Liturgical architectural buildings. The history of the architecture of an Orthodox church

Temple architecture of Moscow
Table of contents

Introduction

Church architecture is not at all like civil architecture. It carries the most important symbolic meanings, it has other functions, tasks, design features. A church building cannot be built solely on the basis of volumetric-spatial and stylistic considerations. The history of civil architecture shows how a person organized living space around himself, church architecture - how he thought for himself over the centuries the path to God. And yet, historically, temple architecture did not differ very much from secular architecture, perhaps with an emphasized exterior, outward orientation; in general, it was within the framework of the dominant architectural style in a particular era, and often determined its development.

The current situation is fundamentally different. In the Soviet era, churches were not built here. As a result, new churches have to be built, bridging the gap of more than 70 years. But in civil architecture, we lagged behind the whole world for many years. We missed several architectural styles, others came to us with a delay, and others changed beyond recognition. In addition, if in ancient times architectural styles could dominate for centuries, today they replace each other every few years.

That is why the topic of this work is relevant and timely.

The aim and objectives of the work is to study the temple architecture of Moscow.

1 History of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Nikitniki

Originally on this site was the Church of the Great Martyr Nikita. In 1626 a fire broke out here, the church apparently burned down, but the icon of the Great Martyr Nikita was saved. In the 1630s. Yaroslavl merchant Grigory (Georgy) Nikitnikov, who settled nearby, built a stone church in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity with the side-altar of Nikita the Great Martyr.

The side-altars in this church are dedicated to St. Nicholas, the Apostle John the Theologian, the Georgian icon of the Mother of God. Georgian icon of the Mother of God in the 17th century. from Georgia through Persia came to Russia and became famous for miracles. In 1654, during a world plague, the icon was brought to Moscow, and a copy of the miraculous icon was placed in the Trinity Church in Nikitniki. It should be said that the tsarist icon painter Simon Ushakov contributed a lot to the decoration of the temple. He painted several icons for the iconostasis, one of them famous - "Planting the Tree of the Russian State", which deserves special consideration. There are wonderful murals in the temple 1 .

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The middle and second half of the 17th century were marked by major achievements in various fields of culture. In the visual arts, a struggle is outlined between two contradictory directions: the progressive, associated with new phenomena in Russian artistic culture, which tried to go beyond the narrow church worldview, and the obsolete, conservative, which fought against everything new and mainly against the aspirations for secular forms in painting. Realistic searches in painting are the driving force behind the further development of Russian fine art in the 17th century. The framework of church-feudal art with its narrow dogmatic themes becomes too narrow, not satisfying either artists or customers. The rethinking of the human personality is formed under the influence of the democratic strata, primarily the wide circles of the townspeople, and is reflected in literature and painting. It is significant that the writers and artists of the 17th century began to depict in their works a real person - their contemporary, whose ideas were based on vigilant observations of life.

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The process of "secularization" also begins in architecture. The architects of the 17th century, when building churches, departed from the usual forms of civil mansion and ward architecture, from folk wooden buildings.

In 1634, when the monument was completed, the Kitay-gorod area was just beginning to be built up with boyar and merchant estates and courtyards, small wooden houses predominated here. The majestic temple ruled over all wickedness. At that time, it was like a modern high-rise building. The bright color of the brick walls of the Trinity Church, dismembered by an elegant decorative finish of white carved stone and colored glazed tiles, a coating of white German iron, gold crosses on green tiled domes10 - all taken together created an irresistible impression. The architectural masses of the building are compactly arranged, which is obviously due to the harmonious relationship between the external volume and the internal space. This is facilitated by the fusion of all the constituent parts of the temple, surrounded on both sides by a gallery.

2 Temple architecture

The plan and composition of the church is based on a quadrangle, which is adjoined by side-chapels on both sides, an altar, a refectory, a bell tower, a gallery and a porch. The principle of combining all these parts of the temple goes back to the type of peasant wooden buildings, the basis of which was always a cage with a passage, smaller cages and a porch cut to it. This composition is still largely associated with the architecture of the 16th and early 17th centuries and is a kind of completion of its development on Moscow soil. A similar compositional technique can be seen in the monument of the 16th century - the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior in the village of Ostrov on the Moskva River. Here, on the sides of the main pillar, symmetrical side-chapels are attached, united by a covered gallery 2 .

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Each side-altar has an independent entrance and exit to the gallery. At the end of the 16th century and in the 17th century, this technique was further developed. It should be noted that a gradual transition from the smooth surface of the walls to the tent - in the form of several rows of kokoshniks - is already outlined in the hipped roof of the Ostrovskaya church. An example of a complete expression of a symmetrical composition with two side-chapels on the sides is the Church of the Transfiguration of the village of Vyazyoma (end of the 16th century) in the Godunovs' estate near Moscow and the Church of the Intercession in Rubtsovo (1619-1626). The latter is close in type to the posad temples (the old cathedral of the Donskoy monastery and the temple of St. Nicholas the Yavlenniy on the Arbat) .. Its peculiarity is: a pillarless interior space and a covering on kokoshniks. However, in contrast to the five-domed temple of the village of Vyazyoma, there is only one light chapter here. The above shows the organic connection of the church in Nikitniki with the posad temples of the 16th-early 17th centuries. The architectural tradition of the previous architecture was reflected in the composition of the Trinity Church: two side-altars on the sides of the main quadrangle, a gallery on a high basement, three rows of kokoshniks “in a run.” However, the architect managed to find a completely different solution to the external volume and internal space: side-altars on the sides of the main quadrangle he arranged it asymmetrically, the northern great side-altar receives a refectory, while the miniature southern side-altar has neither a refectory nor a gallery.

The Trinity Church has three chapels: the northern one is Nikolsky, the southern one is Nikitsky and John the Theologian under the tent bell tower. Thus, for the first time in the architecture of the 17th century, the bell tower is included in a single ensemble with the church, with which it is connected by a staircase located at the northern end of the western gallery. A new constructive technique that determined the features of the building's layout is the overlap of the main quadrangle with a closed vault (with one light head and four deaf ones), in which inside the church there is a two-story hall-type room free of pillars, designed for the convenience of viewing the painting decorating the walls. This technique was carried over from civil architecture.

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In solving the external volume of the building, the architects managed to find the correct proportional relationship between the main quadrangle, the bell tower, rushing upward, and lower parts of the building slightly spreading horizontally on a heavy white stone basement (side-altars, gallery, hipped porch). A distinctive feature of the composition of the Trinity Church is that it changes its pictorial and artistic appearance when perceived from different points of view. From the north-west (from the side of the present Ipatievsky lane) and from the south-east (from the Nogin square), the church is drawn as a single slender silhouette, directed upward, making it look like a fairytale castle. It is perceived in a completely different way from the west side - from here the whole building literally spreads out, and all its constituent parts appear before the viewer: a quadrangle, a western gallery stretched horizontally, flanked by a bell tower that emphasizes the height of the church and a hipped-roof entrance porch. This bizarre variability of the silhouette is explained by a bold violation of symmetry in the composition, which was developed in the 16th century and in which the perception of the monument turned out to be the same from all sides.

In the church in Nikitniki, elegant external decoration plays an important role. To attract the attention of passers-by, the southern wall, facing the street, is richly decorated with paired columns and a complex entablature crowning the walls with a wide multifaceted cornice, given in a continuous change of ledges and depressions, colored tiles and white stone carvings, saturated with complex patterns that create a whimsical play of light and shade. This splendid decorative decoration of the southern wall acquired the significance of a kind of signboard for Nikitnikov's commercial and industrial firm, while from the courtyard side, the treatment of window frames and the apse of the chapel under the bell tower is still closely connected with Moscow architecture of the 16th century (the Church of Tryphon in Naprudnaya, etc.). the effect is produced on the southern wall by two white-stone carved casing. - green-blue, on the ornament - red and traces of gilding.) These two main large windows, located side by side, amaze with a bold violation of symmetry. They are different in their artistic form and composition. One is rectangular, the other is five-bladed, slotted. Vertical lines of platbands and the paired semi-columns dismembering the walls somewhat weaken the meaning of the horizontal multifaceted cornices, cutting the line of the walls. The vertical tendency of the growing forms of the platbands is emphasized by the upper line of the trenches with skile-like kokoshniks and a white-stone icon case placed between them, the high pointed end of which is a direct transition to the covering along the kokoshniks.

With the general balance of the white-stone decor, the infinite variety of forms of platbands with rollers, kokoshniks and colored tiles is striking, in which it is almost impossible to find two repeating motifs. The intricacy of the facade decoration was enriched by a new kokoshnik-like two-blade end of the roof over the refectory, restored during the restoration of the southern wall in 1966-1967 by the architect G.P. Belov. The lavish decor gave the church the character of an elegant civil structure. Its "secular" features were also reinforced by the uneven arrangement of windows and the difference in their sizes associated with the purpose of the interior. 3 .

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The apses of the church are asymmetrical and correspond to the division of the building into side-altars. On the southern "front" wall, with the help of rows of windows, wall ledges and multi-shaped cornices, a clear floor division is outlined, emphasized by paired semi-columns on double pedestals in the upper part and a completely different division by wide pilasters of the wall of the lower floor. to the appearance of tiered church structures in the second half of the 17th century The rich decorative decoration of the southern wall with white stone carvings, decorations with colored glazed tiles placed at a corner in the form of rhombuses - all taken together, as it were, prepares the viewer for the perception of an even more magnificent interior decoration of the church. the windows of the southern wall, giving an abundance of light, contribute to the visual expansion of the interior space.Particular attention should be paid to the carved white-stone portals in the central interior room, as if emphasizing new trends in the solution of architectural space - the unification of separate parts of the building.

Here again, a free creative method is allowed - all three portals are different in their forms. The northern one has a rectangular entrance, richly decorated with a continuous ornamental pattern, the basis of which is weaving of stems and leaves with lush rosettes of flowers and pomegranate fruits (volumetric-plane carving on a notched background).

The portal ends with half a lush rosette of a giant pomegranate flower with juicy petals wrapped at the ends. The southern portal is cut in the form of a steep five-blade arch with rectangular sides, as it were, supporting a strongly protruding multifaceted cornice. The same floral ornament on a champlevé background, at the corners a five-lobed platband is decorated with miniature images of parrots; traces of blue and red paint have been preserved on their crests and plumage. It is possible that the torn, multi-broken platband was previously crowned with a giant pomegranate fruit, similar to the grenade of the platband of the right window on the southern wall. If the northern and southern portals are stretched, directed upward, then the western portal is stretched in breadth. Low semicircular, it is entirely decorated with a carved white stone relief ornament of intertwining stems and multi-petal flowers of a wide variety of non-repeating patterns. The high quality of white stone carving, the closeness of its technique to the carving of the wooden iconostasis and to the carved ornament in the 1657 canopy of the Church of Elijah the Prophet in Yaroslavl give grounds to assume that it is the creation of Moscow and Yaroslavl masters, who widely deployed their artistic talent here in the Trinity Church.

The tent-roofed entrance porch with a creeping vault, with two-blade arches with an overhang and white-stone carved weights is strongly pushed forward, towards the street, as if inviting everyone passing by to come in and admire 4 .

Carved ornamented white stone weights are the leading motif of the church's decoration, which forms an organic part of the entire architectural composition.

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An intricate hanging weight is also embedded in the vault of the main premises of the church. It represents four birds with spread wings, connected by backs. At the lower end of the weight there is a thick iron ring, painted with cinnabar, which served to hang a small chandelier, which illuminated the upper tiers of the icons of the main iconostasis. On the inner edges of the hipped porch, the remains of a painting depicting the painting “The Last Judgment” have been preserved. In the 17th century, the painting from the entrance porch proceeded in a continuous mite along the creeping arch of the staircase and filled the walls and vault of the western gallery. Unfortunately, no traces of ancient painting and plaster were found here. discover that all the remains of it were knocked down during the renovation in the middle of the 19th century.

Above, in the castle of the arch of the entrance porch, there is a thin, graceful rosette carved from white stone, apparently intended for a hanging lantern that illuminated the scenes of the Last Judgment depicted here. From the western gallery into the church there is a promising semicircular portal with massive iron doors and bars Forged rectangular lattices, made up of intersecting strips, were built specifically to protect the paired white-stone painted columns located on the sides of the entrance portal.

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The flat surfaces of the stripes on the lattices are covered entirely with a simple incised ornament in the form of a wriggling stem, with curls and leaves extending from it. At the crossing points of the stripes, there are eight-petal figured plaques decorated with small incised ornamentation. The iron double-leaf doors with a semicircular top are decorated even more elegantly and fancifully. Their frame consists of solid iron vertical and horizontal strips breaking the door panel into uniform squares. Judging by the remains of the painting, these squares were originally painted with flowers. On the crossing of the stripes, there are decorations in the form of round through-cut iron plates, once placed with scarlet cloth and mica. The door strips are embossed with images of lions, horses, unicorns and wild boars, various species of birds, sometimes on branches and in crowns. The rich composition of the feathered world is not always amenable to definition. Often, animals and birds are combined into heraldic compositions included in the floral ornament. The undoubted existence of the samples used by the masters is evidenced by one of the birds in the crown, entirely borrowed from miniatures for the facial Apocalypse (based on the manuscript of the early 17th century).

3 The current state of the temple

Nikitnikovskaya church, unlike most of the previous buildings, is in a rather active relationship with the external space: it is captured by an initially open gallery along the western and (presumably) northern facades, as well as a hipped porch far removed from the temple. However, the staircase of the porch, raised above the street and covered by a low overhanging vault, feels like an isolated island, quite decisively cut off from the surrounding. Climbing the stairs already accentuated the transition to another space: after all, real space was mastered by a person mainly horizontally, and the vertical coordinate belonged to the "mountain world" 5 ... On the arch of the porch, according to E.S. Ovchinnikova, scenes of the Last Judgment were depicted; they were illuminated by a white-stone lantern suspended from a white-stone rosette in the center of the vault (9). Since the field of view from the porch site is limited due to the lowered outlines of arches with hanging weights, the one who climbed to the site felt himself cut off from the city space, prepared to enter under the consecrated vaults of the temple.

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However, the porch did not lead directly to the entrance to the temple, but to the gallery. When looking at it from the outside, it seems that the longitudinal movement is undoubtedly predominant in it - from the porch to the bell tower, which is emphasized not only by the length of the gallery, but also by the organization of its decor. But in the interior, such a solution would be illogical, since in this case, the person entering would go past the entrance to the main room of the temple (this entrance is located not far from the porch, in the second division of the gallery. The undesirable effect was eliminated by dividing the inner space of the gallery into a number of cells, each of which is covered with a separate vault, which also has a transverse orientation Due to this, the interior of the gallery is perceived not as a single vector-directed space, but as a sum of small static and relatively independent zones.It is possible that this impression was supported by the painting (which has not survived to this day), but in the constructive solution it was laid down quite definitely. with strikings covering the first, third and fourth articulations of the gallery, in principle, do not differ from similar vaults above independent rooms - for example, the refectory of the Nikolsky side-altar (10). of this vault are in equal to the locks of the vaults of the side cells. The transverse orientation and a rather strong narrowing of the vault towards the eastern wall should direct the attention of the person who entered the portal located in this wall - the main entrance to the church.

A perspective portal flanked by two pairs of free-standing columns leads to the main space of the church from the gallery - one of the first examples of the use of this detail in ancient Russian architecture after the portals of the Annunciation Cathedral. Here, a kind of stratification of the temple monolith is outlined: the space got the opportunity to penetrate between the constructive and decorative form (in contrast to the widespread semi-columns that existed in a single block with a wall). The external environment invaded the sacred object, forming an indissoluble unity with it. In the Trinity Church in Nikitniki, this is still only a detail that is of little significance in the general context, but it hid the potential for further development of the once found technique - right up to full-fledged colonnades of the 18th century.

However, the gates preserved in this portal - massive, iron, deaf - with the same categoricality cut off the interior from the outer space. The inscription above the portal ("I will enter your house and worship your holy temple ...") reminds you that the temple is the house of God and, therefore, in this capacity is incomparable with the environment. The plots embossed on the gates - peacocks and Sirins - as well as flowers painted on the door panels, were associated with the concept of paradise, i.e. again, about the heavenly world, separated from the earthly vale.

However, the space of the Trinity Church refectory, where the portal leads, differs relatively little from the gallery space - it is low, transversely oriented, with wall paintings (also lost in the 18th century). The person who entered immediately became clear about its official character - the vestibule, the vestibule at the main church. Three openings left no doubt about this, opening a view of the main iconostasis. The openings are quite low; the proportions of the central one gravitate towards the square, making it possible to see practically only the local row of the iconostasis from the refectory. Therefore, from the refectory, the space of the temple itself involuntarily appears to be transversely oriented and relatively low, similar to the space of the refectory. And only from under the central arch, i.e. in fact, already at the entrance to the main temple, the actual height of the building is revealed, more than twice the height of the previous room. The stunning contrast of the "ward" space of the refectory and the upward opening of the main room of the temple affects so strongly that the volume of the church seems to be strongly elongated upward, although in fact it is almost cubic: its length and width are equal to the height to the vault. The image of paradise, foreshadowed by the plot of the western doors, is clearly embodied in the main space of the church, supported by the theme of the vault painting ("Descent into Hell" - expelling the righteous to heavenly bliss and "Ascension" - the ascent of Christ to heaven). In addition, "Ascension" somehow objectifies the sensation experienced by those who entered - an upward thrust, akin to the "force field" that formed under the dome of the cross-domed church (it is no coincidence that in the early Old Russian paintings the dome was occupied by the "Ascension").

This feature of the interior space of the Trinity Church in Nikitniki is generally traditional. But along with it, the interior solution contains innovations that run counter to the canonical appearance of the ancient Russian temple. The pillarless room looks amazingly solid. It completely removes the dissection and "layering" of the space of the cross-domed buildings, caused by the allocation of transversely oriented spatial zones - the altar, the salt, the central transverse nave, etc. The interior is not separated by pillars; there is even no salt, which translates the gradation of space according to the degree of holiness (decreasing from the altar to the vestibule) into a purely speculative plan. The altar is completely hidden by the iconostasis, the plane of which formed the fourth wall, similar in appearance to the other three.

Conclusion

Along with the techniques characteristic of medieval painting, in Nikitnikov's paintings one can clearly feel the desire to show scenes in the interior: the depicted conventional structures are sometimes stretched up, sometimes spread horizontally, as if trying to embrace all the characters, to include them in a single space, identical to the real one. The strong inertia of the old understanding of space is reflected in the fact that the figures are nevertheless located in front of the chambers rather than inside them, but nevertheless the deepening of the space of the frescoes leads to an illusory expansion of the walls, deepening of the interior; in fact, the entire wall, like a window, began to be thought of as the border of the transition of spaces - architectural and picturesque. Outside the picturesque space, the real world reflected in this painting was felt.

The Church of the Holy Trinity in Nikitniki is a beautiful architectural monument. The building of the church - truly a pearl of Russian architecture of the 17th century - has evoked many imitations both in the capital and in the provinces. Placed on a high basement on a hill, it is visible from afar, attracting the eye with an extraordinary picturesque silhouette - a quadruple directed upward with twin columns and a slide of graceful kokoshniks is crowned with five heads on high drums, treated with columns and an arched belt. The main quadrangle is echoed by the pyramids of the kokoshniks of two side-altars: the northern, Nikolsky, and southern, Nikita Voin, above the burial vault of the Nikitnikov merchants, and the main volume is an elegant hip-roofed bell tower and a small porch tent. The varied decorative design of the facades is emphasized by the bright two-tone colors. The cozy interiors of the temple are covered with a multicolored carpet.

In the iconostasis there are icons of Stroganov writing, many icons of the local row were made by the icon painters of the Armory. For this church in 1659, Yakov Kazanets, Simon Ushakov and Gavrila Kondratyev painted the icon “Annunciation with akathist”, and the icons “The Great Bishop”, “Our Lady of Vladimir” or “Planting the Tree of the Russian State” belong to the brush of Simon Ushakov.

Now it is a functioning temple and at the same time a museum, but judging by the crumbling porch, the temple is clearly lacking a modern Yaroslavl merchant.

Thus, while preserving the medieval features in the overall composition of the temple - the relative isolation of the spatial volumes, the high-rise contrast of the side and central parts - inside each part, the space is already resolved in a new way, acquiring integrity and unity. The sacred experience of the interior of the cult building is significantly smoothed out, harmonized and gets a different emotional color - lighter, more calm and joyful. Probably the definition of Russian architecture in the middle of the 17th century. Pavel Aleppsky, as "gladdening the soul" (20), was in no small measure inspired by the peculiarities of the interpretation of its inner space.

List of used literature

I.P. Kanaev Architecture of modern Orthodox small churches and chapels: Author's abstract. diss. - M., 2002.
MDS 31-9.2003. Orthodox churches. T. 2. Orthodox churches and complexes: A manual for design and construction. - M .: ARKHRAM, 2003.
Mikhailov B. Modern icon painting: a tendency of development // Church bulletin. 2002. June. No. 12-13.
Experience in the construction of Orthodox churches // Construction technology. No. 1. 2004.
Contemporary Church Architecture: Round Table of Radio "Radonezh". 27.06.2007.

1 The architecture of an Orthodox church. X - XX centuries. // Orthodox encyclopedia. Volume "Russian Orthodox Church. Russian Church Art of the 10th - 20th centuries": Internet resource.

2 Moscow is golden-domed. Monasteries, temples, shrines: Guide. - M .: UKINO "Spiritual transformation", 2007.

3 Buseva-Davydova I.L. The evolution of the inner space of the 17th century temples. (on the example of the churches of the Trinity in Nikitniki and the Intercession in Fili). In the book: Architectural heritage. Issue 38. Problems of style and method in Russian architecture. M .: Stroyizdat, 1995.S. 265-281.

4 Buseva-Davydova I.L. The evolution of the inner space of the 17th century temples. (on the example of the churches of the Trinity in Nikitniki and the Intercession in Fili). In the book: Architectural heritage. Issue 38. Problems of style and method in Russian architecture. M .: Stroyizdat, 1995.S. 265-281.

5 Buseva-Davydova I.L. The evolution of the inner space of the 17th century temples. (on the example of the churches of the Trinity in Nikitniki and the Intercession in Fili). In the book: Architectural heritage. Issue 38. Problems of style and method in Russian architecture. M .: Stroyizdat, 1995.S. 265-281.

The rapid development of temple building in our time, in addition to its positive beginning, has a negative side. First of all, this concerns the architecture of the erected church buildings. There are often cases when architectural solutions depend on the taste of the donor or the abbot of the temple, who do not have the necessary knowledge in the field of temple architecture.

The state of modern church architecture

The opinions of professional architects on the problem of modern church architecture are very different. Some believe that the tradition, interrupted after 1917, today should start from the moment it was forced to stop - from the Art Nouveau style of the early 20th century, in contrast to the modern cacophony of architectural styles of the past, chosen by architects or customers according to their personal taste. Others welcome innovation and experimentation in the spirit of modern secular architecture and reject tradition as outdated and out of date.

Thus, the current state of the architecture of Orthodox churches in Russia cannot be considered satisfactory, since the correct guidelines for the search for architectural solutions of modern churches and the criteria for assessing past experience, which is often used under the guise of following tradition, have been lost.

For many, the necessary knowledge of the traditions of Orthodox church building is replaced by thoughtless reproduction of "samples", stylization, and by tradition we mean any period of domestic church building. National identity, as a rule, is expressed in copying traditional techniques, forms, elements of the outdoor decoration of temples.

In the domestic history of the 20th-20th centuries, there was already an attempt to return to the origins of Orthodox church building, which in the middle of the 20th century led to the emergence of the Russian-Byzantine style, and at the beginning of the 20th century, the neo-Russian style. But these were the same "styles", only based not on Western European, but on Byzantine and Old Russian samples. Despite the general positive direction of such a turn towards historical roots, still only “samples” as such, their stylistic characteristics and details served as a support. The result was imitative works, the architectural solution of which was determined by the level of knowledge of the "samples" and the degree of professionalism in their interpretation.

In modern practice, we observe the same picture of attempts to reproduce "samples" from the whole variety of diverse heritage without penetrating into the essence, into the "spirit" of the projected temple, to which the modern architect-temple-creator, as a rule, has no relation, or he lacks for this sufficient education.

The buildings of churches, which in Orthodoxy, like icons, are sacred for believers, with a superficial approach of architects to their design, cannot possess that energy of grace, which, of course, we feel when contemplating many ancient Russian churches built by our spirit-bearing ancestors in a state of humility, prayers and reverence for the shrine of the temple. This humble, repentant feeling, combined with fervent prayer for the sending down of God's help in the creation of the temple - the house of God, attracted the grace of the Holy Spirit, with which the temple was built and which is present in it to this day.

The creation of every Orthodox church is a process of co-creation between man and God. An Orthodox church should be created with the help of God by people whose creativity, based on personal ascetic, prayer and professional experience, is consistent with the spiritual tradition and experience of the Orthodox Church, and the images and symbols created are involved in the heavenly prototype - the Kingdom of God. But if the temple is not designed by church people only by looking at the photographs of temples in textbooks on the history of architecture, which in these textbooks are considered only as "monuments of architecture", then no matter how "correctly" the temple is executed, conscientiously copied from such a "sample" from the necessary corrections associated with modern design requirements, then the believing heart in search of true spiritual beauty will certainly feel the substitution.

It is extremely difficult to objectively assess what is being built today only on the basis of formal criteria. Many people who come to the temple often with a hardened heart during the years of atheism, perhaps, do not have a sharp thought about the discrepancy between what is happening in the temple and what they see in front of them. People who are not yet fully included in church life, like people with an undeveloped ear for music, will not immediately feel these false notes. The details familiar to the eye and often an abundance of adornments under the guise of splendor can overshadow untrained spiritual vision and even please the secular eye to some extent, without raising the mind to grief. Spiritual beauty will be replaced by worldly beauty or even aestheticism.

We need to realize that we should not think about how best to continue the "tradition" understood from the point of view of architectural theorists, or create a beautiful temple in an earthly way, but how to solve the tasks facing the Church, which do not change, despite what changes in architectural styles. Temple architecture is one of the types of church art that is organically included in the life of the Church and is designed to serve its purposes.

Fundamentals of Orthodox Church Architecture

Traditionality

The invariability of Orthodox dogmas and the rite of worship determines the fundamental invariability of the architecture of an Orthodox church. The basis of Orthodoxy is the preservation of the teachings of Christianity, which was enshrined in the Ecumenical Councils. Accordingly, the architecture of an Orthodox church, reflecting this unchanging Christian teaching with the symbolism of architectural forms, is extremely stable and traditional in its essence. At the same time, the variety of architectural solutions of temples is determined by the peculiarities of its functional use (cathedral, parish church, memorial temple, etc.), capacity, as well as the variability of elements and details used depending on the preferences of the era. Some differences in temple architecture observed in different countries professing Orthodoxy are determined by climatic conditions, historical conditions of development, national preferences and national traditions associated with the peculiarities of the folk character. However, all these differences do not affect the basis of the architectural form of an Orthodox church, since in any country and in any era the dogmatics of Orthodoxy and the divine service for which the temple is being built remain unchanged. Therefore, in Orthodox church architecture, at its core, there should not be any "architectural style" or "national direction", except for the "universal Orthodox".

The convergence of temple architecture with the stylistics of secular structures, which took place in the modern period, was associated with the penetration of the secular principle into church art in connection with the negative processes of the state-imposed secularization of the Church. This affected the weakening of the figurative structure of church art in general, including the architecture of the temple, its sacred purpose to be an expression of heavenly prototypes. Temple architecture at that time largely lost its ability to express the innermost content of the temple, turning into pure art. Until recently, churches were perceived in this way - as architectural monuments, and not as the house of God, which is “not of this world,” and not as a shrine, which is natural for Orthodoxy.

Conservatism is an integral part of the traditional approach, and this phenomenon is not negative, but a very careful spiritual approach to any innovation. Innovations are never denied by the Church, but very high requirements are imposed on them: they must be divinely revealed. Therefore, there is a canonical tradition, that is, following the models adopted by the Church as corresponding to its dogmatic teaching. The samples used in the canonical tradition of temple building are necessary for architects to imagine what and how to do, but they have only a pedagogical meaning - to teach and remind, leaving room for creativity.

Today, "canonicity" often means the mechanical fulfillment of some obligatory rules that constrain the creative activity of an architect, although there has never been any "canon" as a set of obligatory requirements for temple architecture in the Church. Artists of antiquity never perceived tradition as something fixed once and for all and subject only to literal repetition. The new that appeared in the building of the temple did not radically change it, did not deny what was before, but developed the previous one. All new words in church art are not revolutionary, but successive.

Functionality

Functionality means:

The architectural organization of the meeting place for Church members for prayer, listening to the word of God, celebrating the Eucharist and other sacraments, united in the rite of worship.

The presence of all the necessary auxiliary premises related to worship (panomark, sacristy, church shop) and the stay of people (dressing room, etc.);

Compliance with technical requirements related to the stay of people in the temple and the operation of the temple building (microclimatic, acoustic, reliability and durability);

Efficiency of construction and operation of church buildings and structures, including construction in stages using optimal engineering and construction solutions, the necessary and sufficient use of external and internal decoration means.

The architecture of the temple should, by organizing the space of the temple, create conditions for worship, congregational prayer, and also, through the symbolism of architectural forms, help to understand what a person hears in the word of God.

Symbolism

According to the church theory of the correlation of the image with the prototype, the architectural images and symbols of the temple, when performed within the framework of the canonical tradition, can reflect the prototypes of heavenly life and attach to them. The symbolism of the temple explains to believers the essence of the temple as the beginning of the future Kingdom of Heaven, puts before them the image of this Kingdom, using visible architectural forms and means of pictorial decoration in order to make the image of the invisible, heavenly, Divine accessible to our senses.

An Orthodox church is a figurative embodiment of the dogmatic teaching of the Church, a visual expression of the essence of Orthodoxy, evangelical preaching in images, stones and paints, a school of spiritual wisdom; a symbolic image of the Godhead Himself, an icon of the transformed universe, the heavenly world, the Kingdom of God and paradise returned to man, the unity of the visible and invisible world, earth and heaven, the earthly Church and the heavenly Church.

The form and structure of the temple are associated with its content, filled with Divine symbols that reveal the truths of the Church, leading to heavenly prototypes. Therefore, they cannot be arbitrarily changed.

the beauty

The Orthodox Church is the focus of all the most beautiful on earth. It is beautifully adorned as a place worthy for the celebration of the Divine Eucharist and all the sacraments, in the image of the beauty and glory of God, the earthly house of God, the beauty and majesty of His Heavenly Kingdom. Splendor is achieved by means of architectural composition in a synthesis with all types of church art and the use of the best materials possible.

The main principles of building the architectural composition of an Orthodox church are:

The supremacy of the internal space of the temple, its interior over the external appearance;

Construction of internal space on the harmonious balance of two axes: horizontal (west - east) and vertical (earth - sky);

Hierarchical structure of the interior with the dominance of the dome space.

Spiritual beauty, which we call splendor, is a reflection, a reflection of the beauty of the heavenly world. Spiritual beauty that comes from God must be distinguished from worldly beauty. The vision of heavenly beauty and co-creation in "synergy" with God made it possible for our ancestors to create temples, the beauty and grandeur of which were worthy of heaven. In the architectural solutions of ancient Russian churches, the desire to reflect the ideal of unearthly beauty of the Kingdom of Heaven is clearly expressed. Temple architecture was built mainly on the proportional correspondence of parts and the whole, and decorative elements played a secondary role.

The high purpose of the temple obliges the temple builders to treat the creation of the temple with the utmost responsibility, to use all the best that modern building practice has, all the best of the means of artistic expression, however, this task should be solved in each specific case in its own way, remembering the words of the Savior about the jewels and two mites brought from the heart. If works of ecclesiastical art are created in the Church, then they must be created at the highest level that can be imagined in the given conditions.

In the field of architecture of a modern Orthodox church

The reference point for modern temple builders should be a return to the primordial criteria of church art - the solution of the tasks of the Church with the help of specific means of temple architecture. The most important criterion for evaluating the architecture of a temple should be how much its architecture serves to express the meaning that was laid in it by God. Temple architecture should not be viewed as an art, but, like other types of church creativity, as an ascetic discipline.

In the search for modern architectural solutions for a Russian Orthodox church, the entire Eastern Christian heritage in the field of temple building should be used, not being limited only to the national tradition. But these samples should serve not for copying, but for penetrating into the essence of an Orthodox church.

When building a temple, it is necessary to organize a full-fledged temple complex, providing all the modern multilateral activities of the Church: liturgical, social, educational, missionary.

Preference should be given to building materials based on natural origin, including brick and wood, which has a special theological rationale. It is advisable not to use artificial building materials that replace natural ones, as well as those in which there is no human manual labor.

In the area of decisions made by the Church

Development of "exemplary" economical projects of temples and chapels of various capacities that meet the modern requirements of the Church.

Involvement in the work of diocesan structures for temple building of professional architects-temple builders. Establishment of the office of diocesan architect. Interaction with local architecture authorities in order to prevent the construction of new temples that do not meet the modern requirements of the Church.

Publications in church publications of materials on issues of temple building and church art, including new projects of temples with an analysis of their architectural and artistic merits and demerits, as it was in the practice of pre-revolutionary Russia.

In the field of creativity of architects-temple-builders

The Architect-Creator must:

To understand the requirements of the Church, that is, to express the sacred content of the temple by means of architecture, to know the functional basis of the temple, Orthodox worship to develop a planning organization in accordance with the specifics of the purpose of the temple (parish, memorial, cathedral, etc.);

Have a conscious attitude to the creation of a shrine temple as a sacred act, close to church sacraments, like everything that is done in the environment of the Church. This understanding should correspond to the way of life and work of the architect-temple-builder, his involvement in the life of the Orthodox Church;

To possess deep knowledge of the fullness of the traditions of universal Orthodoxy, the heritage of all the best that was created by our predecessors, whose spirit was close to the spirit of the Church, as a result of which the temples being created corresponded to the requirements of the Church, were the conductors of her spirit;

Possess the highest professionalism, combine traditional solutions with modern construction technologies in their work.

Mikhail KESLER

The history of the cult architecture of Russia and Ukraine is well known and studied. In the works of I.E. Grabar, N.I. Voronin, P.A.Rappoport, Yu.S. Ushakov and many others, the process of temple building in Russia in the X-XVII centuries is considered and systematized in detail.

A generalized scheme of the development of the architecture of Russian churches of the X-XVII centuries is shown in Fig. 13.

Rice. 13. Scheme of the development of the architecture of Russian churches in the X-XVII centuries.

The first churches of Russia (Tithes Church, Sophia Cathedrals in Kiev, Polotsk and Novgorod) had a complex multi-nave composition of a cross-domed church. Later in Russia, this composition was gradually modified towards simplification. The number of chapters decreased, the size of the enveloping galleries, the number of apses was limited to three, the staircase to the choir was located in the thickness of the wall, and not in a separate tower, etc. The general proportions also changed: the flattened temple gathers into a compact volume, the church seems to grow upward.

The Dormition Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (1073–1078), the religious and cultural center of Ancient Rus, became a model for many churches. A one-domed three-nave temple, it had six internal pillars. The choirs were located only above the natex, due to which the main part of the cathedral was perceived more holistically. In terms of its planned and volumetric structure, the Assumption Cathedral was almost completely repeated in several large cathedral six-pillar churches of the 12th century: the Cathedral of the St.

The basis of the interior of the 12th century temples of smaller size and significance was formed by a four-pillar cross-domed space. Sometimes there were slightly more complex solutions, when the church outside had a vestibule in front of the entrance or a gallery enveloping on three sides.Classic examples of a four-pillar church of the 12th century are the Church of Peter and Paul in Smolensk and the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa in Novgorod. The architects of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality brought the type of temple that had developed earlier to refined perfection, creating such a temple as the Intercession on the Nerl.

Byzantine, ancient Russian churches of the X-XV centuries were somewhat different from modern churches in their structure. So, the altar was not in the altar, as it is now, but to the left of the altar in a special room. The iconostasis took shape only by the 16th century. The temple was separated from the altar by a low marble barrier that did not cover the altar apse.

By the end of the 12th century, a new trend emerged to rethink the cross-domed system. A new type of temple emerged with a tower-like raised central part. The high head and elongated proportions gave the impression of a dynamic aspiration of the temple upward. The upward striving was achieved:

By variation on the existing constructive system (Church of Michael the Archangel in Smolensk);

By changing the structural system of overlapping (c. Friday in Chernigov).

The arches of the Pyatnitsa Church in Chernigov, connecting the dome pillars and supporting the drum ring, are not lower than the neighboring cylindrical vaults (as was always done in the 11th – 12th centuries), but higher. The stepped-raised system of arches made it possible to raise the drum high and create a gradual transition to it.

The development of Novgorod temples, which continued to be built during the Tatar-Mongol invasion, led to the establishment there of a small four-pillar one-apse temple with a simplified eight-slope flat roof (the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior on Ilyin Street).

The churches of Pskov of the XIV-XVI centuries are small four-pillar temples with one head and three apses. The drum rests on stepped-raised arches. A characteristic feature of the Pskov churches are belfries, placed on the wall of the church, above the porch, or free-standing.

Moscow architecture continued the interrupted tradition of directed upward churches. A new type of temple was developed: the drum stood on stepped-elevated arches, from the outside, the transition to the head was made out by three tiers of zakomars, the church was located on the basement, in addition, the temple was surrounded on three sides by an open gallery - gulbische. The Nativity Cathedral of the Ferapontov Monastery is a typical example of such a pyramidal composition.

In the same period, the six-pillar five-domed church established itself as the main scheme for cathedral churches in Russia (the Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin, the Assumption Cathedral in Rostov, St. Sophia Cathedral in Vologda).

The tent-roofed Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye, as it were, embodied the centuries-old aspiration of Russian architecture to assemble the temple into a single upward-looking volume. The sixteenth century created unique, exceptional even for Russia, compositions - the Church of St. John the Baptist in Dyakov and the Church of St. Basil the Blessed. Hip-roof architecture became widespread, but such complex and impressive compositions were no longer repeated.

At the end of the 16th century, a new type of temple appeared - a pillarless church covered with a closed vault. The temple had one head of light or none at all. Outside, the church received a decorative end, consisting of kokoshniks, false heads and tents. The multi-altar temples of the 17th century had a complex composition: a church with numerous side-altars, a refectory and a bell tower was erected on a vast basement. All buildings were connected by galleries, the entrance was made out by a large porch.

The one-altar temples, which also stood on the basement, had a three-part structure clearly expressed in volume - an altar, a middle part and a vestibule, which could be crowned with a bell tower. The tall tiered buildings of the Naryshkinsky Baroque (the church to the ringing of the Intercession in Fili), the huge pillarless cathedrals of the Stroganov Baroque (the Vvedensky Cathedral in Solvychegodsk) complete the development of Russian closed national architecture.

The main forms listed here only represent entire eras of temple architecture. The variety of forms of the main path of Russian architecture is complemented by local schools and traditions.

1. Handbook of clergy: in 6 volumes - Moscow Patriarchate, 1977-1988. - T. 4.

2. Ushakov, Yu. S. History of Russian architecture / Yu. S. Ushakov, TA Slavina. - SPb .: Stroyizdat, 1994.

3. Antonov, V. V. Shrines of St. Petersburg / V. V. Antonov, A. V. Kobak. - SPb .: Chernyshov Publishing House, 1994. - T. 1-3.

4. Kryukovsky, A. P. Petersburg temples / A. P. Kryukovsky. - SPb .: Parity, 2008.

5. Sultanov, N. Description of the new court church of St. Apostles Peter and Paul in Novo-Peterhof / N. Sultanov. - SPb., 1905.

From the tutorial E. R. Voznyak, V. S. Goryunov, S. V. Sementsov "Architecture of Orthodox churches on the example of churches in St. Petersburg" St. Petersburg, 2010

The end of the persecution in the IV century and the adoption of Christianity in the Roman Empire as a state religion led to a new stage in the development of temple architecture. The external, and then the spiritual division of the Roman Empire into Western - Roman and Eastern - Byzantine, influenced the development of church art. In the Western Church, the most widespread is the basilica.

In the Eastern Church in the V-VIII centuries. the Byzantine style developed in the construction of temples and in all church art and worship. Here were laid the foundations of the spiritual and external life of the Church, since then called the Orthodox.

Types of Orthodox churches

Temples in the Orthodox Church were built by several types, but each temple symbolically corresponded to the church doctrine.

1. Temples in the form cross were built as a sign that the Cross of Christ is the foundation of the Church, the Cross has freed mankind from the power of the devil, the Cross opens the entrance to the Paradise lost by the ancestors.

2. Temples in shape circle(a circle that has neither beginning nor end, symbolizes eternity) speak of the infinity of the existence of the Church, its inviolability in the world according to the word of Christ

3. Temples in shape eight pointed star symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, which led the Magi to the place where Christ was born. Thus, the Church of God testifies to its role as a guide to the life of the Future Age. The period of the earthly history of mankind was counted in seven large periods - centuries, and the eighth is eternity in the Kingdom of God, the life of the century to come.

4. Temple in shape ship... Temples in the shape of a ship are the most ancient type of temples, figuratively expressing the idea that the Church, like a ship, saves believers from the disastrous waves of life's voyage and leads them to the Kingdom of God.

5. Mixed Temples : cruciform in appearance, but inside, in the center of the cross, round, or rectangular in shape, and inside, in the middle part, round.

Diagram of a temple in the shape of a circle

Scheme of the temple in the form of a ship

Cruciform type. Church of the Ascension behind the Serpukhov Gate. Moscow

Diagram of a temple built in the shape of a cross

Cruciform type. Church of Barbara on Varvarka. Moscow.

Cruciform shape. Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

Rotunda. Smolensk Church of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra

Diagram of a temple in the shape of a circle

Rotunda. Church of Metropolitan Peter of the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery

Rotunda. Joy of All Who Sorrow Church on Ordynka. Moscow

Diagrams of the temple in the form of an eight-pointed star

Ship type. Church of Dmitry on the Blood in Uglich

Scheme of the temple in the form of a ship

Ship type. Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Sparrow Hills. Moscow

Byzantine temple architecture

In the Eastern Church in the V-VIII centuries. formed Byzantine style in the construction of temples and in all church art and worship. Here were laid the foundations of the spiritual and external life of the Church, since then called the Orthodox.

Temples in the Orthodox Church were built in different ways, but each temple symbolically corresponded to the church doctrine. In all types of temples, the altar was invariably separated from the rest of the temple; temples continued to be two - and more often three-part. The dominant Byzantine temple architecture remained a rectangular temple with a rounded protrusion of altar apses extended to the east, with a figured roof, with a vaulted ceiling inside, which was supported by a system of arches with columns, or pillars, with a high sub-dome space, which resembles the internal view of a temple in the catacombs.

Only in the middle of the dome, where there was a source of natural light in the catacombs, they began to depict the True Light - the Lord Jesus Christ, who had come into the world. Of course, the similarity of the Byzantine temples with the catacomb ones is only the most common, since the ground-based temples of the Orthodox Church are distinguished by incomparable splendor and greater external and internal detailing.

Sometimes they are dominated by several spherical domes topped with crosses. An Orthodox church is certainly crowned with a cross on the dome or on all domes, if there are several of them, as a victorious sign and as a testimony that the Church, like all creation, chosen for salvation, enters the Kingdom of God thanks to the Redemptive Deed of Christ the Savior. By the time of the Baptism of Rus in Byzantium, a type of cross-domed church was formed, which united in synthesis the achievements of all the previous directions in the development of Orthodox architecture.

Byzantine temple

Byzantine temple plan

Cathedral of st. Stamps in Venice

Byzantine temple

Cross-domed temple in Istanbul

Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Italy

Byzantine temple plan

Cathedral of st. Stamps in Venice

Temple of Saint Sophia in Constantinople (Istanbul)

The interior of the church of St. Sofia in Constantinople

Church of the Most Holy Theotokos (Desyatinnaya). Kiev

Cross-domed temples of Ancient Russia

The architectural type of a Christian temple, formed in Byzantium and in the countries of the Christian East in the V-VIII centuries. Became dominant in the architecture of Byzantium from the 9th century and was adopted by Christian countries of the Orthodox confession as the main form of the temple. Such famous Russian churches as St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, St. Sophia of Novgorod, Vladimir Assumption Cathedral were deliberately built in the likeness of St. Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople.

Old Russian architecture is mainly represented by church buildings, among which cross-domed churches occupy a dominant position. In Russia, not all variants of this type have become widespread, but the buildings of different periods and different cities and principalities of Ancient Russia form their own original interpretations of the cross-domed church.

The architectural structure of the cross-domed temple is devoid of easily visible clarity, which was characteristic of the basilicas. Such architecture contributed to the transformation of the consciousness of the ancient Russian man, leading him to an in-depth contemplation of the universe.

While preserving the general and basic architectural features of Byzantine churches, Russian churches have a lot that is original and peculiar. Several distinctive architectural styles have developed in Orthodox Russia. Among them, first of all, stands out the style that is closest to the Byzantine one. it Tolassic type white stone rectangular temple , or even basically square, but with the addition of an altar part with semicircular apses, with one or more domes on a figured roof. The spherical Byzantine shape of the dome cover was replaced by a helmet-like one.

In the middle of the small temples there are four pillars supporting the roof and symbolizing the four evangelists, the four cardinal points. There can be twelve or more pillars in the central part of the cathedral church. At the same time, the pillars with the space intersecting between them form the signs of the Cross and help the division of the temple into its symbolic parts.

The Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir and his successor, Prince Yaroslav the Wise, strove to organically include Russia in the universal organism of Christianity. The churches they erected served this purpose, placing believers in front of the perfect Sophia image of the Church. Already the first Russian churches spiritually testify to the connection between earth and heaven in Christ, to the God-human nature of the Church.

Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod

Dmitrievsky Cathedral in Vladimir

The cross-domed church of St. John the Baptist. Kerch. 10th century

Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod

Assumption Cathedral Sobov in Vladimir

Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin

Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior in Veliky Novgorod

Russian wooden architecture

In the XV-XVII centuries in Russia, a style of building temples that was significantly different from the Byzantine style took shape.

There are oblong rectangular, but certainly with semicircular apses to the east, one-story and two-story temples with winter and summer churches, sometimes white stone, more often brick with covered porches and covered arched galleries - gulbis around all walls, with a gable, four-slope and figured roofs, on which they flaunt one or more raised domes in the form of poppies, or bulbs.

The walls of the temple are decorated with graceful decoration and windows with beautiful stone carvings or tiled frames. Next to the temple or together with the temple, a high hipped bell tower with a cross at the top is erected above its vestibule.

Russian wooden architecture has acquired a special style. The properties of wood as a building material also determined the features of this style. It is difficult to create a smooth dome from rectangular boards and beams. Therefore, in wooden temples, instead of him, there is a gabled-shaped tent. Moreover, they began to give the appearance of a tent to the church as a whole. So wooden temples appeared to the world in the form of a huge pointed wooden cone. Sometimes the roof of the temple was arranged in the form of a multitude of wooden domes with crosses rising conically upward (for example, the famous temple at the Kizhi churchyard).

Church of the Intercession (1764) O. Kizhi.

Assumption Cathedral in Kem. 1711 g.

Church of St. Nicholas. Moscow

Church of the Transfiguration (1714) Kizhi Island

Chapel in honor of the Three Saints. Kizhi Island.

Stone hipped churches

The forms of wooden temples influenced stone (brick) construction.

They began to build intricate stone hipped-roof churches resembling huge towers (pillars). The highest achievement of stone hipped architecture is rightfully considered the Intercession Cathedral in Moscow, better known as the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, - a complex, intricate, multi-decorated building of the 16th century.

At the heart of the plan, the cathedral is cruciform. The cross is made up of four main churches located around the middle, fifth. The middle church is square, the four side ones are octagonal. The cathedral has nine temples in the form of cone-shaped pillars, together making up one huge colorful tent in general outline.

Tents in Russian architecture did not last long: in the middle of the 17th century. the church authorities forbade the construction of hipped-roof churches, since they differed sharply from the traditional one-domed and five-domed rectangular (ship) churches.

Hip-roof architecture of the XVI-XVII centuries, taking its origin in traditional Russian wooden architecture, is a unique direction of Russian architecture, which has no analogues in the art of other countries and peoples.

The stone tent-roofed Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the village of Gorodnya.

St Basil's Church

Temple "Satisfy my sorrows". Saratov

Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye

The Nile divided Ancient Egypt not only geographically, but also in terms of architecture.

Temples, residential and administrative buildings were erected on the eastern bank of the river. Burial and funeral buildings - in the west.

Typical features of the temples of Ancient Egypt

Egyptian temples were divided into three types:

terrestrial. The architectural complexes at Karnak and Luxor are excellent examples of these open-air temples;

rocky. These buildings were cut into the rocks. Only the facade was exposed. The Temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel is a rock type;

half rock. These are the temples that could combine the features of the first two types. The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut in the Valley of the Kings is partly outside and partly in the rock.

The ancient Egyptian temple was symmetrical in plan. It began with the avenue of the sphinxes, which led to the pylons (from the Greek - gates, trapezoidal towers), in front of which were the statues of the gods and pharaohs. There was also an obelisk - a materialized sunbeam.

The authorship of this element is traditionally attributed to the Egyptians. Leaving the pylons behind, the visitor enters the courtyard surrounded by columns - the peristyle. Behind it stands a hypostyle - a columned hall, illuminated by the rays of the sun falling through the ceiling gaps.

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Even smaller rooms could be located behind the hypostyle, which, as a result, led to the sanctuary. The further into the temple, the fewer people could get there.

The sanctuary was accessible only to the high priests and the pharaoh. The traditional building material for temples is stone.

Temple complex in Karnak

The temple at Karnak was considered the main Egyptian sanctuary. It is traditionally located on the east bank of the Nile and is dedicated to the god Amon-Ra. This building resembles a small town in size (1.5 km by 700 m).

The construction of the temple began in the 15th century BC. NS. More than one pharaoh had a hand in the construction of the complex. Each of them built their own temples and expanded the scale of construction. The temples of Ramses I, II, III, Thutmose I and III and the pharaohs from the Ptolemaic dynasty are considered outstanding architectural buildings.

The complex consists of three parts and in the plan resembles the letter T. The entrance to the temple is framed by a 43 m high pylon, which opens up a vast rectangular courtyard furnished with papyrus-like columns. This courtyard ends with another pylon that admits the visitor into the hypostyle hall.

Among the many columns, you can see the central passage, furnished with a colonnade with a height of 23 m. This is the tallest hall in Egypt, the ceiling of which rises in the center, relative to the sides.

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Light falls into the hall through the formed ledge and plays on the painted walls and columns. At the end of the hall there is a new pylon, behind which there is a new courtyard. This system of halls led to the sacred room where the statue of the god was kept.

From the south, a lake adjoins the temple, on the shore of which there is a scarab beetle made of granite of considerable size. Once the Karnak sanctuary was connected with the temple in Luxor by the avenues of the sphinxes. But now it is destroyed, some of the sphinxes have remained untouched by time. They are located closer to the Karnak complex. These are tall statues of lions with the heads of rams.

Temple complex in Abu Simbel

This temple was also built by Pharaoh Ramses II in the 13th century BC. NS. The building belongs to the type of rock temples. On the entrance facade, there are giant statues of the gods patronizing the pharaoh: Amon, Ra and Ptah. Next to them is the Pharaoh himself in a sitting position. Interestingly, the pharaoh gave his appearance to all three gods. Next to him is his wife, Nefertari, with her children.

This rocky temple is a complex of four halls. They are gradually decreasing. Access to them, except for the very first, was limited. The very last room was accessible only to the pharaoh.