The most ancient chronicle sources mention that long before the Baptism of Rus', wooden churches were already built in it. The agreement between Prince Igor and the Greeks mentions the church of St. Prophet Elijah (945). The same source mentions two more churches: “the goddess of St. Nicholas" at Askold's grave and the church of "St. Orina". They were both made of wood, as they are mentioned as being "cut down" and they are all said to have been burnt. The wooden Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord is also mentioned in the chronicles of Novgorod. The sources do not mention ancient stone temples in a pagan environment.
The Baptism of Rus' became an event of extreme importance for the pagan Slavs. St. Prince Vladimir, caring about the spread of Christianity, actively contributed to the construction of churches, “beginning to build churches in cities.” The vast majority of them, without a doubt, were cut from wood. Chroniclers mention the construction of stone temples as events of exceptional importance.
There were all the necessary conditions for the construction of wooden churches, because in our lands, mostly forested, they knew how to build from wood, and the craftsmen were well versed in the construction craft. Sources have preserved few reports about what ancient wooden church architecture was like. One of the chronicles mentions the wooden church of St. Sofia in Novgorod. Its construction dates back to 989, and it was built with the blessing of the first Novgorod bishop. The temple was cut from oak wood and had thirteen domes. It is safe to assume that it was a complex architectural structure that required great experience of craftsmen and the ability to build temples. The chronicler mentions that the temple burned down in 1045. Written sources often mention the construction of “votive” churches. They were built quickly and were always made of wood.
With the spread of Christianity, wooden temple construction quickly developed, which always went ahead of stone. The traditions of Byzantium with the established basic forms of the plan and constituent elements were accepted entirely by the architects of Rus' and remained unchanged for centuries. But wooden temple construction develops in its own way and gradually acquires the features of a bright individuality and originality, in which, of course, the basic principles of temple construction, once borrowed from Byzantium, have been preserved.
Widespread creativity in the construction of wooden temples was facilitated, firstly, by the significant difficulty of transferring the architectural modules of stone temples in wood, and secondly, by the fact that Greek craftsmen never built from wood. Russian masters showed great ingenuity, since by this time certain constructive techniques had already been developed in secular architecture, and these forms were boldly used in wooden temple construction.
Just as simple and modest the wooden churches looked inside, strictly observing accepted traditions, they were so intricately and richly decorated on the outside. There were no ready-made forms in wood, and the craftsmen had to take them from stone temples. Of course, it was largely impossible to repeat them in wood, but reinterpretation of these canons was practiced widely and successfully. In 1290, the Church of the Assumption “with twenty walls” was erected in Veliky Ustyug. Apparently, it included a central octagonal pillar and four narthexes and an altar.
The Tatar yoke, it is safe to assume, did not directly affect wooden temple construction; in any case, it did not interrupt established traditions. The basic architectural techniques of ancient Russian carpentry - both artistic and constructive - changed very little and corresponded only to the constancy of the internal life of Rus', gradually improving, remaining essentially the same as they were in ancient times.
At the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. under the influence of new living conditions, much has changed in the further development of stone church construction. It was wooden architecture that played a significant role in the formation of new forms in stone construction. Such stone churches as the Ascension in Kolomenskoye and the Intercession “on the moat” carry traditions and Constructive decisions wooden architecture. Having a significant influence on stone architecture, wooden temple construction continued to develop in its unhurried established order. About wooden architecture of the 15th–16th centuries. can be judged from surviving indirect sources. These include, first of all, the iconography of some hagiographic icons, and secondly, written sources in which there are detailed descriptions and even drawings.
About wooden churches of the 17th–18th centuries. a broader view has been preserved. Some of them exist to this day; some monuments are known thanks to research carried out at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries.
The forms of ancient monuments of wooden architecture are distinguished by perfection, harsh beauty and logical designs. It took centuries to develop this perfect beauty. Wooden architecture slowly formed its traditions and carefully preserved them. When stone churches in the classicist style were already being built everywhere in the capitals, wooden churches in keeping with ancient traditions continued to be built in the North of Russia and in distant villages.
Features of wooden temple construction
Since ancient times, wood processing and construction from it have been common and widespread in Rus'. We built a lot. This was facilitated by frequent fires, population migration, and the fragility of the material. But nevertheless, artels of experienced craftsmen, headed by elders (from the German “master”), were invited to build wooden churches.
The main material for construction, for the most part, was logs (donkeys or slugs), with a length of 8 to 18 m and a diameter of about half a meter or more. The logs were hewn into beams (a log hewn into four edges). To construct the floors, logs were used, split into two parts (plates). From the logs, using wedges (split lengthwise), boards (tes) were obtained. To construct the roof covering, a ploughshare (shingle) made from aspen planks was used.
During construction, two methods of fastening logs were traditionally used: “in the log” - by cutting out the corresponding recesses at the ends of the logs, and “in the paw” (“in a step”) - in this case there are no outlet ends, and the ends themselves were cut out so that they grabbed each other with a friend with teeth, or “paws”. The rows of assembled crowns were called log houses, or feet.
The roofs of the temples and tents were covered with planks, and the heads with a ploughshare. They were adjusted with great precision and only in the upper part were attached to the base with special wooden “crutches”. No metal parts were used throughout the entire temple from the base to the cross. This is connected, first of all, not with the lack of metal parts, but with the ability of the craftsmen to do without them.
For the construction of temples, those types of wood that grew in abundance in the area were widely used; in the north they were more often built from oak, pine, spruce, larch, in the south - from oak and hornbeam. Aspen was used to make the ploughshare. Such roofs made of aspen ploughshares are practical and attractive, they are not only from a distance, but even from close range give the impression of a silver-plated roof.
An important feature of ancient architecture was the fact that the few carpentry tools lacked saws (longitudinal and transverse), which seemed to be so necessary. Until the era of Peter the Great, carpenters did not know the word “build”; they did not build their huts, mansions, churches and cities, but “cut down”, which is why carpenters were sometimes called “cutters”.
In the North of Rus', saws came into widespread use in construction only in the middle of the 19th century, so all beams, boards, and jambs were hewn by old masters with one ax. Churches were cut down in the literal sense of the word.
In the North, unlike the southern Russian regions, churches in ancient times were almost always placed directly on the ground (“soil”) without a foundation. The talent and skill of the architects made it possible to build temples even up to 60 m high, and a height of 40 m was common.
The harsh school of life was reflected in the external decoration of churches, gradually leading to the creation of works that amazed with their simplicity and at the same time with their unique solemnity and harmony.
Main types of wooden church architecture
Chapels, bell towers
Before we begin to describe the main types of wooden church construction, it is necessary to mention the simpler forms of wooden church architecture. Such structures include chapels and bell towers.
Chapels, worship crosses, or icons in icon cases were indispensable companions of Russian people in ancient times. They were erected in great numbers throughout the Russian land. They erected wooden chapels at the sites where icons were found, at burned down or abolished and dismantled churches, at battle sites, at sites of sudden death of Christians from lightning or illness, at the entrance to a bridge, at crossroads, where for some reason they considered it necessary to make the sign of the cross. .
The simplest of the chapels were ordinary low pillars, on which icons were installed under a small roof. The more complex ones included tiny buildings (cage type) with low doorways that could not be entered without bending over. The most common in ancient times were chapels in the form of huts with a small dome or simply a cross; in chronicles such chapels are referred to as “cage chapels.” The most attractive of the surviving chapels is the Assumption of the Virgin Mary chapel in the village of Vasilyevo (XVII–XVIII centuries), with a small refectory and a hipped roof. Later, a canopy and a tent-roofed bell tower were added to it. The Chapel of the Three Saints from the village of Kavgora (XVIII–XIX centuries) is more complex in form; such buildings are much less common. All chapels were always maintained in proper order, repaired in a timely manner and decorated for holidays by residents of nearby villages.
The appearance of bell towers in wooden architecture, as independent structures, can be dated back to the time of their widespread use in stone architecture. Probably the most ancient were belfries, like those preserved in the stone architecture of Pskov. The chronicles also mention wooden “goats” on which small bells were hung. The oldest bell towers known to us were square structures, consisting of four pillars with a slight inward slope; a roof with a dome was installed at the top and bells were hung. The appearance of such bell towers can be dated back to the 16th–17th centuries. More complex design usually stood on five pillars, but the base consisted of four pillars, on which the hipped roof and dome were strengthened. The bell towers “about nine pillars” are also known.
A more complex type includes bell towers, which consisted of log houses of various shapes (tetrahedral and octagonal). They were cut quite high and often ended in a tent, which was crowned with a small dome. In the North of Rus', bell towers were more often cut down “with the remainder”; in central Rus' they preferred to cut down “in the paw”.
The most common type in the North were combined buildings. For greater stability, the bottom of the bell tower was cut into a square, on which an octagonal frame topped with a tent was placed. This is how the most common type in the North emerged. The bell towers differed only in proportions and decoration. The main difference was the different height (for example, the bell tower of the early 17th century in the village of Kuliga Drakovanova).
In the southwest of Russia, bell towers (zvenitsa or dzvonitsa) had a slightly different appearance and were finally formed as architectural forms by the end of the 17th century. The most common bell towers have a square plan, consisting of two tiers. Their lower part is cut from beams with claw-shaped corners. At the bottom there were plank ebbs, and at the top the beams-consoles that supported the roof passed into the fences of the upper tier of the bell tower (i.e. its ringing). The belfry itself was an open space with bells under a low hipped roof. In buildings of a complex type, both the upper and lower tier had an octagonal shape in plan. Bell towers with three tiers were often built.
In the south of Russia, bell towers were built mainly according to the same principles. Characteristic feature is that they were not cut down, but were stacked from logs one on top of another, the ends of which were strengthened in vertical pillars.
Kleti temples
Wooden churches, according to the chroniclers of the 16th–17th centuries, were built “in the likeness of the old days,” and their architects strictly adhered to ancient traditions. However, over the course of five centuries (from the 11th to the 17th centuries), without any doubt, a certain evolution of forms should have occurred. It is easier to assume that its essence consisted in the accumulation of new forms rather than in the discarding of old ones. To a lesser extent, this applies to the Western Russian regions, which, under pressure from Poland and other neighboring countries, adopted new traditions in both stone and wooden architecture, which were not characteristic of ancient examples.
The simplest buildings in type and the very first were temples, which looked like simple huts and differed from them only in a cross or a small dome. The latter appeared as a result of an attempt to imitate stone temples in everything. Climatic conditions, first of all, were the reason that the shapes of the domes acquired a completely different appearance than the stone domes of Byzantine temples. After some time, the shapes of the wooden domes were finally formed and acquired a completely different, original and unique appearance.
This is how the first type of wooden church emerged - the cage church. These churches were small in size, made from one, two, more often three log buildings (altar, temple and vestibule), connected together and often crowned with one dome; covered with a roof on two slopes.
A typical example of this type is the Church of Rights. Lazarus (late 14th century) is the oldest surviving monument of wooden architecture. According to legend, it was cut down during the life of the founder of the monastery, St. Lazarus, before 1391. The dimensions of the church are small (8.8 m by 3.6 m). The upper crowns of the church cage have a small slope of a soft, smooth shape, and in the center of the roof there is a miniature round drum with a bulbous head. The roofing board has a decoration in the lower part in the form of truncated carved peaks. Under the plank roof there are wide panels of birch bark, sewn together with birch bark. The temple has no external decorations. This is the oldest example of a cage-type construction, which was subsequently repeated many times with very significant variations until the 20th century.
And in the 18th century they continued to build temples of this type; these include, in particular, the church in the village of Danilovo (not preserved), the church in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Nizhny Novgorod province (not preserved), and the Peter and Paul Church (1748), located in the village of Ples, Kostroma province.
The desire to give the temples greater height and a special place in space led the craftsmen to the idea of raising them to the basement (“mountain cell”). The head of the temple was placed on a thin high drum directly on the roof; there were also special decorative “barrels” or wooden zakomaras. These techniques were often found in church architecture on Onega. An example is the Church of the Deposition of the Robe from the village of Borodava (1485), the former estate of the Ferapontov Monastery. The church has two log buildings (a temple and a refectory) and is covered with a high roof with glazing over the foundation of the main log house. Like the temple, the altar is covered with a gable roof, but in its upper part it turns into a “barrel”, on top of which there is a small dome.
A peculiarity of the ancient churches of the cage type was that the roofs were not built on the rafters, but were a continuation of the eastern and western walls, which gradually came to naught. These walls were fastened together with rafters, on which the roof was installed. Thus, the roof and the temple were one whole. High roofs, which were sometimes several times higher than the height of the log house, are a characteristic feature of this type of temple.
The type of cage buildings received further development, becoming more complex in form. Great importance acquired a refectory: it was cut between the temple and the vestibule. The refectories were always of considerable size in terms of volume and served as a resting place for parishioners between church services. Kletsky churches are complicated by the arrangement of side chapels. The shapes of the altars also changed: they were arranged not rectangular, but in the form of a polyhedron - “about five outer walls”; this technique is borrowed from stone architecture. The desire to increase the area of the temple led to the appearance of galleries (“beggars”) on three sides (except for the eastern one). The expansion of the upper part of the frame (the length of the upper logs of the eastern and western walls was increased), which was called the “fall”, gave special beauty to the cage temples. The fells played, first of all, a practical role. Drains were installed on them, diverting water from the roofs far away from the walls of the temple. The roofs of churches are also becoming more complex. So-called “wedge” roofs appear - those in which the rise is so great that their height exceeds the length of the logs. In such cases, the roofs were made stepped. These ledges, giving the roofs a more complex shape, created a rich play of light and shadow. A striking example is the Church of St. George in the village of Yuksovo (1493). The wedge roof later became a favorite technique for completing cage churches. Wonderful examples of such churches in Central Russia have reached us: the Assumption Church in the city of Ivanovo in the 17th–18th centuries, the St. Nicholas Church from the village of Glotovo in the Yuryev-Polsky region (1766), the Church of the Transfiguration from the village of Spas-Vezhi near Kostroma (1628).
Since the 18th century More often they began to arrange roofs in the shape of a “barrel”. They covered the altar with a “barrel” or used this form to install the chapter. This method was widely used in mansion construction and was widely mastered. “Barrels” were always covered with a ploughshare. The only cell church with a “barrel” covering that has come down to us is the Annunciation Church (1719) in the village of Pustynka on the Onega River, not far from Plesetsk. The “barrel” here grows out of the fender liners - the police. The pentagonal altar is also covered with a “barrel”, the walls of which also end in mounds, covered with fences with a slight slope. Eight-pitched roofs were more often used. An example of such a covering of a temple with eight slopes is the unpreserved churches of the Archangel Michael (1685) and St. Elijah the Prophet (1729) in the Arkhangelsk province. By the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries. include cell churches, which were no longer covered with roofs with slopes and not with “barrels,” but with new forms formed on their basis. These include roofs that had the shape of tetrahedral domes. Such churches were more common in central Russia (the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Berezhnaya Dubrava, Arkhangelsk region (1678)).Tent temples
Tent temples had the main advantage over cage temples that they were usually very large in volume and had a significant height. The term "wooden top" encapsulates the arrangement of the main room in the form of a multifaceted tower. The roofing of such temples was arranged “round” (polyhedron), and the shape was called “tent”.The tent-roofed churches differed significantly from the cage churches in their plan and their strongly emphasized upward tendency. They are amazingly beautiful, simple and at the same time very rational - this is a deeply national form. While maintaining the traditional three-part plan, the tent buildings received new architectural forms that were not used in antiquity, which made it possible to construct fairly large structures using the same raw materials.
The tents were cut, like the roofs of the cage churches, without a rafter system. The tent consisted of a continuation of the log house, but each subsequent crown was made smaller than the previous one; the totality of the crowns formed a pyramidal shape. Due to the great height, it was a practical necessity to install “police” at the base of the tent, which served to drain rainwater. Such churches were always cut down “in the paw” and covered with a ploughshare or plank. It can be assumed that the first tented temples did not have high tents; they reached enormous heights gradually, in the process of developing architectural forms.
It is very difficult to trace the evolution of the forms of this type of temple. According to researchers, the original type of temple - a “tent on a quadrangle square” - has not reached us. The second oldest form is believed to have been an octagon with a tent, having an altar area and not having a vestibule - a pillar temple. There were also very few such temples, and not a single one has survived. The third form evolved from the previous one with the addition of a vestibule, refectory and gallery on three sides (Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Lyavlya, Arkhangelsk region, 16th century). The fourth form evolved from the previous one and has two additional side-chapels. In ancient times such a temple was called “with 20 walls” or “round” (Church of the Savior on Koksheng, 17th century). In the XVII–XVIII centuries. a form spread, which appeared, however, much earlier: four - eight - tent. This is the most common form of temples. Among them are genuine masterpieces of church construction (Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Kondopoga, Karelia, 18th century).
An important place in the history of Russian church art was occupied by a type of temple similar to the church in Varzuga on the Kola Peninsula. This temple is very close in basic forms to the stone Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye near Moscow. Here we can note the unconditional penetration of the principles wooden architecture into a stone one.
The older the tented temples were, the simpler and more rigorous their external design. One of the most ancient tented buildings is the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Panilov on the Northern Dvina (1600). The church had an extensive octagon of the temple, a cell altar and a refectory. In the lower reaches of the Northern Dvina near Arkhangelsk stands the Church of St. Nicholas in the village Lyavlya is one of the oldest tented churches - the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Lyavlya (1581–1584). According to legend, the church was erected through the efforts of the Novgorod mayor Anastasia over the tomb of her brother Stefan. The church has an altar covered with a barrel, a refectory and a vestibule. The Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God (1642) in the village of Belaya Sluda, Vologda province, already had a taller tent and a slender silhouette (total height 45 m). A gallery was built in the temple. This is one of the most perfect tent-type monuments. Church of St. George from the village of Vershina on the Northern Dvina dates back to 1672; it is surrounded by a covered gallery with a rich porch covered with a “barrel”. It, like in previous churches, covers the vestibule, refectory and altar. These are the simplest tent temples in shape. Their decorative decoration was minimal.
Since the middle of the 17th century. requirements for appearance wooden temples. The harsh simplicity of forms and the severity of the overall appearance gave way to complex composition and additional decorative decoration.
Further development of this type of buildings proceeded by complicating the basic forms. From the middle of the 17th century. temples are being built, the main part of which looked like a tower with two tiers. The lower one was square in plan, and the upper one had the shape of an octagon. Among such temples, one can name the St. Nicholas Church of the Trinity Monastery (1602–1605) on the White Sea. Variations of such temples were very common, mostly they differed only in details. These include the protruding corners of the quadrangle, which were covered very skillfully with “towers”, or, as they were popularly called, “cherubs”. Such churches, as a rule, were small, but certainly tall. Undoubtedly, the most striking example of a tented church is the Assumption Church in Kondopoga (1774), total height 42 m.
The need for churches of greater capacity, with several chapels, led to the emergence of a special group of tent-roofed buildings. Two or three tented log houses were connected into a single whole with the help of a large refectory. In this case, the side log houses were made smaller, but always repeated the main volume. This entire complex composition had a special beauty and rhythmic completeness. An example was the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the city of Kemi (1711–1717). The principle of stepwise growth of architectural masses was brilliantly implemented in the architecture of the cathedral. Another striking example among cross-shaped tented churches was, undoubtedly, the Assumption Church in the village of Varzuga (1675). It had the shape of a cross in plan; all four trusses are identical and covered with “barrels”. The architectural appearance of the temple is high level artistic perfection.
At the end of the 17th century. a type of tented temples with a special method of decorating the tents was formed. Its essence was that the tent was placed not on an octagon, as before, but on a quadrangle, and four barrels were cut into its lower part. At the same time, the tent lost its independence, becoming dependent on decorative “barrels”. Sometimes this group of temples is called “a tent on a baptized barrel.” A striking example here could be the Church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Verkhodvorskoye, Arkhangelsk province, built in 1685 - one of the most strict, and at the same time, slender, which were created in the North of Russia. It is also necessary to mention the Church of the Mother of God “Hodegetria” (1763) in the village of Kimzha on Mezen.
Multi-topped temples
The versatile activities of Patriarch Nikon could not but affect wooden church architecture. The Patriarch forbade the cutting down of tented churches as not corresponding to ancient traditions, for only a round spherical dome corresponded to the idea of the universal character of the Church. But the prohibition was not always implemented. Tent temples continued to be cut down, although much less so. At this time, attempts were being made to embody in wood the forms of the “sanctified five-domed” stone temples (the church in the village of Ishme, Arkhangelsk province, 17th century).
Most of the buildings that appeared at the end of the 17th century. and throughout the 18th century, it was mainly formed on the basis of cage and tent-roofed churches. What distinguished them, as a rule, was the combination of various techniques and forms. The researcher of ancient church architecture M. Krasovsky divided the architecture of that time into four groups: “blocky” churches, five-domed churches, multi-topped and multi-tiered.
The first two groups are quite close and often differed only in the number of chapters. The most ancient of the known “cubby” buildings is the Church of St. Paraskeva (1666) in the village of Shuya, Arkhangelsk province. The temple had one dome, located on the highly elongated top of a cube, which still resembled a tetrahedral tent. A distinctive feature of such temples was the cage type of the main volume and a hipped roof in the form of a large dome, covered with a ploughshare, on which several domes were arranged.
There were few wooden churches with five domes; they were called “built in stone.” A striking example could be the temple in the village of Izhma, Arkhangelsk province. This is a cell temple, covered with a high “cap”, from which five chapters grew. This technique met the requirement to build churches according to the rules of the “sanctified five-domed structure.” Craftsmen also began to install domes on the “cubby” roof.Multi-domed temples represented the forms of the previous group with the only difference being that additional small domes of nine or more appear in their decorative decoration. This is what the Church of St. looks like. Nicholas (1678) in the village of Berezhnaya Dubrava, located on the banks of the Onega. There are nine chapters on the main cube, with four chapters standing in the corners of the cube - in the lower tier. In the second tier there are smaller chapters and they are located in the cardinal directions. The central head stands on a small quadrangle. The Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary (1708) with three chapels, crowned with eighteen domes, was more complex in plan.
The most complex, incorporating all previous forms, are multi-tiered temples, which began to be cut down from the end of the 17th century. The simplest tiered building can be called the Church of the Virgin Mary (1652) from the village of Kholm. A much more complex composition appears in the appearance of the Church of St. ap. John the Theologian (1687) in the village of Bogoslovo on the Ishna River. The central pillar of the temple is a tiered composition of four - six - eight, very rare, if not unique. The temple stands on a high basement. Previously the church had a gallery. In the church of St. John the Baptist (1694) of the Shirkov churchyard in the upper reaches of the Volga, the quadrangle of the first tier stands on a high basement and has an eight-slope broken roof. On it there are quadrangles of the second and third tiers with the same roofs. Above the roof of the third quadrangle there is a dome, on a round drum.
Church of the Transfiguration of the Kizhi Pogost
The plan has a cross in an octagon, topped with twenty-two chapters (total height 35 m). Despite all the external complexity of the forms, there is not a single new one that would not have been found in earlier wooden temples. The solution of complex engineering problems regarding the internal structure of load-bearing structures deserves special attention. To avoid moisture getting inside, a second gable roof, the water from which was drained through special gutters. The subtle instinct of the master prompted the architect to introduce minor but significant details that turned the temple into a masterpiece of wooden temple construction.
The interior space is relatively small, occupying only a quarter of the total volume of the building. Even the rather luxuriously decorated iconostasis, which stands out so clearly in the octagonal interior of the temple, does not make the impression that the external appearance of this unprecedented church leaves. According to legend, the master, having completed the construction of the church, said: “There was not, is not and will not be like this.” This temple is the crown of wooden temple construction in Rus'. The ancient wooden church architecture of the north of Rus' developed two main types of temples: cage-type and tent-roofed. Having gone through a long path of formation and improvement, they, in turn, created a whole series of new forms. The talent of Russian craftsmen and love for the Mother of the Church gave birth to amazing examples of wooden church construction on Russian soil.
Architectural ensembles are of particular interest. In the history of wooden temple construction there were two types of such compositions. The first is a church and a bell tower placed near it. The second is a summer church, a winter church and a bell tower (northern “tee”). Architectural ensembles were formed gradually, decaying buildings replaced each other, and over time a unique architectural appearance took shape. One of the oldest ensembles that has survived to this day is located in the village of Verkhnyaya Mudyuga on the Mudyuga River, which flows into the Onega. All three buildings stand in the center of the village, over which they seem to dominate, gathering all the surrounding buildings around them. This ensemble was created at different times; the buildings differ in both construction methods and sizes. But together they have a unique architectural appearance. The ensemble in Yurom on the banks of the Mezen River was unique, but it can only be judged from photographs. The most perfect, undoubtedly, is the Spassko-Kizhi churchyard, the ensemble of which was created over about 160 years.
Interior decoration of wooden churches
Possessing impressive external dimensions, ancient wooden temples at the same time had a small internal volume. In the smallest churches and chapels the height was slightly higher than human height, and in the largest ones it did not exceed six meters, the height of the altars was about three meters. The flat ceiling of the wooden temple was called “sky”. In tent-roofed churches it consisted of fan-shaped beams radiating from the center, with the other end cut into the walls. The design of the “sky” in different temples varied from flat to tent-shaped. This was done in order to keep the church warm. For the same purpose, small windows and low doors were installed. In richer churches, the windows had mica frames with lead frames, in others - wooden frames with a stretched bull's bladder. The heating system in ancient temples could be completely absent, and only some were heated “black”. Furnaces, which were mainly located in the altar, began to be installed at a later time (18th century).
As in stone architecture, some wooden temples had voice boxes made from clay pots cut into the top of the walls. The walls inside were rounded and not hewn. In small churches, altars were not raised. The interior decoration was quite austere; only the doorposts, supporting pillars, and the iconostasis panel were decorated with carvings.
Iconostases are extremely simple and in most cases consisted only of numerous icons standing on panels. The only decoration of the iconostases were the Royal Doors, which had carved columns on the sides and a “koruna” with basma decoration. The carving was decorated with painting in several colors with a predominance of bright red.
Both the temples and their decoration were predominantly made of wood. Shelves (politsa) for icons, decorated with carvings, were installed on the walls of churches. Candlesticks, icon arks, choir boxes, etc. were made from wood. All this was decorated with paintings or carvings.
With the same love with which these churches themselves were built, parishioners decorated them. The vestments of the thrones, altars and liturgical vestments were very simple and unpretentious. They were made mainly in peasant farms from simple canvas materials, using natural dyes and simple designs. Patterns were printed on them using special cliches. Under the icons of the local rank they embroidered and hung pendants decorated with pearls and colored beads. A pious tradition was to bring icons to church and place them on shelves, which were decorated with towels for the holidays.
Wooden temple construction in the south and southeast of Russia In the south of Russia, wooden temple construction in its final forms developed by the 18th century, which was facilitated by other conditions. There are three main types of temples here.
The first include those that consist of three or four log houses, placed one on top of the other along one axis (St. Nicholas Church in the village of Kolodny (1470); Church of the Holy Spirit in the village of Potelych, Lviv region (1502)). Most often, such temples are multi-tiered with extensive galleries. The second type includes churches with a cross-shaped plan, in which, due to the complexity of the structures, galleries were not installed. Such churches were often built multi-tiered (Epiphany Church of the Kuteinsky Monastery 1626; Trinity Cathedral of the Markov Monastery (1691); Trinity Cathedral in the city of Novomoskovsk, Dnepropetrovsk region) 1775–1780)). The third type, which is very small in number, includes temples that are a combination of the previous types into one whole. The total mass of these buildings is combined from nine log buildings. The basic architectural forms of these temples are, of course, identical to the forms of northern churches, although there are many differences in the external elements. Southwestern churches are not characterized by tents, although there is a desire for this form. A characteristic feature was also the absence of basements, but the foundations were always well constructed, which was less common in the North. The outer walls are sheathed vertically with planks and painted, which gives the temple the appearance of a stone building. Almost all of them are distinguished by fairly large domes, of which there were from one to five. Domes and roofs are covered not with ploughshare, but with shingles.The interior of such tall temples was well lit through large windows. The walls were hewn out, which made it possible to paint the internal volume. The paintings were done with oil paints and consisted of separate compositional subjects.
The iconostases of wooden churches were distinguished by their pretentiousness. Elements of wood carving and painting, as well as additional decorative elements, were introduced into their decoration. In the XVIII–XIX centuries. Most of the iconostases were made in the Baroque style, and there were even iconostases in the Empire style. Peasants cut the iconostases for such churches, but often they made only unskillful copies of well-known examples.
Wooden temple construction of the 19th-20th centuries. In the traditionally established wooden architecture in the 18th–19th centuries. came many stone features. This largely influenced both the external design of the temples and the decoration of the interiors.
The first stage was the appearance of multi-tiered temples, where the main part had four log buildings rising one above the other and was a tower. The lower tier was cut in the shape of a quadrangle, and the upper ones in most cases had the shape of an octagon. Temples gradually decreased in height and area. The desire to give churches a “stone look” led to the fact that in the North they began to be covered with planks and painted in light colors. The roofs, domes, and domes were covered with iron. From a distance, such a temple could be no different from a stone one.
In the traditions of modern times, many ancient temples were rebuilt. The domes and roofs were covered with iron, the domes were replaced with fashionable flowerpots and spiers. The walls were covered with planks and decorative elements were removed. Many churches lost their uniqueness, stern severity, and became ponderous and inexpressive. The desire to bring a wooden structure closer to a stone one forced significant changes to be made to its interior decoration. Often the internal walls were hewn and plastered, and additional windows were cut. They painted the likeness of stone (marble) over the plaster or covered the walls with paper. Ancient iconostases were replaced by new ones, which, due to lack of funds, were often cut by incompetent craftsmen, trying to imitate the capital's models. Of course, these innovations did not affect all wooden churches.
By the end of the 19th century. The trend of decline in wooden architecture is gradually increasing. This was facilitated by two circumstances. Firstly, from the second half of the 19th century. migration of the population from remote villages to cities has increased. Secondly, due to lack of funds and the desire to preserve the temple, repairs were carried out without taking into account the preservation of complex forms. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. The plight of wooden architecture prompts the Holy Synod and cultural figures to take some action. In 1871, apparently, the first expedition of L.V. took place. Dahl for the study of wooden monuments of the North. He was followed by V.V. Suslov and F.F. Gornostaev, with whose names the beginning of a systematic study of ancient Russian wooden architecture should rightfully be associated. Special expeditions were created to study temples on site. Plans, drawings were drawn up, and numerous photographs were taken. Much has been preserved thanks to the efforts of the Imperial Society of Antiquities Lovers.
Large systematic studies were carried out by R.M. Gabe, P.N. Maksimov, A.V. Opolovnikov, Yu.S. Ushakov. The events of the October Revolution of 1917 brought wooden church architecture to the brink of almost complete destruction. Stopped Scientific research. Some of the temples were dismantled for firewood, others were adapted for housing and outbuildings. Without proper maintenance, the remaining temples soon turned into piles of logs. Such paintings can still be found in the northern regions of Russia.
Only in the early 40s. secular authorities paid attention to wooden architecture. The first expeditions were carried out, but the war began and work stopped.
The systematic study of wooden temple architecture was resumed in post-war years. On the territory of the former Kizhi churchyard in Karelia in 1965–1969. The Kizhi Architectural and Ethnographic Reserve was created, to which monuments of wooden architecture were brought from different places. They were repaired, given their original appearance, but no major repairs were carried out. An example would be main temple Transformations of the Kizhi Pogost. Its unique architectural forms have been preserved only on the outside. Inside, it’s still in the mid-70s. was completely redone. Without bothering to study complex engineering system internal structure of the temple, all internal fastening systems were removed from it, and now this temple exists only thanks to massive internal metal structures. The same can be said about the ancient Lazarus Church, which was taken out of the case-temple in which it had stood for about a century and placed in the open sky in Kizhi. Similar museums, but of a smaller size, were organized in other places.At the end of the 80s. XX century Church life revived, the construction of new wooden churches and chapels resumed. In most cases, as in the old days, they began to appear in places where previously there were no temples at all. These are new workers' settlements, new districts of large cities, or even entire cities. Currently, while preserving the basic principles of wooden temple construction, they use different types buildings The vast majority of them are cage churches with various variations (tent completions, etc.) (church-chapel of the icon of the Mother of God “Sovereign” (1995); chapel of the icon “Assuage My Sorrows” (1997), Moscow, etc.).
“Leading to the church of St. Elijah, even over the stream there is an end to the conversation between the Stepson and Kozare, behold, the cathedral church of many of the Varyazi Christians.” (See: PSRL. Ed. 2. – St. Petersburg. 1908. P. 42.).
19 / 10 / 2007
Main types of Russian wooden temple
(as an encyclopedia)
This work was done in a somewhat unusual way for me; mostly only quotes are presented here.
The result is a kind of “encyclopedic” study, which contains excerpts from the works of Russian and Soviet researchers, historians and architects. Works on the history of Russian wooden architecture.
Wood, which has long been the most common building material among the Slavic peoples, was widely used in Russian architecture. Wooden buildings were erected faster, could be built in the summer and in the cold season, and were drier and warmer than stone ones. However, due to the fragility of wood as a building material and the lack of surviving monuments, we cannot accurately restore the appearance of the disappeared wooden buildings of the most ancient periods of Russian architecture.
Only starting from the 15th - 16th centuries, we have the opportunity to supplement the history of the development of Russian stone architecture with characteristics of contemporary wooden architecture. This characteristic basically corresponds to the wooden architecture of earlier periods, since in wooden buildings XVI century we encounter relics of a very distant time.
Wooden architecture was the most widespread in Rus': temples, fortresses, princely and boyar mansions, townspeople's houses, peasant huts, and outbuildings were built from wood. In wooden architecture, techniques for building composition were developed that corresponded to the everyday life and artistic tastes of the Russian people, often later transferred to stone architecture.
(History of Russian architecture: Academy of Architecture of the USSR, Institute of History and Theory of Architecture, M., 1956)
Our carpenters, when constructing wooden churches, adapted for them those constructive and artistic techniques that they were already well familiar with, and they had to invent the few that were missing in their stock. There was nowhere to borrow because in the field of carpentry, the Russians, of course, stood ahead of the Byzantines, who built almost exclusively from stone and brick.
The main types of Great Russian wooden temples:
1 - Kletsky temples,
2 - Tent temples,
3 - "Lubby" temples,
4 - Tiered temples,
5 - Multi-domed temples.
(Gornostaev F., Grabar I. E. Wooden architecture of the Russian north // Grabar I. E. History of Russian art. T. 1, M., 1910)
Examples of the main types of Russian wooden temples
And now in more detail about these five types of buildings, with a story about them and photographs.
1. Kletskaya Church
A wooden temple with a rectangular frame at the base of the composition and the simplest covering option.
(Pluzhnikov V.I. Terms of Russian architectural heritage. Dictionary-glossary. M., 1995)
Temples, cut in “kletski”, are scattered throughout Great Russia, but most often they are found in the central provinces, which, like the North, are not abundant in forests. Due to their planned design and similarity to a hut, these churches are small in size and do not require large financial expenditures for their construction. The simplest and probably the oldest type of temple consisted of one central large cage with two smaller sections from the east and west, standing directly on the ground, or, in popular parlance, “on the ground.” Covered with roofs on two slopes, the rise is completely similar to the usual rise of the roofs of dwellings, and shaded with a cross, this building fully satisfied its purpose from a purely liturgical point of view, but differed too little in its appearance from ordinary housing.
Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus, Kizhi Museum-Reserve. Photo: A. Lipilin
Cage churches are the closest to residential buildings or even barns - a cage with a gable roof, a dome with a cross and a small refectory. Everything is extremely simple and unpretentious. And this is their main charm. In plan, it is a cage measuring 3x3 meters with two openings, an altar on the east side and a refectory on the west. The foundation is made of small boulders. The structure is very reminiscent of a simple hut .
2. Wooden tent temple
The tent temple differs significantly from the cage temples both in its height and in its strongly emphasized upward tendency. It’s amazing how beautiful, how simple and rational, and how thoughtful this deeply national form of the temple is. While maintaining the traditional three parts - the altar, the main room and the meal, the plans of the tented churches have one significant difference - the main part of the temple forms an octagon. The advantage of this shape over the tetrahedron lies, first of all, in the possibility of significantly increasing the capacity of the temple by using logs of even much shorter length than those needed for the tetrahedron.
But the most important advantage of tented churches lies in their central technique, which allows you to give the temple a cruciform appearance, easily surround it with chapels, refectories, galleries, and give all this an unusually picturesque and grandiose appearance with barrels and kokoshniks.
(Gornostaev F., Grabar I. E. Wooden architecture of the Russian north // Grabar I. E. History of Russian art. T. 1, M., 1910)
Despite the fact that the height of the tented temples was usually very high, sometimes downright colossal, their internal height was always very insignificant. This was done in order to retain heat in the church, since with the tents open from the inside, warm air would rise to their tops, and it would be very difficult to heat the entire mass.
(Krasovsky M.V. Course on the history of Russian architecture. Part 1: Wooden architecture. PG., 1916)
St. George's Church, Malye Karely Museum.
Photo: A. Lipilin.
Tent churches are very impressive. Already from the name it is clear that the main distinctive feature they have a high tower with a hipped roof. Many tented churches have survived, and in them you can find a wide variety of space-planning solutions.
3. Wooden cuboid temple
It is difficult to say what caused the appearance of that special covering of the tetrahedral temple, which was given the name “cube”. “Blocky” churches are found mainly in the Onega region and the oldest of them do not go back further than the half of the 17th century. One of the reasons that influenced the emergence of this form was, in part, the well-known ban on building tented churches. The builders were unable to finally and forever abandon the tent, which was too cherished and expensive for the northerner, and from the middle of the 17th century a feverish search for new forms was noticeable, one way or another reminiscent of and replacing the tent. Already the barrel-tent forms were a noticeable concession to the persistent pressure coming from Moscow, but still the tent was to a certain extent saved at the cost of five domes. And the people fell in love with this new type of temple, since the tent was intact and the barrels had long been near and dear to them.
Installing five chapters on a cube does not present any difficulties and, moreover, can be easily done according to the established order, i.e. at the corners of the temple. The convenience of applying the pentacephalon to the cube contributed to the further development of this technique.
(Gornostaev F., Grabar I. E. Wooden architecture of the Russian north // Grabar I. E. History of Russian art. T. 1, M., 1910)
Cube - boxy, or blocky, top; tetrahedral covering of quadrangles, reminiscent in shape of a massive onion-shaped head
(Opolovnikov A.V., Ostrovsky G.S. Wooden Rus'. Images of Russian wooden architecture. M., 1981)
Peter and Paul Church in the Pomeranian village of Virma
.
Photo: N. Telegin
Church of the Ascension in the Malye Karely Museum. Photo: A. Lipilin
4. Wooden tiered temple
The name “quadrangle on a quadrangle”, assigned to churches built into several tiers, does not at all mean that the tiers are all quadrangular. In ancient acts, the same carpentry term is also used in cases where there are one or more octets on a quadrangle, or even no quadrangles at all, but only octets. Underneath it lies the concept of two or more cages placed one on top of the other, each upper one being slightly smaller in width than the one underneath it.
(Gornostaev F., Grabar I. E. Wooden architecture of the Russian north // Grabar I. E. History of Russian art. T. 1, M., 1910)
Museum of Wooden Architecture Kostromskaya Sloboda
Church of Elijah the Prophet from the village of Verkhniy Berezovets near Soligalich, dating back to the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. Photo: Kirill Moiseev
Transfiguration Church, built in 1756 and brought here from the village. Kozlyatevo, Kolchuginsky district, Vladimir region.
Museum of Wooden Architecture in Suzdal. Photo: Vladimir-Dar
5. Wooden multi-domed temple
Five-headedness was already a well-known approach to multi-headedness.
At first glance, what is striking about the Kizhi Temple is the extraordinary, almost fantastical nature of this multi-domed structure, giving some kind of chaotic group of chapters and barrels, interspersed and alternating with each other. Then he stops the intricacy of the chapters hiding in the barrels. Only the rhythm of the latter suggests that there is a system and a plan here, and, moreover, an exceptional and unprecedented plan.
Despite the apparent chaos, everything is clear, sensible and logical. The architect who created this truly “wonderful marvel” can be called a deep connoisseur of his art and at the same time a son of his time, who was not averse to the new forms of “quadrangle on quadrangle”.
It boldly and cheerfully merges into one relaxed artistic whole both the innovation of the contemporary era and the rich heritage of forms created by the people
(Gornostaev F., Grabar I. E. Wooden architecture of the Russian north // Grabar I. E. History of Russian art. T. 1, M., 1910)
But the most surprising thing is different. The complexity of the composition of multi-domed churches is only apparent. Based on a few planned types (a rectangular log house with trusses, an octagonal log house with two or four trusses and occasionally a cross-shaped log house, complicating and supplementing them with chapels, galleries and refectories, raising buildings to high basements and modifying the shape of the coverings, Russian architects achieved exceptional diversity in volume and silhouette of wooden churches.
(Opolovnikov A.V. Russian wooden architecture. M., 1986)
Ensemble in Kizhi. Church of the Transfiguration (summer) and Church of the Intercession (winter).
Photo: A. Lipilin
Church of the Transfiguration in Kizhi. The apotheosis of Russian wooden architecture, striking in its splendor.
Photo: A. Lipilin
The twenty-two-domed Church of the Transfiguration in Kizhi is the most famous and most popular monument of wooden architecture, which has become its symbol. This is a kind of personification of all the beauties of the ancient Russian wooden temple.
........................................ ........................................ .............................
This is a kind of “encyclopedic” study, which contains excerpts from the works of Russian and Soviet architects on the history of Russian wooden architecture.
The work consists of quotes drawn from the most famous scientific works of our researchers. Starting from I.E. Grabar to our contemporary A.V. Opolovnikov. That is, from the beginning of the twentieth century to its end. More precisely - until the end Soviet period our history, when systematic and large-scale work on the study and restoration of wooden architecture actually ended. Of course, work continues today, but on a completely different, more modest scale.
Types of temples have been created over many centuries, from the simplest - the cage type, to complex multi-domed structures. And the carpentry techniques developed over the years have created unique and inimitable buildings.
All photographs are taken only from articles published in the Architectural Style Magazine.
Literature:
1.Gornostaev F., Grabar I. E. Wooden architecture of the Russian north // Grabar I. E. History of Russian art. T. 1, M., 1910
2. Krasovsky M.V. Course on the history of Russian architecture. Part 1: Wooden architecture. PG., 1916
3. History of Russian architecture: Academy of Architecture of the USSR, Institute of History and Theory of Architecture, M., 1956
4. Opolovnikov A.V., Ostrovsky G.S. Wooden Rus'. Images of Russian wooden architecture. M., 1981
5. Opolovnikov A.V. Russian wooden architecture. M., 1986
…………………………………………………………………………...... .....
P.S. The article was prepared specifically for the Architectural Style Magazine.
If new photographs on this topic appear in our magazine, please inform us about this and send links. Additional photographs will be included in this study.
In general, it is quite difficult to judge the age of a structure based on visual signs. Because early architectural techniques could be preserved as a stable tradition in later times. As a rule, the oldest houses are characterized by the amazing quality of finishing of parts and the accuracy of their fit to each other, which later gave way to simpler and more technologically advanced techniques. But even these features do not give us the right to unambiguously name even the century of construction. A fairly accurate method is dendrochronological analysis, the essence of which is to compare log cuts with the pattern of a tree trunk recorded in a certain year. But this method only indicates the time at which the tree was cut down, and not the year of construction. Therefore, one can easily imagine a situation where crowns or individual logs from an older log house were used in the construction of a house. Perhaps the most reliable dates are those obtained at the intersection of several methods: dendrochronological analysis, analysis of architectural features and the study of archival documents.
Treasure of Russia - ancient wooden churches
Church of the Placing of the Robe in the village of Borodava. Drawing from N. A. Martynov’s album. 1860s
The oldest wooden building in Russia is the Church of the Placing of the Robe from the village of Borodava, the date of its consecration is October 1 (14), 1485. Over its long life, the church has undergone changes more than once - the roof covering could change up to 10 times, in the middle of the 19th century the open roof was removed a gallery on pillars - a walkway surrounding the refectory of the church; the walls were repeatedly trimmed and small details were partially changed.
In 1957, it was transported to the territory of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve. The church is being studied, thorough restoration work is being carried out, the goal of which is to return the church to its original appearance, while preserving all the details that have survived to this day.
Church of the Deposition of the Robe from the village of Borodava on the territory of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve
The Vitoslavitsa Museum, located near Veliky Novgorod, has a number of old churches. The earliest of them is the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin from the village of Peredki, the time of its creation is 1531.
Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary from the village of Peredki in the Vitoslavitsy architectural museum in Veliky Novgorod
An interesting monument from the early 17th century is located in the small town of Slobodskoye, not far from Kirov. This is the Church of St. Michael the Archangel, built in 1610. It was once part of the Epiphany (later – Holy Cross) monastery. After the revolution, the historical building was used as a warehouse for church property from demolished monastery churches, and it was tightly sheathed on all sides with boards. After restoration in 1971 - 1973. The church went to Paris for the exhibition "Russian wooden sculpture from ancient times to the present day." There, a church was installed near the Champs Elysees. From this voyage, the unique monument returned to the park in the center of Slobodsky, where it remains to this day. It is worth noting that the author of the restoration project, as in the case of the Church of the Deposition of Robes, was Professor B.V. Gnedovsky.
Church of the Archangel Michael in Slobodskoye, Kirov region
Fortunately, other monuments of wooden architecture from the 16th – 17th centuries have also been preserved, but they all belong to temple architecture; there are no residential buildings of this age. There are plenty of explanations for this. Firstly, the type of exploitation itself contributed to better preservation of the wood. Secondly, the churches were not rebuilt, only some structural details were changed. The houses were completely dismantled and reconstructed in accordance with the needs of the owners and the characteristics of the time. In addition, churches, which stood, as a rule, away from residential buildings, and were more carefully guarded, nevertheless burned less.
However, the study of monuments of temple architecture does not give us an idea of the architecture of peasant dwellings. Of course, there were general construction techniques, but we must remember that churches were built by professionals, and houses were built by the peasants themselves with the help of relatives and neighbors. When decorating the church, all known decorative techniques were used, but the peasant house was not decorated for reasons of the position of peasants in Russian society.
HouseXVIIcentury
What, after all, was the house of the 17th century like? Among the documents of this time, fairly detailed descriptions of the buildings in the courtyards, their interior decoration, and information about construction techniques have been preserved. In addition to written sources, there are drawings and travel sketches of foreigners, The most interesting drawings are given in the book by Adam Olearius “Description of a Journey to Muscovy.” Also, a large set of sketches was made by the artists of Augustin Meyerberg’s embassy. These drawings are made from life and are very realistic, painted (or rather tinted) with watercolors.
It must be said that the artists of that time reproduced what they saw quite accurately. To this should be added the drawings of individual buildings and courtyards, which give a fairly accurate idea of the size and layout of the buildings. This information, which clarifies our ideas about residential and commercial buildings of the 17th century, is still incomplete and uneven; the dwellings of the ruling classes, especially the royal mansions, are much better known; the peasant dwellings are described extremely sparingly.
Adam Olearius, "Journey to Muscovy"
Nevertheless, let's try to summarize what we know.
The hut was cut from large logs: pine, spruce, and the lower crowns were often made of oak or larch. The main building module was a log from 2 to 4 fathoms long. For coniferous species (spruce, pine), a well-known “standard” was developed - with a thickness of 20-30 cm, the length of the logs was 3-4 fathoms (1 fathom = 213.36 cm). The limitation of the length of the log by the indicated dimensions did not depend on the height of the tree, but on the extent to which the difference in the thickness of the log between the butt and the top turned out to be so insignificant that it did not interfere with construction (practically the log was an even cylinder).
Slightly retreating from the edge (30 cm), at each end of the log a recess, called a “cup,” was cut down to half the thickness. On two such parallel logs, another pair was placed transversely into the recesses, in which recesses were also cut out for the next transverse pair. Four logs connected in this way made up the crown of the log house.
Connecting logs of a log house "into the oblo"
The height of the log house depended on the number of crowns; judging by the drawings of contemporaries, there were 6-7 of them, that is, the height of the log house was 2.4-2.8 m. To make the logs fit better together, a groove was made in the upper or lower part, and the grooves between the crowns they laid moss. This simplest felling of log houses was called felling "in the oblo", and this method was used to build most houses both in villages and in cities. The internal area of such a room could be very small - about 12 sq.m., but the vast majority of residential buildings were built from three-planted logs, that is, their area reached 25 sq.m. These dimensions, determined by the properties of the building material, have been observed to be the most stable over the centuries.
The dwelling of ordinary townspeople. Fragment of the plan of Tikhvin Posad, 1678
The roofs of peasant huts and other buildings were gable. The side walls came down to the ridge, forming two slopes made of logs. There is no documentary information about the construction of ceilings in peasant huts. The arrangement of windows in peasant huts, well known to us from drawings, makes us think that there were no flat ceilings in these dwellings at that time. They appear a century later.
Two light windows were usually cut between the two upper crowns of the wall, and the third, smoke window, was even higher, almost under the very ridge of the roof. When the black-fired huts were then dominant among the peasants, it was mainly the smoke from the stoves that came through this window. If the huts had flat ceilings, then they would block the path of smoke and cutting a third window would then become nonsense. Apparently, if the huts had ceilings, they were vaulted. Or the roof logs themselves also served as the ceiling.
Adam Olearius, "Journey to Muscovy"
Information about the floors in peasant dwellings is also fragmentary. Whether the floors were always made of wood or were left earthen is impossible to say. Ethnographic information on the XVIII-XIX centuries. show the widespread use of earthen floors among Russian peasants in the central and even northern provinces.
Required element the hut had a stove. These stoves were heated black. No chimneys, no wooden chimneys in the mass peasant housing of the 17th century. not yet, although both were often used in the homes of feudal lords and wealthy townspeople. They made ovens from clay; In terms of strength, such stoves were superior to brick ones, as far as is known from ethnographic analogies.
Russian stove without a chimney, smoke came out straight from the hearth. The picture was taken from the Internet resource.
The internal layout of the hut was quite simple: in one of the corners (for the 17th century, perhaps even in the front), where there were windows that drew out smoke, a stove was placed. On the side of the stove were laid bunks - beds. Whether these floors were low, at a level of 1-1.2 m from the ground, or high is definitely impossible to say. But one might think that high pay appeared among the northern and central groups of the Russian peasantry somewhat later, in the 18th century, when the stove was placed at the entrance, at the back.
Along the walls of the hut there were benches so wide that one could sleep on them. Above the benches there were special shelves - shelf holders. In the corner, opposite the stove, they placed a small table with a base. In the 19th and even 20th centuries. There were also ancient tables with a barred base where chickens were kept. In the same corner where the table was, there was also a “holy”, “red” corner with a shrine for icons.
The living space of a chicken house, or black hut. The drawing was taken from an online resource; it quite accurately shows the flow of smoke from the fireplace and the type of ceiling, but the samovar is clearly superfluous here.
Even in the summer, such a hut was semi-dark, as it was illuminated by small fiberglass windows (approximately 60x30 cm), and in the winter such windows were covered with a film of bull bladder or payus (payus is a film in which the caviar of sturgeon and other fish is found, thin and transparent), and in addition they were “cloaked” with boards fixed in the grooves. The hut was lit only by a stove fire or a torch fixed in a light or a wall crack.
So, a 17th-century hut is a small structure with a rectangular or square base, a simple gable roof, and three small slit-like windows located quite high.
City houses differed only slightly from village houses, retaining all the same elements at their core.
HouseXVIIIcentury
In the 18th century, the wooden house underwent a number of changes. First of all, the ceiling changes, it becomes flat, this entails a change in the flow of smoke, in order for it to escape, chimneys (smoke chambers) are installed, and the windows, having lost their purpose, are shifted down and serve to illuminate the hut. Despite this, in many ways, the houses remain quite primitive. "White" heating - a stove with a pipe - is very rare. It should be noted that by the time of the abolition of serfdom (1861), more than a third of peasant huts remained chicken huts, i.e. drowned in black.
Rafter structures and, as a result, hipped roofs appear.
Dymniki (dymnitsa) - a prototype of the future present chimney. The smoke box was placed above the hole in the roof and ceiling and contributed to the creation of draft, thanks to which the smoke came out of the hut
House of the mid-18th century from Solvychegodsk
And the tall, richly decorated mansion houses of the Russian North, or the huts of the Nizhny Novgorod region richly decorated with voluminous carvings, which are described in such detail in the books that we admire in museums of wooden architecture - all of them appear only in the 19th century, and most of them only in the second half of it, after the abolition of serfdom. It was this transformation of Russian society that made possible the development of personal farming, the improvement of the financial situation of the Russian peasant, the emergence of independent artisans and free city residents, who, in turn, were able to fearlessly decorate their home in accordance with their wealth.
House in Uglich
The house in Uglich is the oldest residential building in Russia. No older houses have been recorded. Photographs of two buildings dating from the 18th century are given in the pre-war book “Russian Wooden Architecture” (S. Zabello, V. Ivanov, P. Maksimov, Moscow, 1942). One house is no longer there, but the second has been surprisingly preserved.
Photo of a preserved house from the book "Russian Wooden Architecture"
The Voronins' (formerly Mekhovs') house is located on the banks of the Kamennoye Stream, its address is: st. Kamenskaya, 4. This is one of the few surviving examples of wooden posad (city) housing in our country. The house was built in the first half - mid-18th century. Its uniqueness also lies in the fact that it was built before the regular development plan for Uglich in 1784, approved by Catherine II. In fact, this house is an intermediate link between a medieval and a planned city.
Same house in later photo
Here is a description of the house from one of the Internet sources: “This house is on a high basement, which was once used for household needs, previously had both a tower and a summer attic room. The staircase to the living floor was once located outside, but now inside "at home, it leads to the vestibule, which divides the floor into two parts: a living room and a summer room. The staircase railing and the bench on the upper landing are decorated with modest ornaments. The landmark of the house is the magnificent tiled stove."
Tiled stove in the Mekhov-Voronin house
The Mekhovs are an ancient family of city merchants, burghers, who, judging by their surnames, were engaged in furrier business. At the beginning of the 20th century, Ivan Nikolaevich Mekhov was the owner of a small brick factory. And now on ancient Uglich houses you can find bricks with the mark of his factory - “INM”.
The fate of the house is common for Russia - the owners were evicted, dispossessed, exiled, strangers moved into the house, who did not care about maintaining it in exemplary order, and accordingly, the house fell into disrepair. It was resettled only in the 1970s. Without people, the house collapsed even faster; it was even necessary to put up supports to prevent it from falling into the stream. At that time, the unique structure was on the balance sheet of the Uglich Museum. In 1978-79, a decision was made to restore it with money from the Society for the Protection of Cultural Monuments. We restored the brick plinth, replaced the lower crowns of the frame, and restored the interior decoration of the house. We restored the stove with tiles and rebuilt the roof.
Door in the basement of the Mekhov-Voronin house
In the nineties, when there was a shortage of money everywhere, the Mekhov-Voronin house was mothballed until better times. Paradoxically, the 2000s became fatal for the Mekhov-Voronin house, when it was recognized as a monument of federal significance. Let us explain what this term means: no one has the right to touch it. That is, it can be destroyed, but no person, under pain of criminal punishment, has the right to touch it. Except for the state. And the state, preoccupied with universal projects, such as the Olympics of all times and peoples, is unlikely to remember a modest wooden house in the Russian outback.
As one would expect, the status “Protected by the State” did not protect the house from homeless people and other marginalized individuals, but it put an end to the museum’s attempts to preserve this house.
Remains of a high porch
However, in 2014, the homeless people were evicted from the house, the windows and doors were boarded up, and the house was surrounded by a metal fence. What next is unknown. Perhaps it will remain there until the next emergency, or perhaps, as we would like to hope, it will soon be restored, and we will be able to admire the unique monument not only from afar, but also up close and from the inside.
This is what the house looks like now. It is impossible to get closer to him because of the fence with a scary sign
The windows on the residential floor are of a later date. But two windows in the basement, if not the same age as the house, are still older than the top ones
Basement window. Oh its more early origin may indicate a design without a window sill board
The information for writing this article was collected by the author over several years from a variety of wonderful books, many of which are listed on the website dedicated to Russian platbands.
Also important were numerous trips to the Urals and Russia, which the author has been making since 2003.
Invaluable assistance was provided by the wonderful Russian scientists Gerold Ivanovich Vzdornov, Mikhail Nikolaevich Sharomazov, artist and restorer Lyudmila Lupushor, historian and creator of the Nevyansk Icon Museum.
The breath of history, hand-made evidence of the great masters of antiquity - all these are wooden churches and temples in Russia.
Monuments of ancient architecture attract with their grandeur and simultaneous simplicity; wooden churches and temples in Russia are unique buildings that can embody the grandeur of the abode of God in a peasant hut.
IN modern world They also did not abandon the construction of wooden temples. Many of them are located in the capital of Russia and its other glorious cities.
Wooden temples of Rus'
Most of the ancient temple buildings have been preserved in the north of the country, but are in poor condition. Architectural monuments are protected by UNESCO as historical heritage. Currently, we are talking about the likelihood of complete loss of these unique structures.
The oldest wooden church in Russia
The Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus in Karelia is the most ancient monument architecture. The small building, darkened by time, more closely resembles a wooden hut of ancient villagers, only the dome with a cross indicates that it is a church. The structure was erected according to all the canons of ancient Russian architecture.
The temple is located on the territory of the Kizhi historical reserve; it contains icons on linden boards dating back to the 16th millennium. There are no church services in the temple; the building is used as a tourist site.
Wooden churches in Moscow
The capital of Russia is rich in both ancient and modern wooden churches.
Church of St. George the Victorious. Year of foundation: 1685. This is a majestic wooden three-tiered structure.
It is the main architectural monument of the Kolomenskoye Nature Reserve.
The Temple of St. Sergius of Radonezh, located in Zelenograd, was founded in 1998. A simple one-story building topped with a large and small dome.
The church is active.
In Raevo in 1997, a wooden Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was erected.
The building was created in accordance with the architectural canons of the 15th century.
Wooden temple without a single nail
The pride of Karelia is the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Its uniqueness is its construction without the use of nails.
History has not preserved the names of the great masters of antiquity. The temple was erected in 1714.
The temple is 37 meters high and has 22 domes of various sizes. The whole body of the temple seems to strive upward, into the heavens.
The building is currently under restoration. It is planned to open it for parishioners and tourists in 2020.
Wooden Suzdal temple
St. Nicholas Church in Suzdal was transported from the Vladimir region and restored by the architect M. M. Sharonov. The temple was originally founded in the 18th century in the village of Glotovo, and in 1960 the authorities decided to move it to a new location and restore it.
The church was erected in the western part of the Suzdal Kremlin. The rustic-style structure blends in with the countryside. The basis of the building is a cage made of hewn logs, similar to simple Russian huts. The temple is crowned with a small dome with a cross.
Wooden churches in the Leningrad region
In the village of Rodionovo, Leningrad region, there has been a temple of St. George the Victorious since 1493. In 1993, restoration was carried out, the appearance of the structure was completely preserved.
Nowadays, it is still a functioning church where services are held.
There are other wooden churches in the vicinity of St. Petersburg:
In total, I count more than fifty operating wooden churches in the Leningrad region.
Modern wooden churches
In the 21st century, believers and philanthropists do not refuse to build churches made of wood. The Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist in the village of Glebychevo is an excellent example of modern architecture.
Year of foundation: 2007. The creators completely preserved the style of pre-revolutionary churches.
The first wooden new church building, erected in 1995, is a church in honor of the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God in Moscow.
This temple structure has one peculiarity: there is no separate belfry for the bells; they are suspended under the dome of the new temple.
Onega island with wooden churches
The unique nature of Kizhi Island and Lake Onega attract tourists. But this is not the only thing that makes the island famous. The most ancient wooden churches in Russia were built in this place.
Temples and chapels of Kizhi Island:
The complex of churches on the island of Kizhi is included in the World Heritage Fund. These temples are considered especially valuable architectural monuments of Russia.
