STONE TEMPLES OF YURYEV: PLANNING AND STAGES OF CONSTRUCTION

Abstract

For a long time the localization of Yuriev (now Bila Tserkva — the city in the Kyiv region of Ukraine) has been the subject of discussions connected to the attempts to find a stone temple. Excavations in 1980-s, made by Ruslan Orlov, have discovered the remains of the temple and put the end to debate. The temple was interpreted as a four-pillar three-apsed structure and dated to the late 12th — first half of the 13th century. Further comprehension of the materials made the authors of the study to question this interpretation. In 2011 and 2014, in connection with the idea of a museum foundation and architectural reproduction the foundations of temple were discovered. Two outbuildings of the first half of the 12th century and the first half of the 13th century have been found. The outbuilding of the 12th century contained the building materials of the 2nd half of the 11th century. In the outbuilding of the first half of the 13th century bar bricks were found. After the excavations it was cleared that the foundations were significantly damaged and the apse was completely destroyed in 2008. New finds and materials allow to suggest that here two stone buildings have been existed. The first one was built in the second half of the 11th century and completely dismantled in the first third of the 13th century. From these materials the second temple was built with the participation of the builders of the Kyiv school and Western Europe. The latter have brought new masonry techniques and materials (brick and limestone sand mortar). There are good reasons to suggest that the new temple was a five-apsed.