Cathedral of Saint Vladimir in Kyiv was the first Neo-Byzantine design approved for construction in the Russian Empire (1852). It was not the first to be completed though, since construction started in 1859 and continued until 1889.
The style originated in the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century. The founder of this style is considered to be
Neo-Byzantine style
.
Russian-Byzantine style became an officially endorsed preferred architectural style for church construction during the reign of Alexander II of Russia (1855–1881). Although Alexander III changed state preferences in favor of late Russian Revival, Neo-Byzantine architecture flourished during his reign (1881–1894) and continued to be used until the outbreak of World War I. Émigré architects who settled in the Balkans and in Harbin after the Russian Revolution worked on Neo-Byzantine designs there until World War II.
Initially, Byzantine architecture buildings were concentrated in
Nicholas II
.
History
Background
Church of Dmitry Solunsky in Saint Petersburg (1861–1866) by Roman Kuzmin – an earliest example of the style
The last decade of
Neo-Renaissance
by Thon) while new church projects leaned towards Thon's "Album of model designs" or neoclassicism.
The reign of Nicholas I was marked by persistent expansion of Russia – either in the form of
Eastern Question. Nicholas shared his predecessors' aspirations for the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, and engaged in a dispute with France for control over Holy Land shrines, which provoked the Crimean War. The eastern policies of the state aroused public interest and sponsored academic studies in Byzantine history and culture. The expansion of Russian Orthodoxy
into the new territories created new large-scale construction projects that needed to be integrated into local environments.
The
architecture of Kievan Rus in the 1830s–1840s that, for the first time, attempted to reconstruct the initial shape of Kievan cathedrals and established them as the missing link between Byzantium and the architecture of Veliky Novgorod
.
The cathedral of Saint Vladimir became the first neo-Byzantine project approved by the Emperor (1852). The Crimean War, lack of funds (the cathedral was financed through private donations) and severe engineering errors delayed its completion until the 1880s. The first neo-Byzantine projects to be completed appeared after the death of Nicholas: the interiors of the Saint Sergius of Radonezh church in the
Composition of Tbilisi cathedral became de facto industry standard well before it was completed. Note the small, fully detached belltower in the back yard.
Prince
Maria Nikolayevna (Alexander II's sister and president of the Imperial Academy of Arts). As early as 1856, empress Maria Alexandrovna expressed her will to see new churches executed in Byzantine style.[5]
The first of these churches was built in 1861–1866 on the Greek Square of Saint Petersburg. Architect
cylindrical arcade resting on a cubical main structure. Kuzmin, however, added a novel feature – instead of two apses, typical of the Byzantine prototypes, he used four.[6][7] This cross-shaped layout was refined in 1865 by David Grimm, who extended Kuzmin's flattened structure vertically. Although Grimm's design remained on paper for over 30 years, its basic composition became nearly universal in Russian construction practice.[8]
Despite the support of the royal family, the reign of Alexander II did not produce many examples of the style: the economy, crippled by the Crimean War and further stressed by Alexander's reforms, was too weak to support mass construction. Once started, projects were delayed for decades. For example,
Sevastopol Cathedral was approved in 1862, but actual work started only in 1873. The foundations, built before the war, were already in place yet construction dragged on slowly until 1888, literally consuming the architect's life.[11] David Grimm's Tbilisi cathedral, designed in 1865, was started in 1871 and soon abandoned; construction resumed in 1889 and was completed in 1897. Grimm died one year later.[8]
Proliferation
In 1888 Vasily Kosyakov found the ultimate proportion of a single-dome design. Blueprints of his Astrakhan church were copied in Kamianets-Podilskyi before the original was completed (1895–1904).[12]
Church construction and economy in general rebounded in the reign of
Russian Revival that became the official style of Alexander III. The turn in state preferences was signalled in 1881–1882 by two architectural contests for the design of the Church of the Savior on Blood in Saint Petersburg. Both contests were dominated by Neo-Byzantine designs, yet Alexander dismissed them all and eventually awarded the project to Alfred Parland, setting the stylistic preference of the next decade. Highly publicized features of Savior on the Blood – a central tented roof, excessive ornaments in red brickwork and a clear reference to Moscow and Yaroslavl relics of the 17th century – were instantly copied in smaller church buildings.[14]
Nearly all of the 5,000 churches attributed to Alexander III were financed through public donations. 100% state financing was reserved for a few palace churches directly catering to the royal family. The "military" churches built in military and naval bases were co-financed by the state, the officers, and through popular subscription among civilians. For example, the Byzantine church of the 13th infantry regiment in Manglisi (Georgia), designed to accommodate 900 worshipers, cost 32,360 roubles, of which only 10,000 were provided by the state treasury.[15]
Preference for
Institute of Civil Engineers which also provided a department chair to Nikolay Sultanov, informal leader of Russian Revival and an advisor to Alexander III.[17][18] Sultanov's graduate, Vasily Kosyakov, made himself famous by the Byzantine churches in Saint Petersburg (1888–1898) and Astrakhan (designed in 1888, built in 1895–1904), but was just as successful in Russian Revival projects (Libava Naval Cathedral
, 1900–1903). Two schools coexisted in a normal working atmosphere, at least in Saint Petersburg.
Neo-Byzantine architecture of Alexander III's reign dominated in three geographical niches. It was the style of choice for Orthodox clergy and the military governors in
Western and southern provinces engaged in large Byzantine projects designed by
Cathedral of the Kovno fortress (1891–1895, 2,000 worshipers), contrary to Byzantine canon, was adorned by Corinthian columns
, giving rise to the "Roman–Byzantine" style.
Alexander's indifference to Byzantine architecture actually increased its appeal to private clients: the style was not reserved for the Church anymore. Elements of Byzantine art (rows of arches, two-tone striped masonry) were a common decoration of
Victor Schroeter. Byzantine-Russian eclecticism became the preferred choice for municipal and private almshouses in Moscow. The trend was started by Alexander Ober's church of the Rukavishnikov almshouse (1879) and culminated in the extant Boyev almshouse in Sokolniki (Alexander Ober, 1890s). Moscow clergy, on the contrary, did not commission a single Byzantine church between 1876 (church of Kazan Icon at Kaluga Gates) and 1898 (Epiphany cathedral in Dorogomilovo).[21]
Reign of Nicholas II
Boyev almshouse in Sokolniki, Moscow, completed shortly after the ascension of Nicholas II. The tented roofs of the side towers are borrowed from contemporary Russian Revival toolset.
The personal tastes of the last emperor were mosaic: he promoted 17th-century Russian art in interior design and costume, yet displayed aversion to Russian Revival architecture. Nicholas or his Ministry of the Court did not demonstrate a lasting preference for any style; his last private commission, the Lower dacha in Peterhof,[22] was a Byzantine design following a string of neoclassical revival buildings. State-funded construction was largely decentralised and managed by individual statesmen with their own agendas. For a short period preceding the disastrous Russo-Japanese War, Byzantine style apparently became the choice of state, at least of the Imperial Navy which sponsored high-profile construction projects at metropolitan and overseas bases.[23]
The architecture of the last twenty years of the Russian Empire was marked by a rapid succession of
Naval Cathedral in Kronstadt). Members of Art Nouveau (Fyodor Schechtel, Sergey Solovyov) and neoclassical (Vladimir Adamovich) schools created their own versions of the Byzantine style – either highly decorative (Schechtel's church in Ivanovo) or, on the contrary, "streamlined" (Solovyov's church in Kuntsevo). Eventually, the "northern" variety of Art Nouveau (Ilya Bondarenko) became the style of the legalized Old Believers
Fragmentation of style in small-scale projects developed in parallel to four very large, conservatively styled Neo-Byzantine cathedrals: the
Sofia (Bulgaria). Three of them (Kronstadt, Poti, Sofia) were a clear homage to the Hagia Sophia; their authors apparently dismissed the "golden rule" of single-dome designs established in the previous decades.[24] Exact reasons for this change in style are unknown; in case of the Kronstadt cathedral it can be traced to direct intervention by Admiral Makarov.[25]
Poti cathedral, designed by Alexander Zelenko and Robert Marfeld, was unusual in being the first major church project built in reinforced concrete. It was structurally completed in a single construction season (1906–1907); the whole project took less than two years (November 1905 – July 1907), an absolute record for the period.[26] Kronstadt cathedral, also employing concrete, was structurally complete in four construction seasons (1903–1907) due to delays caused by the Russian Revolution of 1905. Other projects did not fare as well; Dorogomilovo cathedral in Moscow (1898–1910), designed to be the city's second largest, was plagued by money shortages and in the end consecrated in an incomplete, stripped-down form.[27]
Emigration
The Russian branch of Byzantine architecture was terminated by the revolution of 1917 but found an unexpected afterlife in Yugoslavia through the personal support of King Alexander Karadjordjevic. Alexander sponsored Byzantine church projects by emigre architects in Belgrade, Lazarevac, Požega and other towns. Serbia and Montenegro became a new home to over a thousand construction workers and professionals from Russia.[28] Russian immigration to Yugoslavia, estimated at 40–70 thousands, was welcomed by the government as a quick replacement of professionals killed in World War I.[29]Vasily Androsov alone is credited with 50 Byzantine churches built in the interwar period.[30] Russian painters created the interiors of the Monastery of Presentation and the historical Ružica Church.[31]
The Russian diaspora in Harbin produced two interwar Byzantine cathedrals. The larger Cathedral of Annunciation, designed and built by Boris Tustanovsky in 1930–1941, was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.[32] It was notable as one of the few large Russian Orthodox basilicas. A smaller, still extant Church of Protection, a single-dome structure designed in 1905 by Yury Zhdanov, was built in a single season in 1922. It has been Harbin's sole Orthodox place of worship since 1984.[33]
Style defined
Our Lady of the Sign) in Vilnius (1899–1903) demonstrates typical features of developed Russian-Byzantine architecture: exposed two-tone, striped, masonry; four symmetrical apses tightly fused into the main dome, creating a tall triangular outline; arcades
blending into the domes; and a relatively small belltower, clearly subordinate to the main dome.
Details
Byzantine revival architecture, unlike contemporary revival styles, was easily identifiable by a rigid set of decorative tools. Some examples of the style deviated into Caucasian, neoclassical and Romanesque, yet all followed the basic dome and arcade design rule of medieval Constantinople:
Our Lady of the Sign) church in Vilnius, they featured a small curvilinear pointed top at the base of a cross, otherwise the cross was mounted directly at the flattened apex of the dome. Onion domes and tented roofs of vernacular Russian architecture were ruled out; they remained exclusive features of Russian Revival architecture sponsored by Alexander III, and were considerably heavier and more expensive than domes of the same diameter.[34]
Blending of arches and domes. The most visible feature of Byzantine churches is the absence of a formal
Kuntsevo
church, 1911), actually reducing insolation.
Exposed masonry. The Neoclassical canon enforced by Alexander I required masonry surfaces to be finished in flush stucco. Byzantine and Russian revival architects radically departed from this rule; instead, they relied on exposing exterior brickwork. While exposed brickwork dominated the scene, it was not universal; exterior stucco remained in use, especially in the first decade of Alexander II's reign.
Two-tone, striped masonry. Russian architects borrowed the Byzantine tradition of adorning flat wall surfaces with horizontal striped patterns. Usually, wide bands of dark red base brickwork were interleaved with narrow stripes of yellow of grey brick, slightly set back into the wall. Reverse (dark red stripes over grey background) was rare, usually associated with Georgian variety of churches built in Nicholas II period. The importance of colour pattern increased with building size: it was nearly universal in large cathedrals but unnecessary in small parish churches.
Church plans and proportions
According to 1870s studies by Nikodim Kondakov, the architecture of the Byzantine Empire employed three distinct church layouts:
The earliest standard of a symmetrical, single-dome cathedral ("Hagia Sophia standard") was set in the 6th century by Justinian I. Traditional Byzantine cathedrals had two pendentives or apses; the Russian standard developed by Kuzmin, Grimm and Kosyakov employed four.
The "Ravenna standard" of Byzantine Italy employed elongated basilicas. It remained common in Western Europe but was rarely used in Russia.
The five-domed type emerged in the 9th century and flourished during the
Comnenian dynasties. It was the preferred plan for Russian Orthodox churches for centuries.[35]
Large Neo-Byzantine cathedrals erected in Russia followed either the single-dome or the five-dome plan. The single-dome plan was standardized by David Grimm and Vasily Kosyakov, and used throughout the Empire with minimal changes. Five-dome architecture displayed greater variety as architects experimented with proportions and placement of the side domes:
Smaller churches almost always followed the single-dome plan. In a few cases (as in the Saint George church in
Ardon, 1885–1901) very small side domes were mechanically added to a basic single-dome floorplan. Basilica churches emerged in the last decade of the Empire; all examples were small parish churches like the Kutuzov Hut Chapel
in Moscow.
Belltower problem
The Neoclassical canon dictated that the
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour), or integrating the belfry into the main structure (Yelets
cathedral). The same problem persisted in Neo-Byzantine designs, at least in the conventional tall structures inspired by Grimm's Tbilisi cathedral. Grimm himself placed the bells in a fully detached, relatively low tower situated far behind the cathedral. However, the clergy clearly preferred integrated belltowers; detached belfries remained uncommon.
Byzantine architecture, like Russian Revival, had the least chance to survive the anti-religious campaign of the 1920s. Destruction peaked in 1930, targeting large downtown cathedrals with no apparent logic: Kharkov cathedral of Saint Nicholas was demolished "to streamline tram lines", while the larger cathedral of Annunciation remained standing. Most of remaining churches were closed, converted to warehouses, cinemas or offices, and left to rot without proper maintenance. Nevertheless, majority of Byzantine churches survived past the fall of the Soviet Union. The table below, including all major Byzantine cathedrals and large parish churches,[36] summarized current (2008) state of destruction and preservation:
Table: Neo-Byzantine cathedrals of the Russian Empire
Contemporary imitation of Byzantine style in concrete, Saint Petersburg, 1998–2008
The Byzantine style remains uncommon in contemporary Russian architecture. There have been projects attempting to imitate the outline and composition of typical Neo-Byzantine cathedrals in reinforced concrete, omitting the elaborate brickwork of historical prototypes (e.g. Church of Presentation of Jesus in Saint Petersburg).
Restoration of historical churches so far has a mixed record of success. There is at least one example of a Byzantine design ("City" church of Kazan Icon in Irkutsk) "restored" to imitate Russian Revival by adding tented roofs. While major cathedrals have been restored, churches in depopulated rural settlements or in the military bases (i.e. church of Our Lady the Merciful in Saint Petersburg) remain in dilapidated conditions.
(in Russian)Savelyev, Yu. R. Vizantiysky stil v architecture Rossii (Савельев, Ю. Р. Византийский стиль в архитектуре России. - СПБ., 2005) Saint Petersburg, 2005.
(in Russian)Savelyev, Yu. R. Iskusstvo istorizma i gosudarstvernny zakaz (Савельев, Ю. Р. Искуство историзма и государственный заказ. - М., 2008) Moscow, 2008.
(in Russian)Kaminsky, A. S. (editor) Khudozhestvenny sbornik russkih arhitektorov i inzhenerov (Художественный сборник русских архитекторов и инженеров), 1890–1893, electronic reissue by Russian Public History Library (Moscow), 2002–2004
(in Russian)Naschokina, M. V. Architektory moskovskogo moderna. (Нащокина М. В. Архитекторы московского модерна. – М.: Жираф, 2005) Moscow, 2005.
^(in English) Bratislav Pantelić. Nationalism and Architecture: The Creation of a National Style in Serbian Architecture and Its Political Implications. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 56, No. 1 (March, 1997), pp. 16-41
^The table is based primarily on Savelyev, p.255-269; it excludes chapels, house churches, interior-only projects and buildings located outside of historical Russian Empire.
^The original 18th-century church was destroyed by fire of 1879 and rebuilt in a mix of Neo-Byzantine and Russian Revival (i.e. a Byzantine dome, blended into an arcade, was crowned with a small onion dome).
^(in Russian)Kryuchkova, T. A. Irkutskaya Blagoveschenskaya cerkov. (Крючкова Т.А. Иркутская Благовещенская церковь. – 1999. № 5) Taltsy magazine, 1999 N. 5
^Naschokina, p.469, dates the design 1897-1898. Schechtel, busy involved in Moscow, was not closely monitoring the Ivanovo project.
Austro-Hungary. Construction of St. George was a local initiative not related directly to state-sponsored church construction in adjacent Congress Poland
^The cathedral was laid down before the Crimean War to Konstantin Thon's design. After the war, Thon's design was discarded, the project awarded to Avdeev.
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