Most people know this cathedral not by its official name - Intercession Cathedral, but by the name of St. Basil, who was buried in it. This temple has become a symbol of Rus', the personification of its spirit, although it cannot be called typical and traditional. And it still remains a mystery who built this amazing structure.
All more or less educated inhabitants of the planet know its appearance, even those who have never been to Russia. The Assumption or Archangel Cathedrals may not be recognized, the Bolshoi Theater may be confused with the Pushkin Museum, and St. Basil's will be identified immediately. It is an internationally recognized symbol of our country, just as the Eiffel Tower is a symbol of France, the Parthenon is a symbol of Greece, the Colosseum is a symbol of Italy, and the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of America. They may not know the exact name of the Intercession Cathedral itself, but Moscow and Russia, looking at it, will certainly say the words. As does the name of Red Square, which, precisely thanks to the temple standing on it, received the unofficial status of the main square in the country.
Who should violate the royal decrees if not the autocrat himself!
The Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, which is on the Moat, and this is how this cathedral is officially called, was built about half a century later than the famous Kremlin cathedrals - the Assumption, Archangel and Annunciation. The reason for its creation was quite significant - the capture of Kazan and the annexation of the Volga region to the Moscow state. This was an event of enormous significance. Firstly, the capture of the Volga region very significantly increased the territory of the country and brought Russia to the rank of the largest countries in Europe, while simultaneously opening the way to the east. And secondly, the capture of Kazan was the most important symbolic act: for three hundred years our ancestors carried tribute there, and now Kazan itself has become a subject of the Russian Tsar! Agree, an event of such a scale had to be reflected monumentally, and since other forms of triumphs (gates, monuments, etc.) were not accepted then, they decided to build a temple. The official name of the cathedral contains the word “votive” - the fact is that Ivan IV, even before the Volga campaign, promised to thank the Almighty by building a large temple (that is, he made a vow) and kept his word.
Plan of the Kremlin, engraving by Kilian, 1610
Image: Vladislav Osipov / Lori Photobank
Why was it decided to build not in the Kremlin, but outside its walls? There was not much free space in the Kremlin, but new large cathedrals were in abundance. The temple was not conceived as a main or cathedral, therefore it could well have been somewhat distant from the center. In addition, the opportunity arose to build it in a very convenient place - a large shopping area behind the “Aleviz” moat, between Ilyinka and Varvarka. Previously, building here was prohibited for fortification reasons - there had to be a free space that could be shot through in front of the Kremlin walls. But in 1538, the construction of the powerful Kitay-Gorod wall was completed, so the eastern part of the Kremlin fortifications (now additionally covered by Kitay-Gorod) somewhat lost its defensive function, and it was decided to ignore the ban. After all, who could violate the royal decrees if not the autocrat himself!
According to tradition, it is generally accepted that the temple was first made of wood. According to one version, several wooden churches were initially erected, and then one stone cathedral was built in their place. These “legends” agree rather poorly with reality and have only indirect confirmation, even hints.
Since the architect was entrusted with the construction of such a significant object on Red Square, it means he was well known. But then there must be evidence of his early buildings that made him famous. We do not observe anything like this, although it is obvious that an experienced, mature master worked on the Intercession Cathedral. The second question is also natural: where did this amazing master (or masters) disappear after the construction of the Intercession Church? What did he build next? There is no exact answer either. Apparently, this mysterious circumstance gave rise to a huge number of later legends, the most famous of which says that the formidable king blinded the craftsmen so that they could not create anything of equal size. But this, of course, is just a legend: Ivan IV, undoubtedly, was still a “murderer,” but still, not to that extent...
So, in everything connected with the Intercession Cathedral, there are much more legends than accurate data. The main reason is the lack of contemporary written sources, which either did not exist or died. This is due to regular fires, Ivan’s difficult relationship with the church (and chronicle writing was mostly carried out in monasteries), and the “oprichnina,” when the royal court and the office left the Kremlin, and the subsequent turmoil of the Time of Troubles. In a sense, we can say that the construction of the Intercession Cathedral became a symbol of the highest rise of Muscovite Rus'; it seemed to crown the century-long cycle of state creation and the early stage of the reign of Ivan IV. Perhaps this explains the inimitable grandeur of the temple: it was built as if at a peak, followed by a decline, and then a shift in cultural accents. It is clear that during the period of internal strife and the Troubles there was no time for much construction.
Construction of the cathedral. Miniature of the Facial Chronicle Code
Image: ru.wikipedia.org
We have almost no written data on modern construction. Neither in terms of precise instructions about the tsar’s orders related to construction, nor in relation to the authorship of the cathedral. There are only indirect references in texts that are not directly related to the cathedral. For example, in “The Tale of the Transfer of the Miraculous Image of Nicholas the Wonderworker” or in the text of “The Russian Chronicler from the beginning of the Russian Land to the accession to the throne of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.” These monuments are quite late, not earlier than the 17th century. In the first there is the following phrase: the Tsar (Ivan IV), after the capture of the city of Kazan, “soon erected wooden churches, seven thrones, which would be around the great throne, a stone church, near the Frolovsky Gate bridge above the moat. And then God gave him two Russian masters, according to Postnik and Barm, and wisdom and convenience for such a wonderful task.”
This was written at least a hundred years later than the construction of the cathedral and is apparently based on folk tradition. The researchers were surprised that the first of the architects (Postnik) was named by name, the second (Barma) by a nickname. By the way, “by advertisement” in the tradition of that time means “by nickname,” and not by name. Experts have mixed interpretations of the meaning and possible origin of the nickname “Barma”. It may be associated with the name of a part of the ceremonial attire of kings and high clergy, which descended from the headdress to the shoulders. Such barmas were usually richly decorated, so the nickname could indicate the artistic abilities of its owner. Another option is associated with the outdated linguistic characteristic of incomprehensible, slurred speech. Similar words have been preserved to this day: mutter or babble. It can be assumed that the bearer of the nickname had diction defects or a special way of speaking, say, some kind of dialect.
But let's return to the sources. In the author of the second chronicle mentioned above, we find a more surprising statement: “In the same year (7068–1560), by order of the Tsar and Sovereign and Grand Duke Ivan, a votive church was started, which was promised in the capture of Kazan, the Trinity and the Intercession and seven chapels called the moat, and the master was Barma and his comrades.”
Notice that there is no smell of Fasting anymore...
And yet, we have reached us with an authentic royal decree dated December 15, 1555, sent to Novgorod to clerks Fyodor Eremeev and Kazarin Dubrovsky, in which the sovereign commanded “the Pskov deacon Shershny Bilibin, and the Pskov elders Bogdan Kovyrin, and Semyon Mizinov, and with them the church and the city foreman Postnik Yakovlev and the Pskov mason Ivashka Shirya from his comrades, by spring, in the new Kazan city of Kazan, make stones, select two hundred people of Pskov masons, wall masons and clappers, as many as there are handy people.”
Plan of the second floor of the Intercession Cathedral
Image: ru.wikipedia.org
Here Postnik Yakovlev “pops up”, but Barma is not there. But we can talk about one person - Postnik, nicknamed “Barma”. Then alternation in mentioning his name and nickname can be allowed. There is also a clear indication of the master’s Pskov origin and his work in Kazan. This may be the answer to many questions.
The last documentary evidence dates back to 1633. This is an entry in the manuscript of the Code of Law of 1550, which tells us where this document was kept by “the solicitor and servant of the Moscow service of the Tarutyev Squad, son of Postnikov, according to Barma.” That is, Druzhina was the son of Tarutia and, obviously, the grandson of Postnik, nicknamed (advertised) “Barma”. And everything seems to coincide in time. Another confirmation that Postnik and Barma are, respectively, the name and nickname of the same person. Today, this version is considered the most likely. As well as the fact that after working in Moscow, Postnik Yakovlev, nicknamed Barma, was sent to Kazan, where he built a fortress and cathedrals. There is no exact data, but based on his artistic style, architectural historians are inclined to consider his works to include the Annunciation Collection and the Spassky Church of the Kazan Kremlin, as well as the Assumption and St. Nicholas churches in Sviyazhsk. This is a city founded by Ivan IV as an outpost for the capture of Kazan.
He denounced thieves and embezzlers, shared his meager alms with the suffering, and healed the bodies and souls of people. They say that Ivan the Terrible himself was afraid of him
But let's return to the Intercession Cathedral. According to the initial plan, it was supposed to include several (perhaps eight) chapels, each of which symbolized the most important events of the Kazan battle and thanked the patron saint of a particular day. On the day of commemoration of Alexander Svirsky and the Three Patriarchs of Constantinople (September 12, new style), a victory was won over the army of Tsarevich Epanchi, who was rushing from Crimea to help the Tatars. On the day of Gregory, the enlightener of Great Armenia, (October 13, new style), the Arsk Tower exploded. Well, on the day of Cyprian and Justina (October 15, new style), the final assault on Kazan began. Three more chapels, for similar reasons, are dedicated to Nikolai Velikoretsky, Varlaam Khutynsky and the Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. The central throne is named in honor of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, for on her day - October 14 - the main assault on Kazan took place.
The architect (with some degree of convention, we will still call him Postnik Barma, son of Jacob) decided to unite all the boundaries in one building, maintaining the relative independence of each church. This is how this amazing shape turned out - one central dome, four smaller domes on the cardinal points and four more diagonally. It could have turned out to be cluttered and chaotic, but thanks to the amazing proportions it turned out to be a real masterpiece. The temple turned out to be elegant, light, and at the same time intricate and complex. It bears obvious features of wooden architecture, echoing the motifs of carved churches of the Russian north. If all the Kremlin cathedrals are cross-domed, then the Intercession Church was created in a new tent style. We know of only two earlier similar stone structures (in Kolomenskoye and Alexandrova Sloboda), but they are not comparable in scale to the Intercession Cathedral. This new style will become decisive for many years, but it will not be possible to create something more majestic than the Intercession Cathedral. It remains the standard of tent architecture.
The cathedral was built of brick, which made it possible to richly decorate the facades, drums and even domes. Initially, it was two-color red and white; the modern bright color appeared later, at the end of the 17th century (according to another version, in the 18th century, under Catherine) century, when the temple was being repaired after a fire. At the same time, the galleries, or “gulbishche,” were covered and glazed, a porch appeared, and the bell tower was connected to the main building.
Barma and Postnik(XV century) - architects, authors of the Intercession Cathedral (St. Basil's Cathedral) on Red Square in Moscow.
During the construction of the temple Barma and Postnik They did not use a working drawing in the modern sense of the word, they built according to the “dimensions” drawn on the construction site, as well as according to a gigantic life-size model of the future cathedral made of wood.
Subsequently, wooden structures remaining from this huge full-scale model were discovered in the brickwork of the temple.
Many people know the terrible legend associated with the creators of St. Basil's Cathedral.
When Tsar Ivan the Terrible first saw the built temple, he was delighted with its beauty and splendor. Ivan the Terrible summoned the architects who built the temple and asked if they could create one that was the same or perhaps even more beautiful? “We can,” the architects answered. “But you can’t!” - the king exclaimed maliciously and ordered the architects’ eyes to be gouged out.
The poet D. B. Kedrin dedicated an entire poem to the builders of the Intercession Cathedral, which is called “The Architects.”
In the poem, Ivan the Terrible questions the masters.
“Can you make it more beautiful,
More beautiful than this temple
Different, I say?”
And, shaking his hair,
The architects answered:
Order, sir!
And they hit the king’s feet.
And then the sovereign
He ordered that these architects be blinded, so that in his land
There was one standing like this,
So that in the Suzdal lands
And in the lands of Ryazan
They didn’t build a better temple than the Church of the Intercession!..
An old Moscow legend says that when in a camp church near Kazan at a lunch service the deacon proclaimed the Gospel verses: “Let there be one flock and one shepherd,” part of the fortress wall of the enemy city, under which a tunnel was made, flew into the air, and Russian troops entered to Kazan.
Then, apparently, Ivan the Terrible decided to build a temple in honor of the victory over Kazan. The city was taken in 1552, and in 1554 this great shrine was founded near the Frolovsky (Spassky) Gate on the site of the wooden Church of the Holy Trinity above the Kremlin moat. Since the conquest of Kazan took place on October 1, on the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, the new cathedral was named Intercession Cathedral in honor of this day. Popular rumor spread the rumor that Ivan the Terrible supposedly built this temple in honor of his father, Grand Duke Vasily III: “People will remember me even without churches for a thousand years, but I want my parent to be remembered.”
The temple was consecrated by Metropolitan Macarius on July 29, 1557 in the presence of the tsar, but construction was continued by the son of Ivan the Terrible, Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, under whom the relics of St. Basil the Blessed, and subsequent sovereigns of the Romanov dynasty. Each new ruler added some detail to the temple, which made it so unique. However, the construction of the temple was officially completed on June 29, 1561.
Barma and Postnik. Alone or together?
Historians argue that this legend can be refuted by the fact that the name of Faster later appears in the chronicle in connection with the creation of other significant architectural structures.
Encrypted image of a lost mosque
There are many legends about the Intercession Cathedral. According to one of them, the temple is an inaccurate copy of the Kul-Sharif mosque in Kazan. When the army of Ivan the Terrible stormed the city, the tsar was angry with the resistance of the residents, he ordered the demolition of the beautiful mosque immediately after a successful assault. The gilded domes of the mosque, according to legend, were taken to Moscow on twelve carts. St. Basil's Cathedral, erected in honor of the conquest of Kazan, carries an encrypted image of the lost mosque. The eight chapters of the Moscow temple repeat the eight minarets of Kul-Sharif, and the ninth, as a symbol of victory, dominates them. Historians cannot completely deny this legend, because supposedly the architect was simultaneously working on Red Square and in Kazan, where he was erecting new walls of the Kremlin.
Researchers of the architecture of the Intercession Cathedral have repeatedly emphasized that it was not just a votive temple (that is, built according to a given vow), and its concept was not limited to thanksgiving for the Kazan victory.
The cathedral was supposed to become a temple for the glorification of the victory of Muscovite Rus', it was supposed to perpetuate the memory of those who died “for their friends” under the walls of Kazan, and, finally, the cathedral simultaneously marked the highest award “in the kingdom of heaven”, which they were supposed to receive, according to the teachings of the church , killed, and embodied the idea of Moscow as the “new Jerusalem” (the world center bringing salvation to the Orthodox world). That is, the Intercession Cathedral, on the one hand, was interpreted as a symbol of the heavenly city - the Mountainous Jerusalem, which was embodied in it through images of cheerful, festive, “paradise” architecture, and on the other hand, as an image of earthly Jerusalem, connected with the image and realities of the Temple Holy Sepulcher. It is Jerusalem that the cathedral is called by foreigners who visited in the 16th century. Muscovy and left notes about their travels.
Unique architecture of the Temple
Initially, the Intercession Cathedral was somewhat different from what we see now. First they built a wooden model, and then “translated” it into stone. This feature was also reflected in the architecture of the temple, which, with its tiered towers, tents and passages, resembles the northern wooden churches in the Karelian, Arkhangelsk, Vologda and Kostroma sides.
Not a single dome in this cathedral replicates another. One of them is densely dotted with golden cones, they are like stars in the sky on a dark night; on the other, scarlet belts run in zigzags across a bright field; the third resembles a peeled orange with yellow and green segments. Each dome is decorated with cornices, kokoshniks, windows, and niches. In general, the cathedral creates a feeling of festivity and elegance. Until the end of the 17th century, until the bell tower of Ivan the Great was built on the territory of the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral was the tallest building in Moscow. The height of the cathedral is 60 meters. The aisles are connected to each other by a system of transitions
Each church received consecration in connection with church holidays, on the days of which important events of the Kazan campaign occurred. The central pillar-shaped temple, crowned with a tent, is named in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. Eight temple-altars surrounding the central pillar were consecrated in honor of the Holy Trinity, the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, St. Nicholas of Velikoretsky, St. Cyprian and Ustinya, Three Patriarchs of Alexandria, St. Gregory of Armenia, St. Varlaam of Khutyn and Alexander of Svir.
The temple acquired its present multi-colored appearance in the second half of the 18th century under Catherine II. Then it was reconstructed: 16 small domes around the towers were demolished, preserving the octal symbolism at the base, and the hipped bell tower was connected to the cathedral building. At the same time, the cathedral acquired a modern color and became a real miracle.
The temple is famous for its underground passages. A large-scale survey of the temple was carried out in 1924 by D. P. Sukhov and I. Ya. Stelletsky. Under the side-chapel of John the Merciful, they discovered a walled-up room, in the floor of which a deep hole could be seen (soon filled up).
The loophole windows of the found room were blocked with bricks. "In the lower tier of the church, instead of ordinary windows, there are embrasures, both from the side of the river and from the side of Red Square [...]. In the labyrinth of the cathedral basements, the approaches to the embrasures are the same as for the cannons in the towers of Kitay-Gorod and any of the monasteries,” wrote I. Ya. Stelletsky.
This discovery led Stelletsky to the idea that in the 16th century the lower part of St. Basil's Cathedral was intended for combat.
The tenth church - the Church of St. Basil - was added in 1588. So the temple became ten-domed and received its second, unofficial name - St. Basil's Cathedral.
Vasily for Christ's sake the holy fool
According to legend, Basil the Blessed, the most revered holy fool in Rus', himself collected money from the floor for the future Church of the Intercession, brought it to Red Square and threw it over his right shoulder, and no one, not even thieves, touched these coins. And before his death, in August 1552, he gave them to Ivan the Terrible, who soon ordered the construction of a temple on this site.
Vasily was born in 1469, in the Moscow suburban village of Elokhov. His parents, peasants, sent him to study shoemaking. A hardworking and God-fearing young man, his life tells us, Vasily was awarded the gift of insight, which was discovered by chance. A man came to Vasily’s owner to order boots and asked to make ones that would last for several years. Vasily smiled at this. When the owner asked what this smile meant, Vasily replied that the man who ordered boots for several years would die tomorrow. This is exactly what happened.
Vasily, sixteen years old, left his master and skill and began the feat of foolishness, which he performed for 72 years, without shelter and clothing, subjecting himself to great hardships, burdening his body with chains that still lie on his coffin. The life of the Blessed One describes how he taught the people moral life both by word and example.
Many legends, stories and miracles are associated with the name of St. Basil. For example, one day thieves, noticing that the saint was wearing a good fur coat given to him by a boyar, decided to deceive him out of it. One of them pretended to be dead, and the others asked Vasily for burial. Vasily covered the “dead” with his fur coat, but, seeing the deception, said at the same time: “Be you from now on dead for your wickedness; for it is written: let the wicked be consumed.” The deceiver really died.
They say that in the summer of 1547 the Blessed One came to the Ascension Monastery on Ostrog (now Vozdvizhenka) and prayed for a long time in front of the church with tears. So he foreshadowed the terrible Moscow fire, which began the next day precisely from the Vozdvizhensky Monastery. Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible honored and feared the Blessed One, “as a seer of human hearts and thoughts.” When, shortly before his death, Vasily fell into a serious illness, the Tsar himself visited him with Tsarina Anastasia. Vasily died on August 2, 1552.
The Tsar himself and the boyars carried his bed; Metropolitan Macarius performed the burial. The body of the Blessed One was buried in the cemetery of the Trinity Church, in the Moat, where the Intercession Cathedral was later built.
From 1588 they began to talk about miracles occurring at the tomb of Blessed Basil; As a result, Patriarch Job determined to celebrate the memory of the miracle worker on the day of his death, August 2. Tsar Theodore Ioannovich ordered a chapel to be built in the Intercession Cathedral in the name of St. Basil the Blessed, on the spot where he was buried, and built a silver reliquary for his relics. Since ancient times, the memory of the Blessed One in Moscow has been celebrated with great solemnity: the patriarch himself served and the tsar was present at the service.
Temple Treasures
The relics of St. Basil are not the only value of the Temple. Especially for him in the 18th century. three unique facade icons were painted, which are still kept in the cathedral to this day: “The Sign with the Saints in the Fields”, its replica and “The Intercession with the upcoming Basil and John the Blessed”.
The icon “The Sign with the Saints in the Fields” on the eastern side of the Trinity Church is the earliest, from the first quarter of the 18th century. According to the head of the cathedral, V.L. Belyankin, “oral tradition says that this icon was painted with special art using wet lime instead of oil paints made with water.” This icon has a supposed author - icon painter Timofey Arkhipov, buried in 1737 near the walls of the Church of the Miracle of St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Chudov Monastery.
The icon immediately became revered, and later was considered miraculous. This was the reason for the appearance of a replica of it on a wooden base, made in the 80s. XVIII century The icons are distinguished by the composition of the saints in the margins. The icon is striking in its size - 2.84 x 2.84 m. The third icon - "The Intercession with the upcoming Basil and John the Blessed" - has equally large dimensions (2.6 x 3.8 m) and is located on the southern wall of the bell tower of the Intercession Cathedral .
The appearance of the Mother of God icons “The Sign” and “The Intercession” on the walls of the cathedral is natural. The subjects of the Intercession and the Sign of the Mother of God carry the same symbolic load - the intercession of the Mother of God in the face of the enemy, as well as the affirmation of the patronage of the Mother of God to the Orthodox people.
In total, St. Basil's Cathedral has 9 iconostases, which contain about 400 icons from the 16th to 19th centuries, representing the best examples of the Novgorod and Moscow icon painting schools. The walls of the cathedral are decorated with oil paintings and frescoes of the 16th-19th centuries. In addition to icons, the cathedral displays portrait and landscape paintings of the 19th century, and church utensils from the 16th to 19th centuries. Among the particularly valuable exhibits is a 17th century chalice that belonged to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
Miraculous Rescues
The Temple of extraordinary beauty was repeatedly tried to be demolished, but each time the Temple miraculously remained standing in place. In 1812, Napoleon, leaving the devastated capital of Russia, ordered the bombing of the Intercession Cathedral along with the Kremlin. However, in their haste, the French did not have time to make the required number of tunnels, and the Kremlin was undermined only in five places - the churches remained undamaged. As for the Intercession Cathedral, it was not damaged, since the rain extinguished the lit wicks.
After the revolution, the Intercession Cathedral was once again miraculously saved. Its last rector, Archpriest John Vostorgov, especially hated by the Bolsheviks, was shot in 1919, and in 1929 the temple was finally closed, the bells were melted down. In the thirties, Lazar Kaganovich, who succeeded in destroying the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Kazan Cathedral of the Kremlin and other churches in Moscow, proposed demolishing the Intercession Cathedral to clear the place for parades and demonstrations.
There is a popular legend that he made a model of Red Square with a removable Intercession Cathedral and brought it to Stalin. Proving that the temple interfered with cars and demonstrations, he unexpectedly tore the temple from the square. The stunned Stalin allegedly uttered the historical phrase: “Lazarus, put him in his place!” The famous restorer P. D. Baranovsky sent telegrams to Stalin calling on him to save the temple. There were rumors that supposedly Baranovsky, invited to the Kremlin on this issue, knelt before the assembled Central Committee, begging not to destroy the temple, and this had an effect. True, Baranovsky subsequently received a considerable prison sentence.
The temple stands and remains a true symbol of Moscow and Russia. “This monument, known to the whole world,” says historian I.E. Zabelin, “due to its originality, has taken its place in the general history of architecture and at the same time serves as a typical feature of Moscow itself, a special feature of the originality and uniqueness that Moscow, as old Russian city, generally different from the cities of Western Europe. In its own way, it is the same, if not even greater, Moscow, and, moreover, a folk wonder, like Ivan the Great, the Tsar Bell, the Tsar Cannon. Western travelers and scientific researchers of the history of architecture are very sensitive to any originality and originality, they have long appreciated this wonderful monument of Russian art" ("Features of originality in ancient Russian architecture").
The material was prepared by the online editorswww.rian.ru based on information from RIA Novosti Agency and other sources
Barma and Postnik
Klobukov reported to the Tsar what the search had led to. Macarius remembered the name of Barma and praised the Dyakovo church; although the Metropolitan had not seen it for many years, the memory of the majestic structure remained firmly in his mind.
“Yes, such an architect will be able to accomplish a great task...” said Macarius thoughtfully.
The king indicated: find Barma and Postnik. They decided to inspect the Dyakovo church later, in the presence of the builder himself.
Klobukov was faced with a new task: to quickly find the architects. Where to look for them? Rus' is vast, and no one knows in which region Barma and Postnik are building.
But the king was in a hurry, and messengers galloped to all the governors with orders:
“If in the region that you, boyar, rule, the famous architects Barma and Postnik are found, without delaying a single day, send them to Moscow under strict supervision, and if in that sovereign matter you, boyar, show negligence, then the answer will be you will be questioned to the fullest extent..."
Locally, the royal order caused a lot of commotion. Some governors imagined that Postnik and Barma would run away if they found out that they were being sought, and therefore the search was carried out secretly. Others reasoned more sensibly: if architects are called famous, then royal favor awaits them, and they must be sought publicly. The privets went through the cities and villages, loudly promising a reward to anyone who would bring to the attention of the authorities the whereabouts of Postnik and Barma.
The trace of the architects was found near Yaroslavl, in the Tolga Monastery; there they repaired the monastery walls.
The delighted governor sent a whole detachment led by a bailiff to fetch the architects. The order was this: immediately pick up Postnik and Barma and take them to Moscow under strict supervision.
The governor impressed upon the bailiff for so long the importance of the royal task entrusted to him that he wanted to shackle the architects hand and foot, fearing their malicious escape. The faster spent a long time convincing him that they were not going to run away, and gave him a generous offering; then the bailiff treated the builders more gently: he seated each one in a separate cart and surrounded him with a dense ring of archers.
So Postnik and Barma were taken to Moscow and installed in the hut of the Ambassadorial Prikaz. Ivan Timofeevich Klobukov visited the architects on the day they arrived and talked with them for a long time.
The architects spoke sparingly about their lives.
- What a lot to talk about! - Barma, a stocky old man with a curly gray head, was surprised. – We walked around Rus', built. I worked there for a year, there for another, from place to place, from city to city, from village to village - I looked at myself, and already old age had approached, and my head was in silver... So I lived my life as a bog, I didn’t have time to get married while working. So I tell Postnik: “Hey, guy, before it’s too late, start a family, otherwise you’ll remain a loner, like me!” So he still has no time and no time...
The fasting man, a fair-haired, powerfully built man who was already in his fourth decade, smiled good-naturedly:
“They won’t find brides for me: I’ve been wandering around since I was young with a mentor, I haven’t built a nest yet.” Now I need to go to my homeland, Pskov, and build a house there - maybe then I’ll become a family man...
But Barma and Postnik talked a lot and willingly about their construction projects. Barma told in detail how he built a temple in Dyakovo for Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich. Vasily Ivanovich, although he was burdened with government affairs, was still very interested in construction and often visited Dyakovo. And when the temple was built, he generously rewarded Barma and wanted to donate stone chambers in Moscow.
“My will is dear to me, sir,” Barma replied then, “and these chambers will be to me like an iron cage for a bird...
And the architect again went to wander around Rus'. Attracted by his fame, the Pskovite Ivan Yakovlev, nicknamed Postnik, came to him as a student, and since then, for many years, they have been inseparable. The faster did not leave his old mentor, even though he had long since become equal in skill to him.
Klobukov did not hide from the architects the purpose for which they were brought to Moscow and what hopes were placed on them, but he asked not to tell anyone about the royal plans.
Klobukov was pleased with the conversation with the architects and reported their arrival to the king. Two days later a reception took place.
The Metropolitan sat at the side of the Tsar in a simple, not fluffy cassock; Klobukov stood behind him, stroking his thick red beard and making calming signs to Postnik.
- Here we are, your servants, sir! - said Barma. - Demanded us before your bright eyes?
“I welcome you upon your arrival,” answered the king. - How is the earth bearing you, old man?
“Just as I served your father, Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich, so I can still serve your royal majesty!” – Barma’s voice was calm and joyful.
“I’m having tea,” Timofeevich told you why we called you. After long deliberation, we decided to build a wonderful temple in Moscow in memory of the great Kazan campaign...
- We heard, sir!
“We need to erect such a monument so that it can stand for centuries and remind us of the unknown warriors who laid down their lives for the Russian cause, the peasant cause!” – The king’s voice thundered, his cheeks glowed.
“A great thing, sir!” Barma agreed.
- Not everything has been said yet! - the king interrupted him. “We need to build such a temple, the likes of which have not happened in Rus' since the beginning of time, and so that foreigners, looking at it, would be amazed and say: “Russians know how to build!” This is what we keep in mind with the Reverend Bishop! Do you understand this, architects?
The Metropolitan nodded in complete agreement with the Tsar. Klobukov smiled encouragingly from behind the Tsar’s back.
– I’m glad to hear such speeches, sir! - said Barma.
– Why are you silent, Faster?
“I am in the rank of the learned, sir,” the Faster answered modestly. – It is up to the mentor to decide, and I will not deviate from his will...
“It seems to me, sir, that these are the kind of masters we need,” said Macarius.
– Will you take it, Barma? Answer! - the king turned to the architect.
Barma bowed low:
- If it’s not too much trouble, great sir, wait until tomorrow. The answer is difficult. Let's take it - there's nowhere to back away!
“It’s a big deal, think about it,” agreed Ivan Vasilyevich.
The next day the conversation resumed.
“We are undertaking to build, sir,” said Barma, having greeted the king. - How to refuse happiness!
“We don’t dare oppose,” the Faster said his word.
- I pity you with the fur coats from my shoulders! – exclaimed the pleased king. - You will be close to me.
Barma boldly objected:
“We’re not chasing after that, sir!” But we also do not refuse mercy, for if we are not in your honor, then your boyars will interfere with us.
The king's face darkened, his eyes looked angry:
- These are the boyars for me! They sit in their yards, like catfish in pools, thinking - I won’t reach them. No, they’re playing pranks, Ivan of Moscow has long arms!.. And don’t be afraid of the boyars. But... work for me!
– If we don’t cope with the matter, we will hold the answer! – Barma said firmly. “Just don’t put obstacles in our way: so that we can be the masters of the matter.” Otherwise, if this day is like this, and tomorrow is different, then we won’t even begin to conceive...
The king liked Barma’s speech:
- Master, do you hear him talking? This is the Yermolin spirit in him! Remember, you told me about Ermolin and we wondered whether there are such masters today or not?
Macarius looked approvingly:
- He’s right, sir. To whom much is given, much is asked. But in order to ask, you must give.
- You are brave, you are brave, Barma! – Ivan Vasilyevich continued animatedly. - For such impudent speeches, should I cut off my head or have mercy? I have mercy: you were not afraid of my anger and spoke a straight word!
Barma said:
- Allow me, sir, to say: are we going to build from stone?
– What do you think?
– Wood is perishable, stone is eternal.
“We will build from stone,” the king decided.
“To make frames for such a temple and to present all the appearances is a long task, sir,” said Barma. “And even though Postnik is a great master at this, it will still take many months.” And I warn you, sir: don’t rush us - we’ll damage the matter with excessive haste.
“Be it your way,” the king agreed. - You will receive everything you need. I know that many of you will have business with me, therefore I determine that access to my palace is open to you at all times.
* * *A few days later, the tsar, accompanied by the metropolitan, nearby boyars and architects Postnik and Barma, made a trip to the village of Dyakovo to inspect the temple there.
Barma took Tsar Ivan around the aisles, explained how he built the temple, why he placed it that way.
More than two decades have passed since Barma last looked at the beautiful creation of his genius. It seemed to him then that he was already an old man. But now Barma realized how young he was at that time and how wise his life had become over the years since then.
“The location of this temple, sir,” said Barma, “is taken from ancient examples of our wooden churches. We, Russian architects, did not want to follow the Byzantine models, with their quadrangular appearance, more suitable for chambers. This temple is similar to the ancient Russian churches with trusses and a tent roof; it is made of stone, but, at the request of the builders, it could also be made of wood...
The five-domed Dyakovsky temple really pleased the tsar and those accompanying him. The temple was not crowned with five tents, but a transition to them was planned. The central, highest chapter rested on eight short columns, which concealed the transition from the octagon of the central tower to the light round drum.
“The appearance of this temple is very magnificent,” said the Metropolitan. “I’ve known him for a long time, but after your explanations, Barma, I look at him with new eyes.”
– Are you planning to build something like this? – Ivan asked the architects.
- We will try to do much more and better, sir! - the architects assured. – We will put all our efforts into the new cathedral so that it will be marvelous and show off to surprise and praise...
Writes Egor Kholmogorov ( holmogor) @ 2011-07-14 12:49:00
Builder of St. Basil's Cathedral
Once again I came across a repetition in blogs of the idiotic version that the builders of St. Basil, masters Barma and Postnik, were blinded by the ghoul Ivan the Terrible.
So, for those who remain wild, I remind you that Glory of the CPSU is not a person at all.
There were no two masters.
There was one master - Posnik Yakovlev, nicknamed Barma, originally from Pskov.
And no one blinded him.
On the contrary, he was sent to build the Kazan Kremlin, which would have been difficult, to put it mildly, for a blind man.
Kholmogorov refers to the article:
http://www.russiancity.ru/hbooks/h005.htm
N. F. Kalinin. Postnik Barma - builder of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow and the Kazan Kremlin
Soviet archeology, 1957, No. 3, pp. 261-263.
...
-262-
As you know, “by advertisement” means “by nickname.” This expression is placed in the Old Russian language before a person’s nickname, and not before his own name. "Posnik" or "Postnik" is a proper name. “Barma” is clearly a nickname, meaning, perhaps, a skilled person, just as barmas were skillfully made - mantles for grand ducal and royal clothes, richly and variously decorated.
The name “Postnik” appears, for example, several times in the “Scribe Books of Kazan”.
- N.N. Voronin pointed out the meaning of the name Barma as a nickname. He believed that it was due to the master’s defective pronunciation (“Barma” - burr, speaking indistinctly) and that, perhaps, Postnik Yakovlev’s colleague Barma was a foreigner. See N. N. Voronin. Essays on the history of Russian architecture of the 16th-17th centuries. M.-L., 1934, p. 29, note. 1.
Another source has recently been published showing that the names Postnik and Barma actually refer to one, and not two, persons. The entry of 1633 in the manuscript of the Code of Law of 1550 (Archive of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, collection of N.P. Likhachev, No. 228) reads: “The Code of Law of the Solovetsky Monastery of the solicitor and servants of the Moscow services of the Tarutyev Squad, son of Posnikov, according to Barma’s admonition, surrendered Ivan Maksimov, Vologda customs clerk in 141.” It follows from the record that the manuscript of the Code of Laws of 1550 belonged until 1633 to the monastery solicitor, the Moscow serviceman Druzhina. Druzhina was the son of Tarutia and, obviously, the grandson of Posnik, who had the nickname “Barma”. It seems to us quite legitimate to identify this Posnik, according to the advert “Barma” (the grandfather of the owner of the manuscript in the first third of the 17th century) with the famous architect Postnik Yakovlev.
Law books of the XV-XVI centuries. M.-L., 1952. p. 117.
...
The figure of the “master of church and city affairs” Postnik Yakovlev, when identified with Barma, acquires even greater historical significance; Postnik-Barma grows to a size equal on the Russian scale to Western European masters of the Renaissance. We have the right to attribute the following architectural structures to Postnik Yakovlev Barma:
1. Cathedral of the Intercession (St. Basil the Blessed) in Moscow, 1555-1561.
2. Kazan Kremlin, 1556 and subsequent years.
3. Spasskaya Tower and Spasskaya Church of the Kazan Kremlin, 1556-1560.
4. St. Nicholas Church of the Assumption Monastery in Sviyazhsk, 1556
5. Assumption Cathedral in Sviyazhsk, 1560
6. Annunciation Cathedral of the Kazan Kremlin 1561
This list of his works convincingly suggests that in the second half of the 16th century. in Russia it is hardly possible to name another Russian master architect who would be equal to Posnik Barma.
Date according to I. Zabelin. See I. E. Zabelin. uk. cit., p. 156.
Date according to the Decree is December 15. 1555 and according to the “Scribe books of the city of Kazan”.
Date according to the same data. See also N. Kalinin. Spasskaya Tower of the Kazan Kremlin. Kazan, 1926.
Antiminus date 6 December. 1556 See M.K. Karger, uk. cit., p. 26.
M.K. Karger, uk. cit., p. 11.
K. F. Fuchs. Brief history of Kazan 1817 IOAIE, vol. XXI, 1905, p. 152, note. 105.
More about the same thing - but with pictures:
http://boris-vinnikov.ya.ru/replies.xml?item_no=256
December 14, 2010, 05:29
Boris Vinnikov writes
Postnik Yakovlev, church and city master.
His album of pictures (photos, scans):
http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/boris-vinnikov/view/255094/?page=0
There is useful information in the description and discussion.
For example, the link says that the Pskov authorities are destroying a medieval architectural monument in order to install a water pipe (in a hurry, on weekends).
I read what they write about the behavior of the local head of culture, Alexander Golyshev, under whom the tent of the Pokrovskaya Tower burned down, a restaurant settled in Vlasyevskaya, the thousand-year-old cultural layer of the Golden Embankment was rolled into concrete, the walls of the perfectly preserved Church of St. Euthymius the Great were broken through for water supply: “This is reminiscent of footage destruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior", "he publicly defended the decisions made and very aggressively attacked the press that criticized him, which, in his opinion, was making a fuss out of nowhere, without any reason."
I compared this with the behavior of the Sverdlovsk regional headquarters, Borodin - exactly the same aggressive behavior of washing himself away from the mess he is creating, shifting responsibility onto the defenders of Sagra, etc.
And I realized that against crowbar only with a crowbar - it is necessary to immediately conduct a very aggressive mass campaign, to get at the slightest sneeze is not the point.
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