The architecture of ancient Russia
The Russian capital marks the southwestern limit of the Golden Ring. This fertile area between the Volga in the north and the Kliazma in the south, bordered by ancient princely cities, played a leading role in the economic development of Russia as early as the Middle Ages. Its geographical position gave it an important strategic role early on. TheOpolié, as this vast region of black earth is called, has allowed the unique development of Vladimir
, Pereslavl-Zalesski, Rostov Veliki and Souzdal, cities which keep the traces of their splendid past by the presence of traditional Russian architecture from the 12th to the 17th century: cupolas with star bulbs, whitewashed walls, and vast Baroque monuments.An ancient fortified town that developed in the mid-12th century, Moscow lies at the crossroads of the West and the East. Its architecture is the result of this intermingling. It is from Byzantium and the Caucasus that the influences that gave birth to Russian art in the princely cities came by river and through the intermediary of foreign artists and architects invited by the great princes. The style that emerged from the 11th to the 15th centuries remains strongly influenced by medieval Balkan religious architecture, mainly Serbian, as well as by Caucasian, mainly Armenian, architecture. It is a mixture where Western and Eastern (Persian) traditions merge, and where some scholars see the source of Romanesque art. But it is the oriental influences, due to the proximity of the Arab-Mongolian world, that will give Russian religious architecture that exuberance already evident in the rich wooden and stone churches of Saint Sophia in Kiev (1037), as later in those of Novgorod. The Russian people originated in Kiev, and it was there that their architectural culture first developed. By politically neutralizing the Republic of Novgorod, Moscow became a magnet for artists from all over Europe, who were able to adapt to local traditions while at the same time infusing their national genius into them. Few buildings remain from this period, which was essential for religious architecture: they were mostly made of wood and were largely destroyed during the Napoleonic fires of 1812.
It was also during this period that the first iconostases appeared: they were originally small and located close to the ground. Gradually, however, they gained in height and became an important element separating the altar from the rest of the church. The most characteristic example of the architecture of this period is the Cathedral of the Andronikov Monastery, built at the beginning of the 15th century.Second half of the 15th to 16th centuries: Russian Renaissance
The fall of Constantinople, called Second Rome, in 1453, gave a new lease of life to Moscow. Claiming to be the last heir of Imperial Rome, the capital of the only Orthodox suzerain state proclaimed itself Third Rome. It called upon Italian architects and artists, Florentine and Milanese to lead their Russian counterparts in the embellishment of the churches of the Kremlin
. Thus, in 1479, the Grand Prince Ivan III (1440-1505), a contrasting figure, aesthete and patron imbued with a Byzantine tradition, brought to Moscow Aristotle Floravanti (1415-1486) and Pietro Antonio Solario (1445-1493), to whom we owe the reconstruction of the Cathedral of the Assumption, undoubtedly the most beautiful in the Kremlin and one of the most sumptuous in Russia. On its façade, as well as that of the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, pilasters and decorative arcades were added, while the interior was rebalanced.In1491 the first stone palace, the Faceted Palace, or Granovitaya Palata
, was built for Ivan III by Pietro Solario inside the Kremlin. The first stone civil dwellings, such as those of Metropolitan Jonah (1390-1461) and the merchant Tarokan, appeared in Moscow between 1450 and 1470. The marriage of the Italian Renaissance and traditional Russian forms gave this Moscow architecture its distinctive character. In the 16th century, Moscow churches became taller and were topped with bulbs. The first and most representative is the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye, with its pyramidal bell tower, known as the Shatior. There are also churches with a single bell tower or surrounded by domes. Later, in the second half of the 16th century, the churches were composed of several towers and their chapels richly decorated. The exuberance of the decorations mixing oriental and western motifs heralded an early Baroque drift, which was expressed with sumptuousness in the cathedral of Basil the Blessed on Red Square.The Narychkin Baroque (XVII-XVIII centuries): the splendor before the decline of the Church
From the 17th century onwards, churches became more elaborate and complex: almost all of them were equipped with five small domes placed above a pyramid surrounded by rows of arcades, while windows and portals were more richly decorated. A perfect example of this style is the Church of the Holy Trinity
in Nikitniki. At thesame time, elegant small churches were built, decorated with high bulbs, such as the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinky, visible from Pushkin Square. Numerous simple and massive brick houses were also built, with two or three storeys and several windows. It was as a result of the reforms of Peter I (1672-1725), known as the Great, that Russia broke with its architectural tradition for the first time. Curiously, Russians refer to this period as the pre-Russian Renaissance, even though this style developed later than elsewhere in Europe and is hardly comparable to the Western Baroque, although like him it brings the art of ornament to its peak, and even less so to the Renaissance, characterized by its rational aspect. Thefirst buildings built in this style, which bears the name of the Tsar's mother's family, the Narychkin, are the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary (1694) inFili, on the western outskirts of Moscow, and the Cathedral of St Peter the Great Monastery in the historic centre on Petrovka Street. The Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, which is breathtakingly beautiful, has golden bulbs at the top of its towers, arranged in concentric rows. Its plan is cruciform with rounded ends, its windows and terraces are surmounted by pediments reminiscent of white rooster crests, standing out admirably on its ochre walls. Another feature is that the nave is built directly under the bells, placing it in the category of bell churches. The influence of oriental architecture can be fully felt here.The neoclassical
At the beginning of the 18th century, a few years before its "decline", Moscow's urban landscape was still dominated by religious art. The multitude of churches with sparkling bulbs, chapels and icons lined up along the streets are the visible signs of this intense religious life, the highlights of which are marked by countless bells and chimes. The city lives and works to the rhythm of the Church and religious festivals, as it still does today. The "Third Rome" is no longer a myth. However, the anticlerical positions of Tsar Peter the Great, demographic growth and the emergence of a European-style aristocracy gradually favoured civil buildings and palaces over churches.
The birth of a business bourgeoisie and the attraction of the Petersburg aristocracy to Moscow, where they settled in sumptuous second homes, changed the appearance of the fallen capital in many ways and altered its sacred atmosphere. The architecture adapted to this new urban context and the great local families called upon architects such as Vasily Bajenov (1737-1799) and Matvei Kazakov (1738-1812), who were responsible for a large number of public and private buildings, as well as churches in the classical and baroque styles. During the second half of the 18th century, the architecture of Moscow changed considerably due to a new artistic policy of the court. Empress Catherine II (1729-1796) made classicism the official style. Architects were obliged to decorate the buildings with colonnades and cornices in the antique style, of which they found models in French books. To admire Russian classicism, one can see the Pashkov house on Mokhovaïa Street, designed by the architect Bajenov.19th and 20th centuries: from Russo-Byzantine to Art Nouveau
At the beginning of the 19th century, classicism continued to develop in Russia. Then, the fire of 1812 set fire to all wood. Almost nothing was left of old Moscow, apart from the Baroque churches and palaces built in stone and the Kremlin
. The city owes its final appearance to this disaster. When it was rebuilt after the Napoleonic fires, the buildings became more modest in size and several large palaces disappeared. At a time when major European cities were undertaking enormous urban planning works marked by eclecticism and a return to popular tradition in architecture, Moscow showed its preference for Empire, pseudo- or neo-Russian and neo-Byzantine styles, using orientalizing decorative motifs characteristic of Russian churches. In the second half of the 19th century, increasing use was made of the traditional Russian style. The official style was called Russo-Byzantine, as evidenced by the Great Palace of the Emperor, the Palace of Armour,and the Cathedral of the Saviour, which was destroyed in the 1930s and has since been rebuilt. The public buildings, displaying the 'historic' style, however, had many 17th-century decorative elements. This style is used by the Historical Museum, the GUM on Red Square and the former Tretyakov Gallery building. After the eclectic style of the 19th century, like all major European cities, Moscow saw the emergence of Art Nouveau, which was expressed in a specific form, inspired by certain folk motifs. The most beautiful example of Moscow Art Nouveau is the residence commissioned at the beginning of the century by the industrialist Stepan Riabouchinsky (1874-1942) from the architect specialising in the genre, Franz Chekhtel (1859-1926): Dom Riabouchinsky. The forms and materials characteristic of the period are found here: bricks, wrought iron, earthenware, frescoes and mosaics with vegetal motifs, rounded forms, and an interior vestibule evoking the flow of the sea. There is something Viennese about this beautiful house. Today you can visit free of charge the building which became the museum-apartment of Maxime Gorky (1868-1936), where the latter spent the last years of his life under close surveillance.Moscow at the heart of Soviet realism
During the first years of the revolution, both architecture and the plastic arts experienced a period of intense creativity. The daring research of Ivan Leonidov (1902-1959), Constantin Melnikov (1890-1974) and the Vesnin brothers, to name but a few, was short-lived as soon as the CPSU took over artistic affairs. As it sounded the death knell for "constructivism" in painting, Stalinism put an end to creative construction in architecture. Socialist realism was imposed from 1934 onwards. Thefate of the many churches and chapels was not important, but there was a hierarchy: buildings from before 1613, such as the Kremlin
, were spared, while those from before 1825 could be altered and transformed. As for the buildings built afterwards, a legacy of "bourgeois art", they can be disposed of as one pleases.In addition to the ideological criteria, a city had to be redesigned in a provincial style to make it the capital of a new world. Moscow, whose population had almost doubled since 1917, needed infrastructure - especially to accommodate all the new institutions of an already burdensome bureaucracy. It was also the time when the first line of the famous Moscow metro, which now has fourteen lines, went into service. Its stations are among the most beautiful in the world, richly decorated in different styles. We will remember the Prospekt Mira station, and its ceiling of mouldings found at the Arbatskaya station, even more elaborate, with chandeliers and numerous gildings evoking the rococo style. Komsomolskaya with its columns and yellow ceiling is also worth a look.
In 1930, Stalin (1878-1953) organized a competition that designated Moscow as the world's architectural experiment. A boon for architects such as Le Corbusier (1887-1965), who answered the call and designed the Centrosoyuz between Miasnitskaya (formerly Kirov) and Novokirovskii streets, in collaboration with the Russian Nikolai Koli (1894-1966). It features gestures typical of the famous Swiss modernist: a thin parallelepiped raised on a row of reinforced concrete pylons that gives it the appearance of a suspended monolith, as well as the curves of the central building, also recalling the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959).
To celebrate the eight hundred years of the Russian capital (1147-1947), Stalin, in the aftermath of the war, launched the construction of the Seven Sisters of Moscow: a group of seven skyscrapers built between 1948 and 1956. As communism had to "catch up with and surpass capitalism," they were erected to rival the American giants, like the Manhattan Municipal Building in New York (1912), whose influence is clearly felt, although the architects of power deny that they were inspired by it. To this modern aspect are added distinctly Russian touches, reminiscent of Narychkin Baroque forms - thus Stalin imposed the dominance of socialist realism over the rest of Moscow's architecture, seizing its strongest symbols to rival the wonders of the deposed Empire. The result is the Stalinist style, also known as Stalinist Gothic. Although there are variations, the Seven Sisters have common characteristics: quadrilateral base, pyramidal shapes with stepped towers, the central one being the highest, topped by an arrow with a star. They are thus reminiscent of the tiered Narychkin churches. The carved and painted decorations are colossal. The location of the buildings, at the crossroads of the main axes, is supposed to structure the urban space. We will retain the tower of the Soviet Ministry of Heavy Industry (1953, 133 meters) which is probably the most beautiful example of Stalinist architecture, but also the residential building on Kudrinskaya Square (1954, 160 meters), impressive in its dimensions. The main building of the Lomonosov University in Moscow (1953), the tallest of the seven, is 240 metres high. At the end of the great perspective of Unversitetskaya Square,from the Sparrow Hill, it can also be admired from afar. In theopposite direction is the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium
on the other side of the Moskova River. One of Stalin's favourite architects, Semionov, was responsible for the biggest alterations in Moscow, with whole sections of the city's districts disappearing. The project almost touched the urban structure itself. The irreparable was committed: a building made of concrete and smoked glass, the Congress Palace, was built within the very walls of the untouchable Kremlin. Even under Gorbachev, there were no real architectural creations, the projects of the non-conformist architects of the late 1970s and early 1980s remained on paper: hence their ironic nickname of " Bumajniki " (from the Russian word boumaga meaning "paper"). Nevertheless, efforts were made to restore the heritage, but the currency was lacking.The post-Soviet boom and the difficulties of the economic crisis
Moscow has experienced spectacular economic and urban development since 1991. The country has been dynamically but often excessively liberalised, creating a deep social divide. Major construction sites are taking place, following the advent of new fortunes and gradually making the capital one of the most expensive in the world. Moscow's roads are very congested, its car fleet having increased tenfold by the explosion of suburban housing outside the walls. However, this leap forward was violently halted by the crisis of 2008, which led to the abandonment of many major architectural projects, still frozen today, waiting for better days. This is notably the case of two projects by Norman Foster (1935-): the Russia Tower, a project that was cancelled during construction and transformed into a car park, and the Crystal Island. This pharaonic project in the form of a monumental spire, which should culminate at 450 meters high, but above all become the largest building ever built on Earth, will comprise no less than twenty-seven million square meters. Its superstructure will act as a second skin: closed in winter to keep the heat inside, it will be open in summer to cool the premises.
The new Moscow-City business district will be a real success in this context. This International Trade Centre (ITC) has been developed on the model of La Défense. Located in the west of Moscow, near the third ring road, it is the only district of its kind in Eastern Europe. It is home to Europe's tallest tower, the Federation Tower, at 373 metres, as well as six of the tallest towers on the Old Continent, including the 354-metre-high OKO-South Tower.
houses a museum of architecture and painting. Although in the far east of Europe, the city's current development is much more comparable to that of Asian or Middle Eastern cities: a city for new billionaires. There is even a certain taste for architectural copying, like this important promoter who offered himself a reproduction of one of the Seven Sisters.
