Tented Churches
The wooden tent spire recast in brick: a tower-church instead of a domed church
How to recognise it
- Tall octagonal tent roof instead of a dome
- Tower-church with no inner pillars
- Tiers of kokoshnik gables below the tent
- Open galleries wrapped around the church
- White stone details on red brick
Why it emerged
Muscovite rulers celebrated the birth of an heir and victories over Kazan and Astrakhan with memorial churches meant to be seen from afar. Builders took the form from northern wooden architecture and Italian brick techniques, creating a national church type until Patriarch Nikon discouraged tents in the 1650s.
Examples
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Church of the Ascension, Kolomenskoye1530–1532The first stone tented church, built for the birth of Ivan the Terrible; a UNESCO siteChurch of the Beheading of St John the Baptist, Dyakovoc. 1547Five towers around a central one: the direct forerunner of St Basil's Cathedral
Saint Basil's Cathedral1555–1561 · Barma and PostnikMonument to the capture of Kazan: nine churches round a tent, the emblem of Moscow and RussiaChurch of the Nativity of the Virgin in Putinki1649–1652Moscow's last tented church before Nikon's ban: three decorative tents above the vaultsMore in this style
Meanwhile elsewhere
- Ife and Benin bronzes Africa
- Persian miniature Middle East
- Ming and Qing Porcelain Asia
- Italian Renaissance Europe
- Northern Renaissance Europe
- Inca Architecture Americas
- Classical Ottoman Architecture (Sinan) Middle East
- Mannerism Europe
- Mughal Art Asia
- Baroque Europe
- Dutch Golden Age Painting Europe
- Latin American Baroque Americas