Cultural Transition and Ideology in Russian Estate Churches during the Late Seventeenth Century

Abstract

The transformation in Russian society and culture at the end of the seventeenth century – and the premonition of more radical changes to come – led to new church forms sponsored by some of Russia’s most powerful and wealthy families as an expression of changing cultural identity. The ensuing style is often designated the “Naryshkin Baroque,” after the boiar family (related to the second wife of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich, father of Peter I) that built such churches on its estates. Despite the depredations of the Napoleonic invasion and the Soviet period, three consummate examples of the style still stand at former estates on the western and northern outskirts of Moscow: Fili, Ubory, and Troitse-Lykovo.