At the same time, architecture is one of the art forms. The artistic images of architecture reflect the structure of social life, the level of spiritual development of society, and its aesthetic ideals.

The architectural design and its expediency are revealed in the organization of interior spaces, in the grouping of architectural masses, in the proportional relationships of parts and the whole, in the rhythmic structure.

The relationship between the interior and the volume of the building characterizes the originality of the artistic language of architecture.

The artistic design of the exterior of buildings is of great importance. Like no other form of art, architecture constantly influences the consciousness of the masses of people with its artistic and monumental forms. It reveals the uniqueness of the surrounding nature.

Cities, like people, have a unique face, character, life, and history. They tell about modern life, about the history of past generations.

The ancient world knew seven classical wonders. Almost five thousand years ago, the first of them was “created” - the pyramids of the Egyptian pharaohs, then, twenty centuries later, the second - the hanging gardens in Babylon (VII century BC), followed by one per century - the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (VI century BC), the statue of Zeus in Olympia (V century BC), the Mausoleum in Halicarnassus (IV century BC) and, finally, almost simultaneously two miracles - Kolos Rhodes and lighthouse on the island of Foros (III century BC). These were truly great works of ancient masters; they amazed the imagination of contemporaries with their monumentality and beauty.

Many architectural structures of different times and peoples captured the imagination of not only contemporaries, but also descendants. And then they said: “This is one of the seven wonders of the world,” paying tribute to the famous wonders of antiquity, recognizing their primacy and perfection.

They also said: “This is the eighth wonder of the world,” as if hinting at the opportunity to join the magnificent seven. I believe that Angkor Temple Complex, Great Wall of China, Alhambra Fortress, Mont Saint Michel Monastery, Neuschwanstein Castle, Knossos Palace, Hagia Sophia, Lost City of Petra, Taj Mahal Mausoleum, Potala Palace, Shwedagon Pagoda, Forbidden City, the city of the gods Teotihuacan, the lost city of the Incas Machu Picchu, if they cannot stand on a par with the “Seven Wonders,” are at least comparable to them in beauty and grandeur. ANGKOR: CITY OF TEMPLES AND SECRETS The greatest cultural heritage of mankind - the capital of the medieval Khmer Empire of Angkor, with its ancient crumbling stone temples - was lost for centuries in the depths of the jungle. In 1850, while cutting a road through the dense Cambodian jungle, French missionary Charles Émile Boiveau came across the ruins of a large ancient city. Among them rose the ruins of Angkor Wat, one of the world's greatest religious shrines. Buivo wrote; “I discovered magnificent ruins - all that remains, according to local residents, of the royal palace. On the walls, covered with carvings from top to bottom, I saw images of battle scenes. People riding elephants took part in the battle, some warriors were armed with clubs and spears, others shot three arrows from bows at once.” Ten years later, the French naturalist Henri Mouhot walked the Buivo route and was no less amazed by what he discovered in the clearing in the jungle. He saw more than a hundred wats, or temples, the oldest of which dated back to the 9th century, and the latest to the 13th century. Their architecture changed along with religion, from Hinduism to Buddhism. Scenes from Hindu mythology came to life before the Frenchman's eyes.

Statues, reliefs and carvings depicted dancing maidens, an emperor riding an elephant leading his troops into battle, and endless rows of imperturbable Buddhas.

Muo's excited messages raised many questions: who built this magnificent city and what was the history of its heyday and decline? The earliest mentions of Angkor in Cambodian chronicles date back only to the 15th century. After the discovery of Muo, the study of a previously unknown ancient civilization began.

The ruins of Angkor lie approximately 240 km northwest of the capital of Cambodia (formerly Kampuchea), Phnom Penh, near the large lake Tonle Sap. In the year 1000, at its height, the city covered an area of ​​190 km2, which meant that it was the largest city in the medieval world. The vast expanse of its streets, squares, terraces and temples employed 600,000 people, and at least a million more lived in the vicinity of the city.

The inhabitants of Angkor were the Khmers, who professed one of the branches of Hinduism brought to Southeast Asia by Indian merchants in the 1st century AD.

Scientists are still puzzled by the lack of any evidence of the existence of cities or towns in this territory until the 7th century AD, although by 1000 BC. it was already densely populated and technically developed. After this date, the real flowering of the Khmer civilization begins.

Angkor is the highest manifestation of the genius of the people, who left their descendants with amazing works of art and architecture that will be admired by many more generations of people.

Khmer documents were written on short-lived materials - palm leaves and animal skins, so over time they crumbled into dust. That is why, in order to collect information about the history of the city, archaeologists paid attention to the inscriptions carved in stone; there are more than a thousand of them.

Most of them are in Khmer and Sanskrit.

It was from these inscriptions that we learned that the founder of the Khmer statehood was Jayavarman II, who liberated his people from the power of the Javanese at the beginning of the 9th century. He worshiped Shiva and founded the cult of the ruler-god.

Thanks to this, his earthly power was reinforced by the creative energy of Shiva. The city of Angkor (“Angkor” is Khmer and means “city”) became a gigantic metropolis, the size of modern Manhattan.

A building that far surpasses others in beauty was Angkor Wat, built by Suryavarman II at the beginning of the 11th century.

Angkor Wat was both a temple and a tomb and was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu. It covered an area of ​​about 2.5 km2 and was apparently the largest religious shrine ever built. The temple towers rose high above the jungle.

Angkor was a prosperous city.

The fertile soil produced three harvests of rice a year, the Tonle Sap Lake abounded in fish, and the dense forests provided teak and other wood needed for flooring temples and building galleries. Such large supplies of food and building materials make the reasons for the decline of Angkor even more unclear.

Why did this once magnificent city turn into abandoned ruins? Two theories have been put forward to explain this phenomenon.

According to the first, after the sack of Angkor in 1171 by the Khmers' warlike Cham neighbors, Jayavarman VII lost faith in the protective power of the Hindu gods.

The Khmers began to profess a form of Buddhism that denies violence and proclaims pacifist principles. The change of religion led to the fact that the Thai army that attacked Angkor in 1431 encountered little resistance.

The second, more fantastic version goes back to a Buddhist legend.

The Khmer emperor was so offended by the son of one of the priests that he ordered the boy to be drowned in the waters of Lake Tonle Sap. In response, the angry god brought the lake over its banks and crushed Angkor. Nowadays, the inexorably advancing jungle vegetation is destroying the Angkorian complexes, its stone structures are covered with mosses and lichens. The war waged here over the past two decades, as well as the looting of temples by thieves, had even more disastrous consequences for the monuments.

It seems that this unique place is in danger of disappearing completely. THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA This gigantic fortification blocked - and opened - the path to the riches and mysteries of the Chinese Empire.

The size of the Great Wall of China is so amazing that it has been called the eighth wonder of the world. There is no other structure in the world whose description requires only superlatives. “The largest construction project ever undertaken by people,” “the longest fortification,” “the world’s largest cemetery” - there are many similar definitions related to the Great Wall of China.

How grandiose is this structure really? Resembling the writhing body of a dragon, the wall stretches across the entire country for 6,400 km. Over the course of 2,100 years, it was built by millions of soldiers and workers, and countless thousands died on this construction site.

They claim that in the 7th century AD. e. 500,000 people died there in just ten days.

The history of the Great Wall of China dates back to at least the 5th century BC. e. This was the time when, after the collapse of the unified Chinese state of Zhou, several kingdoms were formed in its place.

To protect themselves from each other, the rulers of this era, which went down in Chinese history as the “period of warring states,” began to build defensive walls. In addition, in two northern, largely agricultural states, Qin Zhao and Yan, ditches were dug and earthworks erected to fortify borders that were threatened by raids from Mongol nomads living in the northern steppes. In 221 BC. e. The ruler of the kingdom, Qin Shi Huang, pacified his endlessly warring neighbors and proclaimed himself the first emperor of China of the Qin dynasty. During his 11 years of reign, he created an empire with cruel but effective governance and justice, introduced a unified system of weights and measures, built a network of roads and established strict population records. By his order, to protect the northern borders of the empire, existing defensive structures were connected by a wall and new ones were built. An entire army, which included 300,000 soldiers and up to a million forced laborers and prisoners, set to work hard, strengthening, and sometimes demolishing and rebuilding the fortress walls. Unlike previous fortifications, which consisted mainly of ditches and earthworks rammed into wooden formwork, the walls were built using a wide variety of construction methods.

Since it was difficult to transport materials, the resources available in each region were widely used. In the mountains, stone blocks were hewn out; in wooded areas, most often the outside wall was made of oak, pine or spruce logs, and in the middle it was filled with compacted earth; in the Gobi Desert, a mixture of earth, sand and pebbles was used. From the very beginning, protecting the borders required not only powerful fortifications: to repel a possible attack, permanent garrisons were placed on the wall. Using line-of-sight signals, a message could be transmitted from one end of a wall to the other in as little as 24 hours—an astonishing speed before the advent of the telephone.

The garrison system had another advantage; successive emperors were satisfied that the army was disunited and located far from the Beijing palace.

The soldiers could not rebel. After the death of Qin Shi Huang, the emperors of the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) ensured that the wall was maintained in good order and lengthened it further. And later, rebuilding and strengthening the wall required a lot of time and effort.

The last important stage in its construction occurred during the reign of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Of the sections of the wall built during the Ming Dynasty, the best preserved are those made of stone. During their construction, the ground was leveled and a base of stone blocks was laid on it. On this foundation, a wall with stone cladding was gradually erected, filled inside with a mixture of small stones, earth, rubble and lime. When the structure reached the required height - the walls of the Ming period are on average 6 m high and 7.5 m thick at the base and 6 m at the crest - bricks were laid on top. If the slope was less than 45°, the brick flooring was made flat; with a greater slope, the masonry was laid in steps. During the heyday of the Ming Empire, the wall stretched from the Shanhaiguan fortress on the shores of the Bohai Strait east of Beijing to Jiayuguan in the northwestern province of Gansu (in pre-Qin dynasty times, the westernmost point was 200 km further, at Yumenzheng). The best preserved section of the wall is near the village of Badaling, about 65 km from Beijing. But in many places the wall is dilapidated, especially in the western regions. However, the symbolic meaning of this grandiose structure remains the same. For the Chinese, it serves as a powerful reminder of their country's timeless greatness. To the rest of the world, the Great Wall of China is an amazing monument, a testament to human strength, ingenuity and endurance. THE ALHAMBRA: A MOORISTAN PARADISE The Alhambra, whose interior structures are unrivaled architectural masterpieces, recalls Spain's Moorish past.

The palace-fortress towers above the ancient city, standing out spectacularly against the backdrop of the shimmering snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada. The ancient palace of the Moorish rulers of Spain dominates the modern city of Granada, just as its creators once dominated their vast empire.

The magnificent red citadel castle is a system of perfectly proportioned shady areas, galleries decorated with filigree carvings, sunlit courtyards and arcades. The Moors - Muslims from North Africa - conquered Spain in the early 8th century AD. In the 9th century, they built a fortress on the site of the ancient stronghold of Alcazaba. From the 12th to the 14th centuries, the Moorish state was subject to constant attacks from Christian armies. In the 13th century they took Cordoba and thousands of Moors fled to Granada.

Granada became the center of the disintegrating Moorish kingdom, and the Moors urgently began to strengthen the fortifications of the Alcazaba. They erected a fortress wall around it with towers and bastions and built new aqueducts.

The rebuilt fortress was eventually named the Red Castle, or in Arabic Al-Qala al-Hambara, hence the modern Spanish name Alhambra. But what gained unfading fame was not so much the power of the Alhambra as a military fortification, but the beauty and uniqueness of its internal structures, created through the efforts of King Yusuf I (1333-1353) and King Mohammed (1353-1391). While the outside of the fortress looks somewhat ascetic, the courtyards and halls are the embodiment of exceptionally vibrant artistic design, the style of which ranges from elegant restraint to elaborate theatricality.

Coming from the desert, the Moors idolized water and used it as an element of decoration of architectural structures, revealing a rich imagination. The calm waters of the pools reflect impeccably proportioned arches and galleries.

Fountains with murmuring streams of water provide rest for the eyes in the sizzling heat of the day. The Moors built graceful galleries to catch the refreshing breezes and echoes of rustling leaves, and magnificent courtyards leading to shaded, columned arcades that opened onto grand terraces.

The architectural highlight of the Alhambra was the use of stalactite decoration, or muqarna, an artistic form typical of the architecture of the Near and Middle East. It decorates vaults, niches and arches, which creates the effect of a honeycomb consisting of thousands of cells filled with natural light and shadow.

It seems as if this ornament absorbs light reflected from adjacent surfaces, and then, as happens on the ceiling of the Hall of the Two Sisters, appears before us in all its glory. The same principle was applied to decorate the ceiling in the Abencerrages Hall. The hall can be accessed from the Court of the Lions, and it is named after one of the noble families of Granada - the Abencerragas, who, according to legend, were brutally murdered here at the end of the 15th century. It is impossible to take your eyes off the complex and subtle stalactite pattern on the ceiling.

Each corner of the Alhambra is beautiful in its own way, and each is more beautiful than the other.

The myrtle courtyard is framed by two rows of myrtle bushes growing along the matte shimmering marble paths that run along either side of the central pool. The graceful columns of the arcades are reflected in it, as in a mirror, and goldfish splash in the crystal clear water, glistening in the sun. The Comares Tower, rising on one side of the pool, crowns the largest hall of the palace - the Ambassadorial Hall, its ceiling height reaches 18 m. Here, sitting on a throne in a niche opposite the entrance, the ruler received foreign titled persons.

The Lion Court is so named because the central fountain is supported by 12 marble lions. From the mouth of each sculpture, a stream of water shoots directly into the canal surrounding the fountain. The water in the canal comes from four reservoirs under the stone floor of the hall. They are connected to shallow pools of fountains located in adjacent rooms.

The arcades along the perimeter of the courtyard are supported by 124 columns, and two gazebos were erected on the western and eastern sides, from where a beautiful view of the lions opens, whose mouths spew streams of water. In 1492, the Alhambra fell to Christians. In 1526, as a sign of the establishment of Christian dominance in Spain, King Charles V rebuilt the Alhambra in the Renaissance style and began to build his own palace in the Italian style inside the fortress walls. The Moors built this perfect fairy-tale world of stone lace in order to create their own paradise on earth. MONT SAINT MICHEL The rocky island of Mont Saint Michel, with its Gothic monastery and church, is an architectural marvel and the oldest religious center in France. M on Saint-Michel, a small island off the southwest coast of Normandy, has been attracting pilgrims and travelers for more than 1,000 years. A dam with a road running along it connects the mainland with the island of Mont Saint-Michel.

Suddenly it rises above a flat sandy plain, which is smoothed by strong tides rushing into the bay. In good weather, this conical rock, with its cathedral, monastery buildings, gardens, terraces and military fortifications, is visible from afar. Many centuries ago the island was part of the mainland. During the times of the ancient Romans it was called Grave Mountain - probably the Celts used it as a burial place. Here the Druids worshiped the sun. This ritual continued under the Romans.

According to one of the legends of those times, Mogilnaya Mountain is the burial place of Julius Caesar, who rests in a golden coffin, with golden sandals on the emperor’s feet. In the 5th century the land settled, and after another 100 years the mountain became an island. At high tide the sea completely cut it off from the mainland. It could only be reached along a dangerous path marked with high milestones.

Soon the peaceful and secluded island attracted the attention of the monks, who built a small chapel there and remained its only inhabitants until 708, when, according to legend, Aubert, Bishop of Avranches (later St. Aubert), the Archangel Michael appeared in a dream and ordered the construction of a chapel on Grave Mountain.

At first Ober did nothing because he doubted whether he had interpreted the vision correctly.

The Archangel returned and repeated the order.

Only after the third apparition, when the messenger of God was forced to tap him on the head with his finger, did Ober begin construction on the rocky island. His work was accompanied by a series of miraculous phenomena: the intended place for laying the foundation was outlined by morning dew, a stolen cow appeared at the place where the first granite stone was supposed to be laid, a boulder that was interfering with the construction was moved from its place by the touch of a baby’s foot.

Archangel Michael appeared once again to indicate the source of fresh water.

The island was given a new name - Mont Saint-Michel (Mount St.

Mikhail). It soon became a place of pilgrimage, and in 966 a Benedictine monastery was built on its summit, housing 50 monks.

The construction of the monastery church, which today crowns the top of the rock, began in 1020. Due to the difficulties associated with building on such steep cliffs, the work was completed only after more than a hundred years. Over time, parts of the buildings collapsed. This meant that large parts of the original church needed restoration.

Despite some alterations, this building has largely retained its Romanesque appearance to this day with its characteristic rounded arches, thick walls and massive vaults, although the choir, completed in the 15th century, is already made in the Gothic style.

The monastery church is just one of the wonders of Mont Saint-Michel.

The second appeared at the behest of King Philip II of France, who decided to make amends for burning down part of the church in 1203, trying to recapture the island from the Dukes of Normandy, its traditional owners. Thus a new miracle appeared - La Merveille, a Gothic monastery built on the northern side of the island between 1211 and 1228. La Merveille consists of two main three-story sections. On the ground floor on the eastern side there are rooms where the monks distribute alms and provide overnight accommodation for pilgrims. Above them is the guest hall - the main guest room in which the abbot receives visitors. In this hall there are two huge fireplaces - on one the monks cooked food, and the other served for heating.

The top floor is given over to the monastery refectory.

The western side of La Merveia includes a storeroom above which was a manuscript hall where the monks copied the manuscripts letter by letter. In 1469, when King Louis XI founded the Order of the Knights of St.

Michael, this hall, divided into four parts by rows of stone columns, became the meeting hall of the order. On the top floor of the western side there is a covered gallery, as if suspended between heaven and earth. This is a haven of peace. Two rows of graceful columns arranged in a checkerboard pattern support arches decorated with floral patterns and sculptural images of human faces. Mont Saint-Michel has not always been a place of spiritual peace. In the Middle Ages, the island became a battleground for successive kings and dukes. At the beginning of the 15th century, during the Hundred Years' War, it was fortified and withstood numerous attacks by the British, as well as the onslaught of the Huguenots in 1591.

However, the monastic community gradually declined, and when the monastery was closed during the French Revolution, only seven monks lived in it (Christian services were revived only in 1922). During the reign of Napoleon, the island, renamed Liberty Island, became a prison and remained so until 1863, when it was declared a national treasure. Much restoration work was carried out both in the monastery church and in the monastery itself.

Today in France, Mont Saint-Michel is rivaled only by Paris and Versailles as a major tourist attraction. NEUSCHWANSTEIN: A DREAM INcarnate Neuschwanstein Castle, built in honor of the knights of the German epic, is the embodiment of the dream of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and the artistic images of composer Richard Wagner. The fabulous Neuschwanstein Castle rises above a gloomy gorge in the Bavarian Alps, along the bottom of which the Pollack River flows.

The ivory-colored towers of this magical castle seem to float against a backdrop of dark green fir trees.

Neuschwanstein, designed and built by King Ludwig II (1845-1886), looks more “medieval” than actual medieval buildings.

The dream come true of an infinitely wealthy man, the castle represents the quintessential theatricality of architecture. Ludwig had dreams of castles as a child. From an early age, he loved to participate in theatrical performances and dress up. The family spent summers in Hohenschwangau, the Schwangau family estate, which Ludwig's father Maximilian II acquired in 1833. A bit of a romantic himself, Maximilian hired not an architect, but a scenographer to work on the castle restoration project. The walls of the castle were painted with scenes from various legends, especially from the legend of Lohengrin, the “knight with the swan”, who, according to legend, lived in Hohenschwangau. When Ludwig, a timid, sensitive and imaginative young man, first heard opera - it was Lohengrin - he was shocked. He immediately asked his father to invite composer Richard Wagner (1803-1883) to stage the performance again and only for him. This marked the beginning of a relationship that continued throughout Ludwig's life. In 1864, Maximilian died and 18-year-old Ludwig ascended the Bavarian throne. Exactly six weeks later, he sent for Wagner and invited him to live in one of the Munich villas. Although Ludwig did not know much about music, he gave money and advice, criticized and tried to inspire the composer. He was so attracted to Wagner's music because he himself dreamed of creating a beautiful fairy tale with fantastic palaces. The very first and most beautiful of the fairy tale palaces was Neuschwanstein.

In the spring of 1867, Ludwig visited the Gothic Wartburg Castle. The castle fascinated him, because Ludwig had a craving for everything theatrical and romantic. He wanted to have exactly the same one. One and a half kilometers from Hohenschwangau, the palace of his father Maximilian, a ruined watchtower stood on a rock. This rock, Ludwig decided, would serve as the construction site for Neuschwanstein, his “new house with the swan.” On September 5, 1869, the foundation stone of the main building - the Palace - was laid. Neuschwanstein Castle, dedicated to the knight Lohengrin, was originally conceived as a three-story Gothic fortress.

Gradually, the project underwent changes until the Palace turned into a five-story building in the Romanesque style, which, according to Ludwig, most closely corresponded to the legend. The idea of ​​the castle courtyard was borrowed from the second act of the then production of Lohengrin, where the action took place in the courtyard of the Antwerp castle. The idea of ​​the Singing Hall was inspired by the opera Tannhäuser. Tannhäuser was a German poet who lived in the 13th century.

According to legend, he found his way to Venusberg, the underground world of love and beauty ruled by the goddess Venus. One of the scenes from Wagner's Tannhäuser was staged in the Wartburg Singing Hall, so Ludwig ordered it to be reproduced in Neuschwanstein. In addition, he wanted to create a beautiful “grotto of Venus” in the castle, but since there was no suitable place for it, he was forced to be content with its imitation within the castle walls. A small waterfall was built there and an artificial moon hung. (The actual grotto was built about 24 km east of Neuschwanstein, at Linderkoff, a former hunting lodge converted by Ludwig into a miniature chateau in the Versailles style.) As the king grew older, the castle of Lohengrin and Tannhäuser became the castle of the Holy Grail from the opera Persifal. Lohengrin's father, Percival, was a knight of the Round Table who saw the Holy Grail - the cup with the blood of the Savior.

The designs for the Holy Grail Hall, conceived by Ludwig in the mid-1860s, were embodied in the Neuschwanstein Throne Room, where a white marble staircase rises high up leading to an empty platform - the throne has never stood on it. The walls of the Singing Hall were additionally painted with scenes from the opera THE PALACE OF KNOSSOS The first significant civilization on the shores of the Aegean Sea was the charioteer on the Greek island of Crete in 1500 BC. e.

The magnificent palace city of Knossos symbolizes its heyday. 4 km from the northern coast of Crete, in the interior of the island, stands the ancient city of Knossos. It was the center of one of the great civilizations that arose in prehistoric times on the shores of the Aegean Sea.

According to legend, King Minos and his daughter Ariadne lived in the Knossos Palace.

Looking for a definition for the culture he discovered, British archaeologist Arthur Evans settled on the word “Minoan”. Since then, the people who lived in Knossos have been called Minoans. There is reason to believe that the Minoans arrived on Crete around 7000 BC.

Perhaps they came from Asia Minor (now Turkey), but there is no exact data about this.

The splendor of the Minoan palaces (one of them was built at Phaistos, in the south of the island, and another at Mallia, on the northern coast) indicates that they were a rich and probably powerful people. And the absence of any significant defensive structures suggests that the people here were peaceful.

The number and size of the palace storehouses indicate the important place that trade occupied in the life of the Minoans. The paintings at Knossos - a particularly remarkable fresco depicting an athlete doing a somersault on the back of a bull - indicate that sports competitions were held here. By the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The Minoans built several magnificent palaces. All of them were destroyed by an earthquake and then restored in their original place. Over the next millennium, Knossos developed rapidly, and Minoan influence spread to other Aegean states.

The Minoan civilization reached its peak around 1500 BC. e.

The ruins of the palace of King Minos at Knossos provide irrefutable proof of the artistic, architectural and engineering prowess of this island people.

A devastating volcanic eruption on the neighboring island of Santorini has reduced Knossos to ruins. As a result, Minoan influence came to an end. Only at the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to large-scale archaeological excavations, the world was able to see the magnificent Palace of Knossos. This huge structure for that time consists of royal chambers and service rooms, storerooms and baths, corridors and staircases, which are chaotically grouped around a rectangular courtyard. Their location makes it clear why the legend of the Minotaur languishing in the labyrinth began to be associated with this haphazardly created building. Unlike the ancient Greeks, the Minoans did not master the art of symmetry.

It seems that the wings, halls and porticoes of their palaces were often simply “stuck” to the place where they were needed, contrary to the laws of harmony. Nevertheless, each living space was beautiful in its completeness.

Many of them were decorated with elaborate frescoes of graceful figures, giving us a glimpse into the life of the Minoan court. In the frescoes, slender young men in skirts play sports; fist fighting and bull jumping.

Cheerful girls with elaborate hairstyles are also depicted jumping over a bull.

The Minoans were skilled carvers, blacksmiths, jewelers and potters. The royal chambers were reached via a large staircase, distinguished by sophistication and taste.

Black and red columns tapering downwards frame a light shaft, which not only illuminates the chambers located below, but also acts as a kind of “air conditioner”, providing natural ventilation to the palace. As warm air rose up the stairs, the doors of the Royal Hall could be opened and closed to regulate the flow of cooler, wild thyme- and lemon-scented air coming from the outer colonnade. In winter, the doors were closed and portable stoves were brought into the chambers for heating.

The West Wing is the ceremonial and administrative center of the palace. The three stone wells at the western entrance were used in religious ceremonies, where the blood and bones of sacrificial animals, along with offerings (mainly honey, wine, butter and milk) were returned to the land from which they came.

The greatest luxury in the western wing was the Throne Room, in which there still stands a plaster throne with a high back, guarded by painted griffins. The hall could accommodate approximately 16 people who came for an audience with the king. At the entrance to the hall stands a large porphyry bowl, placed here by Arthur Evans, who believed that the Minoans used it in a ritual of purification before entering the sanctum sanctorum of the palace.

The installation of the bowl is one of the small episodes in the amazing history of the reconstruction of the Knossos Palace in the form in which it existed 1500 years before the birth of Christ.

The archaeologist wanted to recreate the image of the golden age of ancient culture HAGIA SOPHIA: THE BYZANTINE MIRACLE The influence of this colossal temple on Christian and Muslim architecture cannot be overestimated. The Temple of Hagia Sophia, dating back 14 centuries since its foundation (its Greek name is Hagia Sophia), was the holiest place in Constantinople (now Istanbul). This colossal structure with semi-domes, buttresses and free-standing buildings, very successfully complemented by four slender minarets, one at each corner, was erected as a Christian church; later one of the world's greatest architects turned it into a Muslim mosque.

Constantinople assumed the role of defender of classical civilization after the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 AD. e.

The Byzantine emperors sought to make their capital, located on the Bosporus, at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, the religious, artistic and commercial capital of the world. In 532, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, whose name is associated with many impressively sized architectural structures, ordered the construction of the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. No one had built such large churches before.

Justinian chose two architects, Anthemia of Thrall and Isidora of Miletus, because he was confident that only people who had mastered the art of mathematics would be able to calculate all the angles and bends of the dome, determine the stresses and loads and decide how to place the buttresses and supports. By order of Justinian, the best materials were brought for construction from all over the empire - from Greece and Rome, from Turkey and North Africa. It took an entire army of 10,000 sculptors, masons, carpenters, and mosaic artists five years to create the most grandiose temple in the Christian world from red and green porphyry, yellow and white marble, gold and silver.

They say that upon entering its arches, Emperor Justinian exclaimed: “I have surpassed you, Solomon!” Inside, the church impresses with its masterful use of light and space: smooth marble floors; carved marble columns of such a variety of colors that Justinian's contemporary historian Procopius of Caesarea compared them to a bright flowering meadow. And on top of all this splendor is crowned with an amazingly beautiful dome with a diameter of about 30 m, made of special bricks, which were brought from the Greek island of Rhodes. Forty ribs radiate from the center of the dome to its base, in which 40 windows are cut through - permeated with light, they make the dome look like a crown decorated with diamonds.

The architects had to not only strengthen the round dome on a rectangular base, but also create a structure that could support its weight. They solved these difficult problems by placing smaller half-domes around the dome, which, in turn, rest on even smaller half-domes. The temple remained the center of Eastern Christendom for almost a thousand years, but the misfortunes that had plagued Hagia Sophia from the very beginning continued to befall her. Less than 20 years after construction was completed, the church was damaged by an earthquake and was partially rebuilt.

Gradually, the treasures of the temple were also plundered. In 1204, participants in the Fourth Crusade heading to Jerusalem, hostile to the Eastern Orthodox Church (the division between Rome and Constantinople was finalized in 1054), plundered the interior of the cathedral.

The last Christian service was held in the Church of Hagia Sophia on the evening of May 28, 1453, when the Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI took communion with tears in his eyes. In the 16th century, the temple was turned into a mosque.

The reconstruction was led by Sinan Pasha (1489-1588), one of the greatest architects of the Muslim world, whose creations include the Topkapi Palace and the mosques built for Sultans Suleiman the Magnificent and Selim II. Since Islam prohibits depictions of people, Sinan painted over most of the frescoes and mosaics. Since 1934, the Church of Hagia Sophia has lost all religious significance. But for the many visitors who come here every year, it is still a spiritual oasis in a bustling city. And although the interior decoration of this majestic building no longer amazes with its splendor, the architectural splendor remains the same. PETRA: A BEAUTY CARVED FROM STONE Rose-red Petra was once a thriving city at the center of an ancient trade route.

For many centuries, Europeans did not know about the existence of this city. Its amazing stone-hewn dwellings are still largely intact, surrounded by high mountains with only one narrow passage leading to Petra. At the end of August 1812, while traveling from Syria to Egypt, the young Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt came across a group of Bedouin Arabs near the southern tip of the Dead Sea who told him about the antiquities of a nearby valley hidden in the mountains called Wadi Musa (“ Valley of Moses"). Disguised as an Arab, Burckhardt followed his guide to a blank stone wall, which, as it turned out, had a narrow, deep crack.

After about 25 minutes of travel through the winding Siq gorge, where almost no sunlight penetrates, he suddenly saw the reddish-pink facade of a 30-meter-high building skillfully carved into the rock. Stepping out into the sunlight, Burckhardt found himself on the main street of ancient Petra, perhaps the most romantic of all the “lost” cities. It was a historic moment, as Burckhardt was the first European to set foot on this soil since the 12th-century Crusaders.

Petra's inaccessibility became her salvation. And today it can only be reached on foot or on horseback.

Seeing the city for the first time, a person experiences real delight: depending on the time of day, it appears red, orange or apricot, dark crimson, gray or even chocolate brown.

By collecting scattered facts about the city's past, archaeologists have discarded the 19th-century idea that Petra was just a necropolis - a city of the dead.

Of course, there are still magnificent burial sites there, such as the four royal tombs located in the mountains east of the central part of the city, or Deir in the northwest, but there is irrefutable evidence that Petra was once a city with a population of at least 20,000 people.

The colonnaded main street can still be seen today, running parallel to the bed of the Wadi Musa River.

The building that is most directly associated with Petra is called Qasneh al-Farun, or the Pharaoh's Treasury.

The first thing that greets the traveler emerging from the Siq gorge is the majestic façade carved from stone, bathed in reflections of light.

This name goes back to an ancient legend, according to which the treasures of one of the pharaohs (most likely Ramesses III, who owned the mines in Petra) were hidden in an urn crowning the middle tower on the roof of the facade. Although the construction of Kasneh can probably be dated to the 2nd century AD. e., the history of Petra began long before that. Unidentified prehistoric ruins have been found in the city, but the first people known for certain to have lived on the site were around 1000 BC. e., there were Edomites. The Bible says that Esau's descendants lived there, and the Book of Genesis mentions a place called Selah, which means "stone" in Greek and almost certainly refers to Petra.

The Edomites were defeated by King Amaziah of Judah, who killed 10,000 captives by throwing them from the top of a cliff.

The tomb on the top of the hill overlooking Petra is believed to be the tomb of Aaron, Moses' brother. By the 4th century BC. e. Petra was inhabited by the Arab tribe of the Nabateans, they lived in numerous city caves. The city was a natural fortress.

Thanks to a special water supply system, it was constantly supplied with spring water. Petra stood at the intersection of two major trade routes: one running from west to east and connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Persian Gulf, and the other running from north to south and connecting the Red Sea with Damascus.

Initially, the Nabataeans were shepherds, famous for their honesty, but soon they mastered a new business for themselves - they became merchants and caravan guards. Their prosperity was also facilitated by the collection of tolls from travelers passing through the city. In 106 AD e. Petra was annexed by Rome and continued to flourish until around 300 AD. e. In the 5th century AD e. Petra becomes the center of the Christian diocese.

However, in the 7th century it was captured by Muslims, and gradually it fell into decay, plunging into the abyss of oblivion. TAJ MAHAL: A SYMBOL OF LOVE The shimmering white marble of the Taj Mahal preserves the memory of the love of a man and a woman. Its symmetry and sophistication are like a perfect pearl against the azure sky. This is not only the most famous mausoleum, but also one of the most beautiful structures on earth. On the southern bank of the Jamna River near the city of Agra stands the Taj Mahal - probably the most remarkable architectural monument in the world. Its silhouette is well known and has become an unofficial symbol of India for many. The Taj Mahal owes its fame not only to its beautiful architecture, which amazingly combines grandeur and grace, but also to the romantic legend associated with it.

The mausoleum was built in the 17th century by the ruler of the Mughal Empire, Shah Jahan, in memory of his beloved wife, whose death plunged him into inconsolable grief. The Taj Mahal is an unsurpassed beauty symbol of devoted love. According to tradition, when lovers come here, the woman asks her companion: “Do you love me so much that, if I die, you would erect such a monument to me?” Shah Jahan, "Lord of the World" (1592-1666), ruled the Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1658. He was a recognized patron of the arts as well as a builder, and during his reign the empire reached its political and cultural flowering. At the age of 15, Shah Jahan met and fell in love with Arjumand Vana Begam, the 14-year-old daughter of his father's chief minister. She was a beautiful and intelligent girl of noble origin - by all accounts an excellent match for the prince, but, alas, a traditional political alliance with the Persian princess awaited him. Fortunately, Islamic law allows a man to have four wives, and in 1612, Shah Jahan married his beloved.

The wedding ceremony could only take place if the stars were in a favorable position.

Therefore, Shah Jahan and his bride had to wait for five whole years, during which they never saw each other.

Soon after the wedding, Arjumand received a new name - Mumtaz Mahal (“chosen one of the palace”). Shah Jahan lived with his beloved wife for 19 years, until 1631, until her death. She died giving birth to her fourteenth child. The ruler's grief was as boundless as his love.

He spent eight days locked up in his chambers, without food or drink, and when he finally came out, hunched over and aged, he declared mourning in all his possessions, during which music was prohibited, it was forbidden to wear bright clothes, jewelry, and even use incense and cosmetics. In memory of his wife, Shah Jahan vowed to build a tomb the likes of which the world had never seen. (The name by which the mausoleum is known is Taj Mahal, a variant of the name Mumtaz Mahal.) In 1632, work began in the imperial capital of Agra, and in 1643, the central building of the Taj Mahal, the mausoleum, was completed. But this is just part of a larger complex, including a garden, two mosques and an imposing gate, which is a beautiful architectural structure in itself. The Taj Mahal has an inscription that says construction was completed in 1648, but work appears to have continued for several years after that date.

To carry out such a grandiose plan in just over 20 years is a remarkable achievement, but it became possible because Shah Jahan used all the resources of his empire: about 20,000 workers worked on the construction, more than 1,000 elephants delivered marble from a quarry 320 km from Agra.

Other materials - and the craftsmen who knew how to work with them - came from much more distant places: malachite was brought from Russia, carnelian from Baghdad, turquoise from Persia and Tibet.

The mausoleum and two red sandstone mosques flanking it are built in a marble-paved park. In a narrow pool, along which dark green cypress trees grow, the shimmering silhouette of the Taj Mahal is reflected as if in a mirror.

The large dome, shaped like a flower bud, rises high, in perfect harmony with the arches and other smaller domes, as well as with four minarets, which lean slightly to the sides of the mausoleum so that in the event of an earthquake they will not collapse on it.

The splendor of the Taj Mahal is emphasized by the play of light, especially at sunrise and in the evening twilight, when the white marble - sometimes barely noticeable, sometimes more strongly - is painted in various shades of purple, pink or gold. And in the haze of the early morning, the building, as if woven from lace, appears to be floating in the air. If from the outside the Taj Mahal amazes with its perfect symmetry, then on the inside you will admire the subtlety of the mosaic decorations.

The central place in the interior is occupied by an octagonal room, where the tombstones of Shah Jahan and his wife stand behind an openwork marble fence inlaid with precious stones.

Outside, everything is flooded with bright sun, but here soft light plays on every surface, pouring through the lattice windows and openwork marble partitions, either illuminating or gradually hiding the patterns of precious inlay in the shadows. Shah Jahan wanted to build himself a black marble tomb on the opposite bank of the Jumna, connecting the two mausoleums with a bridge, symbolizing love that would survive death itself. But in 1657, before work could begin, the ruler fell ill, and a year later his power-hungry son Aurangzeb overthrew him from the throne. It is not known exactly where Shah Jahan was imprisoned.

The most common legend is that he spent the rest of his life in the Red Fort in Agra. After his death in 1666, Shah Jahan was buried in the Taj Mahal, next to his wife, whose love inspired him to create this masterpiece. POTALA: THE PEARL OF TIBET Potala was once a palace, a fortress and a place of religious worship. Its glittering golden towers rise from the Tibetan fog, like the strongholds of a colossal castle. In certain lighting they appear to be on fire. Lhasa, the capital of the “roof of the world”, Tibet, lies at an altitude of 3,600 m above sea level in a place so remote that even today few Westerners know of its existence. Above the city's bustling bazaar and labyrinth of winding streets, some distance away, the grand Potala Palace still stands, crowning the sacred Mount Putuo.

Around the city lies a fertile valley through which a river winds.

The villages in the valley are surrounded by marshy meadows, willow groves, poplar thickets and fields where peas and barley are grown.

The valley is surrounded on all sides by mountains; they can only be crossed through high mountain passes.

However, the fact that the Potala is difficult to reach only adds to its charm.

The ancient walls, faded whitewash and gleaming gold of the Potala (its name means "Buddha Mountain" in Sanskrit) is an outstanding example of traditional Tibetan architecture. For centuries, this magical stone structure, which was built by 7,000 workers, was unknown in the West. Its height is 110 m and its width is approximately 300 m. To create the impression of greater height, the colossal walls of the fortress are inclined inward, and the windows are covered with black varnish. They are located in even, parallel rows at the same distance from each other, and the higher the row, the narrower the windows.

A huge hole, created behind the hill as a result of the extraction of stone needed for construction, was filled with water.

This lake is now known as the Dragon King's Pool. From 1391 until the Chinese occupation in 1951, political and spiritual power in Tibet belonged to the Dalai Lamas, although from 1717 to 1911 they themselves were vassals of the Chinese emperors. Lhasa is the center of Lamaism, which is a mixture of Tibetan Buddhism and a local religion called Bon.

The modern Potala Palace and Monastery, which has always been the residence and fortress of successive Dalai Lamas, was built in the 17th century on the site of a castle built here a thousand years earlier by the first warrior ruler of Tibet, Sangsten Gampo.

The palace was destroyed and rebuilt several times until the V Dalai Lama (1617-1682) ordered the current complex to be built as a palace within a palace.

The outer White Palace, so called because of its whitewashed walls, was completed in 1648.

The Inner Red Palace, whose name also comes from the dark red color of its walls, is almost 50 years younger, built in 1694. When the 5th Dalai Lama suddenly died, it was carefully hidden from the builders so that they would not be distracted from their work.

At first they were told that he was ill, and after a while they were informed that “he had retired from the world to devote every waking hour to meditation.” The Potala is a labyrinth of painted galleries, wooden and stone staircases, and ornate chapels containing nearly 200,000 priceless statues.

Today the Potala is visited as a museum or as a temple, but the palace once had everything needed for the monks living in it. The White Palace housed their homes, office premises, seminary and printing house, where a machine with hand-carved wooden printing plates was used.

The paper was made from the bark of wolfberry or other shrubs that grew in the vicinity of the temple.

The Red Palace is still used for worship; in the past it was the center of the entire complex. There was a hall for monastic meetings, chapels, altars and an extensive repository of Buddhist manuscripts. The Hall of Sacrifice, the largest room in the Red Palace, has become the final resting place of several Dalai Lamas: their embalmed remains are kept there in special funerary pagodas. Of the eight pagodas, or stupas, that remain intact, the sandalwood mausoleum of the 5th Dalai Lama stands out for its splendor. The height of this gold-plated tomb exceeds 15 m and weighs 4 tons. It is decorated with diamonds, sapphires, corals, lapis lazuli and pearls, approx. whose value is ten times the value of gold.

Until the Chinese occupation, Tibet remained the last theocratic monarchy on earth - a state in which the ruler exercises both secular and spiritual power (just as it is now in Iran). The Potala was both the home and the winter residence of the ruler, a visible evidence of his spiritual and earthly power. The 14th Dalai Lama was 15 years old when China occupied his country in 1950. He was given limited powers, which he exercised until 1959. Then, after a failed uprising, he had to flee to India along with tens of thousands of loyal supporters. Since then, Tibet has been under Chinese rule. In 1965, it became the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Although the divine ruler has left the Potala, its magic does not disappear.

It seems to possess some kind of supernatural spirit, not associated with bricks and whitewashed walls: the Potala remains the main mystery of this mysterious country. SHWEDAGON PAGODA The dome of a Buddhist temple soars high into the sky above Rangoon. This pagoda looks like any other.

Its uniqueness lies in the fact that the domed stupa is covered with pure gold. On the top of a hill, north of Rangoon, a structure resembling a giant bell shines with pure gold. It resembles sunlight that has been shaped and frozen. Burma has long been called the “land of pagodas,” but the most magnificent of all, of course, is Shwedagon. Its central stupa (dome-shaped structure) rises above the forest of spiers of smaller pagodas and pavilions like a giant ship.

The complex, located on more than 5 hectares of land, includes the main pagoda, many more modest spiers, sculptures of unusual and most common animals: golden griffins, half-lions, half-griffins, sphinxes, dragons, lions, elephants.

To contemplate all this means to be present at the holiday.

The majestic temple on top of the Singuttara hill is the newest structure erected on this site. For 2500 years, along with other temples, it was revered by Buddhists as sacred. In the 6th century BC, shortly after the fourth Buddha, Gautama, achieved enlightenment, he met two Burmese merchants, to whom he gave eight of his hairs as a souvenir. These and other relics left over from the three previous Buddhas (a staff, a water bowl and a piece of robe) were placed in the altar on Singuttara Hill and covered with a gold slab. Eventually, several pagodas were built over the sacred relics - one on top of the other - constructed from different building materials. The hill turned into a place of pilgrimage, and the first aristocrat to come to worship the shrines was in 260 BC. e. Indian king Ashoka. For centuries, princes and kings took charge of the temple. They cleared out the encroaching jungle and, as necessary, rebuilt and restored the temple.

It took its modern form in the 15th century, during the reign of Queen Shinsobu, during whom the stupa was also covered with gold for the first time. In accordance with her will, the pagoda was covered with gold leaf, the weight of which corresponded to the weight of the queen’s body (40 kg). Her son-in-law and heir, King Dhammazedi, was even more generous. He donated gold to the temple for a new covering, the weight of which was four times his own. The shape of the pagoda resembles an inverted alms bowl that belonged to the Buddha. (The relics of the four Buddhas are now placed in the stupa.) A golden spire rises above it.

Tapering, it forms a graceful “umbrella” from which gold and silver bells hang. Above the umbrella rises a weather vane encrusted with precious stones, topped with a golden ball. It is decorated with 1,100 diamonds (the weight of one of them - it is located at the very top - 76 carats) and other precious stones, in total there are at least 1,400. From the base to the top, the height of the pagoda is 99 m. King Dhammazedi made two more significant gifts to Shwedagon. He gave him three stone slabs with the history of the pagoda inscribed on them in the Burmese, Pali and Mon languages, as well as a massive bell weighing 20 tons. In 1608, the bell was stolen by a Portuguese mercenary who was going to melt it down for weapons, but the robber's ship capsized under the weight of the bell, which disappeared in the waters of the Pegu River.

Shwedagon is not just a monument to the past or a place of organized prayer. Like a magnet, it attracts Buddhist monks and pilgrims - they head to this sacred place to pray and meditate.

The pagoda also attracts ordinary believers; they stick gold foil on the stupa or leave flowers as gifts, paying tribute to the heavenly pillars.

Burmese astrology divides the week into eight days (Wednesday at noon is divided into two days), each of which is associated with a planet and an animal.

Eight sky pillars stand at the base of the central pagoda, pointing to all cardinal directions. Depending on the day of the week on which a person was born, he leaves flowers and other offerings at the corresponding pillar. The same ritual is repeated in the Eight Days Pagoda, which is part of the complex and also a special place of pilgrimage. There are countless travelers who over the centuries have been moved and inspired by the clouds of incense, the echoes of prayers, but most of all by the golden vestment of Shwedagon. Some described his external splendor, such as Rudyard Kipling; “A beautiful, shimmering miracle that shines in the sun!” Others, including many who did not profess Buddhism, such as Somerset Maugham, wrote about its spiritual appeal. Maugham said that the sight of the pagoda lifts the spirits “like unexpected hope in the pitch darkness of the soul.” FORBIDDEN CITY In the heart of the Chinese capital, Beijing, stands the Forbidden City, one of the most magnificent palace complexes in the world, a symbol of China's monarchical past. Its name is associated with something mysterious and intriguing, as well as with the luxury that the rulers of the Chinese Empire enjoyed. It has been compared to a set of intricately carved Chinese boxes; opening any one, you find inside very similar to the previous one, but somewhat smaller in size. Even today, when the Forbidden City can be freely visited by numerous tourists from all over the world, it retains its mystery.

It is impossible to predict what is hidden inside each box.

It is impossible to foresee what secrets this majestic palace complex in Beijing hides.

Construction of the Forbidden City began under the third Ming emperor, Yonglu, who reigned from 1403 to 1423. This happened after he finally drove the Mongols out of Beijing.

It is not known whether Yonglu decided to build his city on the same site where stood the Mongol palace that so amazed Marco Polo in 1274, or whether he took the palace of the Mongol Khan Kublai Khan as a model, but an army of builders set to work, which is believed to have consisted of 100,000 skilled craftsmen and approximately a million workers. Through their efforts, 800 palaces, 70 administrative buildings, numerous temples, gazebos, libraries and workshops were built in the city. All of them were connected by gardens, courtyards and paths. From this city, closed to outsiders from the very day of its foundation, 24 emperors of the Ming and Qin dynasties ruled the country. Until 1911, when the revolution occurred, they were protected by a moat filled with water and fortress walls 11 meters high.

The Forbidden City is an architectural masterpiece; its charm lies not so much in the beauty of individual parts, but in the orderly layout of the entire complex and the exquisite combination of colors of the decoration. He embodied the Chinese views on the emperor - the Son of Heaven and the mediator responsible for order and harmony on Earth. No emperor ever dared to leave the Forbidden City if it could be avoided. He received visitors in the northernmost of the three majestic state buildings - the Hall of Protecting Harmony. To the north of these halls there are three palaces - the residential quarter of the imperial family. Two of them, the Palace of Heavenly Purity and the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, were the residences of the Emperor and Empress respectively. Between them is the building of the Unification Hall, symbolizing the unity of the emperor and empress, heaven and earth, “yang” and “yin,” man and woman. Behind the palaces are magnificent imperial gardens, which, with their pools, picturesque piles of stones, temples, libraries, theaters, gazebos, pine trees and cypress trees, complement the symmetry of the buildings. The Forbidden City also had residential quarters for thousands of servants, eunuchs and concubines, who spent their entire lives within its walls. This magnificent complex was not only a center of power. The entire Forbidden City was designed to satisfy the whims of the emperor. About 6,000 cooks were busy preparing food for him and 9,000 imperial concubines, who were guarded by 70 eunuchs.

The emperor was not the only person who enjoyed the benefits of this lifestyle.

Empress Dowager Zu Xi, who died in 1908, is said to have been served 148-course dinners. In addition, she sent eunuchs in search of young lovers, who, after they disappeared outside the city gates, were never heard from again.

The power of the emperors ended in 1911: the day after the revolution, the 6-year-old Emperor Pu Yi was forced to abdicate the throne.

Today, most of the halls and palaces house exhibitions telling about the glorious past of the Forbidden City. And as more and more visitors explore this amazing labyrinth, the atmosphere of mystery that surrounded the emperor and his court 100 years ago gradually disappears. And yet in every courtyard and at every wall echoes of the past are heard.

The imprints of this past lie on every object on display: on weapons, jewelry, imperial clothing, musical instruments and gifts presented to the emperors by rulers from all over the world. TEOTIHUACAN: CITY OF THE GODS The ancient religious capital of Mexico flourished 1,000 years before the rise of the Aztec Empire. Until now, careful archaeological research has not answered the question of who, when and why it was built. Even the death of this city itself is shrouded in mystery. Translated, this name means “city of the gods.” Teotihuacan more than justifies it.

The largest and most majestic city-state of pre-Columbian Mexico is located on the Mexican Highlands at an altitude of about 2285 m above sea level. Almost at the same altitude is the second great metropolis of the New World - Machu Picchu in Peru. This is where the similarities end. If the steep gorges seemed to squeeze the latter with their rocky slopes, then the spacious plain chosen for Teotihuacan gave its builders freedom of action. The city covers an area of ​​23 km2, and its largest structure, the Pyramid of the Sun, is larger than the Roman Colosseum built at the same time. Very little is known about Teotihuacan. At one time it was believed that it was built by the Aztecs. But the city was abandoned 700 years before the Aztecs arrived there in the 15th century, giving it this name.

The true builders of the city remain unknown, although for convenience they are sometimes called “Teotihuacans.” This area was already inhabited in 400 BC.

However, Teotihuacan's heyday occurred between the 2nd and 7th centuries AD. e.

Present-day Teotihuacan is probably the ruins of a city built at the beginning of our era.

The workforce was drawn from a population estimated at 200,000, making Teotihuacan the sixth largest city of its time. During its heyday, Teotihuacan's influence spread throughout Central America. Its potters made vases and cylindrical vessels on three legs, all products were decorated with stucco and painting. The most impressive are the severe stone masks carved from jade, basalt and jadeite.

Ancient craftsmen made their eyes from obsidian or mollusk shells.

Perhaps obsidian was the basis of the city's wealth.

The inhabitants of Teotihuacan traveled on trade throughout the central Mexican highlands, and possibly throughout Central America. Vases made in the city have been found in many burials in Mexico.

However, we do not know whether the city's political power extended beyond its walls.

Wall paintings discovered by archaeologists rarely depict battle scenes, suggesting that the Teotihuacan people were not aggressive.

The skill of Teotihuacan artisans was surpassed only by their architectural genius. The city stands on a giant grid, the base of which is the main three-kilometer street, the Road of the Dead (so named by the Aztecs, who mistakenly mistook the platforms lining it for burial grounds). At its northern end is the Ciutadella, the citadel, a huge enclosed space where the temple of Quetzalcoatl, the snake god, rises. The most graceful building in the city, the Pyramid of the Sun, was built on the ruins of an even more ancient structure. At a depth of six meters below its base there is a natural cave, 100 m wide. It was a sacred place even before a structure made of 2.5 million tons of adobe bricks was erected over it.

Religious buildings were not the only architectural wonder of Teotihuacan.

Thanks to excavations carried out in our time, it turned out that all the discovered palaces were built in accordance with the same geometric principles: many halls are located around a central courtyard.

Despite the absence of roofs, the outlines of frescoes can be discerned on the walls. Their red, brown, blue and yellow colors are still vibrant today. No one knows what caused the death of the great city and ancient civilization.

The remains of charred roof slabs support the theory that the city was sacked around 740 AD. e.

Today's traveler, standing among the ruins and seeing nothing but mountains and sky on the horizon, can hardly imagine that Mexico City is only 48 km southwest of this place. CONCLUSION So my essay has come to an end. This ends my story about the wonders of architecture.

Of course, it will not be possible to talk about all the buildings, nor will it be possible to talk about all the most significant ones from an architectural point of view. But I chose buildings that most strongly reflected man’s desire for beauty and beauty.

Of course, beautiful buildings will continue to be built. Following new technologies will come new needs and architectural structures that satisfy them. And since art develops in a spiral, we can assume that it will soon go through a period of degradation and return to its former castles and temples, while using new materials and technologies. In general, we can say that such a trend is already emerging. One might think that fate was especially unkind to the wonders of architecture, the fate of which was so tragic. This is wrong. Piles of garbage, tall hills rising in the Middle East, Central Asia, India, China are traces of cities that once existed there and completely disappeared from the face of the earth, from which not a single house or temple, and often even a name, remains. Every year brings news of new remarkable discoveries by archaeologists. If we bring together all the outstanding monuments of antiquity, it turns out that hardly one in a hundred has survived to this day. But the little that has survived to this day gives us the right to be proud of the great masters of the past, wherever they worked. According to Victor Hugo, from the very creation of the world to the invention of printing, “architecture was the great book of mankind, the basic formula that expressed man in all stages of his development, both a physical being and a spiritual being.” Over its long history, the art of construction has come a long way from a primitive hut to structures that are extremely complex in their planning and design solutions.

Ideas about the capabilities of building materials are changing, and the materials themselves are changing.

Almost today you can build anything that the architect’s imagination dictates.

RUSSIAN CITIZENSHIP, the patriotic, selfless feeling of a native Russian person to serve the Tsar and the Fatherland not out of fear, but out of conscience. This concept has not yet received due evaluation. Meanwhile, it requires special consideration. Catherine’s legislation on local government was not a paper recitation, but a modification of the English “self-government” that entered deeply into Russian life. The reign of Paul I was not a dark, fruitless episode, but a time when for the first time, from the dynastic tops to the peasant bottom, Russia began to clothe itself in the flesh of the Law. The school of noble-bureaucratic government of the country was the reign of Alexander I. The completion of noble government and self-government, framed by law, was marked by the reign of Nicholas I. The nobility was not closed, but everyone who was drawn into public administration was “ennobled” by becoming part of the “service "class, which remained so in the "election service." Dominion over one’s “subjects” in the form of the so-called “service” also remained “service”. "serfdom". This grandiose monolith underwent a bold modification by Alexander II. Landowner “serfdom” is abolished. The old days are being overcome, which distinguished between “tax,” i.e., the powerless performance of duties, and “service,” i.e., the obligatory exercise of power: the entire “land” is called together to the work of governance - and this on an unprecedented scale. This is how an all-class zemstvo arises - a new type on a global scale - there, as a general rule, there is no independent local economy, and since broad local amateur activity arose in special forms, it depended on the center that supplied it with funds. We know the French type, who gave a voice to localities, but by no means participation in power, which remained entirely in the hands of a centralized state, obliged to be on alert in the face of the danger of an unexpected attack by its neighbors (which England could not be afraid of). Russia revealed something new and unheard of: the zemstvo received its own administrative and executive body, its own sources of income - and the broadest competence in addition to the huge branches of local work, road and food, transferred to it “on the fly”. The courage of this reform was unparalleled - and it turned out to be justified: the zemstvo developed enormous energy, creating “zemstvo” statistics, a “zemstvo” school, and “zemstvo” medicine. It would be in vain to look for analogies in the West of such a scale of local self-government. The commanding position was preserved here, too, with the service class, who selflessly devoted themselves to the new “election service” in collaboration with civilian specialists, commoners, who received the name of the “third element” (teachers, statisticians, doctors). The judicial statutes were also a huge achievement, animated by the zeal of the same service class, rushing to a new task: protecting the law and defending rights.

Law and rights - these two concepts must be distinguished especially carefully in relation to Russia, which was accustomed to living in a patriarchal way of life, which did not need “law” and did not know personal “rights”. Since, starting with Peter I, Russia switched from all-determining religious and moral principles to the beginning of serving primarily the state (with the example of Peter, who is the “first servant” of Russia), comprehensive “legality” became the ideal of statehood. The closest approach to it was the Russia of Nicholas I. But to a large extent this “legality” is the guise of the same “patriarchal” way of life, living on religious and moral principles, the dominance of which overturned “rights” and prevailed over “right.” In Moscow, such a mentality could place a poor holy fool above the Tsar - in conditions of the absolute limitlessness of his power. The “Europeanization” of Russia did not go far. The Court was European, the embassy service was European, the capital bureaucracy was European and the provincial bureaucracy became European, the army officer head was European; “Europeanization” partially entered everyday life and even affected the ruling circles of the Church. But in general, this is not what Russia lived for. How else can one explain the fact that there is no police in Russia, given its vast expanses? Powerful internal discipline ensured that the wave of the Tsar’s hand was carried out unquestioningly on the remotest periphery. Something new was, of course, the framing of life with improved “legality” and its guidance by a modernized management apparatus: is it possible to compare the Code of Laws of M. M. Speransky with the Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich or the Russian bureaucracy, trained by the same Speransky, P. D. Kiselev , E.F. Kankrin, with Moscow clerks and clerks! But Russia lived on in its former spirit. And it was not this updated “law” that revealed the novelty of civil life. Personal “rights” - that’s where the radical novelty was!

There is a temptation to see the beginnings of them in the “liberty of the nobility” proclaimed by Peter III. No, here it was the same service, only performed “for honor.” Personal freedom did not yet exist, but there were only prerequisites for its emergence. Since the landowner began to interpret his noble liberties in the European sense and to consider his attitude towards the land and the peasantry from the point of view of private property, a gap only arose between two legal consciousnesses, the original and the new.

Legality, if it is respected, naturally and necessarily gives rise to personal rights: law gives birth to rights. The tragedy of Russia was that this process covered only some parts of the population. A huge event was the publication of the Code of Laws - however, even it was not common law, which, of course, was not the set of regulations relating to state peasants. The Code of Laws had 10 volumes, the first part of which was the Russian reception of Roman civil law. But that was not common law. It did not become one even when the liberation of the peasants took place. Two processes took place separately in Russia: the emergence and development of private, personal law, on the one hand, and its spread, on the other. Our civil code, which arose under Nicholas I, deserves all praise, and the civil court, which arose under Alexander II, is beyond praise. But even after the Great Reforms, a huge part of the Russian population remained outside the new citizenship. The peasants were liberated from the landowners' authority, but they did not become free people - the Russian peasant remained attached to the land, to society, to the court, and gradually, in the form of customary law, a whole system of “peasant law” arose, which kept the peasants outside of free civil circulation with his “personal rights”.

Russian citizenship grew and blossomed, combining the good fruits of a serving tradition with the achievements of a new citizenship that rose on the leap of “personal rights.” European stencils turned out to be updated, enlightened, and ennobled by the spirit of Russian service. Only ignorance, not only universal, in relation to foreign Russia, but also our own, in relation to ourselves, allows us to indiscriminately paint in black our citizenship of the last reigns, its shortcomings, vices, untruths, perversions, explaining the Russian catastrophe. No, it was not the “backwardness” of Russian citizenship that ruined Russia, but the fact that on the basis of citizenship, for all its high quality, Russia was despirited.

The patriarchal structure has enormous merits, but it can be neither artificial nor partial. The landowners considered themselves “private owners” - the peasants had to be freed from such landowners. But they were not made free, without giving them the opportunity to start building their new life in a new way. In its artificial isolation, the former patriarchy of the peasants degenerated into some kind of bastard of homespun socialism, giving birth to a dream of more - in the direction of doctrinaire socialism. The new citizenship, deprived of a life-giving, but also sobering, junction with the masses of the people, also acquired the character of a dreamy maximalist demand, in the conditions of which the very virtues of the leading elite turned into a threat to the existence of Historical Russia.

A grandiose attempt to resolve the grandiose problems arising from this was the reign of Nicholas II - an attempt that was crowned with grandiose success. The so-called was defeated. the first revolution, which threatened not on Palace Square, as it was in 1825, but throughout the entire space of Russia to sweep away and bury the Russian Orthodox Kingdom under the rubble of an all-Russian revolt. A viable image of the “coexistence” of a new type of “land” with the old structure of statehood emerged, which was formalized in the Basic Laws. And only bias can evaluate them as inept, underdeveloped, home-grown, clumsy distortion of the Western model. It was, on the contrary, almost a masterpiece of legislative creativity, combining the principles of Autocracy, based on the Church and the Army, who knew only the Tsar even in new conditions of life, with a national State Duma invested with real power. A reform of the peasantry arose, connected with the name of P. A. Stolypin, already illuminating the whole of Russia with a new citizenship. Economic activity arose, working wonders for the renewal of the country. A variety of government activities arose, raising the country with fabulous speed to new and ever higher levels. A diverse cultural flourishing arose. The core, however, remained Autocratic power. It must be remembered that with two saving dissolutions of the Duma - and one based on the idea of ​​Autocracy, and not on the letter of the law - the State Duma was directed to the work of the state, gradually turning from a restless element into an active and useful element of statehood. And we must not forget that the great Stolypin reform was an extraordinary measure, bypassing the resistance of the Duma.

In the enormous cultural and economic upsurge that Russia experienced after the reform of Alexander II, “land” took its place. The point of view that accuses the government of later decades of destructive hostile and violent restrictions on public activity is biased. In particular, the reform of the zemstvo was not oppression, but the streamlining of its activities, with the establishment of legal supervision over it - instead of the immense breadth that originally characterized the existence of the zemstvo: enormous practical possibilities remained in force, and the zemstvos continued to bloom, even if they remained unsatisfied maximalist wishes that covered both the police and almost the entire state apparatus on the ground. The point of view that denigrates the creative activities of the government apparatus is also biased. This activity was varied and fruitful, and the virtues of the Russian bureaucracy were revealed in all their brilliance, combining the valor of the former service class with the fervor of renewed citizenship and absorbing perhaps the best elements of Russian cultural society of all classes. The Russian government apparatus was a peculiar fusion of antiquity and newness, and only a close look is able to appreciate the full significance of the “oldness” in its useful work.

One of the most difficult achievements of a “rule of law” state is the introduction of legality into the activities of the administration. Each country gives its own option. France is considered a classic country of administrative law - on the basis of its centuries-old centralism and its deliberate legal genius. What flourished here was not the scientific formulation of administrative law (this was the merit of the predominant Germany and Austria) and not its judicial creation in the process of protecting citizens in general courts (this was the achievement of the Anglo-Saxon genius). The practice of administrative courts created in France an entire system of law, which university science began to develop post factum. It’s hard to believe, but in Russia, like in France, Russia’s own system of administrative law, created by the organically emerging Russian administrative court - the First Department of the Government, remained almost unnoticed. This branch of law could be found in collections of Senate decisions, practically systematized by lawyers and petitioners in cases - and nothing more. Moreover, the “reform” of the Senate carried out just before the Great War was caused by liberal-doctrinaire considerations - a reform that mercilessly overthrew the good order of this Petrine institution. It was preserved here in the 20th century. Peter's appearance: uniforms, ancient carts that carried “business” to the homes of even the most modest officials of the “Chancery”, the special external way of life of the “Chancery”. There was also a traditional internal way of life - extremely valuable. The “Chancery” was not a preparatory authority corresponding to its name, entirely executive and working (as was already the case in the new judicial Senate); she, merging with the chief prosecutor's supervision, freely and independently prepared cases. Each case was entrusted to a rapporteur, who could be the most modest “i.e. O. assistant chief secretary." If he successfully coped with his task, intelligently writing what “is clear from the case” (this is how the historical part began) and drawing up a competent draft decision (“having considered the present case ...”), his work moved on. The chief secretary, the head of his own expedition, among whom matters were systematically distributed, could only write in the margins his opinion, which did not coincide with the speaker’s draft. Another comrade of the chief prosecutor could have done the same. The senator-reporter on duty, as well as the presiding officer, could do the same. The main rapporteur reported the case in the presence of the Senate, after which each of the elders expressed his opinion - and a debate arose between the senators, in which the original rapporteur no longer took part, and the “Chancery” presented only the necessary information. What happened? A kind of bicameral discussion, and at the same time a versatility in the analysis of the case. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, each “expedition” turned into a repository of practice. Finally, this work was so attractive that, despite “career” considerations (in the “Chancery” everyone was in the back of their minds, and it was impossible to make a “career” without leaving the Senate), people sat in their places for decades, forming a cadre of first-class professionals. All this was broken by the “reform”, which turned the “Office” into an ordinary office...

If even the highest government apparatus sometimes showed such little sensitivity, then what can we say about wide circles of the public, who are ready to perceive the very existence of the government apparatus as an obstacle to the paths of “progress”! To get a biased negative assessment of the entire government apparatus, you do not need to turn to the revolutionary press - every “thick magazine”, every newspaper, with the rarest exceptions, habitually “exposed” the government as a whole, and all its figures both in the center and locally .

Russia was collapsing not because the government was not up to par, because the bureaucracy was bad, because the Tsar remained autocratic, even with popular representation, because Russia was “lagging behind” in a variety of directions. No, the trouble was that she no longer valued either her past values, instilled over centuries, or even new acquisitions, as if pouring out of a cornucopia, or that prosperity, which, if it had not yet become a common property, achieved by everyone, was already up close and visible to everyone. And the main problem was that Russia ceased to value its very original “way of life”, blessed by centuries of standing in the Church Truth, as the highest value. That is why not only the “holy fathers” who see the invisible, but also other gray-haired statesmen and publicist thinkers perceived the stunning growth of Russian citizenship with confusion in their hearts. A certain abyss was felt under the building of Imperial Russia, which was opening ever wider and rising ever higher.

What was the task of citizenship anyway? To protect outwardly human life as the highest value, which has its own special internal content, is premium. This high purpose of life can be realized in the conditions of “serfdom”, which does not know personal freedom, just as it can be realized in the conditions of citizenship, imbued with the principles of personal freedom. One can convincingly prove the high superiority of the second regime - more consistent with the high dignity of the human person. Let's not argue with this. But if in the process of growth and development of this citizenship, of extremely high quality, it itself, in its manifestations, even the highest and brightest, reveals the “dignity” of a person (not to mention the low and even base instincts and impulses satisfied by it) - if she begins to perceive herself as an end in itself, making herself a worshiped idol, what does such citizenship turn into in the eyes of God?

While the new imperial citizenship outwardly coexisted with the “serfdom” preserved from the past, with all its primitiveness imbued with high spiritual content; while she, more and more widely and firmly mastering life, herself to some extent retained this high spirit; as long as she, even losing this spirit, outwardly respected him, even if she only tolerated him without encroaching on him, Russia could bloom. She had something to live, something to breathe - in a worldly sense. However, the episode with the “reform” of the Senate that we cited is a warning. Let there not have been a war, which, having sharpened all questions to the utmost, suddenly brought Russia face to face with its fate. Where is the arrow of the movement directed in a country where the highest authorities are able to throw into the basket of History, like unnecessary trash, the property of their past, which is objectively of high quality even from the point of view of the new citizenship, in its protection of personal rights born of life?

Objectively, our imperial citizenship was strong and strong, since it was a fusion of the old with the new - the good that was in the old with the good that the new gave. But what kind of strength could it lay claim to if it began to liquidate the old, on the basis of its “oldness,” in favor of the new, on the basis of its “newness”? The “new” objective is acceptable and can be persistent, since it, in new forms, more perfect or even simply more appropriate to the circumstances, serves the “eternal” who lived in the old days. Otherwise, the “new” despirits citizenship. Our imperial citizenship was subjected to such a process of soullessness - and is this not why all its high-quality achievements turned out to be imaginary and futile? She couldn't defend herself. This gives rise to a criterion for assessing both the past and the possible future. There are no objectively ideal forms of life that can become an end in themselves, but there is life in its premium value. All forms are acceptable, which serve life from this angle. You can find dark sides of Historical Russia at all times, particularly in recent times. But one thing can be said with confidence: even though the process of despiritation was in progress, while Imperial Russia stood, it not only did not force lies, but served the truth, continuously representing the same high-spirited, enlightened Historical Russia. It was personified in dazzling spiritual beauty by the last Russian Tsar.

The monastery has its own complicated history; it was erected by Prince Gleb Vasilkovich in memory of a miraculous rescue in a storm. The raging waves tried to swallow the ships of the prince and his boyars, but at the last moment the rocky shore of the island appeared on the horizon. When the prince and his charges set foot on land, he was quite surprised that people were huddled on the tiny island. Here lived desert dwellers, hermit believers who devoted their lives to preaching the Christian faith. Building a monastery was an impossible task for them, and Prince Gleb Vasilkovich took upon himself the construction of the monastery.

The foundation of the wooden monastery dates back to 1260, the construction of the stone building - to 1481. This was the first stone building of the architects of the Russian North. Over the years of its existence, the cathedral suffered years of prosperity and oblivion. Its walls repeatedly suffered from fires; during the years of Soviet power, they tried to organize a colony for minors in its premises, they dismantled the walls into bricks and even tried to blow them up. Years later, the cathedral buildings were turned into a collection point for fresh fish, as fish was harvested from the lake on an industrial scale.

Today the Spaso-Kamenny Monastery is being revived and is functioning again. Most of the restoration is carried out by volunteers who are trying to achieve government support for their initiative. The Spaso-Kamenny Monastery is now in operation; not only believers, but also tourists who have taken a liking to the picturesque corner are beginning to come here.

“Architecture” - 3. Urban planning: Aimed at creating new and reconstructing old urban areas. Architecture. Main types of architecture. 3. Arch. 2. Crossbar. Architecture –. “Letters” of the language of architecture. A system of buildings and structures that organize the spatial environment for people’s life and activities. 1. Pillar.

“Architecture of the 19th century” - Outstanding constructivist architect in the 20th century. – Le Corbusier, creator of the “world style”. House of Casa Batllo, Facade. Eiffel Tower in Paris. The Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art building in New York. The exquisite silhouettes of the four towers are completed with decorative cross-spires. House of Casa Batllo. Park Güell.

“Architecture of the 14th-17th centuries” - Architecture of Moscow in the 14th-17th centuries. Painting in the 17th century. New trends in Russian art of the 16th century. It was built in 1505-1508. Tent architecture of Moscow. The temple served as the home church of the great princes. The cathedral took almost five years to build (1475-1479). Architecture of the Moscow “Naryshkin” baroque.

“Architectural monuments” - Mukhacheva, Temple of Demetrius of Rostov. Krasnooktyabrskaya 200, Zarechny fire station. Biysk Drama Theatre, formerly the People's House. Gorno-Altaiskaya, City Palace of Culture. Monuments of federal significance: There are 272 architectural monuments in Biysk. Krasnoarmeyskaya 85, Alexander Cathedral (Electric furnace).

“Architecture of Kazan” - The house had a kind face, and the house always greeted me with greetings. During the fires of 1552, 1774, 1842. Almost all of Kazan burned out. V. Kurashov Kazan wooden. 2006. Now briefly about the history of the publication. Everything is different here, everything is difficult in a different way... Wood is a unique natural building material. Kazan was no exception.

“Baroque Architecture” - Take an interest in world culture! Baroque in a modern interpretation. Peter's in Rome. Baroque architecture (L. Bernini, F. Borromini in Italy, B. F. Rastrelli in Russia, Jan Christoph Glaubitz in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) is characterized by spatial scope, unity, and fluidity of complex, usually curvilinear forms.

When starting a conversation about Russian wooden architecture, we must first of all define the concept of this subject. For in our time there are many architectural styles and production technologies associated with wood construction. It is clear that not every wooden building in Russia can be classified as a work of Russian wooden architecture.

If we recognize that Russian wooden architecture is an integral cultural and historical phenomenon that embodies the tastes and views of the Russian people, then we should distinguish it and not confuse with it works that are only similar in some respects, but essentially related to others. cultural traditions and styles. For example, many mansions and palaces of the 18th and 19th centuries were built of wood, but it serves only as a building material, and not as a material for art. The log walls of such buildings are usually sheathed or plastered and painted, and in their forms and figurative sound, these stylistic works of architecture have nothing in common with folk architecture. Works of Russian Art Nouveau should not be confused with it either. And, of course, many modern wooden buildings, absurd and eclectic or completely devoid of architectural and artistic image, cannot be attributed to Russian wooden architecture. Although nowadays there is a lot of talk about the revival of traditions, in reality this is very rare.

What is Russian wooden architecture? What are its main features?

A distinctive feature of Russian folk wooden architecture is, first of all, the attitude towards wood not only as a building material, but also as a material of art. All the natural structural and aesthetic qualities of wood are not hidden here, but, on the contrary, are revealed and emphasized. At the same time, as a rule, structural elements and techniques are at the same time decorative. Thus, the felling of the log house is done to increase the roof overhangs and protect the walls from precipitation, while emphasizing at the same time the beauty and expressiveness of the completion of the log walls; cantilevered logs supporting porches, walkways and balconies are decorated with expressive hems; powerful pillars are made carved; massive window and door jambs are not covered with platbands, but they themselves decorate the openings; reliable plank roofs with shells, flows and hens fascinate by the fusion of the original design solution with the beauty and expressiveness of the forms. Everything constructive and functional is done at the same time as architectural and artistic.

The variety of forms consists of different combinations of the same traditional architectural and constructive techniques, repeated many times in different buildings, developed and refined over the centuries. The uniqueness of the whole with the repeatability of details is one of the principles of traditional architecture. Many buildings are very similar, but no two are exactly alike.

An important property of traditional wooden buildings is that they can be assembled and disassembled and can be transported.

In the old days in Rus', everything was built from wood - temples and chapels, fortresses and palaces, houses and outbuildings, cities and villages, and all of the above determined the appearance of not only individual buildings, but also entire settlements. The picturesque silhouettes of buildings, amazingly in harmony with each other and the surrounding landscape, formed wonderful architectural ensembles.

Russian wooden architecture is a folk art that has reached heights that amaze the imagination, truly fabulous, revealing many masterpieces of world architecture. The palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in Kolomenskoye, built in the 17th century, was called by contemporaries the eighth wonder of the world, and the amazing architectural ensemble of the Kizhi Pogost annually attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world.

To summarize what has been said, we can try to formulate the signs and characteristics of Russian wooden architecture. This is an original Russian folk architecture, which is characterized by adherence to tradition, unity of material, attitude to the building material - wood - as a material of art, integrity and expressiveness of forms, unity of usefulness and beauty, constructiveness and aesthetics, harmony with nature, reliability and durability, and also the possibility of dismantling and transporting buildings.

The fate of Russian wooden architecture, like all Russian traditional culture, is complex and tragic. In ancient Rus', wooden architecture was widespread, since wood was the main building material, and most men were skilled in carpentry to one degree or another. But wooden buildings often suffered from fires, so the most important buildings were cathedrals, and over time they tried to build fortresses from stone. Gradually, the construction of stone and brick buildings became more and more accessible, and there was less and less good scaffolding left. Wooden architecture gradually moved to the northern lands that were inaccessible and rich in timber. At the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, Peter’s reforms began in Russia, which radically changed the entire way of life, customs and tastes of the upper stratum of Russian society. Russian customs were consigned to oblivion for a long time, Western European culture was instilled in every possible way. This had the most unfavorable effect on Russian wooden architecture. It completely disappeared from the life of the Russian nobility, and in the peasant environment of central Russia, although it continued to live, it no longer developed, and over time it became simplified, became smaller and degraded. However, in the Russian north, rich in forests and inhabited mainly by free peasants and artisans, wooden architecture continued to develop in the 18th century. Most of the masterpieces of wooden architecture in the Russian north were built in the 17th and 18th centuries. This is the world-famous ensemble of the Kizhi Pogost, the Assumption Cathedral in Kemi, the Church of the Assumption in Kondopoga, and the majestic churches of Poonezhye and Podvina. But in the 19th century, new trends reached these distant lands. New temples began to be built either from brick or wood in a new taste, far from the age-old traditions of the people. They tried to remodel the ancient churches, changing both the appearance and the interior decoration in accordance with new tastes inspired by the European architecture of the northern capital. The log walls of ancient buildings were covered with plank sheathing and painting, plank and ploughshare roofs were replaced with iron ones, on the bell towers traditional tents were replaced with spiers, the interiors were changed beyond recognition - paneling, painting, wallpaper, gilded iconostases and icon cases with glass, paneled doors, etc. In the language of those who created It was the merchants and clergy of that time who called all these alterations “a splendid renovation.”

In the second half of the 19th century, interest in folk culture and Russian antiquities awakened in enlightened Russian society. A gradual revival of the original Russian culture begins, architects and art historians begin to study Russian folk wooden architecture, travel around the Russian north, taking measurements and sketches of ancient wooden buildings. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first attempts were made to restore wooden churches in the Russian north.

In the 20-30s of the last century, churches were closed everywhere, turned into clubs, warehouses, or simply abandoned, while others were destroyed. An abandoned wooden building cannot be preserved for long; it requires supervision, maintenance and periodic repairs. Rotten roofs begin to leak, the lower crowns of log houses rot, and debris from bird nests accumulates under the cladding. In addition, many buildings suffer from fires. As a result, by the end of the 20th century, the vast majority of wooden architecture monuments were lost. However, many monuments were saved, restored locally, or transported to open-air museums of wooden architecture. Through the efforts of architects-restorers of the second half of the 20th century, of whom it should be noted, first of all, A.V. Opolovnikov, many masterpieces of wooden architecture were carefully examined, measured, and projects for their restoration were completed; many were restored and registered under state protection. Museums, scientific restoration design and production workshops, institutes were created, and books on wooden architecture were published.

During the period of “perestroika and reforms,” the situation in the restoration of monuments of wooden architecture sharply worsened. State funding has been reduced many times over, the quality of restoration work has deteriorated, incorrect laws and corruption actually block the development of restoration work and contribute to the destruction of monuments, which continue to perish everywhere. We risk losing our most valuable cultural heritage.

Ensemble of the Kizhi Pogost. Transfiguration and Intercession churches, 18th century. Bell tower, 19th century.

Bird's eye view of Kizhi Island. Zaonezhye, Medvezhyegorsky district, rep. Karelia

Church of the Transfiguration - summer

Church of the Intercession - winter

Interior of the Church of the Intercession

Iconostasis of the Intercession Church

Church of the Assumption in Kondopoga (1774) - the swan song of Russian wooden architecture

A masterpiece of world architecture, one of the recognizable symbols of Russian culture

The church stands on the shore of Kondopoga Bay of Lake Onega

South wall

South porch. Mighty logs!

Altar apse

The apse barrel joins the eastern wall of the central quadrangle

North porch

On the north porch

Refectory interior. Powerful pillars support the floor beams

Sky ceiling in the central quadrangle

View of the temple from the village

Northern fairy tale...

St. Nicholas Church in the village of Lyavlya near Arkhangelsk. 16th century.

Assumption Church in the village of Varzuga, Murmansk region. 17th century

Ascension Church from the village of Kushereka (Onega district, Arkhangelsk region). 17th century

Transported to the Museum of Wooden Architecture Malye Korely near Arkhangelsk

Epiphany Church in the village. Paltoga, Vytegorsky district, Vologda region. 18 century.

Collapsed a few years ago...

Bell tower in the village Village of Vinogradovsky district, Arkhangelsk region.

Ensemble of the Verkhnemudyuzhsky churchyard. Burnt down in 1997

The village of Lyadiny, Kargopol district, Arkhangelsk region. An 18th century church is on fire. Spring 2013

Church of the Nativity in the village. Melikhovo, Chekhov district, Moscow region. 18 century. Burnt down in 1996. Rebuilt in 1999-2000.

To be continued...