Three Pearls of Smolensk City’s Pre-Mongolian Architecture. Part 2
Smolensk
Another monument of Smolensk’s ancient religious architecture, which we visited on that day, was the church of Archangel Michael (The Svirskaya Church). At the moment, a local priest was carrying out the infant baptism ceremony inside the church, and near the temple, on a little lawn, a small group of painters set their easels.
A stone temple devoted to Archangel Michael was built by David Rostislavovich, Smolensk’s prince, during his reign in 1180-1197 and was a part of the prince’s suburban court complex.
Prince David’s white-stone tomb was placed in the temple and it remained there until the church was closed in the first half of the XX century. For some time, there was a monastery in the temple. In 1611, the temple was turned into a catholic church (kostyol), but then it was restored for the Orthodox worship services.
The church of Archangel Michael was located on a high bank of the Smyadyn River, close to its confluence with the Dnieper, at the crossroads of military and trade routes of the Northern (Svirskye) lands. This location made the cathedral known as the Svirskaya Church.
As he was building the great prince’s court temple, David had in his mind to overshadow the churches of other princedoms with its splendor, and at the same time to magnify the prince’s rule against the habits and practices of Smolensk citizens. The fame of the magnificence of the prince’s church and of the luxury of its decorations soon rang well through the whole country.
According to some historic testimonies, the Svisrkaya Church was adorned “way over all other churches.”
“Truly, there is none like it in all of the northern land and many foreigners have come to see it,” – speaks about the fame of the great prince’s church the author of the Ipatievskaya Chronicle. Speaking further about the decoration of the church, the chronicler exclaims, “There is no such church in all of the northern land, and everyone who comes to see it is too amazed by its unique beauty; its icons are decorated with gold and silver, and pearls, and precious gems, and it is altogether full of grace.”
Having being built as the great prince’s temple to symbolize the greatness and power of the Smolensk prince and at the same time to be the sign of the unity of all Russian lands, the Svirskaya Church incorporated the best achievements of Russian art of the time. Its decoration struck the contemporaries with splendor. A chronicler from Galicia and Volyn wrote down, “every day he was walking in the church of God’s Holy Archistrategos Mikhail, that he had built himself in his princedom; and there is no such thing in the northern country; and all who come to see it marvel at its unique beauty; its icons are decorated with gold and silver, and pearls, and precious stones, and it is altogether full of grace.”
The Svirskaya Church was located at the very center of the prince’s palace complex. The Rostislavichi’s chambers were within 150-200 meters from the temple. Wooden galleries led to the western corner of the church, through which the prince and his court were able to walk from the prince’s chambers directly to the churches loft and from the height of it one could enjoy the view of the entire decoration of the church.
The palace and other chambers of the prince were built of wood; therefore, they did not remain till our days. Those were, according to fragmentary historic records, chambers of intricate carved work, walled at the perimeter of the Smyadyn hill by an oak-wood fence. Slim and graceful in its architectural appearance, the Svirskaya Church, like a white-stone light-house surrounded with auxiliary constructions, rose into the sky.
The architectural design of the Svirskaya Church, which encompassed the best of what was produced by the artful thought of ancient Smolensk, along with the numerous monuments of other Russian lands with similar architectural forms, testify of the fact that in the middle of the XII century-beginning of the XIII century, under the conditions of disintegration of feudal Russia, a new trend of art originated and was developing, which, albeit local peculiarities, worked out artistic ideals universal for the entire Russia. It was at that time (1184), when “The Word concerning Igor’s Regiment” was written to sound a strong call for the uniting of all Russian lands.
The Svirskaya church, surrounded by a defensive wall and several monastery compounds-fortresses, many times served as a military stronghold. An uprising of city dwellers against the prince flared near its walls in 1195, as well as the so-called “Great Turmoil” – the rebellion of Smolensk citizens against the Lithuanian landlord in 1440.
Architecturally speaking, the church belongs to the tower-like temples’ type, known along the Dnieper River around the end of the XII century – beginning of the XIII century, and is the only remaining one out of ten Smolensk temples of this kind.
The building of the Svirskaya church is a four-faceted tower, to which on three sides tall extensions are adjoined (side-chapels). The eastern side of the temple has only one apse and complicated corner pilasters. Side extensions are a development of the architectural principles of the Peter and Paul’s Church. By its composition, the Svirskaya church was an expression of architectural techniques of Russian wooden construction art adapted to the needs of brickwork.
The church was illuminated through wide window openings. Over the top half-circular vault of the windows, two-layered semi-round cornices (canopies) were made, built out of particularly produced plinth-form bricks. The corners of the building were decorated by joining side pilasters, between which the rib of a corner was protruding.
A tall pass-way tower (veja) adjoined the south-west side of the church, through which the loft was connected to the great prince’s chambers built near the church.
The width of the building from north to south was 28 meters; the length from east to west – 28.6 meters, the height of the inner facility – 35 meters, the total height – 38.5 meters. As in the earlier Smolensk temples, the material used for the construction was plinthiform brick, or plintha.
In the XVII–beginning of the XVIII centuries, the upper section of the walls and the vaults were remade (at the same time, the wall arches and the drum were preserved), and eight-square windows were cut in the walls. In 1780, a fence was built around the church with a belfry over the gates, in the shape of a quadrangle and an octagon with a bulbous cupola on the octagonal dome drum.
In the beginning of the 1960s, according to P. D. Baranovsky’s project the later layers of the XVIII–XIX centuries were removed and the roof was reconstructed in the forms of the XVII century, since due to the lack of data it was impossible to restore the original form of the XII century.
According to the project of S. S. Podjyapolsky and T. E. Kameneva in 1978-1989, restoration of the facades was carried out, and restoration of the interior was started.