From the History of Temple Building of Kyivan Rus

Abstract

The aim of the article is to reconstruct the historical process of Kyivan Rus tower-shaped temple formation and development from the time of the first known vertically oriented compositions to 1240 when the development of brick temple building stopped on the lands ruined by the Mongol invasion.

The following methods were used in the study: historical-chronological, comparative-historical, structural-functional, comparative-typological.

Scientific novelty. For the first time, the history of the development of tower-shaped temples of Kyivan Rus is considered a long tradition from the period of polycentric origin of the first vertically oriented compositions until 1240, when their construction was artificially interrupted. Based on the consideration of the best-preserved tower-shaped temples, a set of features that characterize their volume and spatial solution, construction, and facade composition are defined. Taking into account the chronology of the appearance and spread of the selected features in the architecture of Kyivan Rus, the periodization of the development of tower-shaped temples was proposed for the first time.

Conclusions. The tower-shaped temple of Kyivan Rus should be considered the second original Kyivan Rus architectural tradition after the arched gables (zakomara) temple, which developed on the basis of transplanted Byzantine forms. The development of this tradition is divided into several stages: 1) the sporadic appearance of its features in the temples of several cultural centers; 2) initial search for tools to create vertical compositions; 3) purposeful search for an aesthetic model of tower-shaped temples; 4) formation and standardization of interregional types of tower-shaped temples; 5) spread of interregional types of tower-shaped temples.