Russian-Byzantine architecture (Russo-Byzantine architecture; ) is a revivalist direction in Russian architecture and decorative and applied arts, based on the interpretation of the forms of Byzantine and Old Russian architecture.Печёнкин И. Е., Русско-византийский стиль // Большая российская энциклопедия. Том 29. Москва, 2015, стр. 76 As part of eclecticism, the style could be combined with other styles.
The style originated in the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century. The founder of this style is considered to be Konstantin Thon. Formed in the early 1830s as an entire direction, the Russian-Byzantine style was inextricably linked with the concept of nationality, expressing the idea of cultural self-sufficiency of Russia, as well as its political and religious continuity in relation to Byzantine Empire. In a narrow sense, the Russian-Byzantine style referred as the style of Konstantin Thon, common in the second third of the 19th century, and post Thon style, that began in the 1850s and more similar to the Byzantine architecture, called the Neo-Byzantine style.
Russian-Byzantine style became an officially endorsed preferred architectural style for church construction during the reign of Alexander II of Russia (1855–1881). Although Alexander III changed state preferences in favor of late Russian Revival, Neo-Byzantine architecture flourished during his reign (1881–1894) and continued to be used until the outbreak of World War I. Émigré architects who settled in the Balkans and in Harbin after the Russian Revolution worked on Neo-Byzantine designs there until World War II.
Initially, Byzantine architecture buildings were concentrated in Saint Petersburg and the Crimea, with two isolated projects launched in Kiev and Tbilisi. In the 1880s, Byzantine designs became the preferred choice for Orthodox expansion on the frontiers of the Empire – Congress Poland, Lithuania, Bessarabia, Central Asia, North Caucasus, the Lower Volga and the Cossack Hosts; in the 1890s, they spread from the Urals region into Siberia along the emerging Trans-Siberian Railway. State-sponsored Byzantine churches were also built in Jerusalem, Harbin, Sofia and on the French Riviera.Savelyev, 2005 p.269 Non-religious construction in Byzantine style was uncommon; most extant examples were built as hospitals and almshouses during the reign of Nicholas II.
History
Background
The last decade of Alexander I's rule was marked by state enforcement of the Empire style as the only architectural style for religious, public and private construction. This monopoly of a single style was lifted in the early 1830s; as Nicholas I promoted Konstantin Thon's eclectic church designs, architects (Mikhail Bykovsky) and art circles in general (Nikolai Gogol) called for general liberalization of building permit procedures, insisting on the architect's freedom to choose a style best fitting the building's functions and the client's preferences. As a result, by the end of the 1840s Russian civil architecture diversified into various revival styles (Gothic Revival by Bykovsky, Neo-Renaissance by Thon) while new church projects leaned towards Thon's "Album of model designs" or neoclassicism.
The reign of Nicholas I was marked by persistent expansion of Russia – either in the form of colonization of territories acquired earlier in the West and South (partitions of Poland–Lithuania, Novorossiya, the Crimea, the Caucasus) or in the form of increasing intervention in the Eastern Question. Nicholas shared his predecessors' aspirations for the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, and engaged in a dispute with France for control over Holy Land shrines, which provoked the Crimean War. The eastern policies of the state aroused public interest and sponsored academic studies in Byzantine history and culture. The expansion of Russian Orthodoxy into the new territories created new large-scale construction projects that needed to be integrated into local environments.
The Imperial Academy of Arts, closely supervised by Nicholas, supported studies of the Orient and specifically Byzantium, but Nicholas himself despised Byzantine architecture. Ivan Strom, one of the architects of the cathedral of Saint Vladimir in Kyiv, recalled Nicholas saying "I cannot stand this style, yet, unlike others, I allow it" ().Savelyev, 2005 p.28 Royal approval was made possible by the academic studies of the architecture of Kievan Rus in the 1830s–1840s that, for the first time, attempted to reconstruct the initial shape of Kievan cathedrals and established them as the missing link between Byzantium and the architecture of Veliky Novgorod.
The cathedral of Saint Vladimir became the first neo-Byzantine project approved by the Emperor (1852). The Crimean War, lack of funds (the cathedral was financed through private donations) and severe engineering errors delayed its completion until the 1880s. The first neo-Byzantine projects to be completed appeared after the death of Nicholas: the interiors of the Saint Sergius of Radonezh church in the Strelna Monastery, designed by Alexey Gornostaev (1859), and a small chapel of Mariinsky Palace designed by Grigory Gagarin (1860).Savelyev, 2008 p.39
Royal endorsement
Prince Grigory Gagarin, who had served in Constantinople and the Caucasus as a diplomat, became the most influential supporter of the Byzantine style – through his published studies of vernacular Caucasian and Greek heritage as well as through his service to empress Maria Alexandrovna and grand duchess Maria Nikolayevna (Alexander II's sister and president of the Imperial Academy of Arts). As early as 1856, empress Maria Alexandrovna expressed her will to see new churches executed in Byzantine style.Savelyev, 2005 p.31
The first of these churches was built in 1861–1866 on the Greek Square of Saint Petersburg. Architect Roman Kuzmin (1811–1867) loosely followed the canon of the Hagia Sophia – a flattened main dome blended into a cylindrical arcade resting on a cubical main structure. Kuzmin, however, added a novel feature – instead of two apses, typical of the Byzantine prototypes, he used four.Savelyev, 2005 p.33The church received a direct bomb hit in World War II and was finally demolished in 1959. This cross-shaped layout was refined in 1865 by David Grimm, who extended Kuzmin's flattened structure vertically. Although Grimm's design remained on paper for over 30 years, its basic composition became nearly universal in Russian construction practice.Savelyev, 2005 p.44
Another trend was launched by David Grimm's design of the Saint Vladimir Cathedral in Chersonesus (1858–1879). The church, built on the ruins of an ancient Greek cathedral, was sponsored by Alexander II. Grimm, also a historian of Caucasian heritage, was picked by Maria Alexandrovna, most likely upon advice by Gagarin and Maria Nikolaevna.Savelyev, 2005 p.36 His cross-shaped structure used a complex succession of staggered simple shapes. Grimm restricted the use of curvilinear surfaces to the main dome only; apses and their roofing were polygonal – in line with Georgian and Armenian prototypes. This "linear" variety of Byzantine architecture remained uncommon in the 19th century but surged in popularity in the reign of Nicholas II.Savelyev, 2005 p.37
Despite the support of the royal family, the reign of Alexander II did not produce many examples of the style: the economy, crippled by the Crimean War and further stressed by Alexander's reforms, was too weak to support mass construction. Once started, projects were delayed for decades. For example, Aleksei Avdeyev's draft of the Sevastopol Cathedral was approved in 1862, but actual work started only in 1873. The foundations, built before the war, were already in place yet construction dragged on slowly until 1888, literally consuming the architect's life.Savelyev, 2005, p.40 David Grimm's Tbilisi cathedral, designed in 1865, was started in 1871 and soon abandoned; construction resumed in 1889 and was completed in 1897. Grimm died one year later.Savelyev, 2005 p.44
Proliferation
Church construction and economy in general rebounded in the reign of Alexander III (1881–1894). In thirteen and a half years, the properties of the Russian Orthodox church increased by more than 5,000 places of worship; by 1894 there were 47,419 temples including 695 major cathedrals.Savelyev, 2008 p. 82 cites an article in Nedelya stroitelya, 1894 N. 37 Most of the new temples, however, belonged to the late 19th century variant of Russian Revival that became the official style of Alexander III. The turn in state preferences was signalled in 1881–1882 by two architectural contests for the design of the Church of the Savior on Blood in Saint Petersburg. Both contests were dominated by Neo-Byzantine designs, yet Alexander dismissed them all and eventually awarded the project to Alfred Parland, setting the stylistic preference of the next decade. Highly publicized features of Savior on the Blood – a central tented roof, excessive ornaments in red brickwork and a clear reference to Moscow and Yaroslavl relics of the 17th century – were instantly copied in smaller church buildings.Wortman, p.245-246
Nearly all of the 5,000 churches attributed to Alexander III were financed through public donations. 100% state financing was reserved for a few palace churches directly catering to the royal family. The "military" churches built in military and naval bases were co-financed by the state, the officers, and through popular subscription among civilians. For example, the Byzantine church of the 13th infantry regiment in Manglisi (Georgia), designed to accommodate 900 worshipers, cost 32,360 roubles, of which only 10,000 were provided by the state treasury. Historical summary of 13th infantry regiment
Preference for Russian Revival did not mean aversion to Byzantine architecture. Alexander displayed a clear aversion to 18th century baroque and neoclassicism that he despised as symbols of Petrine absolutism; Byzantine architecture was an acceptable "middle road".Savelyev, 2008 p. 85 Byzantine-style architects of the previous reign formed a numerous school with loyal clients, including senior clergy. Paradoxically, the Byzantine school was concentrated in the Institute of Civil Engineers which also provided a department chair to Nikolay Sultanov, informal leader of Russian Revival and an advisor to Alexander III.Savelyev, 2008 p. 87-98Sultanov accepted the position of Director of the Institute after Alexander's death. Sultanov's graduate, Vasily Kosyakov, made himself famous by the Byzantine churches in Saint Petersburg (1888–1898) and Astrakhan (designed in 1888, built in 1895–1904), but was just as successful in Russian Revival projects (Libava Naval Cathedral, 1900–1903). Two schools coexisted in a normal working atmosphere, at least in Saint Petersburg.
Neo-Byzantine architecture of Alexander III's reign dominated in three geographical niches. It was the style of choice for Orthodox clergy and the military governors in Congress Poland and Lithuania (cathedrals in Kaunas, Kielce, Łódź, Vilnius); in the southern regions (Kharkov, Novocherkassk, Rostov-na-Donu, Samara, Saratov and numerous settlements of Cossack Hosts); and in the Urals (Perm to Orenburg);Savelyev, 2008 p. 118 in 1891 the list expanded with Siberian towns along the emerging Trans-Siberian Railway.