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 1635 a large cathedral bell-tower with a tent-shaped roof and a small church in its lower section (111. 61) was erected opposite the cathedral's south wall by Archbishop Serapion. Unlike many other Suzdal buildings of a similar type, this powerful, severe octagonal structure with pilaster strips on its corners seems to rise naturally out of the ground. At the base of its tent-shaped spire there is a gently sloping projection (politsa) frequently found in fortified towers. The tall imposing outline of this building fitted in well with the majestic dimensions of the cathedral, enhancing the role of the kremlin as a focal point in the mass of small buildings that had spread out around it. Towards the end of the seventeenth century the bell-tower was given a clock which not only struck every hour but also had a small bell that gave a silvery tinkle every minute.

Accounts of the great fire of 1577 in Suzdal mention the stone buildings of the Archbishop's Palace by the ca­thedral. The extremely complex ensemble which we see today consists of buildings erected between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Alexei Varganov's in­vestigations have shown that the oldest section is the Bishop's Palace in the southeast corner dating back to the late fifteenth century. The present north wing of the block facing the cathedral's west portal stands on the site of the former Church of John Theologos built in 1528. In 1559 the bishop's private chapel was erected to the west of the palace, with a refectory, an attractive parvis and, something rarely found in the architecture of central Russia, two intersecting double-sloped roofs giving a gable on each of the four sides, similar to those found in Novgorod and Pskov churches of the fourteenthand fifteenth centuries. At the end of the seventeenth century the old buildings of the bishop's palace were in­corporated into the new, larger Archbishop's Palace erected for the Suzdal Metropolitan Illarion between 1682 and 1707. The front of the main building with its wide windows decorated with elaborate surrounds faced on to the cathedral courtyard and was closely linked with the cathedral, both architecturally and func­tionally. The main entrance to the palace, crowned by a tiny tent-shaped spire decorated with greenish-turquoise tiles, is situated directly opposite the west portal of the cathedral. Two broad ceremonial flights of steps lead up to the large vestibule on the first floor through which the visitor passed into a vast hall without pillars, the main reception hall known as the Cross Chamber (Krestovaya Palata). The hall's vaulted ceiling was removed in 1874. The area beyond this was taken up by a number of rooms used for various domestic purposes.

The ground floor, also vaulted, was used for storage, etc. In the eighteenth century the old bishop's refectory church was joined to the main building of the palace. In order to get an idea of what the palace originally looked like one must imagine it with steep, hipped roofs instead of the present flat roof which makes the building look some­what like a barracks. Alexei Varganov's detailed study and restoration work on the Archbishop's Palace, com­pleted in 1951, enabled him to reconstruct its original appearance.

We must also say a word about those sections of the cathedral ensemble which have not survived. The bell-tower was originally linked with the first floor of the palace by a gallery supported by brick pillars. All that remains of this passage today is the portal on the south­east corner of the palace. The gallery flanked the west and north sides of the bell-tower and led to the Metro­politan's small private Chapel of the Annunciation erected next to the tower. A tall porch decorated with niches and tiles ran from the gallery to the courtyard below directly opposite the south portal of the cathedral. Thus the seventeenth-century architects were constantly concerned to link their buildings with the old cathedral, seeing them as parts of a single, harmonious whole. The system of connecting separate buildings by means of galleries and passages raised on pillars is typical of early Russian domestic architecture, as we have already seen in the twelfth-century palace at Bogolyubovo.

Let us now go and stand on the kremlin's old northern ramparts from which you have a splendid view of the town and its various historic buildings.

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