Suzdal Kremlin - the oldest part of town, the heart of Suzdal, archaeologically exists with the X century, and on record/ chronicle- 1024
Located in the bend of the river Kamenka, in the southern part of town.
July 2012
Entering the town on the Vladimir
road we immediately meet the pair of the Virgin Blacherniotissa and the
Deposition of the Robe. Walking towards the centre by the Trading Rows are the churches of the Resurrection and the
Virgin of Kazan, a little further on, SS Lazarus and Antlpas, on the other side
of the road, the Emperor Constantine and the Virgin of Compassion, and further
on still St Nicholas and the Virgin of Smolensk.
Following
the River Kamenka upstream we see the following pairs: the Archangel Michael
and SS Plorus and Laurus, the Epiphany and the Nativity of St John the Baptist,
and SS Cosmas and Damian and the Virgin of Bogoliubovo. The "pair
consisting of Saints Peter and Paul and St Nicholas stands by the walls of the
Convent of the Intercession.
Let us
now return to the town Kremlin. On the right we have the Cathedral of the
Nativity of the Virgin (thirteenth — sixteenth centuries), and on the left a seventeenth-century
bell-tower. The latter has a tent-shaped spire. At the end of the seventeenth
century it was given a chiming clock. The column of the bell-tower is powerful
and seems to be supported by the west and north galleries which lead to the
small private Church "under the bell". The austere ornament Increases
its significance and creates a harmonic whole with the cathedral. This
compositional unity is further enhanced by the highly decorated porch of the gallery,
which is in line with the south portal of the cathedral.
The gallery becomes a passage way linking the
bell-tower with the Archbishop's Palace. This civic stone building begun in the
fifteenth century was incorporated into the large complex built by Metropolitan
Hilarion at the end of the seventeenth century. Facing the cathedral square,
the Archbishop's Palace had a main entrance in line with the west portal of the
cathedral. This entrance was emphasized by a sharply-pointed tent spire covered
with greenish-turquoise tiles. The broad windows are seventeenth-century in
style and have carved surrounds. A wide ceremonial staircase leads up to the
vast reception hall without pillars.
The wooden
Church of St Nicholas stands in the Kremlin grounds behind the Archbishop's
Palace. It was transferred here in 1960 from the village of Glotovo in the
Yuriev-Polskoy district of Vladimir Region. This church, built in 1766, is a
specimen of the so-called klet type. It consists basically of a
rectangular log frame, or klet. Because of its exquisite proportions
this small, simple church looks very graceful and impressive. Although they
were more widespread In North Russia, wooden klet churches were also
built in the central belt. The influence of their forms can be traced in
Suzdalian stone architecture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
mainly in the winter churches, and also in the early eighteenth-century stone
town house.
On the
other side of the Kamenka stands the wooden Church of the Transfiguration (1756),
transferred from the village of Kozlyatievo in Kolchuginsky district, a rare
specimen of church architecture, with the so-called "barrel" roofs.
The development of these forms goes back into the dim and distant past and is
more typical of the northern parts of Russia.
Most
probably this is a reproduction in wood of the stone barrel vaults with their
pointed terminations, and the tiered roof of progressively diminishing octagons
seems to echo the tent-roofed churches, the building of which was forbidden
from the middle of the seventeenth century onwards by the Church authorities
because it did not conform to church canons.
The
Church of the Transfiguration blends well
into Suzdal's architectural
ensemble. The aesthetic, artistic and national importance of these beautiful
monuments of the Vladimir lands is so great that as early as the fifteenth century
Moscow architects turned to this school of early Russian architecture, making
creative use of its heritage. For the Moscow principality this was the period
when the unification of all the Russian lands into a single national state was
nearly complete. The Moscow princes fought, like the Vladimir princes, for
undivided princely authority. On the advice of Ivan III, the architects
building the Cathedral of the Dormition in the very heart of Moscow, the
Kremlin, went to Vladimir to make a careful study of its
"white-stone" architecture, its magnificent, monumental buildings.
From then onwards Moscow became the head of a single artistic trend, neutralizing
the influence of local schools and exerting its own artistic influence on them.
K. Polunina “Architectural Monuments of Vladimir, Suzdal and
Yuriev-Polskoy”
