In 990, the Grand Prince of Kiev, Vladimir the Red Sun Svyatoslavovych laid on the bank Klyaz'ma wooden fortress city and gave it its name. Today, Vladimir has unique historical and architectural monuments of the XII century, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The historic core of the city - 105 monuments of history and culture, including 41 - of federal significance. Vladimir is a popular tourist route "Golden Ring." An important place in the tourism infrastructure of the city is the State Vladimir-Suzdal Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve, which is incorporated in the State of the most valuable objects of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation.
Department of Culture and Tourism
Administration of the city of Vladimir
The film is hosted by the Cyprus Department of IOPS with the permission of the head of Vladimir S. Sakharov on the occasion of the signing of the twinning between years.
At Vsevolod's command the cathedral as It had been erected by Audrey
Bogoliubsky was encased on three sides by new galleries. Four domes were added
and the building became broader. The new age produced a new style of building -
powerful edifices created by the craftsmen of Prince Vsevolod, the ruler whose
warriors, according to the author of the Lay of Prince Igor's Host could
"splash out the Volga with their
oars and scoop out the Don with their helmets". It should be noted
that these craftsmen, were now local ones, for the new prince, unlike Andrey
Bogoliubsky, did not seek "masters
from foreign lands".
Let us enter the cathedral gallery and look at what used to be the outer
walls of the original building A fragment of a decorative fresco dating back to
1161 has survived on the north wall. Polychrome painting provided a background
for the band of arcading. The latter's arches, spaced far apart, rested upon
small columns (originally gilded) with wedge-shaped consoles. Between the two
columns is a slit-like window with indented Jambs which are also painted with
frescoes. The new outer walls have a different type of decoration. True, this
is an episcopal church and the ornament is fairly restrained, but the recessed
portals are magnificent, the lancet windows are .plastically finished with
stepped arches, and the band of arcading is most decorative.
The sculptural compositions and masks were transferred from the walls of
the earlier building to the new exterior. The north front has the Three Youths in the Fiery Furnace and
lion masks, which symbolize Christ's
immortality and are also the emblem of sovereign power, and female masks which
indicate that the church is consecrated to the cult of the Virgin. The special
care lavished on the north front Is understandable, for this was the side
facing the-town, the side people saw as they approached the cathedral. The
south front was seen only from a distance, so its ornament was more generalized.
Contem-poraries were dazzled by
the abundance of gold on the helmet-shaped dome, the brass-bound arcading of
the drum, and the three main doors.
The most impressive building belonging to the reign of Vsevolod the
Great is the Cathedral of St Demetrius (1194 97), which was also the centre of
the palace complex. Us clarity of composition, the stately rhythm of Us
architectural forms, and its splendidly calm proportions embody the Idea of the
grand prince's power and might. Unlike the episcopal church which we have Just
examined, the palace church is embellished with sumptuous ornament. The centre
of the composition on each of its three fronts is King Solomon, famed for his
love of building. Around him яге rows of foliate ornament
alternating with strange animals, monsters end horsemen. This profusion of
carving makes the columns breeding look
of like an ornamental band. The structural
unity is not disturbed by the ornament, however. The vertical pilasters divide
the walls rhythmically, subjecting all the carving to the architecture.
A further development and search for new forms in Vladlmlr-Suzd;jlian
architecture took place in the first third of the thirteenth century. The
building was no longer mainly in the capital, Vladimir, but in other rising
centers. Although they had lost their father's might, Prince Vsevolod's heirs
tried to keep up his architectural traditions. The churches of this period show
a refinement of architectural forms and ornament.
The town of Suzdal, which had declined in the twelfth century, was given
some fine new buildings by Prince Georgy, one of Vsevolod's sons. The Cathedral
of the Dormition, built by the first prince of Suzdal, Vladimir Monomachus,
was taken down. This austere old cathedral made of large brick no longer
satisfied the tastes of the townspeople, brought up on the splendid white-stone
cathedrals of the capital, Vladimir. The high ramparts round the Kremlin are
all that has remained of the earliest architectural period. According
to the chronicle, the new Cathedral ot the Nativity of the Virgin was
"fairer than the first". Instead of well-dressed white stone, it was
made of a local, porous, yellowish tufa, against which the carved ornament of
white limestone stands out particularly clearly. The cathedral has not survived
in its original form, however. Two centuries later it collapsed, was dismantled
down to the band of arcading and then rebuilt in brick by about 1530. This is
the form in which we see it today, but even now It is obvious 4hat in the
thirteenth century it differed fundamentally from the twelfth-century Vladimir
cathedrals.
Originally built without the passageway from the palace to the choir
gallery, it was the first very large town cathedral. Hlongated lengthwise in
plan. It possesses three narthexes. The huge choir gallery (no longer extant)
accommodated not only the prince and his retinue, but also the leading
townspeople. The main facade was not the west front facing the palace, but the
south front, which the people passed on their way to the cathedral. The walls
had more or less sumptuous ornament depending on their importance. The south
wall has survived better than the others. Looking at it you can see how the
decorative element in architecture was growing increasingly stronger. The
pilaster strips no longer correspond to the axes of the interior pillars and
are flatter than those in the Vladimir cathedrals, which were structurally
filled out by semi-columns. These decorative pilaster strips are easily broken
up by the ornamental band and the spread lions and griffins inset at the
corners. The decoration of the portals is a blatant contradiction of structural logic.
