Vladimir

Upon entering the Middle City, one would find himself in the capital’s center. To the right, behind the whitestone wall of the citadel, one could see the gilded domes of the Dormition cathedral with towers of the bishop’s court, buildings of the Vsevolod’s palace on both sides of the Dmitrievsky cathedral, and behind them – the Nativity Monastery’s cathedral. To the left there was the market square with the Church of the Holy Cross, behind which one could see the fields rolling into the distant horizon. Ahead, on the upland’s slope of the Middle City, the east range of its walls was standing with the pass-through Ivanovskaya Tower. Behind it, the trading and manufacturing quarters of the city began; this city end was called the posad, and all the houses and temples here were exclusively built out of wood. The city’s triangle narrowed down at this point, and its built-up resembled that of a big village, stretching out along the road. This impression was intensified by the wide rural landscape that one could see to the south and to the west. The central street ran through the whitestone archway of the Silver Gate and merged with the road leading to the village Dobroye, to Bogolyubovo and Suzdal. We do not know for certain how the perpendicular streets were set. One might suppose that since the Vetchany posad-city was not broad enough, short alleys led to the main street, just as they do now. The market occupied a significant area in the Middle City; probably, the streets from the north-east end lead to it. In the New City, apparently, there was a perpendicular street that ran down in the ravine along the embankments of the Middle City to the Volzhskiye gate on the Klyazma River and to the north Copper Gate, to the Lybed River. There was a street, which, possibly, led from the Trade gate to the Irininy gate.

The city revealed itself as a row of unique ensembles that succeeded one another not only to the inside viewer. Probably, even more important for its concept was to show its outer facades, which were obviously designed to be perceived from long distances and different viewpoints. The builders of Vladimir, masterfully making use of the rich relief of the riverbank ridge, created the city ensemble, which was widely opened into the outside world. From the side of the Yuriev road, from the gently ascending to the north-west fields, the city opened to the eyes slightly from beneath and almost entirely in all the richness of its multifarious ends. From the hills, upon which the east Suzdal road descended, the city appeared as peacefully climbing uphill; the Silver Gate stood ahead, behind it there were crowding homes of the city dwellers with a group of tall log temples; higher in a distance stood the belt of walls of the Middle City with the Ivanovskie gate and towers; further away and to the left there shone the domes of the Nativity Monastery’s cathedrals and temples within the citadel. But the main centerpiece of the city ensemble was, no doubt, its south façade facing the river and the wide expanse of flood lands and woods, through which the road to Murom ran. From here the city was seen in all of its stately length, resembling the panoramic view of Kiev over the Dnieper. On the west slope of the hill wooden constructions of the Ascension Monastery and the church of Nicolas stood. From the south end of the New City the fortified wall descended only to rise again steeply from the ravine to the Volzhskie gate at the corner of the Middle City. In a half-circular hollow behind it, on the mountain slopes, the citizens’ homes stood drowning in orchards and gardens; and above them, on the high edge of the upland, stood the prince’s court with the temples of Spas and St. George, and sharp-pointed roofs of the mansions were springing. High on the corner of the Middle City the Dormition Cathedral raised its cupolas – the central piece of the panorama; aligned with it, almost at equal intervals, smaller in size Dimitrievsky and Nativity cathedrals could be seen. Built on the very edge of the plateau, they created a false impression that the entire depth of the city is filled with the same whitestone buildings. From the highest point – the Dormition Cathedral, the city’s profile gradually and rhythmically descended. The panorama of the low posad – the Vetchany city (tradesmen and craftsmen quarters), was dominated by the rooftops of wooden temples that created scalloped castellated and broken silhouette. The south panorama appears most grand and fascinating at the early hours of the dawn, when the floodland and the city heights drown in the milky ocean of the curling mist and the whitestone cathedrals flaming in the first rays of the sunlight seem to be a fantastic apparition. There is no doubt that both the “interiors” of the city and the expressive “facades” were not just a lucky “coincidence,” but were the result of the great creative work of the Vladimir city builders. Certain ostentation, which is characteristic, as we will see, of the architectural monuments of the times of Andrei and Vsevolod III, also characterizes the ensemble of the capital, built by them. The second half of the XII century, was the heyday of the Vladimir Russia’s culture, under the progressive politics of the Vladimir sovereigns, who, in union with city dwellers and small gentry stepped into the struggle for the dominating position in the Russian land against the feudal power of high noblemen that tore the country to pieces. This struggle was in the interests of the farmers also, who were exhausted by devastating feuds between the princes. It determined also the splendid flourishing of architecture and arts and prepared the ground for full-fledged literary activity. Chronicles were written in Vladimir; prince Andrei’s confessor and chronicler, Mikula many times admired the stamina and patriotism of the Vladimir citizens in their struggle for the common cause. The diligent literary labour of the defenders of unity from Vladimir was focused on proving the sacred significance of the Vladimir land. They composed different stories about the “miracles” of the Vladimir icon of the Holy Virgin, wrote works devoted to the strengthening of the cult of Leontiy, their “martyr of the north” – a priest who was killed in the XI century in Rostov by its rebellious townsmen, composed church lyrics and festive services for the new Vladimir’s holiday of the Virgin’s Protection and, eventually, left a splendid in its tragic impact and style of narration story of the above mentioned priest Mikula concerning the assassination of prince Andrei Bogolyubsky by his boyars. In all of these works one can sense their great artistic cultural value, which is based upon the experience of Kiev’s literature and traditions of the local epics. All of it is saturated with just one political idea – that of Vladimir’s rights for the dominance in the whole Russian land, the idea of its unity. But the powers of feudal disintegration had the upper hand and, after Vsevold the III’s death, the unity of Vladimir land was broken. To a great extent, it determined the terrible tragedy, which was inevitably approaching from the steppes.

In 1238, Tatar hordes came down upon Vladimir. After a stubborn defense the city was captured, sacked and burned. But even after this catastrophe, it remained in the contemporaries’ mind the center of the North-East Russia and the treasury of its political and cultural traditions. Here at the end of the XIII-beginning of the XIV centuries, the Metropolitan of the whole Russia lived. “The Great Princedom of Vladimir” is an object of struggle between Moscow and Tver dynasties, and the ritual of coronation takes place under the high domes of the Vladimir Dormition Cathedral. In their monumental construction Moscow and Tver imitated the high patterns of Vladimir’s architecture. Dmitry Donskoy took the Dmitrievsky cathedral under his auspices, and from here in 1380, on the eve of the Battle of Kulikovo, the ancient icon of Dimitry Solunsky was taken to Moscow; and in 1395, the most holy relic of Vladimir – the Vladimir Holy Virgin icon, was temporarily brought to the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow. Moscow not only inherited the historic traditions of Vladimir, but also adopted the relics that were created in Vladimir of the XII century. After the devastating raid of Khan Edigi’s horde on Vladimir, when the Dormition Cathedral was damaged by fire, in 1408, Prince Vasili I sent a genius painter of the recovering Russia, Andrei Rublev to Vladimir, to restore its paintings. In two years time – in 1410, the city was devastated again by the raid of the horde of Prince Talych.

Later, in 1469, a prominent Moscow architect, V. D. Yermolin restored the damaged and dilapidated city constructions – the Golden Gate and the Church of the Holy Cross “on the marketplace.” Vladimir’s fortifications had never been reconstructed on the former scale: in 1486 only the log walls of the Middle City were rebuilt; later they were renewed in 1491 and in 1536; but the fortifications of the west and east one thirds of the city were gradually crumbling down and disappearing. At the same time, on the border of the XV-XVI centuries, Moscow craftsmen rebuilt the Dormition Cathedral of the Knyaginin Convent. Since that time, Vladimir became an ordinary city of the Moscow state – the city of the great memories and revered relics. Its growth took place very slowly. In 1489, “relocated” Novgorod citizens created a separate Sloboda (district) called Varvarka behind the Lybed River. In the middle of the XVI century, beyond the Lybed River, other slobodas appeared – the Streletskaya and Pushkarskaya ones, which later merged into one Streletskaya sloboda; in the XVII century, Upper and Lower Borovki were added. In the latter, as the tradition has it, resettled Novgorod people were also placed, and a big brick house of the Babushkinys’ merchants was supposedly built in the XVI century originally. The first data concerning the city population at that time show that it was scarcely populated. So, in 1584, in the Pushkarskaya and Streletskaya slobodas there were only twenty households, and in 1592, there were only one hundred Streltsys (soldiers). In those years, right within the Golden Gate, the Yamskaya Sloboda stretched – the living quarters of the Sovereign’s coachmen, with the wooden Kazan Church; beyond the quarter there was the Yamskoy pine forest. In 1668, the entire city had the population of only nine hundred and ninety people; and it had four hundred houses: in the east part of town working people lived (craftsmen), while in the west – tradesmen. In 1684, on the Market Square, there was the Gostiny Dvor (shopping arcade) with 392 small shops and the Church of Parascheva, commonly called “Parascheva the Friday” – she was the patron of trade, which was usually done on the fifth day – Friday.

In the XVII century, stone construction started again. It was, of course, not even slightly close to be compared to the “golden age” of the Vladimir architecture, but the builders of this period were protective of the spirit of the old ensemble of the city, including new edifices into it with great care. So, in 1649, the merchants of Vladimir built in the tradesmen’s quarters a neat Church of the Holy Virgin, which fits into the panorama of the south city very well. Upon the whitestone gate of the citadel a big tent-like belfry was built to emphasize with its vertical projection the ancient architectural center of Vladimir. A similar belfry, but more festive-looking, was erected in the Nativity Monastery, where the pass-through Holy Gate was built, decorated with paintings; and in the beginning of the XVIII century, the stone wall replaced the old wooden fence to create something like a decorative “Kremlin” in the south-east corner of the Middle City. Close to the church of Spas, on the old prince’s court, a small church of Nikola was built and a simple square-shaped campanile, which enhanced the weightiness of the whole group of constructions of the XII century. This line of enriching the south facade of the city was continued by the builders of the XVIII century, who constructed stone temples on the sites of the former wooden ones: the Church of Nicola Galeyskiy at the foot of the Kozlov Embankment (1735) and the Church of the Ascension (1724).

The “blueprint” of Vladimir, drawn in 1715 by the ingenuous hand of an icon painter, gives us an idea of the city’s condition at that time and of its topography, which had been formed in the previous centuries. Its center is formed by the Kremlin with its log walls and towers, erected in 1491-1536 upon the old embankments of the Middle city. It is crucial that eight of the fourteen towers were located along the south wall, which could not be explained by military purposes, but it was due to the above mentioned attention of the city makers to the south facade of the city. Here, on the south slope of the mountain, the Patriarch’s orchard was laid out. The square north of the cathedral was quite densely built up with fortified courts and households, among which the big house of the voyevoda (army commander) stood out. North of the Bolshaya Street there were densely populated plots with curved streets. Near the middle north tower of the Kremlin called Tainitskaya, a pond still remained – it was an old water reserve for the case of a siege; and near the west Trade gate there was a prison – a dungeon, fenced with sharp-pointed boards.

The west one-third section of the city was its trading part; here, the main street from the north was adjoined by the market square with rows of stores and workshops. Only Bolshaya Street was paved with oak boards. The rest of the streets looked like muddy earthen village tracks. Beyond the Golden Gate the country-like built-up began. The manors in the Zalybedskaya and east one-thirds of the city were also scattered chaotically and randomly, where by the beginning of the XVIII century only one thousand and eight hundred people lived.

In the XVIII century, the ancient monuments of the city were seriously damaged: the wooden fortress was torn down and chance demolition the embankments began; the whitestone temples of Spas and George, which burned during the fire of 1778, were dissembled and replaced with the new ones, the top part of the Golden Gate was rebuilt. In 1778, Vladimir Vice-Regency was established, in 1796 – Vladimir Governorate and Vladimir became its center. The new project of the re-planning of the old city, unlike many other government’s projects of the “regular” layout of the Russian cities, was comparatively more sparing to its ancient topography: they kept what was left of the embankments of the XII century and the old artery of the big axial street, to which the new network of living quarters was attached. Besides, local architects corrected the most obvious mistakes of the government’s designers from the capital. For instance, the idea to build two buildings of the Trading Arcade on the square in front of the Dormition and Dimitrievsky Cathedrals was not implemented; this would have blocked the view of the cathedrals from Bolshaya Street. Still, between the cathedrals a huge building of public offices (1785) was built; its barracks-like appearance disturbed the ancient beauty of the south facade of the city.

So, the new center of the governor’s city was on the territory of the old Vladimir’s center. Its eastern end was occupied by the governor’s house (1808). The north end of the square was formed by two buildings in the forms of Russian classicism: the one on the corner – the Noblemen’s Gathering (1826) – and the adjacent building of a high school for boys and of a “noble boarding house,” accommodated in the rebuilt house of merchant Petrovsky (1840). The new cathedral’s belfry became the main vertical axis of the city ensemble; it was constructed in 1810 instead of the tent-shaped belfry destroyed by a lightning. On the north side of Bolshaya street, one whole quarter was occupied by the arcade of trading shops (1787-1790), which separated the market square (it has remained partially on the corner of the Lenin Street) from the main artery; then, in the direction of the Golden Gate, there was a protruding portico of the church of Nikola Zlatovratsky (1796) that has not reached our days, which echoed the porticos of the buildings on the central square. The Golden Gate, which stood on the street’s axis, eventually received its new round corner towers.

The following industrial development of Russia almost did not affect Vladimir – it remained as a small city of government officials and petit bourgeoisie. “The city fathers” did not treasure a bit the beauty and the monuments of the ancient Vladimir. For instance, the city’s head, merchant Nikitin proposed a barbarous project of turning the Golden Gate into a… water tower, which, although they did not dare to do it, still marred one of the most beautiful places of the city – the Kozlov embankment, where they built a new tower instead. On the main street of the city tenement buildings were built with commercial areas facing their backsides to the scenic south slope of the city; little houses of the city dwellers with medium income are crowding there now. At the foot of this slope there is the Moscow––Nizhny Novgorod railway track and train station, which was opened in 1861. Its auxiliary facilities and tracks disfigure the beautiful south panorama of the city.

This article is taken from the book by N. N. Voronin, “Vladimir, Bogolyubovo, Suzdal, Yuriev-Polskoy. Travel-guide through the ancient cities of the Vladimir Land.”: Moscow; 1967; third edition; revised.

Pages: 1 2