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, this complex composition from the 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 appearance before the throne. Here the basilicas become the arms 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 as the main temple of all Eastern Christian churches, but also as a building in which the 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” of the catholicon - Church of the Assumption Holy Mother of God. 11th century

Katholikon is the cathedral church of the monastery.

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 Blessed Virgin Mary if the prophecy came true and he took the throne Byzantine Emperor. Stauro-pygian status Most high status 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 of the 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 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 of Iran. The filigree decoration on the surface of the walls is due to high level skills 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. And an Orthodox church, not being, as a rule, a centric structure in the strict sense (that is, fitting into a circle), nevertheless always has a center, a space under the main dome, where, being in front of the altar barrier, the believer is in prayer. upcoming 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 water meadows, where the Klyazma and Nerl merged - forced the use of an unusually large volume engineering work, fill up the hill and lay the foundations deep.

However simple solutions led to the appearance of an absolutely miraculous 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 revealed the foundations of the gallery surrounding the temple. Historians are still arguing about what she looked like. The prevailing opinion is that it was an arched pylon with a gulbi - 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 stepwise forward become the background for full-fledged three-quarter columns, quite worthy of their ancient prototypes, 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, the visual image of that Orthodox Rus', which he would like to create and in the name of which he later shed so much blood.

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. sought to embody in this work the very spirit of Russian Orthodoxy, its perfect 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, they 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 the 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. Controlled from five keypads, it is one of the most... large 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 the cathedral of the Diocese of Oakland and the first Christian cathedral in the United States to be 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 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, the general appearance of the temple and its unusual shape make it a very interesting example of 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 a program of transformations provided by master plan developments in Turin from 1995

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. The interior space of the Church of Light is visually divided 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 a real Christian symbol in a somewhat unusual setting. It is also called the "Banner of Christianity in the Middle East."

19. Unusual in shape, materials and general concept The building is the relatively recently built Santa Monica Catholic Church. 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.

An analysis of the historical evolution of Russian Orthodox church building and an assessment of modern problems in this area of ​​architecture are given. Issues of formation are considered in connection with religious doctrine, with the state of piety in a particular era. Special sections are devoted to the interaction of the architecture of the temple and its surroundings.

Introduction (A.S. Shchenkov)

Section I. Historical sketch of Russian Orthodox church building

Chapter 1. Some general trends in the formation of the image of an Orthodox church(L.S. Shchenkov)

Chapter 2. Temple of the pre-Mongol era(T.N. Vyatchanina)
The cultural situation in Rus' during the period of the beginning of temple construction
St. Sophia Cathedrals
Temples of the Vladimir-Suzdal land and the Russian temple-building paradigm of the 12th century.

Chapter 3. Early Moscow architecture and hesychasm(T.N. Vyatchanina)
Culture of time. Hesychasm
Culture-forming potential of hesychast teachings
Typology and figurative concept of the internal space of an early Moscow temple
Light in the architecture of an early Moscow temple
High iconostasis
Tectonics and plasticity of the early Moscow temple

Chapter 4. Spiritual and religious life of Rus' in the second half of the 15th-16th centuries. and its architectural reflection in the tradition of temple building(T.N. Vyatchanshsh)
"Josephites" and "non-covetous" The paths of the Russian architectural and iconographic tradition of the XV - first half XVI V. in the light of these spiritual currents
Main trends of Russian religious life in the XV - first half of the XVI century.
Some “projections” of new trends in piety onto the artistic thinking of the era
Forms of interaction between spiritual and architectural processes in temple building in the 15th - first half of the 16th centuries.
“Russian Sovereign Orthodoxy” and its reflection in the national temple tradition of the 16th century.
Power ideology
The influence of “sovereign” consciousness on the artistic thinking of the era
Mechanism and stages of adding elements national language in official temple architecture of the 16th century.

Chapter 5. Temple construction in the 17th century.(T.N. Vyatchanina)
Cultural-religious consciousness and temple construction of the first half and mid-17th century.
Some features of the cultural and religious consciousness of the era
Posad parish church of the first half - mid-17th century. and Russian socio-religious consciousness
Architectural enterprises of Patriarch Nikon
“Spiritual restructuring” of the second half and end of the 17th century and its “projections” on temple architecture
Features of cultural and religious consciousness of time
Architectural imprinting of new features of spiritual consciousness in the second half of the 17th century
Decorativism of the second half of the 17th century and its speculative foundations

Chapter 6. Temples in the 18th - first third of the 19th centuries.(A.S. Shchenkov)
The nature of church piety of the synodal era of the 18th - first third of the 19th centuries
Characteristic features of temple construction

Chapter 7. Architecture of temples 1830-1910s(A.S. Shchenkov)
General cultural and church prerequisites for changes in the direction of temple construction in the second quarter of the 19th century.
The search for new architectural expression in the middle of the century
Temple construction and views on church art in the 1870-1890s
Changes in artistic culture and in the church's view of church building at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries.
Temple construction of the late XIX - early XX centuries.
Some results of the historical review of Russian temple construction

Chapter 8. Temple in a Russian city of the 11th-20th centuries(A.S. Shchenkov)
Pre-Petrine period
City of classicism
City of the mid-19th - early 20th centuries

Section II. Orthodox church in Russia at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries

Chapter 9 Modern church building in Russia
General cultural situation and some features of church consciousness at the end of the 20th century. (A.S. Shchenkov)
Methodological problems in the analysis of modern Orthodox church building (A.S. Shchenkov)
The practice of domestic temple construction (A.S. Shchenkov)
Iconography and tectonics of temples
Volume-spatial structure of temples
Character of the interiors
Foreign practice of Orthodox church building (K.V. Rytsarev)

Chapter 10. Temples in new residential areas of the late XX - beginning of the XXI V.(N.E. Antonova)
Temples and urban verticals in Russian cities of the 20th century
Temples in the development structure of new areas
The temple and its immediate architectural surroundings

Chapter 11. Temples in reconstructed historical quarters(N.E. Antonova)
Temples as compositional dominants in the historical part of the city
Architectural and spatial interaction of temples and surroundings in historical urban areas
Using the features of temple architecture in the image of modern town-planning dominants

Conclusion (A.S. Shchenkov)

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, furnished, ready upper room” (Mark 14:15; Luke 22:12) it was prepared, that is, arranged in a special way, and it took place last supper The Lord Jesus Christ with His disciples. 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, specially designed rooms in residential buildings continued to serve as Christian churches. 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 addition, in the chapels there was a cathedra (seat) of the bishop behind the altar, in front of the altar there was a salt, then followed middle part of the temple, and behind it is 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.

Confession Christian Church and the cessation of persecution against her 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 ecclesiastical 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 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.

Temples in the Orthodox Church were built in different ways, but each temple symbolically corresponded 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 the 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 churches of mixed types: cruciform in appearance, but round inside, in the center of the cross, or rectangular in outer shape, and round inside, in the middle part.

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 pillars of truth, which corresponds to the word of the 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 consciousness ancient Russian man, leading 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: Kyiv Saint Sophia Cathedral, Sophia of Novgorod, the Vladimir Assumption Cathedral were deliberately built in the likeness of the St. Sophia Cathedral of Constantinople. While preserving the general and basic architectural features of Byzantine churches, Russian churches have much that is original and unique. IN Orthodox Russia Several distinctive architectural styles emerged. 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. painting Kyiv Sofia 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 celestial 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 times church symbols as an 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) - the “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 a liturgical version. The next row of painting - the holy order - contributes to the experience of the spiritual co-presence of the creators Orthodox worship- Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Gregory Dvoeslov. Thus, already the first Kyiv 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 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 everything, is clearly visible. further development church temple construction.

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 colors are especially common glazed tiles. Another direction more actively used elements of both Western European, Ukrainian, and Belarusian church architecture with their fundamentally new for Rus' compositional structures and stylistic motifs of the Baroque. By the end of the 17th century, the second trend gradually became dominant. Stroganov architectural school draws attention Special attention on 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. Like some kind of harbinger new era Peter's reforms, the activities of a number of Moscow architects of the late 17th century are perceived - Osip Startsev (Krutitsky Teremok in Moscow, St. Nicholas Military Cathedral and Cathedral Brotherhood Monastery in Kyiv), 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. However, to achieve organic synthesis in XVIII-XIX centuries failed. Since the 30s of the 19th century, interest in Byzantine architecture has gradually revived. Only to end of the 19th century century and in the 20th century, attempts are being 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.

One of the main properties of God is His omnipresence, so pray Orthodox Christian you can do it anywhere, anywhere.

But there are places of the exclusive presence of God, where the Lord is in a special, gracious way. Such places are called temples of God or churches.

The symbolism of the temple explains to believers the essence of the temple as the beginning of the future Kingdom of Heaven, puts before them the image of this Kingdom, using visible architectural forms and means of pictorial decoration in order to make the image of the invisible, heavenly, divine accessible to our senses.

Architecture is not able to adequately recreate the heavenly prototype, if only because only some holy people during earthly life were awarded a vision of the Heavenly Kingdom, the image of which, according to their explanations, cannot be expressed in any words. For most people, this is a mystery that is only slightly revealed in the Holy Scriptures and Church Tradition. Temple - there is also an image Universal Church, its basic principles and structure. In the Creed the Church is called “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.”

In some way, these features of the Church can be reflected in temple architecture.

A temple is a consecrated building in which believers praise God, thank Him for the blessings they have received and pray to Him for their needs. The central, most often the most majestic churches, in which clergy from other nearby churches gather for common ceremonial services, are called cathedrals, or simply cathedrals.

According to subordination and location, temples are divided into:

Stauropegial- temples under direct management His Holiness Patriarch and the Synod.

Cathedral- are the main churches for the ruling bishops of a particular diocese.

Parish— churches in which services are held for local parishes (a parish is a community of Orthodox Christians consisting of clergy and laity united at a church).

Cemetery- located either on the territory of cemeteries or in close proximity to them. A special feature of cemetery churches is that funeral services are constantly performed here. The duty of local clergy is to perform lithiums and memorial services for those buried in the cemetery at the request of relatives. The temple building has its own architectural appearance, established over centuries, with its deep symbolism.

European classification of architectural styles.

Architecture of the ancient world
• Egypt
• Mesopotamia, etc.
Antique architecture
• Greek
• Roman
Medieval architecture
• Byzantine
• Romanskaya
• Gothic
Architecture of the New Age
• Renaissance
• Baroque and Rococo
• Classicism and Empire
• Eclecticism or Historicism
• Art Nouveau, also known as Art Nouveau, Art Nouveau, Secession, etc.
Architecture of modern times
• Constructivism
• Art Deco
• Modernism or International Style
• High tech
• Postmodernism
• Variety of modern styles

In fact, there are practically no pure styles in architecture; they all exist simultaneously, complementing and enriching each other. Styles do not mechanically replace one another, they do not become obsolete, do not appear out of nowhere and do not disappear without a trace. In any architectural style there is something of the previous and future style. Attributing a building to a certain architectural style, we must understand that this is a conditional characteristic, since each work of architecture is unique and inimitable in its own way.

In order to attribute a building to a specific style, we need to select the main, in our opinion, feature. It is clear that such a classification will always be approximate and imprecise. Medieval Russian architecture does not fit into the European classification in any way. Let's move on to Russian temple architecture.

Rus' accepted from Byzantium the established Orthodox religion, which already had various types of temples. The lack of a tradition of stone construction in Rus' did not allow us to take the complex capital system of the domed Byzantine basilica as a basis. The four- and six-pillar cross-domed type of provincial Byzantine church became the model for Russian churches.