construction was largely unknown in Novgorod before the middle of the eleventh century, a cathedral of such size and complexity could only have been constructed under the supervision of imported master builders, presumably from Kiev. The basic material for the construction of the walls and the piers, however, was obtained in the Novgorod: fieldstone and undressed blocks of limestone set in a mortar of crushed brick and lime.
The cathedral has five aisles for the main structure, with enclosed galleries attached to the north, west, and south facades. The Novgorod Sophia is smaller than its Kievan counterpart, yet the two
CATHEDRAL OF THE DORMITION
cathedrals are of approximately the same height. Therein lies an explanation for the much sharper sense of vertical development in the Novgorod cathedral.
Novgorod chronicles indicate that the interior was painted with frescoes over a period of several decades. Fragments of eleventh-century work have been uncovered, as well as early twelfth-century frescoes. Most of the original painting of the interior has long since vanished under centuries of renovations. Although small areas of the interior had mosaic decorations, there were no mosaics comparable to those in Kiev. The exterior facade above the west portal also displays frescoes, but the most distinctive element is the portal itself, with its magnificent bronze Sigtuna Doors, produced in Magdeburg in the 1050s and taken from the Varangian fortress of Sigtuna by Novgorod raiders in 1117. See also: ARCHITECTURE; CATHEDRAL OF ST. SOPHIA, KIEV; NOVGOROD THE GREAT; VLADIMIR YAROSLAVICH; YAROSLAV VLADIMIROVICH
Brumfield, William Craft. (1993). A History of Russian Architecture. New York: Cambridge University Press. Rappoport, Alexander P. (1995). Building the Churches of Kievan Russia. Brookfield, VT: Variorum.
WILLIAM CRAFT BRUMFIELD
1682-1696), forty-six in all. In addition, shrines contain the relics of St. Dmitry (son of Ivan IV, died 1591) and St. Mikhail of Chernigov (d. 1246). Ivan IV (r. 1533-1584) is buried behind the iconostasis. The present bronze casings were added to the seventeenth-century sarcophagi in 1906. The frescoes on walls, ceilings, and pillars, mainly dating from the mid-seventeenth century, include iconic images of Russian princes and tsars and relate the military exploits of the warrior Archangel Mikhail, keeper of the gates of heaven. His icon was commissioned to celebrate the Russian victory at Ku-likovo Pole in 1380. The cycle celebrates Moscow’s rulers as successors to the kings of Israel, as God’s representatives fighting evil on earth, and as patrons of Russia’s ruling dynasty in heaven.
From the 1720s onward, Peter I’s Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg became the new imperial mausoleum. Of the later Romanovs, only Peter II (r. 1727-1730) was buried in the Cathedral of the Archangel. However, the imperial family continued to pay their respects at their ancestors’ tombs after coronations and on other major state occasions. See also: ARCHITECTURE; CATHEDRAL OF ST. BASIL; CATHEDRAL OF THE DORMITION; KREMLIN.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brumfield, William. (1993). A History of Russian Architecture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
The Cathedral of the Archangel Mikhail, in the Moscow Kremlin, served as the mausoleum of the Muscovite grand princes and tsars until the end of the seventeenth century. The present building (built 1505-1509) was commissioned by Tsar Ivan III (reigned 1462-1505) to replace a fourteenth-century church. The architect was Alvise Lamberti de Montagnano, an Italian sculptor from Venice, known in Russia as Alevizo the New. His design combined a traditional Russian Orthodox five-domed structure with Renaissance decorative features such as pilasters with Corinthian capitals and scallop-shell motifs, which influenced later Russian architects. The cathedral contains the tombs of most of the Muscovite grand princes and tsars from Ivan I (reigned 1325-1341) to Ivan V (reigned
The first Kremlin Dormition cathedral, a simple one-domed masonry structure, was built by Prince Ivan I Danilovich of Moscow in 1327 as the seat of the head of the Russian Orthodox church, Metropolitan Peter. In 1472 Metropolitan Filipp of Moscow decided to replace the old church, laying the foundation stone with Grand Prince Ivan III (r. 1462-1505), but in 1474 the new building was destroyed by an earth tremor before it was completed. Ivan then hired the Italian architect Aristotele Fioravanti, ordering him to model his church on the thirteenth-century Dormition cathedral in Vladimir, in the belief that the prototype was designed by Mary
CATHERINE I
herself. Fioravanti took the traditional five-domed structure, rounded bays, and decorative arcading, but added Renaissance proportions and engineering, “according to his own cunning skill,” as a chronicle related, “not in the manner of Muscovite builders.” The church became the model for a number of other important cathedral and monastery churches, for example in the Novodevichy convent and the Trin-ity-St. Sergius monastery.
The first frescoes were painted in 1481 to 1515 and restored several times “in the old manner” in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. The complex cycles allude to the unity of the Russian land, the celebration of its saints and the history of the cathedral itself, as well as the life and veneration of Christ and the Mother of God. The icons on the lower tier of the iconostasis (altar screen), the most famous of which was the twelfth-century Byzantine “Vladimir” icon of the Mother of God, also referred to the gathering of the Russian lands and the transfer of sacred authority to Moscow from Jerusalem, Byzantium, and Kiev, as did the so-called Throne of Monomachus, made for Ivan IV in 1551, the carvings on which depict scenes of the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX Monomachus presenting imperial regalia to Prince Vladimir of Kiev (1113-1125).
In February 1498 the cathedral saw Ivan III’s grandson Dmitry crowned as heir. From 1547, when Ivan IV was crowned there, it was the venue for the coronations of all the Russian tsars and, from the eighteenth century, the emperors and empresses. It also saw the investitures and most of the burials of the metropolitans and patriarchs, up to and including the last patriarch Adrian (died 1700). Major repair work followed damage caused by the Poles in 1612 and Napoleon’s men in 1812. The cathedral was particularly revered by Nicholas II, in preparation for whose coronation in 1896 a major restoration was carried out. Late tsarist official guides to the cathedral underlined the belief that the formation of the Russian Empire was sanctioned by God and symbolized in the cathedral’s history and its holy objects (e.g. a piece of the robe of Our Lord and a nail from the Cross). In Soviet times it became a museum, but since the 1990s it has been used intermittently for important services. See also: IVAN I; IVAN III; IVAN IV; NICHOLAS II
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berton, Kathleen. (1977). Moscow: An Architectural History. London: Studio Vista. Brumfield, William. (1993). A History of Russian Architecture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
(c. 1686-1727) Yekaterina Akexeyevna, born Martha Skavronska(ya), the second wife of Peter I and empress of Russia from February 8, 1725 to May 17, 1727.
Martha Skavronskaya’s background, nationality, and original religious affiliation are still subject to debate. She encountered the Russian army in Livonia in the summer of 1702, when she was working as a servant, and apparently became the mistress first of a field marshal, then of Peter I’s favorite, Alexander Menshikov, then of Peter himself. By 1704 she was an established fixture in the royal entourage. There were unconfirmed rumors of a secret marriage in 1707, but only in 1711, prior to his departure for war against Turkey, did Peter make Catherine his consort. Their public wedding took place in February 1712 in St. Petersburg. The marriage was deplored by traditionalists, because Peter’s first wife was still alive and Catherine was a foreigner. It is unclear precisely when she converted to Orthodoxy and took the name Catherine.
Catherine established her own patronage networks at court, where she was closely allied with Menshikov, arranging the marriages of elite women, interceding with Peter on behalf of petitioners, and dispensing charity.
