Transfiguration Cathedral
Spassky Cathedral in Chernihiv
Ukraine, Chernigiv
The Transfiguration Cathedral was founded around 1033-34 by the Chernigov prince Mstislav Vladimirovich, after whose death, apparently, it was not built for some time and was completed only in the middle of the century. It became the main temple of the ancient Russian city and the Chernihiv-Seversky Principality, and now it is the only monument of monumental stone architecture of the heyday of Kievan Rus that has survived on the left bank of Ukraine. This is a majestic five-domed eight-pillar temple. The remains of frescoes, carved slabs of choirs, floors, columns testify to its former rich interior decoration. It has been rebuilt several times over the centuries. In the XVIII-XIX centuries, in particular, two towers were built on, after which the cathedral acquired its present form. The ashes of Prince Igor Seversky, sung in The Lay of Igor's Campaign, and other princes of the same era are buried in the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior.
The Transfiguration Cathedral of the Savior has survived to this day almost entirely, but partly rebuilt: it underwent alterations after the devastating fire of 1756. All interiors burned out. The burnt wooden choir stalls were not restored. The baptismal in the southwestern corner of the temple was broken, and instead of it a round tower was built, symmetrical to the ancient left tower with a staircase to the choir stalls. Enormous spiers were installed on both towers, which distorted the ancient appearance of the church. To top it all, vestibules were set up in front of the portals.
The gradual elevation of the masses of the temple upward was lost on the western side. The pyramidal growth of the cathedral is visible from the east. The ancient covering of the temple was pozakomarny, which also worked for the pyramidal effect of the upper part of the building. The heads had a Byzantine parabolic shape.
In plan, the cathedral is a large (18.25 x 27 m.) three-aisled temple with six pillars and three apses. Excavations have shown that small chapels were added to the eastern corners, which have not survived.
The facades of the building are composed of extremely elegant brickwork with a hidden row. The facades are also decorated with pilasters, flat in the first tier and profiled in the second.
The interior of the Spassky Cathedral is dominated by a strict and solemn combination of verticals and horizontals. Here, the elongation of the building is clearly accentuated, which is combined with internal two-tier arcades leading into the under-dome space. Along them originally there were wooden floorings of the northern and southern choirs, reinforcing the horizontal division of the interior. Such arcades are characteristic of the Byzantine architecture of that era, but are rare in Kievan Rus.
The floor of the temple was covered with carved slate slabs inlaid with colored smalt. The walls and vaults were decorated with ancient frescoes that died in a fire in 1756. In terms of splendor of decoration, the Church of the Savior was not inferior to the capital churches of Kiev.
Perhaps the builders of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Savior repeated to some extent the scheme of the Church of the Tithes - the first monumental temple of Kievan Rus. P. A. Rappoport suggested that the masters who created the Chernigov Cathedral and St. Sophia of Kiev were from the same Byzantine artel in the capital.
The Transfiguration Cathedral in Chernigov belongs to the unique monuments of the Byzantine-Kiev school of architecture of the first half of the 11th century. He played a significant role in the formation of building codes in the temple construction of pre-Mongol Rus.
