The St. John the Theologian Cathedral
The St. John the Theologian Cathedral was
built in 1700s and consecrated in 1704. The high tetrahedral
construction covered with the eight-sided hipped roof
and topped with two octagonal constructions and cupola
makes its volumetrical composition. A large church-porch
borders with the church at the west. At the east there
is an altar with three rounded asps topped with cupolas.
The united internal space of the Cathedral is bridged
with a vault system.
The volumetric structure of the church –
the octagonal constructions at the tetrahedral construction
ending with the tier is the feature of Orthodox architecture
of the end of the 17th – beginning of the 18th century.
The tetrahedral monoliths represented the medieval figurativeness
– the temples and the towers centered the space and had
a landscape orientation. The tetrahedral construction
of the church is well-proportioned (the sides of the western
front have proportions 1:1,5) and the walls’ tiers have
decrescent proportions what makes the building’s volume
move upwards almost imperceptibly. Besides, the fronts
being finely lined with the horizontal and vertical elements,
unload the stone mass. The main widely opening downwards
church-porch is situated at the main western front.
The symmetrical fronts are divided with
the inter-floor cornices what enlarges visually the dimensions
of the tetrahedral construction. The first tier of the
tetrahedral construction and the other ones are divided
with the semi-columns equally. Besides, it is cut through
with the large rectangular windows. The asps are decorated
in the same way. The fronts’ decoration is made of nine
types of compound bricks. The cornice pattern and semi-column
junction features the 17th century. And the pilaster form
is typical for the beginning of the 18th century.
The high eight-sided hipped roof of the
tetrahedral construction makes kind of base for the octagonal
construction and resembles the wooden covers of Ukrainian
churches (and the tier ending of the tetrahedral construction
as well).
The scaled monumental inner space of the
church plays a very important role in all its appearance.
Galleries that were revived in the churches at the end
of the 17th century are included in the united space of
the Cathedral. The dynamical proportions of the Cathedral’s
interior (1:3:3), a smooth junction of the tetrahedral
construction with the hipped roof and further with the
octagonal construction and higher, the expressiveness
of shapes and wonderful lightening with three lights turn
the interior into a remarkable work of architectural art
of that time.
There are two vectorial streams: from the
entrance in the western wall to the holy of holies – altar
with the prothesis (this stream symbolizes the Holy Passion
Way and Heaven Ascension), another vector is present in
Macarovka Church and is expressed much stronger – the
vertical streaming from the middle to the octagonal construction
vault symbolizes the Ascension to the Heaven. The loftiness
of this space and its lightening are main characteristics
in the interior symbolism. This is the symbol of the Heaven
Light – the Light of Divine Enlightenment and the Transfiguration
of Christ that descend at the supplicants in the Cathedral.
The iconostasis emphasizes the dynamism of the interior;
it is like a symbolical border cutting the invisible Heaven
World (altar) from the other space.
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