Город Владимир Путешествие по древним городам Владимирской земли Старый Владимир Old Russian Towns Памятники архитектуры Музеи Музеи, экспозиции

Город Суздаль История Суздаля Герб суздаля Архитектура Суздаля Музеи Суздаля

Досуг и развлечения Где поесть во Владимире Где поспать во Владимире Что можно посмотреть во Владимире Где поесть в Суздале Где поспать в Суздале Что можно посмотреть в Суздале

In the courtyard opposite the southwest corner of the cathedral stood a most interesting building, a ciborium, or canopy on columns. Its site is now occupied by a seven­teenth-century brick chapel with four pear-shaped pillars which was originally covered by a tent-shaped roof. In­side the ciborium was a stone chalice with a cross carved on the bottom. Legend has it that Andrei presented the builders of Bogolyubovo with gifts from this chalice. Excavations have revealed remains of the round, three-tiered pedestal on which the chalice stood. Along the edges of the pedestal were the circular bases of eight slender columns decorated at the corners with griffins. Archaeological findings have made it possible to recon­struct the design of this graceful open building, which one is most surprised to find here bearing in mind the severity of the Russian climate. The ciborium formed a canopy over the chalice which contained holy water. Here the traveller could quench his thirst and refresh himself. Built about 1165, the ciborium appears to have been the last of the edifices erected here. The Prince's seal is carved on one of the stones of its steps, indicat­ing that the royal Vladimir builders took part in its construction.

It should be added, of course, that our reconstruction of the Bogolyubovo residence remains to a cer­tain extent hypothetical, as is the case with all old buildings of which very little has survived. It has been very carefully compiled from all the available information.

Bogolyubovo was one of Andrei's most impressive architectural achievements. The sumptuous royal cham­bers with their gleaming white stone and gilded bronze, have their roots in traditional Russian wooden domestic architecture. The houses of wealthy families were de­signed in three parts, consisting of the living quarters (izba) linked by a passage (seni) to another section of the building (klet) which was used for entertaining. It is interesting that old records use the word seni to describe the palace's tower, which was obviously considered similar to the seni of domestic dwellings. This three-sec­tional plan was often used by Russian architects in building palaces. For example, the twelfth-century stone ca­thedral in Galich was connected to the palace by a pas­sage, the latter two buildings being made of wood. The palace church with its choir-gallery took the place of the klet. In Bogolyubovo all three sections were beautifully executed in white stone.

The Bogolyubovo palace has much in common with the Cathedral of the Assumption in Vladimir, but the taste for lavish decoration could be indulged more freely in the secular building. Here, for the first time, we see splendid attic moulding at the foot of the build­ing. More extensive use is made of gilded bronze and frescoes on the exterior, and the whole tone of the build­ing is more exuberant. The white walls of the castle standing high up on the river bank could be seen from a considerable distance with the golden roofs of the ca­thedral and the towers gleaming behind them. When the prince and his architects were planning the ensemble they referred to descriptions of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem incorporating many of its features in their own building.

Bogolyubovo was the second most important political centre after Vladimir during Andrei's reign. Envoys from neighbouring principalities and foreign lands were received here in the royal residence, and it was here that vital issues affecting the Vladimir lands and the whole of Russia were decided.

The famous Church of the Intercession on the Neil  stands among water-meadows about a mile away from Bogolyubovo. As we approach it over the meadows it seems to grow before our eyes and we gradually make out its different slender sections, the shadows of its nar­row windows and portals, and other smaller details. Its reflection shimmers among the yellow and white of the water lilies in the Old Klyazma pond at the foot of the grassy knoll on which the church stands. The whole set­ting is one of great beauty and tranquillity. In spring the meadows are flooded and the water rises up almost to the foot of the church which stands isolated on a tiny piece of dry land. Ice floes sometimes knock against its very base.                                                                

This beautiful, solitary building has not escaped the ravages of time. As we have already mentioned, all that has survived of the ensemble is the main body ot the church In 1784 the abbot of Bogolyubovo monastery requested permission to demolish the church and use its stone to build a new bell-tower for the monastery. His request was actually granted by the church authorities and he was only prevented from having it pulled down because the contractors would not accept the fee he pro­posed for the job. The church remained standing, but in 1803 its original helmet-shaped dome was replaced by the present onion-shaped one. In the middle of the last century a brick gateway topped with a belfry was erected to the north of the church. The belfry has since been removed and the building is now used as a hikers' hostel. At the same period, the first excavation work was carried out on the church, in connection with the "restoration" of the Monastery of the Nativity in Vladi­mir. In 1877 the church authorities decided to repair it. The worn stone carving was destroyed or replaced by repaired pieces, bands of ugly, iron bracing were put round the building, and the rectangular base and lower part of the drum were obscured by the addition of the present spherical roof. In spite of all this the church still continues to captivate us by its beauty.

The building belongs to the small, single-domed, four-pillared type which we have already met in the palace cathedrals of Bogolyubovo and St. Dmitri. The archi­tects, however, imbued this simple, traditional design with a new spirit which is evident in the planning of the church down to the smallest detail. Unlike the some­what ponderous majesty of the Cathedral of St. Dmitri, planted firmly and proudly on the ground, the architects of the Church of the Intercession strove to create an im­pression of lightness and grace, feminine lines, and effortless soaring movement.

The building is slightly extended along its longitu­dinal axis. The apses no longer take the form of power­ful semi-cylinders: they project less sharply and are somewhat overshadowed by the prominent corner pilas­ters. This produces a calm symmetry and balance of line in keeping with the building's vertical emphasis. The effect is enhanced by the unusual position of the band of blind arcading, which appears above the level of the choir-gallery dividing the outer walls into two almost equal sections. The walls lean slightly inwards and this barely perceptible tapering magnifies the degree of foreshortening considerably, creating an illusion of great height. The impression of height is also enhanced by multiple pilasters with semi-columns piercing the outer walls with clusters of vertical lines. These are joined in the upper section of the walls by the new vertical lines of the moulded zakomaras and long, narrow windows placed directly above the drip mould. Unlike the broad arch of the small columns in the band of blind arcading on the Cathedral of the Assumption, the columns here are placed close together and appear as a large number of vertical lines. Instead of wedge-shaped consoles we see here for the first time masks and small figures of ani­mals, which look like rich pendants suspended on fine cords. Above the zakomaras rises the graceful dome-drum resting on its square base now hidden by the new roof. Its narrow windows framed with small semi-columns repeat the vertical motif of the walls, and the flowing lines of the dome seem to melt up into the sky.

The east front gives the same impression of subtle up­ward movement. The central apse is slightly higher than the two side ones and breaks the horizontal line of the band of blind arcading. Its window is also slightly raised out of line with the windows of the side apses, emphasis­ing the wall's centre of equilibrium and its light upward movement.

The carving on the exterior is simple and unpreten­tious, with the same pattern being repeated on all three walls (111. 55). In the central zakomara we see the figure of King David sitting on a throne and prophesying to the accompaniment of a psaltery. On either side of him there is a dove and below them two lions. Lower down are three female masks with plaited hair. On a line with them in each of the side sections are two more masks which, together with the central ones, form a kind of frieze. They symbolise the Virgin Mary and are to be found on all churches dedicated to her, as we have seen on Bogolyubovo Cathedral and the Cathedral of the Assumption in Vladimir. Below them, on either side of the central window are the figures of lions couchant, the vigilant guardians of the church. Under the side zdko-maras there are griffins facing towards the centre and bearing a lamb. The carvings seem to decorate the smooth white surface of the walls like precious gems. Significantly the carvings under the central zakomaras are placed in such a way that they do not draw attention to the horizontal lines of the masonry. Their arrange­ment is in keeping with the architect's central aim - to create an impression of lightness with all the means at his disposal. This also explains why the figure of King David is placed on the central vertical axis of the wall The masks on the consoles face downwards as if they are looking at someone below. The carving on the archivolts of the portals and capitals is very fine and re­strained, serving to decorate the architecture rather than distract attention from it.

The carving enhances the plastic quality of the walls. The flat plane almost disappears at the eastern ends of the side walls. It is narrowed and set back by the clustered pilasters, with the remaining narrow strip being taken up by the finely moulded window embrasure, and the zakomara by carving. This plastic quality produces a rich interplay of light and shade in the carving and moulding, and the walls lose the appearance of stark solidity that was so typical of the architecture in Yuri Dolgoruky's time, as we shall see in Kideksha (Ills. 103, 106).

The same impression of movement and lightness per­vades the church's interior. The choir-gallery is placed lower than usual, increasing the height of the upper sec­tion. The openings between the walls and the cruciform pillars are very narrow, the arches being almost ten times higher than the space between them. The pillars are tapered slightly at the top thus enhancing the illu­sion of height. In the part of the sanctuary that could be seen by the congregation, the eye was struck first of all by a mass of soaring lines, more compressed in the side apses. As in the Cathedral of the Assumption, the imposts of the arches are decorated with lions couchant in restrained, low relief.

As you enter the church its dome seems to be soaring up in a sea of light. It was originally decorated with a fresco of the huge head of Christ the Pantocrator sur­rounded by archangels and many-winged seraphs. Above the windows of the dome there was a frieze of round medallions containing the half-length figures of saints, and in the narrow spaces between the windows one could see the graceful figures of apostles framed in high arches. The church's paintings, as well as its carving, were subjected to the central aim of the architect. The painting on the dome was just a small fraction of the frescoes which decorated the interior. Black nail heads which secured the plaster of the frescoes can still be seen on the southern central vault. All the frescoes were removed during the barbaric "restoration" of the church in 1877. Its floor was originally covered with coloured majolica tiles. The church was undoubtedly richly en­dowed with valuable plate like the Bogolyubovo cathe­dral, and its interior presented the same harmonious blending of various art forms subjected to the architec­tural whole.

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