66. Western Golden Gates in the Cathedral of the Nativity. 1230-1233

The main south gates are particularly interesting, containing pictures of saints after whom the Vladimir princes were named. It is likely that these gates were made during the years 1230 to 1233 by order of Vsevolod III's son. Prince Georgi. The main scenes show the acts of the angels, in particular the Archangel Michael, the powerful warrior saint who protected the princes in their military ventures. There are many ex­quisitely composed scenes on fascinating subjects, such as Jacob wrestling with the angel, and Daniel in the lions' den (Ill. 69) where the lions are very similar to those found in stone carvings. The picture of Adam being instructed by the Archangel Michael shows Adam digging with a wooden spade bound with strips of metal similar to twelfth-century spades found during excava­tions. The inscription on the panel even gives us the old Russian name for this type of spade, ryltse. Another interesting composition depicting the miracle of Christ turning the water into wine at Cana shows people stand­ing on the top of cliffs using the same type of spade.

The panels on both gates showing Gospel scenes, the Virgin Mary and the angels, the Creation and figures from the Old Testament are all provided with clear, brief inscriptions and unfold before one's eyes like the pages of an exquisitely illustrated manuscript. These inscriptions provide valuable material for the study of the old Russian language and orthography.

According to a cathedral inventory dated 1609 the same damascene technique was used on the bishop's ambo, a pulpit which stood slightly elevated in front of the Holy Doors in the altar screen. Its sides were deco­rated with feasts of Our Lord and the Virgin Mary. This splendid object evidently disappeared when Suzdal was sacked by the Polish invaders.

The golden gates are a magnificent example of Vladimir-Suzdalian craftsmanship combining severe, laconic composition with a love of rich ornament. As we have already pointed out, this passion for ornament is a feature of popular art and reflects the artistic tastes of the ordinary people of the Vladimir lands who produced these gifted masters. The cathedral was also richly en­dowed with precious plate brought by merchants from distant lands.

69 Details of the western Golden Gates in the Cathedral of the Nativity 1230-1233

Thus we have a picture of the cathedral in its original form.

After the alterations carried out in 1528 – 1530 the cathedral appears to have remained without wall paint­ings and in 1577 it was damaged by fire. It received new frescoes in 1635-1636 which were "restored", i.e., re­painted, on several occasions – in 1775, 1818 and 1850. The paintings on the west wall were entirely destroyed and most of the others were heavily painted over and

have not yet been restored making it difficult to study their original style and subject matter. They seem to have been better preserved on the upper parts of the cathedral.

It is well worth taking a look at what remains of the seventeenth-century frescoes. The vaulted ceiling of the north narthex is devoted to the exaltation of the Virgin Mary to whom the cathedral is dedicated.

The paintings on the left half of the north wall show the half-length figures of apostles in ornamental medallions with a de­corative band beneath them. The same theme of the exal­tation of the Virgin Mary is developed in the painting on the south narthex where the original frescoes are to be found on the lower section of the west wall. These show beautiful flying angels with trumpets and the fig­ures of two people climbing trees. On the southwest pil­lar under the dome there is a fragment of the 1635-1636 frescoes which the nineteenth-century "restorers" simply renovated here and there without making any altera­tions. There are a few more fragments of the seven­teenth-century murals in other parts of the main body of the cathedral, such as a group of the righteous from the Last Judgment on the north side of the southwest pillar and the splendid half-length figures of saints in large medallions on the right side of the central apse. One of the most beautiful of these is the picture of Archdeacon Stefan dressed in white robes with greenish folds in a glowing medallion of yellow ochre. These fragments in­dicate that the cathedral was originally decorated with large compositions executed in austere colours reflecting the great traditions of early fresco painting.

The interior of the cathedral was altered at the end of the seventeenth century to the form in which we see it today. On the instructions of Metropolitan Illarion the old choir-gallery was removed and the tombstones which had stood under the gallery on the graves of prin­ces and bishops, about forty in all, were also taken away. The entrance to the choir-gallery was blocked up and the first floor of the narthex was demolished. At the same time the old windows were widened. Thus the beautiful old building was ruthlessly adapted to suit new architectural tastes.

The present iconostasis was also commissioned by Illarion at the end of the seventeenth century. Its style is in keeping with old traditions however. The design is simple, with no traces of the sumptuous extravagance of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the most important element in the iconostasis was not the icons but their rich mounting. The iconostasis in the Suzdal cathedral is still imbued with the strict hieratical concept of subordination to the supreme power of God and his earthly rulers. It is simple, but impressive, and looks like a flat wall covered with sheets of gilded silver forming a shining background against which the severe figures of the saints stand with their heads bowed reverently towards the central point occupied by the icon of Christ. The icon-painters who included Grigory Zinovyev, one of the tsar's gifted artists, were still mas­ters of the art of simple impressive lines undisturbed by the excessive use of small detail and a riot of colour. The best view of the iconostasis as a whole is from the west wall, where it immediately strikes the spectator with full force. Some of the painting was renewed at the end of the eighteenth century.

In the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centu­ries when the cathedral was undergoing large-scale re­building and alteration, a number of fine new buildings were erected near it forming the group which we see today.

70. Archbishop's Palace. West front.15th-18th centuries

In 1635 a large cathedral bell-tower with a tent-shaped roof and a small church in its lower section (Ill. 61) was erected opposite the cathedral's south wall by Archbishop Serapion. Unlike many other Suzdal buildings of a similar type, this powerful, severe octagonal structure with pilaster strips on its corners seems to rise naturally out of the ground. At the base of its tent-shaped spire there is a gently sloping projection (politsa) frequently found in fortified towers. The tall imposing outline of this building fitted in well with the majestic dimensions of the cathedral, enhancing the role of the Kremlin as a focal point in the mass of small buildings that had spread out around it. Towards the end of the seventeenth century the bell-tower was given a clock which not only struck every hour but also had a small bell that gave a silvery tinkle every minute. Accounts of the great fire of 1577 in Suzdal mention the stone buildings of the Archbishop's Palace by the ca­thedral. The extremely complex ensemble which we see today consists of buildings erected between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries (Ill. 70). Alexei Varganov's investigations have shown that the oldest section is the Bishop's Palace in the southeast corner dating back to the late fifteenth century. The present north wing of the block facing the cathedral's west portal (Ill. 61) stands on the site of the former Church of John Theologos built in 1528. In 1559 the bishop's private chapel was erected to the west of the palace, with a refectory, an attractive parvis and, something rarely found in the architecture of central Russia, two intersecting double-sloped roofs giving a gable on each of the four sides, similar to those found in Novgorod and Pskov churches of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. At the end of the seventeenth century the old buildings of the bishop's palace were in­corporated into the new, larger Archbishop's Palace erected for the Suzdal Metropolitan Illarion between 1682 and 1707. The front of the main building (111. 61) with its wide windows decorated with elaborate surrounds faced on to the cathedral courtyard and was closely linked with the cathedral, both architecturally and func­tionally. The main entrance to the palace, crowned by a tiny tent-shaped spire decorated with greenish-turquoise tiles, is situated directly opposite the west portal of the cathedral. Two broad ceremonial flights of steps lead up to the large vestibule on the first floor through which the visitor passed into a vast hall without pillars, the main reception hall known as the Cross Chamber (Krestovaya Palata). The hall's vaulted ceiling was removed in 1874. The area beyond this was taken up by a number of rooms used for various domestic purposes. The ground floor, also vaulted, was used for storage, etc. In the eighteenth century the old bishop's refectory church was joined to the main building of the palace. In order to get an idea of what the palace originally looked like one must imagine it with steep, hipped roofs instead of the present flat roof which makes the building look some­what like a barracks. Alexei Varganov's detailed study and restoration work on the Archbishop's Palace, com­pleted in 1951, enabled him to reconstruct its original appearance (Ill. 71).

71. Archbishop's Palace. East front. Reconstruc­tion by A. Varganov.

We must also say a word about those sections of the cathedral ensemble which have not survived. The bell-tower was originally linked with the first floor of the palace by a gallery supported by brick pillars. All that remains of this passage today is the portal on the south­east corner of the palace. The gallery flanked the west and north sides of the bell-tower and led to the Metro­politan's small private Chapel of the Annunciation erected next to the tower. A tall porch decorated with niches and tiles ran from the gallery to the courtyard below directly opposite the south portal of the cathedral. Thus the seventeenth-century architects were constantly concerned to link their buildings with the old cathedral, seeing them as parts of a single, harmonious whole. The system of connecting separate buildings by means of galleries and passages raised on pillars is typical of early Russian domestic architecture, as we have already seen in the twelfth-century palace at Bogolyubovo.

Let us now go and stand on the Kremlin’s old northern ramparts from which you have a splendid view of the town and its various historic buildings.