|
 |
 |
ANNUNCIATION CATHEDRAL
1484-9
Whereas the Assumption Cathedral was the main church of the Russian state, the small Annunciation Cathedral standing next to the Grand Prince's Palace, became the private church of the Moscow princes, and later tsars. Whereas the Assumption Cathedral has come down to us without any significant changes, the Cathedral of the Annunciation has undergone some major alterations over the centuries. It was built in the fifteenth century by masters from Pskov. The reason why they were brought to Moscow for this purpose is most likely because Aristo-tele Fioravanti was busy making cannons, bells and coins and also taking part as a military engineer in Ivan Ill's campaigns to Novgorod the Great, Kazan and Tver.
In their efforts to combine the traditions of Pskov and early Moscow architecture, the Pskov masters placed the Annunciation Cathedral on a high semibasement and gave the whole edifice lightness and grace.
Annunciation Cathedral
|
In earlier times when Moscow was the capital of a small appanage principality, it is possible that a small wooden church erected by Prince Andrew of Vladimir, son of Alexander, stood where the Annunciation Cathedral now stands.
In 1397-1405 during the reign of Grand Prince Basil I a white-stone Annunciation Cathedral was built on the site of the wooden church. Its frescoes and icons were painted by medieval Russia's great artists Andrei Rublev and Theophanes the Greek. All that remains of this church is the square white-stone semibasement which was incorporated into the new Annunciation Cathedral. The walls of the semibasement are faced with roughly hewn blocks of white stone. The ceiling consists of two stone barrel vaults resting on arches. Between them in the middle of the semibasement is a square-shaped post which supports the arches.
The small dimensions of the semibasement (7x7 metres) and the thickness of the walls (about 1.5 metres) show that the older cathedral was also small. Most likely it was a church with no pillars and a single apse.
Looking at the Annunciation Cathedral today it is not easy to detect the additions and alterations belonging to different periods. However, originally the cathedral was a small four-piered church with three apses, surrounded on three sides by an open gallery. It had only three domes, a large one in the middle and two on the east side. The high semibasement made it possible to link the cathedral directly to the Embankment Chambers, i.e. to the palace of the Grand Prince.
Adorning the windowed drums with bands of ornamental brickwork in accordance with Pskov traditions, the masters "engirdled" the cathedral with a band of blind arcading, thus stressing their inclusion in a single architectural ensemble. Along the apses is a frieze of balusters which barely protrude from the walls, a device which also became very widespread later. In general it must be said that the innovations of the Kremlin builders provided models which were quickly followed all over Russia.
Due to the fact that the state treasury had grown considerably by then, Ivan III ordered a special two-storey repository, the Treasury Court, to be erected by the east wall of the cathedral. Alongside the first white-stone Annunciation Cathedral the monk Lazarus from Athens installed Moscow's first clock on a special tower in 1404.
|
|
