| |
In 989 Kiev, the mother of Russian cities
and the center of Eastern Slavic civilization, received its first stone church,
named and dedicated to the Virgin (Mary Magdalene, the mother of Jesus Christ).
The construction was commissioned by the Grand Duke Vladimir and built and
decorated by Byzantine builders and masters. The ceremony of consecration took
place in 992 in the presence of Vladimir, who endowed the church with a tenth
part of his revenue. Because of this endowment the people started calling the
church Desyatinaya (The Church of the Tithe), a name under which it has been
known ever since. The basic plan of the church was what is called in Russian
"Krestovo-kupol'nii khram", a form of Greek cross, surmounted by a
large central cupola and several smaller cupola, as the Chronicle stated,
between the arms of the cross. The church had six pillars that divided it into
a nave and two aisles, all three ending in semicircular apses on the eastern
side. The central cupola dominated the others, which were smaller and placed
lower, each crowned with a large cross giving the church an imposing and
pyramidal contour turned toward the skies. The interior of the church was
richly decorated with mosaics and frescoes, and the bottom part of the walls
and pillars were covered with marble. It served as a model for many churches
that were built in Kievan Rus, including Saint Cyril and the Uspensky Cathedral
in the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev.
In the same year of 989 Novgorod received its first wooden church and
three years later a large wooden church was built in Yaroslav. Undoubtedly
Russian artisans built their wooden churches by themselves, without any help
from foreigners. Through several centuries the Russian north was the center of
wooden construction. Enormous forests in the area offered limitless quantities
of wood to anyone who wanted it. Since most of the people had to build their
own homes, carpentry became a part-time occupation of almost everybody. In all
probability the first forms in Russian wooden construction were determined by
some existing traditions.
|
|
