DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47325#0388
The Sanctuary Barriers in the Early Moscow Churches 385
monastery5. V V. Kavel’maher did not reject these conclusions as well. It might be
possible that the altar screen between the eastern pillars in Bogoiavlenskii cathedral
was built not as a high wall with a plain surface to be painted by frescoes, rather, it had
archaic elements of architectural decoration similar to Staritskii and Savvino-Storo-
zhevskii cathedrals.
The excavations of Staritskii cathedral provided us with other essential archae-
ological materials: for example, in its northern apse there was discovered a segment of
a circle-shaped stone construction, which perfectly corresponded to the curve of the
apse. Definitely, it could be interpreted as the foundation of a special table for the
Eucharist host.
A similar ‘"table”, which was measured by Maksimov, existed also at the
Assumption cathedral in Zvenigorod6. (According to the report of V V Kavel’maher,
the “table” still exists, although it is not available for scholars.) Such an archaic form
was very typical for the architecture, at least during its “Moscow period”: a perfectly
preserved table of the same form survived in the northern apse of the cathedral of Peter
the Metropolitan, which dates to the early 16th century7 (Fig. 4; 5.11). There exists also
the brick foundation for an altar screen, which is too monumental to have been built
for a wooden iconostasis. Finally, we have to mention a “mysterious” limestone struc-
ture, which was recently discovered in the northern apse of the Assumption cathedral
in Rostov by О. M. loannisian. The structure is too big to serve as the foundation for
the "table”. Probably, it was built as a podium for tire table8.
Unfortunately, the following problems have been studied very little until the
present: constructions of altar screens: development of an amvon and bemcr, alter-
ations of sintrons and sendee niches. It concerns the early Moscow period, as well as
the period from the end of the 15th to 17th c. However, the similar structures still
exist, even when they are made of wood and not of stone. For example, during the
excavation of the southern aisle of Kazanskii cathedral on the Red Square, there were
found traces of a temporary wooden box-shaped altar dating back to the middle of the
17th century. Bricks were loaded inside the box to increase its weight. Later, the box-
shaped altar was replaced by a stone one based on four pillars and with a special
depression for the cross.
Today we have an unusual task, which has never been challenged before in
Russian scholarship: to create the history of the development of a church building from
the 11th to the 17th c. from an absolutely unexpected point of view. We have to study
specific elements of liturgy and its influence on the development of church architec-
ture; to analyse functional alterations, which were demanded by donors, the congrega-
tions, the monastic communities, etc.; other alterations caused by the social context of
a building, rather than to continue describing medieval Russian architecture from the
esthetic point of view.
It would be impossible to proceed in this direction without the help of reliable
materials on the history of different elements of church buildings. And only archaeol-
ogy’ can provide all necessary information. Some examples of such studies on liturgi-
cal alterations and their impact upon the planning of church buildings in other regions
of the Christian World have been published recently9.
monastery5. V V. Kavel’maher did not reject these conclusions as well. It might be
possible that the altar screen between the eastern pillars in Bogoiavlenskii cathedral
was built not as a high wall with a plain surface to be painted by frescoes, rather, it had
archaic elements of architectural decoration similar to Staritskii and Savvino-Storo-
zhevskii cathedrals.
The excavations of Staritskii cathedral provided us with other essential archae-
ological materials: for example, in its northern apse there was discovered a segment of
a circle-shaped stone construction, which perfectly corresponded to the curve of the
apse. Definitely, it could be interpreted as the foundation of a special table for the
Eucharist host.
A similar ‘"table”, which was measured by Maksimov, existed also at the
Assumption cathedral in Zvenigorod6. (According to the report of V V Kavel’maher,
the “table” still exists, although it is not available for scholars.) Such an archaic form
was very typical for the architecture, at least during its “Moscow period”: a perfectly
preserved table of the same form survived in the northern apse of the cathedral of Peter
the Metropolitan, which dates to the early 16th century7 (Fig. 4; 5.11). There exists also
the brick foundation for an altar screen, which is too monumental to have been built
for a wooden iconostasis. Finally, we have to mention a “mysterious” limestone struc-
ture, which was recently discovered in the northern apse of the Assumption cathedral
in Rostov by О. M. loannisian. The structure is too big to serve as the foundation for
the "table”. Probably, it was built as a podium for tire table8.
Unfortunately, the following problems have been studied very little until the
present: constructions of altar screens: development of an amvon and bemcr, alter-
ations of sintrons and sendee niches. It concerns the early Moscow period, as well as
the period from the end of the 15th to 17th c. However, the similar structures still
exist, even when they are made of wood and not of stone. For example, during the
excavation of the southern aisle of Kazanskii cathedral on the Red Square, there were
found traces of a temporary wooden box-shaped altar dating back to the middle of the
17th century. Bricks were loaded inside the box to increase its weight. Later, the box-
shaped altar was replaced by a stone one based on four pillars and with a special
depression for the cross.
Today we have an unusual task, which has never been challenged before in
Russian scholarship: to create the history of the development of a church building from
the 11th to the 17th c. from an absolutely unexpected point of view. We have to study
specific elements of liturgy and its influence on the development of church architec-
ture; to analyse functional alterations, which were demanded by donors, the congrega-
tions, the monastic communities, etc.; other alterations caused by the social context of
a building, rather than to continue describing medieval Russian architecture from the
esthetic point of view.
It would be impossible to proceed in this direction without the help of reliable
materials on the history of different elements of church buildings. And only archaeol-
ogy’ can provide all necessary information. Some examples of such studies on liturgi-
cal alterations and their impact upon the planning of church buildings in other regions
of the Christian World have been published recently9.