The оrigin of the palladian tradition in the early church architecture of North America of the 17–18th centuries

Abstract

The article discusses the stage of formation and development of classical architectural traditions in the United States of America in the 17th-18th centuries on the example of the church architecture of Swedish settlers. The main direction in which both foreign architects and later national American masters worked was classicism, often manifested in the forms of Palladianism. The article describes the degree of influence of A. Palladio's architectural treatise on colonial building practice. Church buildings were built in the settlements the very first and best preserved, for this reason, it is precisely by examining examples of such that we can conclude that the early stage in the development of the classical architectural tradition in the United States. On the basis of local specific building and cultural features, under the influence of the religious institutions of church architecture in Sweden and Northern Europe, this direction received a new reading. The article provides a brief overview of the three oldest churches of the Swedish Christian community, on the example of which the author seeks to trace the history of the origin and development of the national interpretation of the Palladian system. The question is raised about the purity of the application of order architectural solutions in the early cult architecture of North America and the degree of fundamentality of the interpretation of the ideas of classicism and Palladianism. The specific national features of architectural solutions, which manifested themselves in the early church architecture of the colony, are revealed.