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The Church of the Miracle of the Virgin at
Dubravitsi, near the town of Pololsk, built in 1690-1704 by Prince Boris
Alexeyevich Golitsin is most surprising and peculiar. The prince was a very
educated and liberal man, and was for several years tutor to Peter the Great.
He sided with the future emperor in his struggle for power against his
twin-sister, Princess Sophia. This close relationship with the emperor explains
why Golitsin ventured to build on his family estate a truly strange church that
must have astonished Russia with its fantastic appearance, so unusual and
contrary to Russian architectural tradition. Its cross-shaped base with rounded
forms is surmounted by a two-story octagonal tower crowned not by a Russian
cupola but by a delicately interlaced and gilded crown with a cross on the top
of it. Three monumental stairways lead to the main porches of the church. The
entire structure is built of white stone and very richly decorated with carved
ornaments that even include statues on the sides of he portals. Most of
decorative ideas were borrowed from Italy, and some from France. The interior
is as richly ornamented as the exterior. Its striking innovation is an absence
of frescoes, which were replaced for the first time by religious reliefs and
sculptures, showing the episodes and scenes that we usually see in frescoed
churches. Originally the inscriptions under each composition were written in
Latin; they were replaced by Russian letters only when the church was renovated
in the 19th century.. This unique architectural monument shared the destiny of
thousands of others after the revolution, and now weeds grow in several places
where blocks of carved stone join together. It is dilapidated even by Soviet
standards.
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