Download Architecture at the second half of the 11th century and the beginning

Architecture at the second half of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th century
The stone construction of this period was primarily concentrated in Kiev. The underlying reason for the
development of architecture was the process of further intensification of Christianization, which found
its manifestation mainly in active building of monasteries. After the death of Yaroslav the Wise in 1054,
the scene of active construction was dominated by his sons, Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, and Vsevolod. At the
end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th centuries, many buildings were connected with the name
of Vladimir Monomakh, a grandson of Yaroslav the Wise. Princes' construction was mostly located in
the so called ancestral monasteries, that is, the patrimonial, family monasteries that were regarded as
family burial vaults by the particular branch of the prince's family that the patron descended from. The
princes’ construction effort, one might say, laid the main course for the development of architecture of
that period. Apart from princes, building work was also commissioned by church leaders. The buildings
erected on their commission can often be traced back to architectural models that were located beyond
Rus', in Byzantium, and were often exceptionally original. Such were the churches of the Virgin in the
Klovsky Monastery in Kiev and the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael in Pereyaslavl. The monastic
churches of course played a different role in the urban architectural ensemble as compared to the Holy
Sophia Cathedrals of the 1030s-50s, which were the main city cathedrals. Hence the large size, capacity
and the imposing look of the latter. Functions of the monastic churches were different: they were
smaller in size and less ambitious in design. Condition of the churches built in that period leaves much to
be desired; especially unfortunate is the loss of the upper parts, the tops. This makes reconstruction of
the drums, their number and structure especially problematic.
The scene of monastery construction in this period was as follows. In the 1060s, the foundation was laid
for the cathedral of St. Dmitry's Monastery (the building did not survive). In 1070, Prince Vsevolod
initiated construction of St. Michael's Cathedral in Vydubychi (partly survived). In 1073, construction
started of the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kiev Pechersk Monastery (destroyed in 1941 and
restored in our time). Then Prince Svyatoslav laid the foundation of the tomb church dedicated to St.
Boris and St. Gleb in Izhgorod (known only from archaeological data). In the 1070s-80s, Hegumen Stefan
started the Church of the Virgin in the Klovsky Monastery, which was only completed in 1108 (known
from the data obtained by the excavations). In 1086, St. Andrew’s Cathedral in the Yanchin Monastery
was built. In 1108, the foundation was laid for the cathedral in St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery.
Archaeological data gives us information about the stone churches on the territory of the Art Institute in
Kiev, the refectory of the Kiev Pechersk Monastery, two churches in the Zarubsky Monastery near Kiev
and some others. Among the relatively well-preserved is the Gate Church of the Trinity in the Kiev
Pechersk Monastery built around 1106. Behind the facade decorated in the Ukrainian Baroque style
there remains a square in plan, four-pillared, one-domed building of a small church that used to rise
above the triple entryway of the Holy Gates. Among the churches listed above, a special place belongs
to the Church of the Assumption at the Kiev Pechersk Monastery.
The Kiev-Pechersk Patericon, the monastery chronicle, tells us about a miraculous appearance to the
Reverend Feodosy of four architects who, according to their own words, were sent by the Mother of
God herself to build the monastery cathedral. For measuring depth, length and width, they used the belt
that had been donated to the monastery by the Varangian jarl Shiman. The Cathedral of the Assumption
is a six-pillared, one-domed church with a U-shaped choir gallery and three polygonal apses. It is 35.5 m
long, 24 m wide, with the side of the domed square of about 8.5 m. In the north-west corner of the
church there is a baptistery, a small four-pillar, one-domed chapel. The six-pillar structure of the building
can be explained by the similar structure of the main building of the Church of the Tithes. In general, the
structural and spatial concept of the building if compared to the Holy Sophia Cathedrals of the 1030s50s looks much simpler, and this simplification and reduction in size can be regarded as a phenomenon
characteristic for the architecture of this period as a whole. Almost all buildings of the second half of the
11th and the beginning of the 12th centuries follow this model both in plan and in their structural and
spatial design. According to the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon, the Cathedral of the Assumption had become
the model for building similar churches in other towns. In 1070-80, Hegumen Stefan who had left the
Kiev Pechersk Monastery, founded a monastery in Klov and laid the foundation for the Church of the
Virgin, taking as a model the famous Vlahern church of Constantinople. The church did not survive, and
the plan is reconstructed on the basis of archaeological data. According to one of the reconstructed
variants, this was a church with a dome on eight supports; the diameter of the dome - 9.5 m. There
were no churches of similar design in Rus' either before or after the church of Hegumen Stefan. This
original concept is most probably connected with a special cultural outlook of the patron who chose for
a model a church design unknown in Rus'. Of the cathedral of the Vydubychi Monastery that was started
in 1070, only the western part is still extant. The church received its modern look in 1766-69. The nonextant eastern part of the building was successfully identified during the excavations that were held in
1945. The apses of the church are completely ruined. The inner structure of the building is
reconstructed as a church on six or eight pillars with a narthex in the western part and a tower with the
staircase to the choir gallery in its western part. The tower slightly protrudes beyond the line of the
northern facade. In 1199, in the Vydubychi Monastery a highly significant event for the history of
architecture happened: here they erected an unusual hydraulic structure - the retaining wall. The
chronicler in enthusiastic tone speaks about the person who commissioned this structure, Prince Rurik
Rostislavich, who had "insatiable love for buildings", i.e. was an ardent patron of construction - a
remarkable quality for a statesman. The need to build a retaining wall was connected with the fact that
the Dnieper, coming up to the wall surrounding the monastery, was eroding the bank and threatening to
destroy the Church of St. Michael. The chronicler even names the architect - Petr Milaneg, and adds - a
friend of the Prince. This is one of the few names of architects from the pre-Mongol period known to
us. According to the chronicle, the citizens of Kiev were very interested in the wall and praised it with
enthusiasm. Unfortunately, no traces of this wall have survived to our time.
A special place should be given to the history of church building in Izhgorod, which is now a suburb of
Kiev. Here in the time of Yaroslav the Wise the remains of his brothers Boris and Gleb killed by
Svyatopolk the Accursed were buried. Later, as you may know, Boris and Gleb were canonized. The
written sources tell in detail the history of church construction in Izhgorod. In the 11th and the
beginning of the 12th centuries we find records concerning three wooden churches that were built one
after another: a small cellular church, a large five-domed church, and a one-domed church of 1072.
Shortly before his death, Prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich laid foundation for a stone church in Izhgorod,
which was intended as a tomb for Boris and Gleb; but he died before the church was built and it was
only completed under his son, Oleg Svytoslavich, in 1115. On May 1-2, 1115, the church was
consecrated in the presence of the secular and religious leaders of the highest rank. And the coffins
containing the relics of Boris and Gleb were moved there. This church was demolished as early as the
17th century, and only archaeological data can give us some idea as to its characteristics. The church
was rather large and elongated in plan. Its dimensions: 24 x 42 m (in plan). This is the largest building of
the second half of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th centuries. The eight-pillared design of the
interior and the shift of the corner square towards the center distinguish this church from among the
other buildings of that time. Among the churches that did not survive is the cathedral of St. Michael's
Golden-Domed Monastery that was started by Svyatopolk in 1108. The building was demolished in the
1930s. The plan of the church follows the established tradition: this is a church on six pillars with three
apses and a narthex that had in the northern part a tower with a staircase leading to the choir loft.
Outside, by the south-west corner of the main building, there was a small four-pillared baptistery church
erected at the same time as the main building. The compact, slightly elongated along the west-east axis
main building of the church was surmounted with, most probably, one dome. The semicircular gables
called "zakomari", placed at the same level, emphasized the integrity and clarity of the church's
composition. Inside, the walls were decorated with mosaics and mural paintings. The central apse was
decorated with magnificent - as far as artistic merits are concerned - extant mosaic composition called
the "Eucharist" that was taken down before the demolition of the church and moved to the Holy Sophia
Cathedral. The mosaic image of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki was moved to the Tretyakov Gallery. Quite
recently, in the 1990s, the cathedral of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery was recreated in the
style of the Ukrainian Baroque of the 17th and the 18th centuries.
The construction techniques of that period followed the traditions of the 1030s-50s. Builders used the
opus mixtum technique with plinfa brick and stone set in crushed-brick mortar. An outstanding
phenomenon in the architecture of the 12th century was the construction of the Transfiguration
Cathedral in the prince's village of Berestovo located near the Kiev Pechersk Monastery. Building of this
church is connected with the name of Vladimir Monomakh and the time of his rule in Kiev between
1113 and 1125. There is a theory that it was built at an earlier date, which, however, does not fall
outside the time period under consideration. At the beginning of the 20th century, this church, which
has survived to our time but with considerable alteration of its original look (the changes date back to
the period from the 17th to the 19th century), was restored by a great expert in this field, Petr
Pokryshkin. It turned out that only the western part of the original church was intact. The excavations
exposed the central and the eastern parts of the church, cross-shaped pillars, and vestibules. The layout
of the plan was traditional for the time: a three-nave church; a narthex, with its ends slightly protruding
beyond the line of the northern and southern walls. The narthex housed the baptistery and the tower
with the staircase. A characteristic feature of the church's spatial composition is the presence of
vestibules, i.e. small extensions at the western, southern and, probably, northern entrances to the
church. It turned out that the western vestibule and the two others, most probably, had a very unusual
trefoil-shaped ceiling system. This system combined elements of the brick vault with wooden beams,
which would seem to contradict the logic of architecture, but in the pre-Mongol period and even later,
wood was a trusted material, wood was used in the foundations, in the understructure of many
buildings. The structural ties used to support the walls and ceilings were made of wood, and here we
have wood used in the vaulted system, wooden beams that are essential for the trefoil-shaped ceiling
construction. It is quite possible that the facades of the main body had a similar trefoil-shaped
superstructure as well, but the reconstruction of the top of the building remains problematic. The
facades of the building were decorated by the double and triple recessed niches. This is a continuation
of the earlier tradition. Among the decorative elements were also crosses laid out of plinfa brick, and
the key pattern band. Unlike other buildings of the period, the Church of the Transfiguration in
Berestovo has walls made entirely of plinfa brick; and using the technique with the "hidden layer", a
kind of sub-technique of opus mixtum that uses entirely plinfa brick masonry with a hidden layer of
brick. No stones are present on the facades. One can see in this as a sign of transition to a new
technique of masonry, a regular-course masonry without the hidden layer, which was replacing opus
mixtum in the 1120s-30s.
On building in other towns of that period
At the end of the 11th century, for example, in Chernigov, small four-pillar church intended as a family
burial vault was built by order of Vladimir Monomakh. Another stone building of unknown purpose was
found below the Cathedral of St. Boris and St. Gleb. There is certain evidence to suggest that stone
construction during this period was also conducted in Polotsk. Polotsk churches that are known due to
excavations are dated over a wide time range. The beginning of the 12th century is marked by intensive
construction work in Novgorod, but this is a separate topic that we are going to discuss later. Worthy of
special mention is construction work in Pereyaslavl-Yuzhny. Here, at the end of the 11th century,
Metropolitan Efrem initiated large-scale stone construction. For the year 1089, the chronicle lists a
whole number of constructed buildings; among them were St. Michael's Cathedral, a stone wall around
the bishop's courtyard with a Gate Church of St. Feodor, the Church of St. Andrew by the gate and a
stone bathhouse - a building, according to the chronicler, never seen in Rus' before. A number of
buildings probably appeared upon the initiative of Vladimir Monomakh who was Prince of Pereyaslavl at
the end of the 12th century. Unfortunately, no buildings have survived above the ground in Pereyaslavl
from that period. They are all known to us as a result of excavations. Worthy of note here is the great
contribution to architectural and archaeological studies of Pereyaslavl monuments made by the
expedition from St. Petersburg State University headed by Mikhail Karger. The main church of the town
was the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, which resembles in plan the Byzantine models that had not
been hitherto known in Rus'. Like the Church of the Virgin in Klov, that church had no analogues in Old
Russian architecture either before or afterwards. Its vast dimensions and rich interior decoration set it
apart from other Pereyaslavl buildings and allow for a comparison with the buildings of the 1030s-50s,
with the Holy Sophia Cathedrals. Other buildings in Pereyaslavl also differ from Kiev ones, sometimes
considerably. They are rather small, with no pillars or two pillars, obviously not the cross-domed type.
They are rather parish churches or churches that served as burial vaults. The construction technique is
similar to the one used in Kiev, but of a radically different typology. The original character of Pereyaslavl
buildings is already obvious from the archaeological data. Here, probably, a different building team
worked, not the Kiev one, a different building association, if we use a more modern term. Construction
in Pereyaslavl is a prelude to the 12th century, when under the conditions of feudal disunity a special
regional kind of architectural movement is formed – a school of architecture.