Series of lectures "Nine centuries of Russian architecture"

Thursdays at 19:00.

Lectures by Kirill Posternak are an immersion in the history of Russian architecture. The cycle covers a large-scale period of time - from the reign of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich to the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917. During the lectures, we will consider the most important monuments and architectural schools of different eras, we will trace the connection between Russian architecture and the architectural and construction practice of other countries. Particular attention will be paid to the origin and evolution of the most common forms in Russian architecture, planning and compositional schemes, building designs, and decor.

Lecturer - Kirill Posternak, researcher at the State Museum of Architecture. A. V. Shchuseva, head of the sector of the Biographical Dictionary of Architects, specialist in architecture of the 18th century.

February 3, Thursday, 19:00
Brilliant start. Architecture of Ancient Russia XI-XII centuries

The adoption of Christianity by Prince Vladimir in 988 introduced Russia to the centuries-old culture of Byzantium, including the tradition of stone construction. At the lecture, we will consider the first stone churches in Kiev, Chernigov and Novgorod. Listeners will learn about the development of the type of ancient Russian temple: from provincial Byzantine schemes brought by Greek masters to original compositions used by local architects.

February 10, Thursday, 19:00
"And the whole Russian land was torn apart." Architecture of the XII-XIII centuries

The political division of Russia in the 12th century was an avalanche. The number of princes increased, the principalities were divided again and again. The princes competing with each other gathered artels of masters in their possessions, entrusted them with the construction of majestic temples and palaces. Sometimes artels were captured as war trophies. During this period, a number of local architectural schools were formed in Kiev, Vladimir-Volynsky, Polotsk, Novgorod, Pskov and Ladoga, the features of which will be discussed in the lecture.

February 17, Thursday, 19:00
Restart. Post-Mongol architecture

The Mongol invasion of 1237-1242 led to a complete cessation of stone construction in Russia. For several decades, Russian masters did not have the opportunity to work and educate students. Continuity with the architecture of pre-Mongolian times was lost. Only in the next century did relatively massive stone construction revive in Novgorod and Pskov, the Tver and Moscow principalities. Despite the fact that the masters of the new architectural schools were guided by the legacy of the pre-Mongol period, the ideas and technologies of the new architecture have changed significantly.

February 24, Thursday, 19:00
Incredible adventures of Italians in Moscow. Architecture of the Muscovite State (XV — XVI century)

The rapid rise of the Moscow principality, the unification of scattered Russian lands around it, and, finally, the marriage of the Moscow prince Ivan III to the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Sophia (Zoya) Paleolog formed a new idea of Russian statehood - the idea of continuity from Byzantium. Its material embodiment was the Moscow Kremlin, the grandiose residence of the Moscow rulers, rebuilt at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries. Italian architects, who at that time were considered the best in Europe, were involved in the material embodiment of new state ideas in architecture. The influence of the Italians on Russian architecture turned out to be colossal. The Kremlin Assumption Cathedral, built by Aristotle Fioravanti, became a model for many Russian cathedrals of the 16th century.

March 3, Thursday, 19:00
New dynasty. Architecture of the first Romanovs

The catastrophe of the Time of Troubles again interrupted the development of Russian architecture for almost two decades. However, unlike the post-Mongolian time, its continuity was preserved. The first temples erected in memory of the victory over the Polish invaders continued the traditions of architecture of the late 16th century. A new stage in the history of Russian architecture is associated with active construction, which was carried out in Moscow by Tsars Mikhail Fedorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich. The forms and rich decor of the royal buildings had a great influence on the formation of a new architectural direction, which was called "patterned". A separate phenomenon in the architecture of this time is church construction commissioned by Patriarch Nikon.

March 10, Thursday, 19:00
The luxury of boyar families. "Naryshkin style"

In 1654 another Russian-Polish war began. It turned out to be extremely successful for Moscow, which regained the Smolensk and Bryansk lands, annexed the Left-Bank Ukraine and Kiev. These events contributed to the mass resettlement to Moscow of Ukrainian and Belarusian masters - carriers of Polish culture, but professing Orthodoxy. Under their influence, at the end of the 17th century, a peculiar direction developed in Russian architecture, which today has received the name of the “Naryshkin style”, named after one of the boyar families close to the tsar. The "Naryshkin style" is not a kind of baroque, as it was thought a few decades ago - it is firmly rooted in the medieval tradition. Nevertheless, its distribution contributed to the renewal of the artistic language of Russian masters of the 17th century.

March 17, Thursday, 19:00
Gold, flowers and angels. baroque architecture

Returning from a trip to Europe during the Great Embassy, Peter I was determined to rebuild the country subject to him according to the European model. Not only clothes, but even houses, palaces and temples had to resemble those that Peter saw on his trip abroad. This task was entrusted to numerous foreign architects invited to Russia by tsarist emissaries. At the same time, Russian students were also sent abroad. An unprecedented architectural experiment was the foundation and construction of a new capital, St. Petersburg, on the banks of the Neva. The magnificent Baroque style with an abundance of sculpture and gilding was to the taste of the Russian aristocracy, clergy and merchants. In a short period, domestic architecture has gone from the stylistic diversity of the Petrine baroque to the brilliant style of the era of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna,

March 24, Thursday, 19:00
Strict beauty. Classicism architecture

With the beginning of the reign of Catherine II, artistic tastes in St. Petersburg changed literally overnight. The empress, and after her the highest aristocracy, preferred the noble simplicity of classicism. This style was inspired by the monuments of antiquity: the temples of ancient Greece, triumphal arches and vaults of Rome. The leading architects of the Baroque era were resigned. Their place was quickly taken by representatives of a new generation, among them Vasily Bazhenov possessed a special disposition of the empress. Foreigners also contributed to the formation of Russian classicism: the Scot Charles Cameron and the Italian Giacomo Quarenghi. In Moscow, the original version of the style was developed by Matvey Kazakov. The victory over Napoleon brought the theme of military triumph into Russian architecture, a brilliant expression of which was Carl Rossi, the creator of the magnificent ensembles of St. Petersburg.

March 31, Thursday, 19:00
Forward, into the past! Historicist architecture

“Let more different tastes copulate. Let the gloomy Gothic, and the Oriental burdened with luxury, and the colossal Egyptian, and the Greek imbued with a slender size rise in the same street… Let the houses merge into one even, monotonous wall as rarely as possible… ”- these words of Nikolai Gogol are best of all express the ideas supported by the architects of the 19th century. The heritage of the past seemed to be an inexhaustible storehouse for the present. Elements of one or another historical style were chosen for each building, based on its purpose, architectural environment and the wishes of the customer. Sometimes each room inside was decorated in its own unique style. In Soviet times, this era was considered the time of the decline of Russian architecture, now many advantages are found in it.

April 7, Thursday, 19:00
Premonition of big changes. Architecture of the early 20th century

The discovery of X-rays and radioactivity, the invention of radio, the flight of the first aircraft, the creation of the theory of relativity - this is just an incomplete list of the events of the decade 1895-1905. Here you can add the Anglo-Boer and Russo-Japanese wars, the first Russian revolution. Peace congresses met one after the other, but the friction of the great powers could not be smoothed out. The world was on the verge of a great war. How did Russian architecture react to this? Some of the architects sought refuge in the aestheticism of modernity, someone in the images of the Russian Middle Ages or the Renaissance. And someone boldly called to reject stylization and expose the constructive essence of architecture. Who will be right, who is the future?

Ticket price: 400₽ / 200₽ reduced.
Tickets go on sale on the day of the lecture, one hour before the start.
The visit is only possible with a QR code!