Novgorod Architecture of the 12th century
Old Novgorod was the capital of a vast territory stretching from the shores of the Baltic to the Arctic
Ocean. We still do not know for sure, in relation to what town was Novgorod called "new". Most
probably, in relation to the so called Gorodishche (a hill fort) at the source of the Volkhov River. The
earliest cultural layer at Gorodishche belongs to the middle of the 9th century, while the oldest cultural
layer of Novgorod itself belongs to the first half of the 10th century. It is not possible to overstress the
importance of Novgorod's contribution to Russian culture. Suffice it is to mention dozens of chronicles
and numerous ancient documents. Let us remember the architectural monuments and works of
literature, painting and applied art, a diverse world of artifacts discovered by archaeologists. The most
important discovery among them are the birchbark letters of the 11th to the 15th centuries that give us
an opportunity to get a glimpse of Novgorod's everyday life, to feel the concerns of ordinary
townspeople.
In Novgorod, like in no other Old Russian town, the authority of the popular assembly called "veche"
was strong. The prince's authority here was limited by the veche. The citizens in many occasions, when
they were unhappy with a particular prince, “showed him the way”, in other words, dismissed him. We
know about a conflict between the citizens and Prince Vsevolod in 1136. This, perhaps the most wellknown, conflict, which led to the dismissal of the Prince, contributed a lot to the strengthening of the
republican system in all areas of Novgorod life.
The same is fully applicable to architecture. While in the 11th and the first half of the 12th centuries the
principal patron commissioning stone churches was the prince, in the middle and the second half of the
12th century and further on, representatives of other social groups entered the scene of active
construction work: the clergy, primarily in the person of the archbishop, the boyars, the merchants,
associations of citizens, residents of this or that street. The financial resources and artistic tastes of the
patrons influenced directly the appearance of the churches built. The spirit of Novgorod democracy, a
connection with popular art is manifest in Novgorod stone construction with a captivating imaginative
force. In this respect, monuments of Novgorod architecture can be contrasted with the princely
buildings of the Vladimir-Suzdal school known for its distinct sophistication and stateliness.
So, stone construction in Novgorod started with the building of the Holy Sophia Cathedral in the
Detinets in 1045-1050. A powerful, epic force, a heroic might permeates the interior and the exterior of
this church. The main church of the Novgorod land has become an imposing embodiment of Novgorod
character, a spiritual symbol of the state. The noble reticence of forms and the imperious tone,
captivating the beholder with the strength of the spiritual image, had a profound effect on the
development of local architectural school and its identity.
About 50 years had passed before stone construction was renewed in the Novgorod land. The year
1103 was identified as the time when the Church of the Annunciation was built in the prince’s country
residence at Gorodishche, three kilometers from Novgorod. At the beginning of the 12th century there
was no local architectural tradition; therefore, it is not surprising that the church followed the tradition
of southern Rus’, most probably, of the Kiev school. This is convincingly demonstrated by the results of
archaeological studies of the non-extant Church of the Annunciation conducted in 1966-1970. The sixpillared plan of the church with a tower in the north-western corner can be traced back to the Kiev
buildings of the second half of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th centuries. It was probably from Kiev
that Prince Mstislav, a son of Vladimir Monomakh, who commissioned the construction, invited
builders. The unusual method for the Kiev school was the use of local limestone alongside with plinfa
bricks. This material will be consistently used from that moment on, noticeably influencing the
appearance and the stylistic features of Novgorod churches.
Building of the Annunciation Church starts the period of intensive princely construction in Novgorod. It
continued to the middle of the 1130s, while the prince's position in the public life of the town was
sufficiently strong. The principal patrons commissioning stone constructions were Prince Mstislav
Vladimirovich, and, starting from the year 1117, his son Vsevolod. A strong team of builders was formed
in Novgorod at that period, and their manner of building is obvious in constructions erected on the
prince's initiative.
In 1113, the foundation of St. Nicholas Cathedral was laid at the princely compound in Novgorod, in
other words, at the Yaroslav's Court near the market side. According to the legend, the reason for its
construction was a miraculous healing of Prince Mstislav by the icon of St. Nicholas. The church has
survived intact. A recent successful restoration returned the original look to many parts of the building.
In plan, the Church of St. Nicholas repeats the Annunciation Church. But its six-pillared building does not
have a stair tower. And this is understandable. The Church was part of the wooden palace of the prince,
and from there it was possible, using the passage, to get right to the choir loft through an entrance in
the upper part of the southern wall. The true height of the church is somewhat concealed by a thick
cultural layer of over two meters deep. The impression of peaceful dignity is further enhanced by the
compactly placed five domes that had a certain similarity with the Holy Sophia Cathedral on the other
bank of the Volkhov River; the gentle line of semi-circular zakomari and monumental projections of the
three rounded apses, small two-stepped niches of the South-Rus’ type soften the austere reticence of
the facades.
In 1119, Prince Vsevolod together with Hegumen Kyuriak (Kirik) laid the foundation of the Cathedral of
St. George in the Yuriev Monastery. By the main architectural characteristics, this church is similar to
Mstislav's buildings, the Church of the Annunciation and the Cathedral of St. Nicholas that are familiar to
us. But the exceptional monumentality of forms and the imperious and overwhelming impressiveness,
so typical of Novgorod, gives it a special place even among other Novgorod monuments. We know the
name of the builder. The chronicle says: "And the master who worked was Petr". This is one of the few,
in fact, only four, names of architects that were recorded in written sources of the pre-Mongol period.
The Cathedral of St. George stands before us as an image of a glorious triumph over weightiness of
stone. This theme, eternal in architecture and treated by master Petr, conveys with inimitable clarity the
spirit and emotional content of Novgorod architecture, the impulse uniting this school of architecture in
the 11th to the 15th centuries. The crystal clarity and the unity of masses are emphasized by tiers of
windows and double-stepped niches. Despite the thick cultural layers covering the lower parts of the
walls and a later cornice visibly suppressing the dynamic energy of the orderly mass, the height of the
building is impressive. In its forceful vertical thrust, in the character of architectural masses, in the
spontaneous composition with the asymmetrically placed tower, and the three-domed top that
emphasizes the unique features of the plan that is not too concerned with the geometrically perfect
outline of details, we can see a distinctive elegance that can only be found in Novgorod architecture.
Inside, the powerful pylons and lesenes that reveal the thickness of the window walls seem to recede
into the background, outlining the spatial elements. The space seems to be imbued with a slight tension
of the upward flowing energy. Such buildings could have only been created by people who were strong
in spirit, endowed with a feeling of the unique harmony existing between the spiritual and material
sides of life. As Roerich once said, "People of infirm spirit would not build such churches".
Icons that are placed at the very beginning of Old Russian icon painting originate from the Church of St.
George. These are the full-length icon of St. George (the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), the so-called
Ustiug Annunciation (the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) - though it would be more correct to call it the
Yuriev Annunciation, and the half-length icon of St. George (the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow
Kremlin). The so-called Yuriev Gospel, one of the oldest known to us, which was created between 1120
and 1128, also originated from this monastery.
These three buildings, the Church of the Annunciation in Gorodishche, the Cathedrals of St. Nicholas and
St. George, are so close typologically and stylistically that it would be logical to presume that they all
were built by the same architect - master Petr. There exists such a hypothesis, a concept, based on the
existing stylistic, typological and figurative characteristics of the churches mentioned. In 1117, two years
before the Church of St. George was founded, the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin in the
Antoniev Monastery was laid down. In 1117-1119, a four-pillared, one-domed church was built, of much
smaller size than the princely churches; but soon, in 1125, when the church as a whole was covered with
mural paintings, a narthex was added on the west side and a tower on the north-west side. All these
additions made this church of modest dimensions and composition reminiscent of the large cathedrals
commissioned by princes.
The individual manner of the builder is manifest in such a technical feature as the use of thick
rectangular bricks together with plinfa bricks. The facades lack the double-stepped niches typical for the
previous buildings. The stair tower is round-shaped rather than circular-shaped. The cathedral of the
Antoniev Monastery apparently falls outside the group of buildings ascribed to master Petr. Most
probably a different team and not the one headed by master Peter was at work here, fulfilling the
commission of Hegumen Anthony, a native of Western Europe.
Two more buildings of that time, the Church of St. John on Opoki (1127-1130) and the Church of the
Assumption on the Market (1135-1144), were rebuilt later, after the end of the pre-Mongol period, and
only their lower parts are still extant. The stone churches of the first third of the 12th century, and first of
all, the buildings commissioned by princes, solidified the unique stylistic and imaginative identity that
had already been visible in the Holy Sophia Cathedral and would have a further development. This is the
creative force, as it were, behind the Sophia identity and behind the development of Novgorod
architecture of the pre-Mongol period. When the need for stone buildings in Novgorod proper was
essentially satisfied, there appeared a possibility to use masters of stone construction in other towns of
the Novgorod land - Pskov and Ladoga, which were then called suburbs.
One should not think that Pskov and Ladoga had their own separate architectural traditions.
Construction in those towns represents successive stages in the history of the Novgorod school. This is
evidenced by technical-technological and stylistic features of Pskov and Ladoga buildings. Four stone
churches were built in Pskov in the 1130s-50s.
The first record in the chronicle of the main church in Pskov, the non-extant Trinity Cathedral, dates
back to the year 1138. It mentions the death of Prince Vsevolod who had been ousted by the
Novgorodians in 1136 and who, striving to reign again in Novgorod, had settled in Pskov. From there,
with the help of his supporters, he hoped to return to the throne of Novgorod. Speaking about the
death of Prince Vsevolod, the chronicler names the Trinity Church as his burial place, which "he himself
created", i.e. had built. If this is so, then, taking into account the characteristics of the previous
churches erected on commission of the same Prince Vsevolod, in order to find a structure similar to the
Trinity Cathedral we should look to Novgorod churches of the 1120-30s. Prince Vsevolod had master
Petr working for him and, for all we know, he could have participated in the construction of the main
church in Pskov. If this is true, then it most probably happened in the 1130s. The main church, as a rule,
was the first stone construction in the town. As already mentioned, the cathedral is not extant. Today,
its site is occupied by a church of the 17th century. One should say that the building history of the Trinity
Cathedral in Pskov is highly complicated and not yet fully clarified. Excavations near the church of the
17th century have discovered separate blocks of masonry of the pre-Mongol period and fragments of
mural paintings. This is a sound argument for the existence of a stone church dedicated to the Trinity,
built in the pre-Mongol period.
Excavations have discovered remains of another church, the Church of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki, in
Dovmont's Town. According to the chronicle, it dates back to 1143-44. This was a relatively small fourpillared, three-apse church, with its foundation and walls built in the Novgorod manner. The church is
small, which in itself is significant. It can be regarded as one of the first buildings, perhaps, of the parish
type. At any rate, such small churches were afterwards used as churches for the needs of a single parish.
An empty burial chamber was found in the southern apse of the Church of St. Demetrius. One of the
explanations is that Prince Vsevolod was first buried in this church and not in the Trinity Cathedral. And
only after her was canonized in 1192, his relics were moved to the Trinity Cathedral.
There is a well-preserved Cathedral of St. John the Precursor in Zavelichye (a district in Pskov), almost
opposite from the Krom (the Kremlin). This building is first mentioned in the chronicle under the year
1243. However, by its architectural forms and technical-technological characteristics, it should be dated
the 1130s. This six-pillared, three-apse church with the zakomara wall tops is surmounted with three
domes decorated over the tops of all three drums with a simple blind arcading. The side domes are
shifted to the west of the central one and are placed above the choir loft that can be reached by a
staircase in the western wall. The western pairs of pillars are octagonal and round-shaped. The Church
of St. John is smaller and simpler than the Novgorod churches built by the team of master Petr. A
certain resemblance to it can be found in the Nativity Cathedral of the Antoniev Monastery. Let us
mention the unusual shape of the windows. Alongside the typical narrow windows with semicircular
tops, we find round window openings - the only instance of that kind in the architecture of the preMongol period.
The Transfiguration Cathedral in the Mirozhsky Monastery was commissioned by Archbishop Nifont and
was first mentioned in the chronicle for the year 1156. However, the studies of the church and its
architecture as well as its comparison with other Novgorod buildings of the pre-Mongol period show
that it was, most probably, built earlier, at the very end of the 1140s and the beginning of the 1150s.
The building is well-preserved, but its original appearance was altered when the upper parts were
overbuilt; the western facade is partly concealed by a later addition; and the dome is not helmet-shaped
but has a later, onion shape. The main feature of its architectural composition is the originally welldefined cross-shaped space. How was this achieved? The side apses as well as the south-western and
north-western parts of the church are sharply lowered, which emphasizes the height of the longitudinal
and transverse parts of the building that form the cross-shaped center crowned with a massive dome.
The traditional blind arcading decorated the top of the drum. The interior of the church, with isolated
sidelong compartments, was also cross-shaped. The research of the building has shown that its western
corner divisions were raised to the level of the central ones; and this happened soon after the
completion of the church. Reasons behind this change in the original composition remain unclear. The
Transfiguration Cathedral is unique in the history of pre-Mongol architecture. The patron who
commissioned the church, Archbishop Nifont, apparently gave instructions to the builders to take as a
model not a building from Kievan Rus' but rather some Byzantine church.
The third quarter of the 12th century was marked with an intensive construction in yet another suburb of
Novgorod - Ladoga. Stone construction here started with the building of a fortress. This fact was
recorded in the chronicle as early as the year 1114, while in other versions of the chronicle the year is
recorded as 1116. Archaeologists have determined that the fortress of the 12th century was preceded by
an earlier fortress of the 9th and the 10th centuries. Large parts of the 12th-century defensive wall have
been identified during the architectural and archaeological studies. It should be mentioned that the
stone fortress in Ladoga represents a very rare occurrence in the history of Old Russian architecture and
the fortress architecture of the pre-Mongol period. Even fortifications of such large towns as Kiev,
Vladimir, and Novgorod, were of the wood-and-earth type. Church construction, according to the
chronicle, started in 1153, when Archbishop Nifont built the Church of St. Clement in Ladoga. It has not
survived. According to archaeological information, this church was similar to the Transfiguration
Cathedral of the Mirozhsky Monastery. This is not surprising since both churches were commissioned by
the same patron. Two other Ladoga churches are well-preserved - the Church of the Assumption and the
Church of St. George. Their architectural composition is very simple: these are small four-pillared, threeapse churches with zakomara facade tops, surmounted with one dome - the simplest version of the
cross-domed church. The facades have almost no decoration. There is only the blind arcading around
the top of the drum. All technological and stylistic characteristics of the buildings belong to the
Novgorod tradition. Three more Ladoga churches of the same type are known through archaeological
data. These are the Church of the Transfiguration, the church on the River Ladozhka, and the church of
the Nikolsky Monastery.
The Ladoga stage of church construction was very important for the future development of Novgorod
architecture. Simplification of the spatial composition, construction techniques and stylistic devices has
reached its limits at this stage of Novgorod architectural development. Architectural evolution has
stabilized; the small church type emerging during the Ladoga period becomes dominant in the course of
further evolution of Novgorod architecture; this type corresponds to the material resources and artistic
tastes of citizens from all social groups. Large-scale stone construction begins; numerous skilled builders
appear from among the citizens; the construction technique using local limestone lowers the cost of
buildings, and, given their small size, this helps to shorten the length of construction.
Indeed, building walls with Volkhov slabstones was highly efficient. The rate of work has increased
significantly. Often churches were built within one summer season. The democratisation of public life
has, thus, influenced the architecture of the Novgorod land. A unique architectural style was developed
in the 12th century, in which the simple and clear forms possess a powerful expressive force inherent to
the folk art.