Ukraine. City of Chernigov. Pyatnitskaya Church. Church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, Pyatnitskaya Church (Chernigov) The period of spiritual revival of Ukraine

The Pyatnitskaya Church is located in the ancient city. The temple is named after the Christian great martyr Paraskeva, who was canonized. She has long been revered as the patroness of trade. The church was built near the Torg (marketplace), and for many centuries it has remained an active religious temple. The shrine had to endure many trials; it was destroyed more than once. However, now the Temple of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa has been restored, and anyone can visit it.

History of the temple

Pyatnitskaya Church in Chernigov was erected at the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th century. Scientists suggest that the temple was built with funds from wealthy merchants, or that the money was donated by Prince Igor, the hero of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”

Over its long history, the Pyatnitskaya Church was destroyed several times and then restored again. It was first rebuilt in 1670 - Cossack Colonel Vasily Dunin-Borkovsky gave money to replace the roof. As a result of reconstruction in 1676 and 1690, the building acquired the features of Ukrainian Baroque. The temple was also restored after a fire in 1750. The greatest damage to the shrine was caused during the Second World War (1943), when the explosion of an aerial bomb destroyed half of it. In 1962, the church was rebuilt again. Restorer Pyotr Baranovsky worked on the restoration of the Chernigov temple for 17 years. Today the church can be seen in its original form.

On November 10, according to the new style, the Orthodox venerate the Great Martyr Paraskeva Pyatnitsa. In a time of difficult trials for Russian Orthodoxy on the territory of Ukraine, when self-sanctified schismatics, Uniates, relying on Nazi militants, seize churches of the canonical UOC-MP in many regions, beat priests and parishioners, we will remind you of one of the greatest temple pearls of Ancient Rus', a Russian masterpiece and world temple architecture - Pyatnitskaya Church in Chernigov.

On the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Ukrainian SSR from the Nazi invaders, we will begin to remember the fate of this cathedral in 1943, because its revival in modern life began precisely then - literally in the first days after the invaders were driven out of Chernigov.

Chernigov, one of the oldest cities in Rus', once the capital of the Seversky principality, where a significant number of architectural monuments of antiquity have been preserved, was subjected to severe bombing by the Germans during the Great Patriotic War, with the goal of wiping the city off the face of the earth. At the same time, museums, historical and artistic values ​​and archives were destroyed, all architectural monuments were severely damaged by fire, among which the cathedral of the Pyatnitsky Monastery was most damaged.

Pyatnitskaya Church before the Great Patriotic War

The destroyed temple of Pyatnitsa Paraskeva

The act of the Extraordinary State Commission to establish and investigate the atrocities of the Nazi invaders and their accomplices and the damage they caused to citizens, collective farms, public organizations, state enterprises and institutions of the USSR dated December 15-21, 1943 described traces of terrible atrocities and destruction. In particular, it was noted: “The Pyatnitskaya Church of the late XII - early XIII centuries is one of the rarest and most remarkable monuments of ancient Russian art of the Grand Duke's era, burned by German incendiary shells in part of the roofs and inside the building during the bombing on August 23, 1941, and then destroyed by high-explosive bombs September 25, 1943: the chapter, most of the vaults, two western pylons and most of the western and southern walls collapsed.”

The evolution of the appearance of the temple since the 12th century. Rice. A.A. Karnabeda

As the architect-restorer A.L. Karnabed notes in the article “Revival of the Chernigov “Friday””, the act also indicated the destruction caused to other unique buildings in Chernigov, including Spassky (beginning of the 11th century), Borisoglebsky and Uspensky (XII century). c.) cathedrals. The act was signed by the expert of the Extraordinary Commission P. D. Baranovsky, the Ukrainian architect Yu. S. Aseev and the senior researcher at the Chernigov Historical Museum A. A. Popko.

P.D. Baranovsky

Pyotr Dmitrievich Baranovsky (1892 - 1984) - a Muscovite, a native of the Smolensk village, a devotee of architectural restoration, who devoted a total of 70 years to the restoration, rescue and restoration of monuments of ancient Russian architecture - then quickly rushed to the aid of ancient Chernigov.

Baranovsky is responsible for the rescue of St. Basil's Cathedral, the founding of museums in the Kolomensky and Spaso-Andronikov monasteries, and the measurements of the demolished Kazan Cathedral on Red Square in 1936 (it was based on these that the temple was rebuilt in the early 1990s).

Baranovsky arrived in Chernigov on September 23, 1943, a day after the liberation of the city. And three days later, before his eyes, a German dive bomber targeted the ancient Pyatnitsky Cathedral. They say that a half-ton landmine split the temple, which was already pretty much burned out from the inside. The scientist was the first specialist to arrive at the ruins. And then - almost twenty years (!) - Baranovsky restored “Friday”, returning it to its original appearance. By the way, he insisted that it was not Rastrelli’s dome that should be restored, but the original, ancient Russian one.

An eyewitness said: “You should have seen Pyotr Dmitrievich at the moment of exploring “Friday”: the remains of the walls, ready to collapse, and a man climbing on them!”

P.D. Baranovsky with students at the restoration of the Pyatnitskaya Church

Work to restore the temple

Let us list the masterpieces of Kievan and Chernigov Rus' that Pyotr Baranovsky saved. According to his short list: “1943 Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra of the 11th century. Recording and design proposals for conservation of ruins and restoration; 1943, 1944 Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral 1037 (P. Baranovsky, who did not have ranks or titles, was then appointed chairman of the restoration commission from the Academy of Architecture of the Ukrainian SSR); 1945 Study of the ancient altar barrier of the St. Sophia Cathedral and the project for its restoration; 1943 Chernigov. Cathedral of the Boris and Gleb Monastery of the 12th century. Research, preliminary measurements and preliminary conservation design; 1943 Chernigov. Cathedral of the Yeletsky Monastery of the 12th century. Research, preliminary measurements and conservation design; 1943, 1945 1944 Kyiv. Temple of the Mother of God of Pirogoshchaya 1131 - 1136 Study and experience of a reconstruction project using partial fixation materials before dismantling 1936; 1944 Kyiv. Temple of Vasily on Perunov Hill 1184. Research and experience of a reconstruction project based on materials of partial fixation before dismantling in 1936 (does not exist).”

He authored the study “The Cathedral of the Pyatnitsky Monastery in Chernigov.” It was published in 1948 in the book “Monuments of Art Destroyed by the German Invaders,” edited by I. E. Grabar.

In it, P. Baranovsky noted: “The Cathedral of the Chernigov Monastery, better known as the Pyatnitskaya Church on Red Square (otherwise on the Old Bazaar, or on the Pyatnitsky Field), belongs to those monuments of ancient Russian architecture that, as a result of later major reconstructions, have so changed their appearance, that under the new appearance it is almost impossible to discern their true features, which determine the characteristic features of the era and style. The barbaric destruction of the Pyatnitsky Church by the Germans during their invasion and bombardment of Chernigov preceded the formulation of the scientific research problem of studying this monument, forever depriving the opportunity to see it in its appearance at the end of the 17th century, as well as the opportunity to scientifically reveal and restore it in all truly preserved parts of deeper antiquity. ... The surviving ruins of the monument, representing a sort of diagonal section from the northwestern corner to the southeastern one, made it possible to conduct a detailed analytical study of the building in relation to its structures, the nature of the materials and technology. The ruins were a complex conglomerate of brickwork of various times and types.”

First of all, the research attention and interest of the restorer was attracted by the fact that all the main structural elements of the building up to the very top, including the vaults and the base of the chapter, were folded, in refutation of all the above literary statements of the past, from the same material - plinths, characteristic only for pre-Mongol era. The stepped vaults, preserved after the collapse on the eastern and northern sides, so unusual for Russian architecture of the pre-Mongol era (according to the ideas that have developed in our science over 100 years), were made of the same ancient brick.

Experts believe that Baranovsky’s work on the research and restoration of the Pyatnitskaya Church in Chernigov opened a new chapter in the history of Russian architecture. This monument, as Pyotr Dmitrievich proved, is the same age as “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, one of the first unsurpassed examples of Russian architecture itself. Baranovsky was convinced that the monument, restored in all parts, in the words of the ancient chronicler, “wonderfully enriched decorations,” would be the same deeply national unfading light in the fine arts of our people as the “Word.”

The cathedral of the Pyatnitsky Monastery, argued Baranovsky, should henceforth occupy not only the chronologically earliest place, but also the highest - in the system of development of forms of Russian architecture of the early period of the 11th-13th centuries.

Standing on top of the great culture of Ancient Rus' destroyed by the Tatars, the temple represents, according to the researcher-restorer, a clearly defined starting point from which the development of the national creativity of Moscow Rus' began.

Baranovsky argued: Pyatnitsky Church, being new and completely original for us at the moment, in contradiction with the prevailing idea of ​​​​Russian architecture, amazes with its clear connection with the monuments of Serbia and Moscow of the 14th-15th centuries, and with such peaks of Russian architecture as The Ascension Church in Kolomenskoye, and especially with wooden Russian churches. In this diverse connection, the Pyatnitsky Church is the first great work of a new style, a clearly expressed creative genius of the Russian people.

Indeed, the emergence of such a monument as the Pyatnitsky Church is an organically logical event precisely in Southern Rus', where the interactions of different cultures were naturally created at the crossroads: from northeastern Zalesskaya Rus' to Western Europe through Galich and from northwestern Novgorod Rus' to Byzantium and to the Caucasus through the Polovtsians. Chernigov in the 12th century. was no less a cultural center than Kyiv.

Baranovsky was also concerned about the pan-Slavic context. The scientist asserted: “It is not without reason that the chronicler said on the first pages of The Tale of Bygone Years: “There is Illyricum, which the Apostle Paul reached; here at first there were Slavs... And the Slavic people and the Russians are one.”

Baranovsky made the assumption that the architect of the Pyatnitsky Church could be a “friend” of Rurik Rostislavich - the “artist and difficult master” Miloneg-Peter. Which, according to the chronicler, with the construction of the Vydubitskaya wall of the St. Michael’s Church of the Vydubitsky Monastery, which became the princely tomb of the family of Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavovich, accomplished “a deed similar to a miracle.”

“He could have built the Vasilievskaya Church in Ovruch in the early years of Rurik’s activity,” Baranovsky believed, “and in Belgorod, which has not reached us, the unusually tall and surprisingly decorated Church of the Apostles, and the Vasilievskaya Church in Kiev in the princely courtyard, and after 5 -10 years after the Vydubitsky wall, build a church in the Chernigov Pyatnitsky Monastery by the end of the life of Rurik and his princess-nun. ... Based on the high merits of the monument, which revealed itself before our eyes in the process of its study, we could turn to it the same words with which the chronicler expressed his praise of the Belgorod temple: “It is wonderfully enriched with height and majesty and other things, according to the Pritochnik who says: All good is my beloved and there is no vice in you."

Pyatnitskaya Church before 1917 (left) and after restoration (1962)

According to Baranovsky’s design, the Pyatnitsa Paraskeva Church was rebuilt by 1962. It was said that the post-war chief architect of Chernigov, P.F. Buklovsky, demanded not to restore the destroyed churches, but, on the contrary, to demolish the ruins so as not to spoil the view and interfere with the improvement of the territory. Thank God, goodwill specialists, enthusiasts and patriots did not allow this to happen. Baranovsky even ensured that at one of the Chernigov brick factories the production of plinths began according to ancient Russian models, and the temple was restored exactly in the forms in which it was built.

A. L. Karnabed emphasized: “While not only Baranovsky, but also such famous scientists as M. K. Karger, G. N. Logvin, G. M. Shtender, Yu. A. Nelgovsky argued the need to “preserve the bell tower as a structure that gives an idea of ​​the nature of the architecture of the complex before its reconstruction and promotes better conditions for the operation and exhibition of the main monument,” local herostrati - the head of the regional department for architecture Grebnitsky and the chief architect of the city Sergievsky did their job: the historical environment was destroyed. There is no bell tower, no church fence, no monument mound.”

The Pyatnitskaya Church was accepted into the balance sheet as “restored in accordance with the restoration project” on January 1, 1963.

But it remained closed until the beginning of 1967, when, together with other ten architectural monuments of Chernigov of the 11th-19th centuries. By resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR it was transferred to the Chernigov State Architectural and Historical Reserve, which until 1979 was a branch of the Kyiv Sophia Museum reserve.

In Chernigov, the reserve began to work on August 1, 1967. From the next year, preparation of sketches and then a working draft of the museum exhibition “Pyatnitskaya Church - an architectural monument of the late XII - early XIII centuries” was carried out here.

The project of the museum exhibition in the Pyatnitskaya Church, for which P. Baranovsky donated a significant number of finds from 1943-1961 in 1968, was developed by him, taking into account the formation of the museum in three stages. Among the finds are plinths with signs (marks and stamps), fragments of fresco plasters, architectural, construction and pottery ceramics, items made of non-ferrous and ferrous metal, fragments of glass from ancient windows.

In 1947, in his autobiography, Baranovsky noted his Chernigov merits with his characteristic modesty: “Of the creative works of recent years, the work on the research, preservation and restoration of the Pyatnitsky Cathedral in Chernigov (XII century), carried out in the fall of 1944 -1945 from the main Directorate for the Protection of Monuments and provided new, very important data for the history of Russian art.”

Today, the Chernigov Church of Pyatitsa Paraskeva, unfortunately, is occupied by Ukrainian “autocephalians”. Do these proud and misguided sectarians remember that they owe the salvation of the masterpiece of ancient Russian church architecture to the Russian people, and first of all to the Smolensk Muscovite ascetic and protector Pyotr Dmitrievich Baranovsky?

Archival photos from the book “Peter Baranovsky. Works, memories of contemporaries." M., “Father’s House.” 1996.

In the very center of Chernigov, not far from the park with the remains of the ancient Detinets, on Red Square (yes, this is not only in Moscow) stands an amazing red brick building - the Temple of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa. Nowadays, few people know that this church, the same age as “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” almost died during the Great Patriotic War - and then, immediately after it.

The exact time of construction of the Pyatnitsky Church is still unknown. But a thorough analysis of sources and similar monuments allows us to carefully name both the name of the temple’s customer and its architect.

The first was the famous Prince Rurik Rostislavovich Smolensky, aka Bui-Rurik “Tales of Igor’s Campaign,” the winner of Andrei Bo-golyubsky, who sat on the grand ducal table six times. At the end of his life he reigned in Chernigov and died there in 1215. And the second is one of the very few ancient masters, named in sources by name - “friend of Prince Rurik” Petr Miloneg. Not long before this, he performed “a deed similar to a miracle” in Kyiv - he erected a retaining wall under the temple of the Vydubitsky Monastery (see article in TrV-Nauka No. 40). And the very shape of the building - very unusual for the Kiev-Chernigov architecture of that time - is characteristic of Milonega.

Pyatnitskaya Church before the Great Patriotic War
Restoration of the temple
Evolution of the appearance of the temple from the 12th century (Fig. A.A. Karnabed)

So, most likely, our church was built at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. Later, in the 17th century, its appearance was changed beyond recognition by reconstruction in the Ukrainian Baroque style, and then the war came. This is what is written in the act of the Extraordinary State Commission dated December 15-21, 1943: “The Pyatnitskaya Church of the late XII - early XIII centuries is one of the rarest and most remarkable monuments of ancient Russian art of the grand ducal era, burned by German incendiary shells in part of the roofs and inside the building during the bombing on August 23, 1941, and then destroyed by high-explosive bombs on September 25, 1943: the head, most of the vaults, two western pylons and most of the western and southern walls collapsed.”

And here another outstanding person came to the rescue. Pyotr Dmitrievich Baranovsky (1892−1984) for 70 years was engaged in the restoration, rescue, and restoration of monuments of ancient Russian architecture. He is responsible for the rescue of St. Basil's Cathedral, the founding of museums in the Kolomenskoye and Spaso-Andronikov monasteries, and the measurements of the dismantled Kazan Cathedral on Red Square (it was from these that the temple was then recreated in the 1990s). And in the 1940-1960s the time of Chernigov came. Immediately after liberation from the Germans, Pyotr Dmitrievich went to the city.

The restoration of Chernigov architectural monuments after the war, by the way, is one of those acts for which one can say “thank you” to another person - Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. In 1944, it was he who held the post of head of the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR, it was he who received Baranovsky, and it was he who gave the order to the State Planning Committee of Ukraine to “immediately release the necessary cement, lime, roofing felt and nails,” and to take over the trust for moving and dismantling buildings carrying out special work on the monument.

P.D. Baranovsky with students at the restoration of the Pyatnitskaya Church

Restoration of the temple

But, oddly enough, even with such support, not everyone wanted to restore the temple. A.A. Karnabed recalls that the former chief architect of Chernigov P.F. Buklovsky demanded not to restore the destroyed churches, but, on the contrary, to demolish the ruins so as not to spoil the view and interfere with the improvement of the territory. Thank God, nothing came of these attempts.

However, there were enough problems without this.

The fact is that before the Great Patriotic War the temple was not properly examined. And the extent to which it has reached us, distorted by perestroikas and improvements, is clearly visible in the pre-war photo.

Therefore, it was impossible to immediately restore the temple. It was necessary to strengthen and preserve the ruins until the moment when it was the turn of specialists to work - it is impossible to work on all monuments at the same time. Then study and measure what is left. Dismantle the rubble without destroying the remaining parts. Examine the wreckage. Restore them and the ruins to their original appearance. Make a restoration project and work long and painstakingly with your hands, building the temple in such a way as to preserve the maximum number of ancient parts.

That is why the restoration of the Pyatnitskaya Church took almost 20 years. “It was accepted onto the balance sheet as restored in accordance with the restoration project” on January 1, 1963.

Alexey Paevsky

Archival photos from the book “Peter Baranovsky. Works, memories of contemporaries." M., “Father’s House.” 1996

Pyatnitskaya Church
A monument of ancient Russian architecture of the pre-Mongol period.

Pyatnitskaya Church. Story
The Pyatnitskaya Church was built at the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th century by posad Chernigov officials on the Pyatnitsky field, which since ancient times was a place of trading (marketplace).

Pyatnitskaya Church was named after the patroness of trade, Paraskeva Pyatnitsa. Until 1786, the church was the main building of the Pyatnitsky Monastery.

The Pyatnitskaya Church differed from other churches in Chernigov by the completed decoration of the facade with all types of architectural ornamentation and the composition of the vaults under the drum.

Throughout its existence, the church was repeatedly damaged and burned during enemy attacks on the city.

The Pyatnitskaya Church was first destroyed during the Tatar-Mongol invasion of Chernigov in 1239.

During restoration work at different times, it was significantly rebuilt and changed its appearance. Until 1941, from an architectural point of view, it looked like a 17th-century temple in the Ukrainian Baroque style of the 17th-18th centuries. The only unusual thing was its centrist stepped composition. Researchers claimed that forms of ancient Russian construction were hidden under the Baroque attire.

First Restoration. 1670

The first restoration work was carried out in 1670, carried out in the Ukrainian Baroque style and at the expense of the Chernigov colonel V. Dunin-Borkovsky. In the 90s of the 17th century, Baroque pediments were built on the eastern and western facades, and the bathhouse received a multi-tiered finish. On the eastern baroque pediment stood the coat of arms of Hetman Ivan Mazepa.

In the 17th-18th centuries. There was a convent attached to the church, which burned down in 1750. Significant were the reconstructions after the fire of 1750 and the 19th century, when the Pyatnitskaya Church turned into a seven-bay church. In 1818-20, according to the design of the architect A. Kartashevsky, a rotunda-bell tower was added (dismantled in 1963).

During World War II, the church was seriously damaged due to aerial bombing.

In 1941, the church was almost completely destroyed. Miraculously, the bell tower survived, but later (in 1963) it was dismantled - according to one version, it interfered with the construction of the regional drama theater named after. Shevchenko, on the other - for bricks to restore the temple. For a long time the church remained destroyed.

Restoration. 1943

Immediately after German troops were driven out of the city of Chernigov (in 1943), a thorough study of the remains of the Pyatnitskaya Church began with the aim of further restoration. The result of the research was sensational - archaeological researchers found a temple that embodied the highest achievements of ancient Russian architecture of the pre-Mongol era. Everything said that this was a monument to a new architectural style that was formed in Rus' at the end of the 12th century, during the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” It is known that at this time, ancient Russian cities entered the historical arena, handicraft and trade were rapidly developing, craft and trade corporations were formed, that is, the socio-economic process was taking place that determined the development of the Gothic architectural style in Europe. For a long time it was believed that Russian architecture proper began to develop only in the 14th century after the Mongol-Tatar invasion, when the architects of Kievan Rus moved away from Byzantine traditions. But the study of the Pyatnitskaya Church, the same age as “The Tale of Igor’s Host,” showed that the processes of formation of national architecture took place a century and a half earlier.

In 1943-45, urgent conservation and emergency work under the leadership of the architect-restorer P. D. Baranovsky saved the architectural monument from final destruction. The church was thus restored to its original form.

During the restoration, the side porches and extensions of the 18th-19th centuries were not restored, and the rotunda-bell tower was also dismantled.

Over the course of 10 years, P.D. Baranovsky restored the Pyatnitskaya Church, carefully stacking brick by brick. As a result, the researcher was able to reproduce with great reliability all the forms of the structure, one of the outstanding monuments of ancient Russian architecture. Subsequent research discovered many other structures of this architectural style.

In 1962, the restoration of the Pyatnitskaya Church was completed according to the design of the architect P. D. Baranovsky and M. V. Kholostenko. Revived in its original form, the building reproduces the highest stage of development of Kievan Rus architecture.

Architecture Thus, the modern appearance of the church is a reconstruction of the temple architecture from the times of Kievan Rus. Its plan is based on a four-pillar cross-domed temple. The constructive and compositional feature of the Pyatnitskaya Church is that the pillars, which support the high bathhouse with the help of girth arches, are spaced widely, and the side naves are narrow, so on the facade only the central zakomara has an arched finish, the side ones have quarter-circular coverings. Thus, the facades are completed with a trilobed curve. The transition from the main mass to the pillars is developed into a complex composition of three tiers of stepped vaults, thanks to which the temple is perceived as an amazing pillar-tower. This impression is enhanced by the beam pilasters and semi-columns of the pillar. The facades of the building are decorated with all types of architectural ornaments. Inside, the church resembles a tower. The artistic effect of the fresco painting is enhanced by the multi-colored floor of yellow, green and dark cherry glazed tiles. Unlike the Kyiv Sofia, where the compositional theme is developed into an entire symphony, in the Pyatnitskaya Church everything is built on one, so to speak, melody. This is a joyful song about beauty, where the engineering genius of the builder united with the poetry of folk art. The Pyatnitskaya Church in Chernigov is sometimes called the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign” in architecture. And indeed, the landmark of ancient Russian architecture is not only a contemporary of the brilliant poem, but also close to the “Word” in the nature of its poetics, in the perfection of form, in the folk spirit and ideological orientation. The architectural features that first appeared in the Pyatnitskaya Church were further developed in Russian , Ukrainian, Romanian temple construction. Pyatnitskaya Church was erected much earlier than all Moscow tent churches of the 16th century. The Moscow Church of the Ascension, built in 1532 in the village of Kolomenskoye, which is the first hipped stone structure in Muscovy, is very similar to it. In Russian architecture, zakomars turned into kokoshniks. Zakomara is a structural architectural element, an external arch of the vault. The kokoshnik is a purely decorative element; it is a flat plate, similar in shape to a flower petal or the headdress of Russian women (hence the name). And one more interesting and important detail. The decorative capabilities of brick were perfectly used in the construction of the structure; the ornamental masonry of the Pyatnitskaya Church is an early example of decor, which later developed in Novgorod and Pskov. A contemporary of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” the Pyatnitsky Church embodied high folk ideals, the consciousness of the strength and spiritual beauty of the people, their artistic and aesthetic views. In 1972, the Pyatnitskaya Church was opened as a museum.