The small town of Yuryev-Polskoy near Vladimir was founded in 1152 by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky. From the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, it was the center of a small inheritance. Since 1212, it was owned by Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich - the grandson of the founder of the town. The provincial town by the standards of the day, of course, could not be compared with the main villages of Zalessky, famous for their artistic wealth.
And although there is one single masterpiece of ancient Russian architecture in the town, but he left far behind many very similar structures.
The famous St. George's Cathedral
In Yuryev-Polsky it was built in honor of the victory won by Prince Dolgoruky over the Volga Bulgars. It happened in 1221. This monument of victory, according to the chroniclers, is a "strange and amazing, beautiful and naive" building, one of a kind.
History of occurrence
At the place where the current St. George Cathedral stands, as early as 1152, Yuri Dolgoruky ordered a small white-stone church to be built. He dedicated it to George the Victorious, whom he called his own heavenly patron. In 1230, his grandson - Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich - destroyed the building of his grandfather, because it "dilapidated and broke." And in its place in 1230 the St. George Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky was built, which became not only the crown of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture, but also the last white-stone building before the Mongol-Tatar invasion.
Temple Features
Neither before nor even after has anyone succeeded in surpassing this amazingly beautiful masterpiece. I must say that attempts to repeat it were made repeatedly. For example, it is believed that it was St. George Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky, the photo against which every tourist who visited this town takes home, became the prototype of the Moscow Assumption, built in the Kremlin in 1326. However, it was not possible to build a similar temple. There simply weren’t any such masters who would be able to at least partially repeat the very white-stone pattern that completely covered St. George’s Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky. Pictures with a continuous carpet covered the walls of the temple from top to bottom.
Second Life
His building was built for four years. It stood in its original form for more than two hundred years, until in 1460 there was a collapse of the arch, which apparently could not withstand too much stress. Other evidence is also convincing why the St. George Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky was destroyed. Archeology, which studies the material evidence of the past, suggests that the cause could be a tectonic fault, as well as groundwater.
By decree of the Grand Duke, the famous Moscow architect V.D. Yermolin was instructed to do restoration work. The architect already had some experience in the restoration of such ancient buildings. It was Ermolin who supposedly reassembled the St. George’s Cathedral of St. George (the photo can be seen in the article). The architect assured that he rebuilt the temple and its chapel, "putting it as before." However, this is not quite true.
New look
During the restoration work, the primordial proportions of the main building were quite distorted, they became more heavy. Most of the reliefs were lost, and the remaining masters mixed up, due to which the facades of the temple gave the impression of randomly scattered and lacking internal semantic connection of plot images.
In the following centuries, the St. George Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky, restored by Ermolin, was again subjected to changes more than once. So, in the seventeenth century a tent-shaped bell tower was built over his western vestibule. In 1781, it was replaced by another, more impressive one, which was erected from the western side, and St. George Cathedral itself was covered with four slopes, although it had to have a zakomarny coating, like all white-stone churches.
In 1809-1827 the main building from the north and south is closed by a new sacristy and a warm aisle. All this has caused new destruction and distortion of the ancient monument, which today are clearly visible in numerous old photos. St. George's Cathedral got its present appearance only in the twentieth century, when the outbuildings that had so disfigured it were finally demolished.
I must say that blaming Yermolin is not entirely fair. An extremely difficult task was set before him: it was necessary not only to restore the St. George Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky, whose architecture is unique, but also to recreate it in such a way that the carved figured blocks were again a solid stone pattern, united by a common plan. However, without any drawings or drawings on hand, and also taking into account the fact that many stones were simply destroyed as a result of the collapse, it was almost impossible to do so.
Artistic motifs
A lot has been written and said about the carving that decorates St. George's Cathedral. Her artistic motifs until the twentieth century inspired many masters involved in wooden "deaf" carvings.
Fancy patterns depicting animals, birds and plants, lions, geese with woven necks - all of them, being God's creations, glorify the Creator in sparkling white-stone carvings adorning St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev.
Stone "lace"
The pattern surrounds not only the planes on the walls, but also almost all the architectural details, such as capitals, columns and portals. Figures of people and animals, mythical monsters - all of them interspersed with fancy floral ornaments. As a result, the St. George Cathedral, completely covered with stone lace, looks like an intricate figured block carved from solid stone. Thanks to this, the building received splendor and solemnity.
Architecture
The cathedral is relatively small. Its side facades are "overgrown" with narthexes. They are blocked on the facade by arches with a keeled zakomara. The western of the narthex was originally larger and higher than the lateral ones. He also had a second tier in the form of choirs intended for the princely family. In the corner, at the junction of the northern and eastern walls, there was a small Trinity chapel, which was the tomb of the princes of St. George. Here, today, the archosolium is visible outside, where Prince Svyatoslav was buried in 1252.
The facades of the cathedral are divided into three segments by pilasters. This technique is characteristic of Old Russian architecture and is a sign of the four pillars of the temple. In the horizontal division of the cathedral there is an arcate-columnar belt, which during the destruction in the fifteenth century did not fully survive. It spread along the upper part of the apse, also separated by half-columns. In both tiers above the belt, rather high windows were provided, and directly above the center of the temple main cube a tower was raised, raised on a special pedestal.
Temple originally
Experts suggest that it is such an excessive load, as well as increased supporting arches and caused the collapse of the arches. Nevertheless, the architecture of the original version of the building was characterized by a tendency upwards and dynamism. Slender proportions, combined with three original narthexes, gave the cathedral stepped and pillar-like.
And although St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev was somewhat inferior in its compositional dynamism to similar Kiev and Smolensk buildings, it significantly exceeded their solemnity of appearance. And above all, the wealth and splendor of the carving covering all its walls contributed to this.
Interior
Inside St. George's Cathedral is quite spacious. This was achieved due to the fact that the pillars on which its arches are installed are widely spaced and pushed to the walls. The altar is separated from the main space by a low barrier on which a stone deesis is carved.
Incredibly good painting on the interior. However, in a temple that does not have artificial lighting, it is always dark, so sometimes it is impossible to see all the colors in photographs. And in general, the interior of the cathedral can not be compared with its decoration on the outside.
Facades
On the silver-yellow walls of the cathedral, you can spend hours studying the bizarre curls of stone carving. Years of research by restorers and art historians have made it possible to fully convey the original intention of the builders and more or less restore it.
The main compositions that adorned St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky are considered to be “Transfiguration” on the western facade, “Seven Youths of Ephesus” and “Trinity”. On its north side were the Crucifixion and Daniel in the Lion's Ditch. Such compositions as Ascension, Our Lady of Orant, decorated the southern facade.
In the spans on the arcature belt an entire string of saints was depicted. This technique is rather reminiscent of Gothic cathedrals in Europe. The patrons of many princes from the Vladimir dynasty were depicted on the northern wall. A large relief of St. George the Victorious was also made here. The saint, depicted in military armor, bears on the shield the emblem of this princely dynasty - a reared leopard.
About the creators
Even the ancient chroniclers were interested in who is the master who created the cathedral. Some suggest that Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich himself was the author. Researchers believe that although the prince took a large part in creating the final plan of this architectural masterpiece, ordinary Russian artisans were his translators.
Mitrofan, the bishop of Vladimir, who was burned alive by the Tatars, also played a significant role in the creation of the cathedral. He was an outstanding person, a person of high culture, a smart politician and patron of the arts. Researchers believe that it was he who developed the schemes of the amazing carving that adorns the St. George Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky. In its plots, deep knowledge of not only patristic, but also Russian spiritual literature is felt.
There is evidence that a master from the Volga Bulgaria participated in the construction of the temple . And this is despite the fact that the cathedral was built in full accordance with the Vladimir-Suzdal direction in architecture. It is characteristic that such a structure could not have arisen before, since for this the craftsmen would not have had enough experience. And only the creative growth of Russian stone carvers, who absorbed the experience transmitted by their predecessors, as well as the best examples of local and foreign art, allowed at the time to create a stone fairy tale - St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev.