Almost 300 years after the construction of the Lazarevskaya Church, in 1714, another unknown craftsman cut down another temple on Kizhi Island, almost in the very middle of Lake Onega. It was consecrated in honor of one of the main Christian holidays- Transfiguration of the Lord.
Anyone who has been to Lake Onega knows how great it is. You swim on it, and the earth disappears over the horizon. Only many large and small islands, overgrown with sparse forests and shrubs, meet on the way. On these islands there are rare villages and a few preserved wooden temples.
The Church of the Transfiguration is visible from afar. As if a vision is opening to the eye, this wooden miracle. The closer you swim to it, the more clearly the silhouette of an almost 40-meter pyramid, made up of 22 onion domes, looms.
It is difficult to immediately understand how this beauty works. But it turns out, just like everything ingenious. The basis of the structure is an octagon with four outbuildings on the sides - cuts. On them, one above the other in several tiers, most of the chapters are located. If you look closely, it becomes noticeable that their sizes differ in tiers, and the composition is crowned by the largest, central dome.
Each cupola has its own "neck", placed on a barrel-shaped roof. All cupolas and the roof itself are covered with silvery aspen plowshares. 30 thousand such lameshins went to decorate the tops of the temple. On three sides the Church of the Transfiguration is surrounded by a spacious open-air gallery. With two sleeves, elegant porch stairs rise to her.
Inside the church looks more modest than outside. Twilight reigns here, only the rich iconostasis gleams with gold. In the temple, which is high on the outside, you expect to see a huge domed space, but it is not there. At a height of about six meters, the "sky" begins - this is how the ceiling of wooden temples was called. It was decorated with painted boards, because, unlike stone churches, wooden ones were not painted with frescoes. Their entire outfit consisted of icons hung on the walls and "sky". From the ceiling of the Church of the Transfiguration, the Trinity, angels, and evangelists looked at the parishioners for two centuries. During the war years, the "sky" disappeared without a trace ...
Let without "heaven", but the Church of the Transfiguration still stands on Russian soil - a true masterpiece of wooden architecture. The legend says: an unknown master, having finished the work, threw his ax far into the lake with the words: "There was not, is not and will not be like that." And his words were prophetic.
A person who “stuck on a Moscow street 500 years or more ago (especially on an early winter evening) would see deaf fences around him. Strong palisades made of spruce and sometimes oak logs were interrupted only by no less solid, tightly locked gates or deaf, without windows, walls of outbuildings. Darkness, as they say, "even if you gouge out your eye," and if you don't have your own lantern, the danger of getting bogged down in a snowdrift becomes quite real. knocking would have been only the barking of a dog." This is how medieval Moscow is seen by the connoisseur of its history, archaeologist Mikhail Grigorievich Rabinovich.
"Gardarika" - the country of cities
The first cities appeared in Rus' more than a thousand years ago. Even the most ancient Russian chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years", tracing the history of some cities from the middle of the 9th century, finds it difficult to say when, for example, Kyiv and Smolensk were founded. On the eve of the Mongol-Tatar invasion in Rus', according to historians, there were at least four hundred cities. In Northern Europe, Rus' was called "Gardarika" - a country of cities.
The word "city" itself comes from the verb "to fence", since every medieval city was fenced with wooden or stone fortifications.
How did cities emerge? Differently. Some - around the fortified castle of the feudal lord, others grew out of a rural settlement, others were built around the local market. But they all had: fortifications - walls with towers, a rampart and a moat; extensive trade and craft settlements - settlements; market place - bargaining. These three components made up the city and determined its structure.
The fortified city center was called, for example, in Novgorod - detinets, in Pskov - krom, in Moscow - the kremlin, but everywhere it served as the residence of the prince. The main city cathedral and the yard of the bishop were also located here. The Moscow Kremlin, as you now know, also housed the royal and patriarchal courts.
The fortress was usually placed on a steep bank of a river or lake. Kyiv and Smolensk were built on the banks of the Dnieper, Novgorod - on the banks of the Volkhov, Pskov - at the confluence of the Great and Pskov rivers, Moscow - on the Moscow River and Neglinnaya. The rivers not only supplied the city with water, but also served as transport routes, which was especially important in the conditions of wooded Rus'. Remember how many Russian cities arose along the famous trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" - Novgorod, Kyiv, Smolensk, Vitebsk, Ladoga. In addition, in case of military danger, water arteries became a reliable natural obstacle in the way of enemies.
Cities that arose at the crossroads of trade routes and population migration grew rapidly. It was necessary to build new, more extensive fortifications. Let's remember how Moscow grew. In the first half of the XVI century. in Moscow, to the east of the Kremlin, the walls and towers of Kitay-Gorod were built, enclosing the trade and craft settlement in a semicircle. At the end of the XVI century. built two more lines of fortifications: a stone one - the White City and a wooden one - Skorodom. Moscow was surrounded by four lines of fortifications. A similar system of fortifications was in Pskov.
The Russian medieval city differed in many respects from the Western European one. It was not cramped: in Rus', with its vast sparsely populated spaces, they always built freely and spaciously. Foreigners were amazed at the size of medieval Moscow, which, they believed, was larger than Largest cities Europe - London and Paris. Vast yards, orchards and orchards, undeveloped wastelands - all this was characteristic of a Russian city and made it look like a large village.
In Western European cities, houses were closely clung to each other, forming a continuous wall with their facades. Because of the cramped conditions, the houses grew skyward and were usually two or three stories high. In Rus', pre: they had one-story buildings and only the boyar and merchant chambers were higher.
Most urban buildings in Western Europe were built of stone. They were not afraid of either fire or moisture, so many of them have survived to this day. For example, such houses adorn today the historical centers of Prague, Krakow, Tallinn. And in Rus', with its richest forest reserves, as you already know, they were built mainly of wood: walls and towers of fortresses, temples, dwellings, baths, barns, bridges, fences, streets and squares were paved with wood. Any Russian medieval city with good reason can be called wooden. Only a few temples and chambers were made of stone in it. The first stone residential building in Moscow - the Metropolitan's Chambers - appeared only in the middle of the 15th century.
The advantages of wooden buildings are many - the speed of construction, low cost, hygiene, but there are also great disadvantages. Chief among them is the constant threat of fires. Chronicles recorded only the largest ones, and such in the second half of the 15th century. a lot happened in Moscow: in 1453, 1458, 1470, 1473, 1475, 1480, 1485 and 1488. In 1493, Moscow burned twice, but it was simply impossible to count small fires. This is eloquently evidenced by the diaries of the Dutch diplomat Balthazar Coyette, who visited Moscow in 1676:
“On Wednesday, April 1, shortly after lunch, a strong fire broke out not far from our yard, taking as many as 800 houses.
... On Wednesday, April 15, at about one o'clock, in the courtyard of some prince, not far from our courtyard, a big fire started, due to strong wind increased so much that one or two streets with yards and houses burned out.
... On Sunday, April 26, a strong fire broke out, just outside the Butcher's Gate ... On Monday, April 27, a strong fire broke out again at the place where there was a fire on the previous day. About 30 yards and one church burned down.
... On Thursday, April 30 ... The fire continued late into the afternoon and destroyed five or six thousand houses and yards ... ".
To be continued in the same vein. Here it is appropriate to recall that for a long time the main square of Moscow, now known as Red Square, was called Pozhar, in memory of the terrible fire of 1493.
Fires were a real disaster for Russian medieval cities. On the three towers of the Kremlin, facing different parts of the city, alarm bells hung. Different combinations of their ringing informed Muscovites where it was burning - whether in Kitai-Gorod, in Zamoskvorechye or in Zaneglimenye.
How did you fight fire? They broke nearby buildings, tried to block the path of fire with special leather shields, which were poured with water. In the 17th century the first fire brigades armed with pumps appeared. However, all these means were ineffective, and every time the fire found its victim among the mass of wooden buildings. In the summer, fearing fires, the authorities forbade the townspeople to heat baths, stoves in houses - food was cooked in the yards. Fire hazardous industries - blacksmithing and pottery - were taken out of the city.
Despite frequent devastating fires, cities were quickly rebuilt. In Moscow, outside the White City, several markets sold building materials and finished log cabins. It only remained to transport them disassembled to the yard and assemble them.
"Along Tverskaya-Yamskaya..."
Most of the territory of the medieval city was occupied by settlements - settlements of trade and craft people. The oldest Moscow settlement arose in ancient times near the eastern walls of the Kremlin. Over time, it grew and became known as the Great.
The population of Moscow grew rapidly, and soon the territories beyond the rivers Moscow, Neglinnaya and Yauza were settled. Thus, new urban areas were formed - Zamoskvorechye, Zaneglimenye, Zayauzye. In Pskov, the districts beyond the rivers were named Zavelichye and Zapskovye.
The settlements consisted of settlements - areas where people who practiced a certain craft lived - blacksmiths, potters, weavers, bakers, gunners, archers. The artisans who settled in the settlement were exempted from feudal duties by the authorities for some time. Hence the name "sloboda", i.e. "freedom".
In the 17th century in Moscow there were about 150 settlements scattered throughout the city. Their memory is preserved in the names of many Moscow streets - Pushechnaya, Bronnaya, Myasnitskaya, Povarskaya, Goncharnaya, Kuznetsky Most, Kotelnicheskaya Embankment and many others.
Posad and settlements crossed streets, lanes, passages, dead ends. In Moscow, the main streets ran from the city center, the Kremlin, to the outskirts. At the intersection of streets with defensive structures, towers with gates were built. Until now, in the toponymy of Moscow, the names of some of them have been preserved - Nikitsky Gates, Sretensky, Yauzsky. The rings of defensive walls and the main streets crossing them determined the radial-ring structure of medieval Moscow.
The ancient names of Moscow streets have never been accidental. Each of them has its own story. The name of a noble citizen, the richest Moscow merchant Grigory Nikitnikov, is, for example, Nikitnikov Lane in Kitay-gorod, where his estate was. Those streets on which temples or monasteries stood were named after them - Nikolskaya, Varvarka, Ilyinka. The names Tverskaya, Kaluga, Vladimirskaya, Smolenskaya - speak for themselves: from these streets began a long journey from Moscow to many cities and lands of Rus'.
The streets of medieval cities were narrow and crooked. Their width rarely exceeded 6 m, which allowed two oncoming carts to pass. Even one of the main streets of Moscow in the 17th century. - Nikolskaya, along which the tsar himself traveled, only in some sections expanded from 6 to 16 m. The lanes were even narrower.
In spring, autumn, rainy summer, city streets turned into impassable swamps. According to a foreigner, in the spring of 1702, on the streets of the Moscow German Quarter, "mud reached the belly of the horses." But not only the outskirts of the capital were buried in mud. The Italian Barberini recalled how, returning from a feast arranged by Ivan the Terrible, he got stuck knee-deep in mud a stone's throw from the royal palace. Fighting this evil, the townspeople paved the streets. Rows of logs were laid along them, and on top, across - wooden blocks. When the pavement wore out or simply sank into the mud, a new one was laid on top of it. Archaeologists have unearthed over 20 rows of ancient pavements in Novgorod. In Moscow, the city authorities collected so-called bridge money from the population for the improvement of the streets.
However, paved streets were only in the center of the city, in those places where the king and the nobility usually passed. In the middle of the XVI century. in strongly expanded Moscow, the total length of wooden pavements barely exceeded 4 km. The outskirts were buried in mud, and on rainy days the townspeople made their way through the streets in high boots, pulling up their long-skirted clothes. True, in the eyes of foreigners, even the cobbled streets were not much cleaner. One of them, who visited Moscow in the 17th century, wrote that the pavements were constantly covered with "dirt and a thick layer of dust." Only before the departure of the king, the streets were put in order, and during the solemn processions, sweepers with brooms walked ahead.
There was no street lighting in the medieval city. It appeared in Russia only in the 18th century.
It was possible to walk through the city at night only with a mica lantern, but usually with the onset of twilight all movement ceased. Bars were locked at the ends of the streets and armed guards were posted. It wasn't just a precaution. Gangs of "dashing people" robbed and killed late travelers. All night the guards beat the mallets, scaring off the robbers and notifying the sleeping townspeople that the guards were on the alert and guarding their peace.
The best time to move around the streets of the medieval city was probably winter: snow covered dirt and dust, it became lighter around. At that time, hundreds of cabmen were scurrying around Moscow on sledges, ready to deliver anyone who wanted to to any part of the city. The Pole Maskevich, who visited Moscow in 1611, wrote about Moscow cabbies: "... for a penny, he rides like a madman and every minute shouts at the top of his lungs: "Gis, gis, gis" ("Beware"), and the people parted in both sides".
The boyars traveled in their own carriages: in summer - in carriages, in winter - in cantons, harnessed by four or six horses in a train. The rider, who often rode ahead of the carriage, beat his timpani, urging oncoming people to clear the way. True, there was especially nowhere for pedestrians to make way: blind fences stretched along both sides of the streets, hiding the courtyards of the townspeople.
My yard is my castle
So, to paraphrase a well-known English expression, one can characterize the court of any city dweller, whether it be an artisan, merchant or boyar. It was the courtyard that was the basis of his possession. Enclosed with a palisade of logs, the yard protected the owner and his property from "dashing people" and envious eyes. The estate with a strong fence could withstand a real siege. It is known that in 1611 Prince Dmitry Pozharsky successfully defended himself against the Polish invaders "in his own yard" near the Lubyanka. To enter the courtyard, strong gates were built, which were never kept open, but were securely locked at night.
In his yard, an ordinary citizen put a wooden house with three windows along the facade, not much different from the peasant one. Those who were richer could afford two- and three-story stone chambers. Some of them are still standing in Moscow.
By, perhaps, the most famous chambers have been preserved in Pskov. In the 17th century they were built by wealthy local merchants, the Pogankins. Huge, these chambers occupied a whole block of the city and consisted of three buildings with one to three floors, set with the letter "P". On the lower floor, merchants stored goods and household supplies. Above were commercial premises and two kitchens. The third floor housed the living quarters of the owners (male and female halves) and servants. The staircase connecting the floors was arranged in the two-meter thick walls of the building. Researchers believe that there was another, wooden, residential floor above the chambers, which has not survived to this day.
Usually the city house was placed in the back of the yard. Behind it were buildings for livestock - a barn, a stable, and even further - a garden and a vegetable garden. Citizens in the Middle Ages necessarily kept a household - cattle, a vegetable garden, a garden. They differed from the peasants only in that they did not grow bread. By the way, according to the testimonies of foreigners, in the XVII century. even melons and watermelons were grown in Moscow gardens.
In addition to the barn and stables, there were other various outbuildings in the yards - barns, sheds, haylofts, cellars, glaciers, wells. Glaciers were needed to store perishable foods in the summer. Glaciers were arranged like this. A deep hole was filled with ice in early spring. Straw was laid on top and meat, fish, drinks and other supplies were piled up. From above, the glacier was covered with boards, and sometimes sprinkled with earth. The rich courtyard also had its own bathhouse (soap room). In the courtyard of the craftsman stood his workshop. Here is how, for example, the courtyard of the Moscow boyars looked, judging by the description of the 17th century: canopy, and a stable, and a sennik, and a barn in the garden ... four people's closets, the folding gates with a gate are covered with boards, and twenty-five circles of the yard of the city were woven into a fence, in the garden there is half a pond.
"Torg" or "Red"?
The market square was considered the public center of the medieval city. In Moscow, for a long time it was called that - Torg - and was located near the Kremlin walls. Only in the 17th century This area began to be called Red, which meant "beautiful".
In the Middle Ages, Red Square was occupied by numerous shops - foreigners counted almost 40 thousand of them. Each shop was a wooden table on which goods were laid out. In case of rain, there was a canopy on top. The shops were organized into trading rows, each of which offered a certain type of product. In the 17th century the number of trade rows, and hence the types of goods, at the Moscow Market exceeded 120. Bread products could be bought in the Khlebny, Kalachny, Pirozhny, Gingerbread rows; meat - in Vetchinny, Greasy, Meat; fish - in Millet Flax, Live, Fresh; vegetables - in Cabbage, Onion, Garlic, Cucumber, Apple, Melon; clothes - in Kaftan, Fur coat, Kushachny, Hat, Sleeve. There was even a special, Rag Row, where they sold junk. There were also rows of Icon, two Candle, Mirror, Lantern, Book and many others. They traded in products not only of Russian masters. In the Surozh Row, for example, one could buy goods from Italy, Turkey, Greece, and Arab countries. The abundance and variety of goods at the Moscow Market was amazing. It is no coincidence that among the people a good wish was: "What is in Moscow in the market, so that you have it in your house."
Chambers (from lat. palatium - palace, chamber)
a term denoting rich residential stone or wooden buildings in medieval Russian architecture, from the 15th century. - stone buildings. P. were built in 2-3 or more floors; the lower ones housed various services, the upper ones were residential. By the end of the 17th century, especially in Muscovite architecture, pavilions took on the character of small palace buildings or mansions (for example, the Volkov Chambers in Moscow, see below). ill.
). P. also called rooms like a hall, pillarless or with a central pillar supporting the vaults. Lit.: Potapov A. A., Essay on ancient Russian civil architecture, c. 1-2, M., 1902-03.
Big soviet encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .
Synonyms:See what "Chambers" is in other dictionaries:
- (from lat. palatium palace, chamber) a term denoting Russian medieval, mostly residential stone or brick structures. They were built, as a rule, in two three or more floors. The word chamber was called the largest ... ... Wikipedia
See chamber... Dictionary of Russian synonyms and similar expressions. under. ed. N. Abramova, M .: Russian dictionaries, 1999. chambers palace, chamber, mansions, rooms Dictionary of Russian synonyms ... Synonym dictionary
In Russian medieval architecture, a rich residential stone or wooden building, usually 2 or more floors, with many rooms. Since the 17th century the chambers take on the character of small palace buildings or mansions (the chambers of the Volkovs, ... ... Art Encyclopedia
CHAMBER, in Russian medieval architecture, a residential stone or wooden building, usually 2 or more floors, with many rooms ... Modern Encyclopedia
- (from lat. palatium palace) in medieval Russian architecture, a rich residential stone or wooden building, usually 2 or more floors, with many rooms ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
chambers- gilded (Frug); luxurious (Meln. Pechersky, Nekrasov); magnificent (Frug) Epithets of literary Russian speech. M: The supplier of the court of His Majesty, the partnership of the printing press A. A. Levenson. A. L. Zelenetsky. 1913 ... Dictionary of epithets
chambers- A type of ancient Russian residential stone building with a large number of rooms, sometimes two or more floors [ Terminological dictionary on construction in 12 languages (VNIIIS Gosstroy of the USSR)] Topics of buildings, structures, premises EN palaty (rich stone ... ... Technical Translator's Handbook
Chambers- CHAMBER, in Russian medieval architecture, a residential stone or wooden building, usually 2 or more floors, with many rooms. … Illustrated encyclopedic Dictionary
- (from lat. palatium palace), in medieval Russian architecture, a rich residential stone or wooden building, usually 2 or more floors, with many rooms. * * * CHAMBER CHAMBER (from lat. palatium palace), in medieval Russian architecture ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
A type of ancient Russian residential stone building with a large number of rooms, sometimes two or more floors (Bulgarian language; Bulgarian) chamber (Old Russian stone dwelling with a bare room, usually two or more floors) (Czech language; ... ... Construction dictionary
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- Iconography of the Armory From private collections , Antypko M., Belik Zh., Buseva-Davydova I. and others. The exhibition catalog presents selected works from private collections and continues the tradition of cooperation between the museum and collectors of Russian religious art. Showcasing outstanding…
