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Of interest for us is the well-known
Gheorghievski (Saint George) cathedral built just on the other side of the
Volkhov in the Yuriev Monastery in 1119. As the Novgorod Chronicle of much
later mentioned that Prince Vsyevolod commissioned Peter (his family name was
not given) to do the job. He did it with great skill and produced a very
impressive, austere and asymmetric, and at the same time rhythmic construction,
a true masterpiece of the early 12th century Russian architecture. Beautiful
natural landscape surrounding the cathedral makes it even more distinctive. Its
features are very similar architecturally to the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas,
while its silhouette reminds us of the cathedral of the Nativity of the
Antoniev monastery. Gheorghievski cathedral has also three cupolas at exactly
the same places as the cathedral of the Nativity and yet they differ. Here the
staircase tower is an organic part of the west facade with both its corners,
northwestern, where the tower is located, and the southwestern, which is part
of the cathedral itself, looking identical. The unusual basic architectural
similarity of the three cathedrals and the very close times of their
construction have made it more likely that master Peter had built all three.
Fragments of the original frescoes that had survived repeated restorations
indicate that they had also been painted by Byzantine masters, eventually
helped by their Russian pupils from Kiev. Throughout its history Yuriev
monastery played an important role in the religious, and often in social and
political life of the country. Many prominent Russians and even tsars visited
the monastery, in addition to thousands of simple pilgrims. Some contributions
to the monastery amounted to large sums of money such as the one given by
countess Anna the only daughter who inherited a large fortune from her father
Count Alexei Orloff, the hero of the war with Turkey in 1769-1774 and a great
favorite of Empress Catherine II. The sudden death of the countess in the
monastery under suspicious conditions was sarcastically commented upon in Saint
Petersburg. Several of its abbots were among the best educated Russians and
their prestige rated very high in Saint Petersburg. One of the best known was
Fotii who exerted a great influence on Alexander I. He was so confident of his
power that when Nicholas I visited the monastery in 1835, Fotii put his hand
under the Emperor's chin to kiss it. Nicholas refused and later arranged that
the abbot be severely reprimanded. After the revolution the monastery was
liquidated, and its buildings used for housing and storage. The cathedral and
the churches were allowed to deteriorate. In the mid thirties some
archeological work was done, and then the war came, bringing once more complete
indifference to this extraordinary monument of ancient Russian architecture.
When I visited it in 1969, weeds were growing on the windows and the roof of
the cathedral and it looked completely dilapidated inside and outside.
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