which humanity has not yet achieved. This idea is expressed with inimitable perfection by the architecture of our ancient churches, especially those of Novgorod." At the same time, it was not explained why the Novgorod churches were better than all the others; nothing concrete was given to substantiate this idea.

The fact is that at the beginning of the 20th century, Novgorod and Pskov churches were mostly preserved in almost their original form. There were many of them, they represented two powerful architectural schools of the 14th–16th centuries. Monuments of other ancient Russian schools of the same period were not so widely known and numerous. All early Moscow churches were rebuilt beyond recognition. Almost nothing remains of the Tver school. The Rostov school was greatly rebuilt and survived only on the periphery of the Rostov colonization of the North. Pre-Mongol churches of Kievan Rus were also rebuilt in the spirit of Ukrainian Baroque. The Belozersk school was not known at all. The Vladimir-Suzdal churches were more or less preserved and had been restored by that time. But they are so far removed in time from Moscow Rus' that they might not be perceived as their own, relatives. In addition, it is much more interesting to stylize the powerful sculptural forms of Novgorod and Pskov architecture in modernism than the refined and weightless motifs of Vladimir-Suzdal.

The architects tried to take into account all the Old Believer canons and made the temple in the style of ancient architecture.

The wooden domes for the temple in Novokuznetsk were made by a master from Altai. They were lined with aspen, which will later darken in the sun and look like old silver. This is an old approach: I didn’t want to make gold and attract attention, but I wanted people to be curious,” says Leonid Tokmin, curator of the temple’s construction.

Nowadays, again, apparently according to established tradition, Novgorod motifs in temple construction are increasingly popular. At the same time, the efforts of architects, both modern and modern, are aimed mainly at giving the temple an “Old Russian” appearance. Simply put, a kind of theatrical scenery is created, although it often has outstanding artistic merits.

But Christian worship takes place inside the church, and not outside. And in good Christian architecture, the appearance of the temple directly depended on the internal space, was shaped by it and fully corresponded to it. But for some reason, no attention is paid to the creation of a truly Christian space in the spirit of an ancient Russian temple.

I would like to believe that, having achieved serious success in stylizing the external appearance of the temple, the architects will move on to the next stage of the revival of Orthodox architecture. It seems that an appeal to the origins, to classical antiquity should be not only in the temple decoration, but most importantly - in space-planning solutions. It is necessary to comprehend and create a modern version of the temple space based on the achievements of ancient Russian and Byzantine architects.

Nikola Frizin,

Old Believer magazine " Burning bush", 2009, No. 2 (3)

We invite readers to familiarize themselves with electronic version specified issue of the magazine. It turned out to be one of the best and contains a lot of useful information.

PDF version of the magazine Burning Bush:

The end of persecution in the 4th century and the adoption of Christianity in the Roman Empire as the state religion led to a new stage in the development of temple architecture. The external and then spiritual division of the Roman Empire into the Western - Roman and Eastern - Byzantine, also influenced the development of church art. In the Western Church, the basilica became the most widespread.

In the Eastern Church in the V-VIII centuries. The Byzantine style developed in the construction of churches and in all church art and worship. Here the foundations of the spiritual and external life of the Church, which has since been called Orthodox, were laid.

Types of Orthodox churches

Temples in the Orthodox Church were built by several types, but each temple symbolically corresponded to church doctrine.

1. Temples in the form cross were built as a sign that the Cross of Christ is the foundation of the Church, through the Cross humanity was delivered from the power of the devil, through the Cross the entrance to Paradise, lost by our ancestors, was opened.

2. Temples in the form circle(a circle that has neither beginning nor end, symbolizes eternity) speaks of the infinity of the existence of the Church, its indestructibility in the world according to the word of Christ

3. Temples in the form eight-pointed star symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, which led the Magi to the place where Christ was born. Thus, the Church of God testifies to its role as a guide to the life of the Future Age. The period of the earthly history of mankind was counted in seven large periods - centuries, and the eighth is eternity in the Kingdom of God, the life of the next century.

4. Temple in the form ship. Temples in the shape of a ship are the most ancient type of temples, figuratively expressing the idea that the Church, like a ship, saves believers from the disastrous waves of everyday sailing and leads them to the Kingdom of God.

5. Temples of mixed types : cross-shaped in appearance, but round inside, in the center of the cross, or rectangular in outer shape, and round inside, in the middle part.

Diagram of a temple in the shape of a circle

Diagram of the temple in the form of a ship

Cross type. Church of the Ascension outside the Serpukhov Gate. Moscow

Diagram of a temple built in the shape of a cross

Cross type. Church of Barbara on Varvarka. Moscow.

Cross shape. Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

Rotunda. Smolensk Church of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra

Diagram of a temple in the shape of a circle

Rotunda. Church of Metropolitan Peter of the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery

Rotunda. Church of All Who Sorrow Joy on Ordynka. Moscow

Diagrams of a temple in the shape of an eight-pointed star

Ship type. Church of St. Dmitry on Spilled Blood in Uglich

Diagram of the temple in the form of a ship

Ship type. Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Sparrow Hills. Moscow

Byzantine temple architecture

In the Eastern Church in the V-VIII centuries. has developed Byzantine style in the construction of temples and in all church art and worship. Here the foundations of the spiritual and external life of the Church, which has since been called Orthodox, were laid.

Temples in the Orthodox Church were built in different ways, but each temple symbolically corresponded to church doctrine. In all types of temples, the altar was certainly separated from the rest of the temple; temples continued to be two - and more often three-part. The dominant feature in Byzantine temple architecture remained a rectangular temple with a rounded projection of altar apses extended to the east, with a figured roof, with a vaulted ceiling inside, which was supported by a system of arches with columns, or pillars, with a high domed space, which resembles the internal view of the temple in the catacombs.

Only in the middle of the dome, where the source of natural light was located in the catacombs, did they begin to depict the True Light that came into the world - the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, the similarity between Byzantine churches and catacomb churches is only the most general, since the above-ground churches of the Orthodox Church are distinguished by their incomparable splendor and greater external and internal detail.

Sometimes they have several spherical domes topped with crosses. An Orthodox church is certainly crowned with a cross on the dome or on all domes, if there are several of them, as a sign of victory and as evidence that the Church, like all creation, chosen for salvation, enters the Kingdom of God thanks to the Redemptive Feat of Christ the Savior. By the time of the Baptism of Rus, a type of cross-domed church was emerging in Byzantium, which unites in synthesis the achievements of all previous directions in the development of Orthodox architecture.

Byzantine temple

Plan of a Byzantine temple

Cathedral of St. Stamp in Venice

Byzantine temple

Cross-domed temple in Istanbul

Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Italy

Plan of a Byzantine temple

Cathedral of St. Stamp in Venice

Temple of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (Istanbul)

Interior of the Church of St. Sofia in Constantinople

Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Tithe). Kyiv

Cross-domed churches of Ancient Rus'

The architectural type of Christian church, formed in Byzantium and in the countries of the Christian East in the V-VIII centuries. Became dominant in Byzantine architecture from the 9th century and was adopted Christian countries Orthodox confession as the main form of the temple. Such famous Russian churches as the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral, St. Sophia of Novgorod, Vladimir Assumption Cathedral were deliberately built in the likeness of the Constantinople St. Sophia Cathedral.

Old Russian architecture is mainly represented by church buildings, among which cross-domed churches occupy a dominant position. Not all variants of this type became widespread in Rus', but buildings from different periods and different cities and principalities Ancient Rus' form their own original interpretations of the cross-domed church.

The architectural design of the cross-domed church lacks the easily visible visibility that was characteristic of basilicas. Such architecture contributed to the transformation of the consciousness of ancient Russian man, elevating him to an in-depth contemplation of the universe.

While preserving the general and basic architectural features of Byzantine churches, Russian churches have much that is original and unique. Several distinctive architectural styles have developed in Orthodox Russia. Among them, the style that stands out most is the one closest to Byzantine. This Toclassical type of white stone rectangular temple , or even basically square, but with the addition of an altar part with semicircular apses, with one or more domes on a figured roof. The spherical Byzantine shape of the dome covering was replaced by a helmet-shaped one.

In the middle part of small churches there are four pillars that support the roof and symbolize the four evangelists, the four cardinal directions. In the central part of the cathedral church there may be twelve or more pillars. At the same time, the pillars with the intersecting space between them form the signs of the Cross and help divide the temple into its symbolic parts.

The Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir and his successor, Prince Yaroslav the Wise, sought to organically include Rus' into the universal organism of Christianity. The churches they erected served this purpose, placing believers before the perfect Sophia image of the Church. Already the first Russian churches spiritually testify to the connection between earth and heaven in Christ, to the Theanthropic nature of the Church.

St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod

Demetrius Cathedral in Vladimir

Cross-domed Church of John the Baptist. Kerch. 10th century

St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod

Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir

Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin

Church of the Transfiguration in Veliky Novgorod

Russian wooden architecture

In the 15th-17th centuries, a significantly different style of temple construction developed in Russia from the Byzantine one.

Elongated rectangular, but certainly with semicircular apses to the east, one-story and two-story churches with winter and summer churches appear, sometimes white stone, more often brick with covered porches and covered arched galleries - walkways around all walls, with gable, hipped and figured roofs, on which they flaunt one or several highly raised domes in the form of domes, or bulbs.

The walls of the temple are decorated with elegant decoration and windows with beautiful stone carvings or tiled frames. Next to the temple or together with the temple, a high tented bell tower with a cross at the top is erected above its porch.

Russian wooden architecture acquired a special style. The properties of wood as a building material determined the features of this style. It is difficult to create a smoothly shaped dome from rectangular boards and beams. Therefore, in wooden churches, instead of it there is a pointed tent. Moreover, the appearance of a tent began to be given to the church as a whole. This is how wooden temples appeared to the world in the form of a huge pointed wooden cone. Sometimes the roof of the temple was arranged in the form of many cone-shaped wooden domes with crosses rising upward (for example, the famous temple at the Kizhi churchyard).

Church of the Intercession (1764) O. Kizhi.

Assumption Cathedral in Kemi. 1711

Church of St. Nicholas. Moscow

Church of the Transfiguration (1714) Kizhi Island

Chapel in honor of the Three Saints. Kizhi Island.

Stone tented churches

The forms of wooden temples influenced stone (brick) construction.

They began to build intricate stone tented churches that resembled huge towers (pillars). The highest achievement of stone hipped architecture is rightfully considered the Intercession Cathedral in Moscow, better known as St. Basil's Cathedral, a complex, intricate, multi-decorated structure of the 16th century.

The basic plan of the cathedral is cruciform. The cross consists of four main churches located around the middle one, the fifth. The middle church is square, the four side ones are octagonal. The cathedral has nine temples in the form of cone-shaped pillars, together making up one huge colorful tent.

Tents in Russian architecture did not last long: in the middle of the 17th century. Church authorities prohibited the construction of tented churches, since they were sharply different from the traditional one-domed and five-domed rectangular (ship) churches.

Tent architecture of the 16th-17th centuries, which finds its origins in traditional Russian wooden architecture, is a unique direction of Russian architecture, which has no analogues in the art of other countries and peoples.

Stone tented Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the village of Gorodnya.

St Basil's Church

Temple "Quench My Sorrows" Saratov

Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye

Qalat Seman, Syria, 5th century

The base of the column of Simeon the Stylite. Syria, 2005 Wikimedia Commons

Monastery of St. Simeon the Stylite - Kalat-Seman. Syria, 2010

Southern facade of the Church of St. Simeon the Stylite. Syria, 2010 Bernard Gagnon / CC BY-SA 3.0

Capitals of the columns of the Church of St. Simeon the Stylite. Syria, 2005 James Gordon / CC BY 2.0

Plan of the Church of St. Simeon the StyliteFrom the book “Civil and religious architecture of Central Syria in the 1st–7th centuries” by Charles Jean Melchior Vogüet. 1865–1877

Today Kalat Seman (Arabic for “Simeon’s fortress”) is the ruins of an ancient monastery near Aleppo in Syria. According to legend, it was in this monastery that Saint Simeon the Stylite performed his ascetic feat. He built a column, and on it a tiny hut, where he lived, praying incessantly, for many years, until his death in 459. At the end of the 5th century, a special building was built above the column, the base of which has survived to this day. More precisely, it is a complex composition of a central (octagonal) and four basilicas extending from it Basilica- a rectangular structure made of an odd number (1, 3, 5) of naves - parts separated by columns..

The idea to perpetuate the memory of Saint Simeon in this way was born under the Byzantine emperor Leo I (457-474) and was implemented already during the reign of Emperor Zeno (474-491). This is a stone structure with wooden ceilings, impeccably made in accordance with late antique traditions, decorated with columns supporting arches with exquisitely profiled arches. The basilicas themselves fully correspond to the type that laid the foundation for all Western Christian architecture.

In principle, until 1054 (that is, before the split of the Church into Orthodox and Catholic), almost all Christian architecture can be considered Orthodox. However, in Kalat-Seman it is already possible to note a feature that would later be more characteristic of Eastern Christian construction practice. This is the desire for centricity of the composition, for the geometric equality of the axes. Catholics subsequently preferred an extended form, a Latin cross with an extension in the opposite direction from the altar - a solution that implied a solemn procession, and not a stay or standing before the throne. Here the basilicas become the sleeves of an almost regular equal-pointed (Greek) cross, as if predicting the appearance in the future of a popular cross in Orthodoxy.

2. Hagia Sophia - Wisdom of God

Constantinople, 6th century

Saint Sophie Cathedral. Istanbul, 2009 David Spender / CC BY 2.0

Central nave of the cathedral Jorge Láscar / CC BY 2.0

Main dome Craig Stanfill / CC BY-SA 2.0

Emperors Constantine and Justinian before the Virgin Mary. Mosaic in the tympanum of the southwestern entrance. 10th century Wikimedia Commons

Cathedral in section. Illustration from the book “Grundriss der Kunstgeschichte” by Wilhelm Lubke and Max Semrau. 1908 Wikimedia Commons

Plan of the cathedral. Illustration from the book “Grundriss der Kunstgeschichte” by Wilhelm Lubke and Max Semrau. 1908 Wikimedia Commons

This cathedral was built long before the paths of Western and Eastern Christianity fundamentally diverged in 1054. It was erected on the site of a burnt basilica as a symbol of the political and spiritual greatness of the newly united Roman Empire. The very consecration in the name of Sophia, the Wisdom of God, indicated that Constantinople was becoming not only the Second Rome, but also the spiritual center of Christians, the Second Jerusalem. After all, it was on the Holy Land that the Temple of Solomon, whom the Lord himself endowed with wisdom, should have risen. To work on the building, Emperor Justinian invited two architects and at the same time outstanding mathematicians (and this is important, considering how complex the structure they conceived and implemented) - Isidore from Miletus and Anthimius from Thrall. They started work in 532 and finished it in 537.

The interior of the Hagia Sophia, decorated with the shimmer of gold-colored mosaics, became a model for many Orthodox churches, where if not the forms, then at least the character of the space was repeated - not rushing upward or from west to east, but smoothly circling (you can say, swirling), solemnly ascending to the sky towards the streams of light pouring from the dome windows.

The cathedral became a model not only of how main temple of all Eastern Christian churches, but also as a building in which a new constructive principle worked effectively (it has, however, been known since ancient Roman times, but its full application in large buildings began precisely in Byzantium). The round dome does not rest on a solid ring wall, as, for example, in the Roman Pantheon, but on concave triangular elements -. Thanks to this technique, only four supports are sufficient to support the circular arch, the passage between which is open. This design - a dome on sails - was later widely used in both the East and the West, but it became iconic for Orthodox architecture: large cathedrals, as a rule, were built using this technology. It even received a symbolic interpretation: evangelists are almost always depicted on the sails - a reliable support for the Christian faith.

3. Nea Moni (New Monastery)

Chios Island, Greece, 1st half of the 11th century

Bell tower of the Nea Moni monasteryMariza Georgalou / CC BY-SA 4.0

General view of the monasteryBruno Sarlandie / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Mosaic “Baptism of the Lord” from the catholicon - Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 11th century

Katholikon is the cathedral church of the monastery.

Wikimedia Commons

Sectional plan of the catholicon. From the book "An Illustrated Guide to Architecture" by James Fergusson. 1855 Wikimedia Commons

Plan of the Catholicon bisanzioit.blogspot.com

In Orthodoxy there is an important concept - the prayer of an icon or place, when the holiness of a sacred object is, as it were, multiplied by the prayers of many generations of believers. In this sense, a small monastery on a distant island is rightfully one of the most revered monasteries in Greece. It was founded in the middle of the 11th century by Constantine IX Monomakh Constantine IX Monomakh(1000-1055) - Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty. in fulfillment of a vow. Constantine promised to build a church in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos if the prophecy came true and he took the throne of the Byzantine emperor. Stauro-pygian status The highest status of a monastery, monastery, cathedral, making them independent of the local diocese and subordinate directly to the patriarch or Synod. The Patriarchate of Constantinople allowed the monastery to exist in relative prosperity for several centuries even after the fall of Byzantium.

The catholicon, that is, the cathedral church of the monastery, is the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. First of all, it is famous for its outstanding mosaics, but the architectural solutions also deserve close attention.

Although the outside of the temple is similar to the usual single-domed buildings in Russia, inside it is arranged differently. In the Mediterranean lands of that era, it was better felt that one of the ancestors of the domed Orthodox church (including the Church of Hagia Irene and Hagia Sophia in Constantinople) was an ancient Roman basilica. The cross is almost not expressed in plan; it is rather implied than existing in the material. The plan itself is stretched from west to east, three parts are clearly distinguishable. Firstly, the narthex, that is, the preliminary room. According to the Mediterranean tradition, there can be several narthexes (here they were also used as tombs), one of them opens into a semicircular plan attached to the sides. Secondly, the main space is . And finally, the altar part. Here it is developed, the semicircles do not immediately adjoin the under-dome space, an additional zone is located between them - . The most interesting thing can be seen in the naos. A centric building is inscribed in the square formed by the external walls. The wide dome rests on a system of hemispherical vaults, which gives the entire room a resemblance to the outstanding monuments of the times of the power of the Eastern Roman Empire - the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople and the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna.

4. Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles (Svetitskhoveli)

Mtskheta, Georgia, XI century

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral. Mtskheta, Georgia Viktor K. / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Eastern façade of the cathedral Diego Delso / CC BY-SA 4.0

Interior view of the cathedral Viktor K. / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Wikimedia Commons

Fragment of a fresco with a scene Last Judgment Diego Delso / CC BY-SA 4.0

Sectional plan of the cathedral Wikimedia Commons

Cathedral plan Wikimedia Commons

The cathedral is beautiful in itself, but we must remember that it is also part of a cultural, historical and religious complex that has been formed over several centuries. The Mtkvari (Kura) and Aragvi rivers, the Jvari monastery towering above the city (built at the turn of the 6th-7th centuries), Mount Tabor with the Temple of the Transfiguration and other objects that had the same names as their Palestinian prototypes were in Georgia, the image of the Holy Land, transferred to Iveria the sacred content of the place where the action of New Testament history once unfolded.

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral is an outstanding monument of world architecture. However, it would be wrong to talk only about its material component, about vaults and walls. A full part of this image are traditions - church and secular.

First of all, it is believed that one of the main relics of Christianity is hidden under the temple - the tunic of the Savior. It was brought from the site of the Lord's crucifixion by Jews - Rabbi Elioz and his brother Longinoz. Elioz gave the shrine to his sister Sidonia, a sincere follower of the Christian faith. The pious virgin died holding it in her hands, and even after death no force could tear the fabric from her clenched palms, so Jesus’ robe also had to be lowered into the grave. A mighty cedar tree grew over the burial site, endowing all living things around with miraculous healing properties.

When Saint Nino came to Iveria at the very beginning of the 4th century, she converted first King Miriam and then all the Georgians to the Christian faith and convinced them to build a church on the burial site of Sidonia. Seven pillars were made from cedar for the first temple; one of them, exuding myrrh, turned out to be miraculous, hence the name Svetitskhoveli - “Life-giving pillar”.

The existing building was built in 1010-1029. Thanks to the inscription on the facade, the name of the architect is known - Arsakidze, and the bas-relief image of a hand gave rise to another legend - however, a typical one. One version says that the delighted king ordered the master’s hand to be cut off so that he could not repeat his masterpiece.

At the beginning of the second millennium, the world was quite a small place, and in the architecture of the temple it is easy to notice features of the Romanesque style that was spreading throughout Europe. Externally, the composition is a cross of two three-nave basilicas under high pitched roofs with a drum under a cone in the center. However, the interior demonstrates that the structure of the temple was designed in the Byzantine tradition - Arsakidze used the cross-dome system, which is well known in Rus'.

Mountain landscapes clearly influenced the aesthetic preferences of Georgians. Unlike most Eastern Christian churches, the drums of Caucasian churches (including Armenian ones) are crowned not with round, but with sharp conical heads, prototypes of which can be found in religious buildings in Iran. The filigree decoration on the surface of the walls is due to the high level of skill of Caucasian stonemasons. Svetitskhoveli, as well as other pre-Mongol temples in Georgia, is characterized by a clearly legible pyramidal composition. In it, volumes of different sizes form a holistic form (therefore, they are hidden in the general body of the temple, and only two vertical niches of the eastern facade hint at their existence).

5. Studenica (Monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary)

Near Kraljevo, Serbia, 12th century

Eastern facade of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Studenica JSPhotomorgana / CC BY-SA 3.0

Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in StudenicaDe kleine rode kater / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Virgin and Child. Relief of the tympanum of the western portal Wikimedia Commons

Fragment of carving on the facade ljubar / CC BY-NC 2.0

Frescoes inside the temple ljubar / CC BY-NC 2.0

Plan of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Studenica archifeed.blogspot.com

Studenica is a zaduzhbina (or zadushbina): in medieval Serbia this was the name for sacred buildings built for the salvation of the soul. The monastery near the city of Kraljevo is the home of Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Serbian state. He also retired here, having taken monastic vows and renounced the throne. Stefan Nemanja was canonized and his relics were buried on the territory of the monastery.

The exact time of construction of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Studenica is unknown - it is only clear that it was created between 1183 and 1196. But it is clearly visible how the architecture of the building reflected all the subtleties of the political situation of that time. They even talk about a separate “Rash style” (Serbia in those days was often called Raska and Rasiya).

Stefan Nemanja was both at enmity with Byzantium and oriented toward it. If you look closely at the plan of the temple, you can see that, when designing the central part, the architects clearly imitated the internal structure of the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople. This is the so-called type of weak cross, when the space under the dome opens only along the axis from to the altar. But on the side walls, even from the outside, the outlines of wide-standing arches are emphasized, on which a drum of impressive diameter is installed, providing spaciousness under the dome. Following Byzantine tastes is also noticeable in the ornamental motifs - in the window decorating the central apse.

At the same time, while fighting with Byzantium, essentially, in order to become its own worthy partner (in the end, the matter ended in marriage with the Byzantine princess), Nemanja actively entered into alliances with European monarchs: the Hungarian king and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. These contacts also influenced the appearance of Studenica. The marble cladding of the temple clearly demonstrates that its builders were well acquainted with the main trends of Western European architectural fashion. And the completion of the eastern facade, and the belts under the cornices, and the characteristic window openings with columns instead of pillars certainly make this Serbian monument related to the Romanesque, that is, Roman style.

6. Hagia Sophia

Kyiv, XI century

Hagia Sophia, Kyiv© DIOMEDIA

Hagia Sophia, Kyiv© DIOMEDIA

Domes of Hagia Sophia, Kyiv

Hagia Sophia, Kyiv

Mosaic depicting the Fathers of the Church in Hagia Sophia. 11th century

Our Lady of Oranta. Mosaic in the altar of the cathedral. 11th century Wikipedia Commons

Cathedral plan artyx.ru

The cathedral, built at the beginning of the 11th century (about exact dates scientists argue, but there is no doubt that it was completed and consecrated under Yaroslav the Wise), it cannot be called the first stone temple in Rus'. Back in 996, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, better known as the Tithe Church, appeared on the banks of the Dnieper. In 1240 it was destroyed by Batu Khan. The remains of the foundations, studied by archaeologists, indicate that it was she who formed, in modern terms, the typology of the Russian Orthodox church.

But, of course, the building that truly influenced the appearance of Orthodox architecture in the vastness of Rus' was St. Sophia of Kiev. Constantino-Polish masters created a huge temple in the capital city - one that had not been built for a long time in Byzantium itself.

The dedication to the Wisdom of God, of course, referred to the building of the same name on the banks of the Bosphorus, the center of the Eastern Christian world. Of course, the idea that the Second Rome could be replaced by the Third could not yet have been born. But each city, having acquired its own Sophia, to some extent began to lay claim to the title of the Second Constantinople. St. Sophia Cathedrals were built in Novgorod and Polotsk. But a century later, Andrei Bogolyubsky, building a majestic temple in Vladimir, which he saw as an alternative to Kyiv, dedicated it to the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary: obviously, this was a symbolic gesture, a manifesto of independence, including spiritual.

Unlike the dedication of the throne, the forms of this temple were never completely repeated. But many decisions have become practically mandatory. For example, drums on which domes are raised, and semicircular ones. For cathedrals, multi-domes became desirable (in St. Sophia of Kyiv, thirteen chapters were initially built, keeping in mind the Savior and the Apostles; then more were added). The basis of the design is the cross-dome system, when the weight of the dome is transferred through the pillars, and the adjacent spaces are covered either with vaults or smaller domes, which has also become the main one in domestic temple construction. And of course, continuous fresco painting of interiors began to be considered the norm. Here, however, some of the walls are covered with magnificent mosaics, and the flickering of gold foil sealed in smalt makes the light of the divine ether visible, inspiring sacred awe and setting believers in a prayerful mood.

Saint Sophia of Kiev demonstrates well the differences between the liturgical features of Western and Eastern Christians, for example, how the problem of accommodating the monarch and his entourage was solved differently. If in imperial cathedrals somewhere on the Rhine, a semblance of an altar (westwerk) was attached to the west, which symbolized the consent of secular and church authorities, then here the prince rose to the (polati), towering above his subjects.

But the main thing is the Catholic basilica, elongated along the axis, with a nave, transept and choir, as if implying a solemn procession. A Orthodox church, not being, as a rule, a centric structure in the strict sense (that is, fitting into a circle), nevertheless it always has a center, a space under the main dome, where, being in front of the altar barrier, the believer is in prayer. We can say that the Western temple is symbolically an image of the Heavenly Jerusalem promised to the righteous, the goal of the path. The eastern one rather demonstrates the spiritual structure of Creation, the creator and ruler of which is usually depicted at the zenith of the dome in the image of Pantocrator (Almighty).

7. Church of the Intercession on the Nerl

Bogolyubovo, Vladimir region, XII century

Church of the Intercession on the Nerl C K Leung / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Church of the Intercession on the Nerl C K Leung / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

King David. Facade relief C K Leung / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Fragment of carving on the facade C K Leung / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Fragment of carving on the facade C K Leung / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Plan of the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl kannelura.info

In the 12th century, many wonderful churches were built on the territory of the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality. However, it was this relatively small church that became almost the universal symbol of Russian Orthodoxy.

From the point of view of the architect of the Middle Ages, there was nothing special about it structurally; it was an ordinary four-pillar temple with a cross-domed roof. Except that the choice of construction site - on the water meadows, where the Klyazma and Nerl merged - forced the use of an unusually large amount of engineering work, filling up the hill and laying the foundations deep.

However, simple solutions led to the appearance of an absolutely wonderful image. The building turned out to be simple, but elegant, very slender and, accordingly, generating a whole complex of associations: Christian prayer flaming like a candle; the spirit ascending to the higher worlds; a soul communing with the Light. (In fact, the architects most likely did not strive for any accentuated harmony. Archaeological excavations have revealed the foundations of the gallery surrounding the temple. Historians are still arguing about what it looked like. The prevailing opinion is that it was an arched pylonade with a promenade now - a covered gallery - at the level of the second tier, where you can still see the door to the choir.)

The temple is white stone; in the Vladimir-Suzdal principality they preferred to abandon flat bricks () and build three-layer walls from smooth-hewn limestone slabs and backfill filled with lime mortar between them. The buildings, especially the unpainted ones, were striking in their radiant whiteness (in the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir today you can see the remains of the fresco painting of the arcature-columnar belt; after the reconstruction at the end of the 12th century, it ended up in the interior, but was intended as a colored decoration of the facade).

Perhaps the temple owes its beauty to the fact that it used the achievements of both Eastern Christian and Western European architectural schools. In terms of type, this is, of course, a building that continues the Byzantine traditions of temple construction: a holistic volume with semicircles of zakomaras and a bar on top. However, architectural historians have virtually no doubt that the construction was carried out by architects from the West (the 18th-century historian Vasily Tatishchev even claimed that they were sent at the disposal of Andrei Bogolyubsky by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa).

The participation of Europeans affected the appearance of the building. It turned out to be plastically elaborate; here they abandoned the simplified approach, when the facades are just planes, edges of an indivisible volume. Complex profiles create the effect of layer-by-layer immersion into the thickness of the wall - first to the expressive sculptural reliefs, and then further into the space of the temple, into the perspective slopes of narrow loophole windows. Such artistic techniques, when vertical rods protruding forward in steps become the background for full-fledged three-quarter columns, quite worthy of their ancient prototypes, are characteristic of works of the Romanesque style. The delightful masks, muzzles and chimeras that took on the weight of the arcature-columnar belt also would not have seemed alien somewhere on the banks of the Rhine.

Obviously, local craftsmen diligently adopted foreign experience. As stated in the chronicle “The Chronicler of Vladimir” (XVI century), for the construction of the next, large and stylistically similar Church of the Intercession on the Nerli, the construction of the Demetrius Cathedral in Vladimir, “they no longer looked for German craftsmen.”

8. St. Basil's Cathedral (Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the Moat)

Moscow, XVI century

Ana Paula Hirama / CC BY-SA 2.0

St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow Bradjward / CC BY-NC 2.0

Painting on the walls of the cathedral Jack / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Virgin and Child. Fragment of the cathedral painting Olga Pavlovsky / CC BY 2.0

Iconostasis of one of the altars Jack / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Fragment of the cathedral painting Olga Pavlovsky / CC BY 2.0

Cathedral plan Wikimedia Commons

Perhaps this is the most recognizable symbol of Russia. In any country, on any continent, his image can be used as a universal sign of everything Russian. And yet, in the history of Russian architecture there is no more mysterious building. It would seem that everything is known about him. And the fact that it was built by order of Ivan the Terrible in honor of the conquest of the Kazan Khanate. And the fact that construction took place in 1555-1561. And the fact that, according to the “Tale of the Holy Miracle-Working Velikoretsk Icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker about the Miracles from the Images of St. Jonah the Metropolitan and Reverend Father Alexander of Svir the Wonderworker” and the “Piskarevsky Chronicler”, it was built by Russian architects Postnik and Barma. And yet it is completely unclear why this building appeared, which was unlike anything built in Rus' before.

As you know, this is not a single temple, but nine separate churches and, accordingly, nine altars established on a common basis (later there were even more of them). Most of them are votive. Before the important battles of the Kazan campaign, the tsar turned to the saint whom the church honored on that day, and promised him, in case of victory, to build a temple where the helper saint would be venerated.

Although the temple is Orthodox, in some ways it is close to its Renaissance brethren from the Catholic world. First of all, in terms of plan, this is an ideal (with a small reservation) centric composition - such as was proposed by Antonio Filarete, Sebastiano Serlio and other outstanding theorists of Italian Renaissance architecture. True, the direction of the composition towards the sky and many decorative details - sharp “tongs”, for example - make it more closely related to South European Gothic.

However, the main thing is different. The building is decorated as never before in Moscow lands. It is also multi-colored: polychrome ceramic inserts have been added to the combination of red brick and white carving. And it is equipped with metal parts with gilding - forged spirals along the edges of the tent with freely suspended metal rings between them. And it was made up of many bizarre shapes, applied so often that there was almost no simple surface of the wall left. And all this beauty is primarily directed outward. It’s like a “church in reverse”; many people shouldn’t gather under its arches. But the space around it becomes a temple. As if at a minimum, Red Square acquired sacred status. Now she has become a temple, and the cathedral itself is her altar. Moreover, it can be assumed that, according to the plan of Ivan IV, the entire country was to become a sacred territory - the “Holy Russian Empire,” in the words of Tsar Kurbsky, who was then still part of the inner circle.

This was an important turn. While remaining faithful to Orthodoxy, Tsar Ivan saw it in a new way. In some ways this is close to the Renaissance aspirations of the Western world. Now it was necessary not to ignore the vanity of mortal reality in the hope of a happy existence after the end of time, but to respect the Creation given here and now, to strive to bring it to harmony and cleanse it from the filth of sin. In principle, the Kazan campaign was perceived by contemporaries not simply as an expansion of the territory of the state and the subjugation of previously hostile rulers. This was the victory of Orthodoxy and the bringing of the sacredness of the teachings of Christ to the lands of the Golden Horde.

The temple - unusually ornate (although initially crowned with more modest domes), symmetrical in plan, but triumphantly reaching towards the sky, not hidden behind the walls of the Kremlin, but placed in a place where people always crowd - became a kind of appeal from the Tsar to to his subjects, a visual image of the Orthodox Rus' that he would like to create and in the name of which he later shed so much blood.

Guilhem Vellut / CC BY 2.0

Consecration of the Alexander Nevsky Church in Paris. Illustration from the collection “Russian art sheet”. 1861 Metropolitan Museum of Art

Some churches, in addition to regular services, carry out a special mission - to worthily represent Orthodoxy in a different denominational environment. It was for this purpose that in 1856 the question of rebuilding the embassy church in Paris, previously located in the building of a former stable, was raised. Having overcome administrative difficulties and received permission from the French government (the war in Crimea, after all), construction of the building began in 1858 and was completed in 1861. It is clear that he had to become very Russian and Orthodox in spirit. However, architects Roman Kuzmin and Ivan Shtrom began designing even before the usual canons of manner a la Russe had been developed. It is rather eclecticism in the full sense of the word, a mixture of styles and national traditions- however, successfully fused into a single work.

In the interior there is an obvious reference to Byzantine traditions: the central volume is adjacent to mosaics covered with gold backgrounds (halves of dome ceilings), as, for example, in the Church of St. Sophia of Constantinople. True, there are not two of them, but four - a solution proposed by the Turkish builder Mimar Sinan. The plan of the building is given the shape of an equal-pointed Greek cross, whose arms are rounded on all sides thanks to the apses. Externally, the composition rather refers to the temple architecture of the times of Ivan the Terrible, when the building was made up of separate aisles-pillars, and the central part received a tent-roofed finish. At the same time, the building should not seem foreign to Parisians either: clear faceted forms, masonry made from local material, which is not entirely fair to call squirrel-stone, and, most importantly, the three-lobed outlines of the Gothic windows made the building completely at home in the capital of France .

In general, the architects managed to fuse the motley variety of styles into a single image, closest to the festive “pattern” of the 17th century, from the time of Alexei Mikhailovich.

On August 30 (September 11), 1861, in the presence of numerous guests, the building was consecrated. “Let’s say that this time the Parisians, especially the English and Italians, were unusually struck by the external, ritual form of Eastern worship, filled with greatness.<…>Everyone - Catholics and Protestants alike - seemed keenly touched by the grandeur of the Eastern rite, its ancient character, which inspires reverence. It was felt that this was truly a first-century Divine Service, the Divine Service of the Apostolic Men, and an involuntary disposition was born to love and honor the Church, which preserved this Divine Service with such respect” - this is how contemporaries perceived this event Barsukov N.P. Life and works of M.P. Pogodin. St. Petersburg, 1888-1906.

Fragment of carving on the facade© RIA Novosti

This is a small family church in the estate of the famous entrepreneur Savva Mamontov. And yet, in the history of Russian culture and Russian temple architecture, it occupies a special place. Having conceived the construction, the participants of the famous Abramtsevo circle Abramtsevo art (Mamontovsky) circle(1878-1893) - an artistic association that included artists (Antokolsky, Serov, Korovin, Repin, Vasnetsov, Vrubel, Polenov, Nesterov, etc.), musicians, theater workers. they sought to embody in this work the very spirit of Russian Orthodoxy, its ideal image. The sketch of the temple was created by the artist Viktor Vasnetsov and realized by the architect Pavel Samarin. Polenov, Repin, Vrubel, Antokolsky, as well as members of the Mamontov family, including its head, a successful amateur sculptor, took part in the work on the decoration.

Although the construction was undertaken for a very practical purpose - to build a church where residents of the surrounding villages could come - the main artistic task of this enterprise was the search for means of expressing the origins and specifics of Russian religiosity. “The rise in energy and artistic creativity was extraordinary: everyone worked tirelessly, competitively, selflessly. It seemed that the artistic impulse of creativity of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was again in full swing. But back then, cities, entire regions, countries, peoples lived with this impulse, but we only have Abramtsev, a small artistic friendly family and circle. But what's the problem? “I breathed deeply in this creative atmosphere,” wrote Natalya Polenova, the artist’s wife, in her memoirs N.V. Polenova. Abramtsevo. Memories. M., 2013..

In fact, the architectural solutions here are quite simple. This is a brick pillarless temple with a light drum. The main cube-shaped volume is laid out dryly, it has smooth walls and clear corners. However, the use of inclined (retaining walls), their complex shape, when the crowning, flatter part hangs like a tooth over the steep main one, gave the building an ancient, archaic appearance. Together with the characteristic belfry above the entrance and the lowered drum, this technique gives rise to strong associations with the architecture of ancient Pskov. Obviously, there, far from the bustle of metropolitan life, the initiators of the construction hoped to find the roots of the original Orthodox Slavic architecture, not spoiled by the dryness of the stylization solutions of the Russian style. The architecture of this temple was a remarkable anticipation of a new artistic direction. At the end of the century it came to Russia (analogous to European Art Nouveau, Art Nouveau and Secession). Among its variants was the so-called neo-Russian style, features of which can already be seen in Abramtsevo.

See also lecture "" and materials "" and "" from the course "". 

By mastering new technologies, a person changes the space around him, at the same time modernizing the material attributes of religion - the buildings of churches and temples. Such changes also affect the Orthodox environment, where the question of “modernizing” the church tradition of building churches is increasingly being raised. Catholics, on the contrary, are trying to take control of this process - not so long ago the Vatican officially stated: “Modern Catholic churches resemble museums and are built more with the aim of receiving an award for design than to serve the Lord...”. The works of Western architects are indeed often awarded in various professional competitions and awards; some of them later become widely known and become architectural symbols of cities.

We present to you photographs of modern churches built with elements of modernism and the “style of the future” - high-tech.

(Total 21 photos)

1. Protestant “Crystal” Cathedral in Garden Grove, Orange County, California, USA. This is the most famous example of the high-tech style, which involves straight lines in design and glass with metal as the main material. The temple is built from 10,000 rectangular glass blocks held together with silicone glue, and its design, according to the architects, is as reliable as possible.

2. The church can accommodate up to 2900 parishioners at a time. The organ located inside the Crystal Cathedral is truly wonderful. Operated from five keyboards, it is one of the largest organs in the world.

3. In many ways similar to the “Crystal” Cathedral, the Church of Light from Light (eng. Cathedral of Christ the Light) is a Catholic church in the city of Oakland, USA. The church is cathedral Diocese of Oakland, as well as the first Christian cathedral in the United States built in the 21st century. The temple has been widely discussed in the American press due to the significant construction costs, as well as the surrounding garden, which is dedicated to victims of sexual abuse by clergy.

4. Interior of the Church of Light from Light.

5. Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, often called simply Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, is the main Catholic church in Liverpool, Great Britain. The building is a striking example of architecture of the second half of the 20th century. Serves as the see of the Archbishop of Liverpool and also acts as a parish church.

6. The interior interior with state-of-the-art lighting will amaze both believers and atheists.

7. The Church of the Holy Cross in Denmark is impressive with the geometry of the building in a minimalist style and its location - almost in the middle of a field.

8. Built in the late 90s, the Catholic church in the city of Evry (France) is called the Cathedral of the Resurrection. Pay attention to the floral decor in the form of green bushes located on the roof of the building.

9. The Church of the Merciful God the Father in Rome is a major social center of the Italian capital. This futuristic building is specially located in one of the residential areas in order to architecturally “revive” it. Precast reinforced concrete was used as a building material.

10. Hallgrimskirja - Lutheran church in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. This is the fourth tallest building in the entire country. The church was designed in 1937 by architect Goodjoun Samuelson, and it took 38 years to build. Although the building was created long before the expansion of high-tech into the world of architecture, in our opinion, general form temple and its unusual shape make it very interesting example modernism. The church is located in the very center of Reykjavik, visible from any part of the city, and its upper part is also used as an observation deck. The temple became one of the capital's main attractions.

11. In the center of Strasbourg, France, a modern cathedral is being built, which still only has a “working” name: Folder. Consisting of a series of pleated arches, the building would look extremely original as a venue for Catholic ceremonies, such as weddings.

12. Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of St. Joseph was built in Chicago (USA) in 1956. It is known throughout the world for its 13 golden domes, which symbolize Jesus himself and the 12 apostles.

13. Church of Santo Volto in Turin (Italy). The design of the new church complex is part of the program of transformations provided for in the 1995 Turin master plan.

14. St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco is a fairly avant-garde building, but local architects call it a "reasonable conservative option."

15. The minimalist Church of Light was built in 1989, designed by famous Japanese architect Tadao Ando, ​​in a quiet residential area in the suburbs of Osaka, Japan. Inner space The Church of Light is visually separated by rays of light coming from a cross-shaped hole in one of the walls of the building.

16. In the center of Los Angeles is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The church serves a general archdiocese of more than 5 million Catholics. It is in this temple that the archbishop conducts the main liturgies.

17. Harissa Church in the capital of Lebanon - Beirut. It consists of 2 parts: a bronze statue of the Holy Virgin Mary weighing fifteen tons, located at an altitude of 650 meters above sea level, made in the Byzantine style. There is a small chapel inside the statue.

18. The second part of the Harissa Church is a futuristic cathedral made of glass and concrete. This complex is real christian symbol in a somewhat unusual environment for him. It is also called the "Banner of Christianity in the Middle East."

19. The building, unusual in shape, materials and general concept, is the relatively recently built Catholic Church of Santa Monica. The temple is located an hour's drive from Madrid (Spain).

20. Interior of the Church of Santa Monica.

21. To conclude our review - a completely unconventional Trinity Church in the traditional and conservative capital of Austria - Vienna. The Church of the Holy Trinity (German: Kirche Zur Heiligsten Dreifaltigkeit) in Vienna, better known as the Church of the Holy Trumpets, is located on Mount Sankt Georgenberg. Built in 1974, the Temple belongs to the Roman Catholic Church. Due to the complete inconsistency with traditional church forms, the construction of the building, of course, met significant resistance from local residents.