St. George's Cathedral is an Orthodox church in the city of Yuriev—Polsky, Vladimir region, located on the territory of the ancient detinets, in a ring of earthen ramparts of the XII century, left over from the city Kremlin. It was built in 1230-1234 by Prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich. The last large white stone temple, which was built in Russia before the Tatar-Mongol invasion. It was significantly rebuilt in 1471.
Traditionally, it was believed that the cathedral
was built on the foundation of the white stone Church of St. George,
which was built in 1152 when the city was founded by Yuri Dolgoruky.
Archaeological research in recent years has shown that the temple of
1152 may have been located in another place (where exactly is still
unknown). Apparently, the original church was not much different
from the temple of Boris and Gleb in Kideksha near Suzdal, the
Savior in Pereslavl-Zalessky.
In 1230, Svyatoslav, the son of
Vsevolod III the Big Nest, dismantled the church, which was
"dilapidated and broken." Instead, four years later, they built "the
church of the miracle of zelo, velmi decorated with carved stones
from the sole to the top." According to the Tver Chronicle,
Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich was "a master himself", that is, he acted
as an architect and led a construction company. The same point of
view is held by modern researchers.
There were unique reliefs
on the walls of the cathedral, some of which were lost. About 450
carved white stone fragments have survived to our time, among which
there are images of saints, as well as animals, birds and griffins.
St. George's Cathedral is the only ancient Russian temple with an
image of an elephant.
No earlier than 1252 and no later than
the end of the XIV century, the Trinity Chapel was added to the
northeast corner of the temple, where the burial of Svyatoslav
Vsevolodovich was moved.
In 1326-1327, the Assumption
Cathedral was built in Moscow on the model of St. George's
Cathedral, which became the first stone church in Moscow.
In
the XV century, a significant part of the building collapsed. In
1471, by the forces of Vasily Ermolin, by order of the Grand Duke of
Moscow Ivan III, the cathedral was restored, but lost its original
proportions and became much more squat. At the same time, the
architect, understanding the significance of the historical
structure, did not replace the collapsed parts of the building with
brickwork, but collected all the white stone blocks and the reliefs
decorating them. However, having no sketches of the temple and its
exact plan, he placed most of the stones arbitrarily, confusing the
plots, resulting in a kind of "rebus" of white stone reliefs.
After the restoration in 1471 from the cathedral of 1230-1234,
the following were preserved: from the west — the first tier of the
narthex and the northern half of the wall to the top of the
arcature-columnar belt; from the east — the basement of the apses;
from the south — the narthex and adjacent walls (closer to the
corners they were preserved only to the basement); from the north —
the narthex and the most significant part the walls of the cathedral
(an arcature-columnar belt has survived on the central and western
strands).
The building restored by Ermolin was repeatedly
subjected to new changes and alterations. In 1781, a four-tiered
bell tower was added to the temple, in 1817 the Trinity Monastery
was expanded, which turned into a full-fledged temple, in 1827 a
sacristy was added to the south side. The ancient temple was
literally drowned in the later additions. The sad state of the
ancient monument of church architecture attracted the attention of
specialists in the culture of Ancient Russia. In particular, Nikodim
Kondakov wrote about this with regret. For the first time,
Archpriest Alexander Znamensky, who was rector of the temple from
1889 to 1917, proposed to free the ancient temple from the additions
of the XVIII—XIX centuries. Instead of the hypertrophied Trinity
chapel, a new Trinity Cathedral was built nearby (consecrated in
1915), but the dismantling of the outbuildings did not begin until
the October Revolution of 1917.
In 1923, the church was
closed. In 1923-1936, the bell tower, the sacristy and the warm
chapel were dismantled during restoration work led by Peter
Baranovsky and Igor Grabar. Subsequent restorations of the cathedral
were carried out in 1957-1962 and the 1980s.
George Wagner
completely or partially reconstructed the compositions: "Trinity",
"Crucifixion", "Seven sleeping Youths of Ephesus", "Daniel in the
Lion's Den", "Three Youths in the Cave of Fire", "Ascension of
Alexander the Great". Upon completion of the field, laborious and
thorough work, G. K. Wagner published a monograph, a special chapter
of which contains a story about the main master, whose name he tried
to establish. And earlier, various authors made assumptions about
the architect and author of the sculptural decoration of the
cathedral. Wagner, according to whose calculations from 8-9 to 11
craftsmen participated in the construction of the temple, in an
article written later, argued in detail the hypothesis that the main
one was the master who executed two reliefs of the Savior Not Made
with Hands on the wall of the northern porch above the entrance —
the right one with an inscription, which he considered to be the
autograph of the master himself.
At the end of 2015, by order
of the Russian Government, St. George's Cathedral was recognized as
a particularly valuable object of cultural heritage of the peoples
of the Russian Federation.
In 2017, the archive of restorer
Pyotr Baranovsky, who devoted almost forty years to the research of
St. George's Cathedral, became available. These documents give an
idea of the original appearance of the monument and are of great
help in developing a program to save it (recreate). As of May 2019,
St. George's Cathedral, which is a monument of federal significance,
already needed urgent restoration due to the rapid destruction.
Since the restoration of the cathedral should be carried out on a
scientific basis, the previous restoration project, supplemented by
research, will be finalized. The Ministry of Culture allocates funds
to finalize the research project.
The so—called "Svyatoslav's Cross" is a multi-part icon carved from stone, which is a sculptural composition depicting the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ with the upcoming ones, originally located in the central zakomara of one of the facades of St. George's Cathedral. It is currently on display in the interior of the temple and is part of the collection of the Yuriev-Polish Historical, Architectural and Art Museum. Tradition connects the placing of the cross with Prince Yurievsky Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, who later became the Grand Duke of Vladimir for a short time