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We have mentioned that Prince Yurii
Dolgoruky erected the first stone cathedral at Yuriev-Polski. He built another
three churches at about the same time, all of them resembling one another very
much, suggesting that they could have been constructed by the same builders.
The one in Vladimir, also dedicated to Saint George, did not survive. The
remaining two are the church of Saints Boris and Gleb in the village of
Kideksha and the Cathedral Spaso Preobrazhensky (The Transfiguration of the
Savior) at Pereslavl-Zaleskii. The year 1152 is given for all four as the
beginning of construction. They were all small and squat, looking like a cube
made of white stone with four piers supporting a single cupola and three
semicircular apses projecting from the eastern end. Their heavy bare and very
solid walls, divided by pilasters, gave these churches a simple and rather
severe aspect. Their deeply recessed windows looked much like crenels. This was
the common type of church built in this part of Russia in the 12th century, of
course, with the exception of those very few highly decorated that we have
already described. The two remaining churches were damaged and restored several
times, and on each occasion they underwent some changes and redecoration. Their
interiors were entirely covered with frescoes, but only a few fragments from
the 12th century are still visible. Neither do we see those that were painted
in the 15 the or the 17th centuries, and Soviet critics prefer not to mention
them. As in most other churches unfinished excavations and dilapidated walls
are all that is left of their ancient glory. We know that religious authorities
did not always take good care of their churches and that sometimes they were
overzealous to modernize them, but until the nineteen-twenties services were
held there. Why, we ask ourselves, did their Iconostasis, icons, chandeliers,
church vessels, even their floors and hundreds of other church objects have to
be pulled down and destroyed. Very rarely a few items were taken to museums,
usually after risky and painful supplications of those who only wanted to
preserve national heritage. We have photos of both churches in our sections on
Suzdal and Periayaslavl respectively.
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