Some features of the architectural and landscape complex of an old Russian monastery

Abstract

The old Russian monastery, having inherited the Byzantine principle of architectural organization, was read in a new way in the new landscape conditions. This paper proves that the landscape is not only a challenge, but also a creative task both for the existence of an ethnos and for architectural and artistic solutions.

The culture of the monasteries of the old Russia was associated both with the ideals of monastic silence, and with the need to master the landscape as a necessary part of spiritual life. The landscape was understood as a place of salvation, therefore it acquired an eschatological dimension, and at the same time as a place of the common doing, what influenced the architecture of monasteries and the specific place and role of the garden in the monastery.

The monastery garden turned out to be not only a place of solitude and economic activity, but also a necessary component of the ascetic ideal of beauty. A comparative historical study of these gardens allows us to show how that ideal of beauty shaped the specific principles of the life of Russian monks and the architectural solutions highly demanded outside the monastery as well. The influence of these decisions on landscape thinking in the modern Russia is also proved.