Log Roofing of Ukrainian Wooden Church in the Context of World Wooden Temples Space Construction

Abstract

The spatial form and construction of the five basic types of Ukrainian wooden church's towered log roofing was analysed aiming to identify possible formal and constructive analogies with the roofing of other wooden religious buildings in the world. No complete constructive-spatial analogues of Ukrainian wooden church's log roofing were found in the world. Archaic types of Ukrainian wooden church's log roofing (raised longitudinal type, pyramidal type, so called octagon-on-cube type) can be observed in the sacral architecture of the territories neighbouring to Ukraine: Russia, the Caucasus and the Carpathians. It can be considered as a proof of a common source existing for wooden temple architecture formation in this region. Novel types of Ukrainian wooden church towered log roofing (so called zalom tiered type and its derivatives) have a pronounced compositional, but not constructive, correspondence with the tiered sacral towers of Asian countries. That may indicate the presence of ancient genetic links between the Ukrainian wooden church and eastern building traditions.