The Bricks from St Nicholas Church at Lipno near Novgorod (1292) and the Origins of the New Novgorodian Building tradition/Lipno-Aarse Nikolause Kiriku (1292) Tellised Ja Novgorodi Uue Ehitustraditsiooni Paritolu

Introduction The Old Russian architecture of pre-Mongolian time is closely connected to the history of Byzantine art. The first stone church in Kiev (so-called Tithe church) was erected at the end of the 10th century by Byzantine architects and builders. Greek masons built the first Russian churches using Byzantine technology: flat bricks (plinths) and stones were connected by mortar made from lime and crushed ceramic or bricks (tsemianka). The entire history of pre-Mongolian architecture of Ancient Russia is associated with the usage of these building materials for the ordinary masonry, bar bricks were very rarely used in monuments of architecture in 1220-1230s. In the 12th--first half of the 13th centuries the blocks of cut limestone and lime mortar with sand were used only in Halich and Vladimir-Suzdal architectural schools (Rappoport 1995, 5-53). In many monuments of the Novgorod architecture of the 12th--first half of the 13th century we can see the combination of the plinths and local stones in masonry, and only the most important parts of the walls, vaults and arches were built from bricks. Novgorodian plinths of pre-Mongolian time have been studied thoroughly: we know the main peculiarities of moulding, the changes in the format of bricks. These data can help us to date the buildings (Shtender 1980, 86; Gervais 2002, 67 ff.; Jolshin 2013, 92 ff.). The disastrous Mongolian invasion of 1238-1240 destroyed the towns and villages of ancient Russia. Mongols did not occupy Novgorod, they turned south 100 km from the town (near Ignatch cross). Novgorod was not destroyed, but the devastation of the lands of ancient Russia influenced the life of this northern town. The texts of the Novgorod chronicles mention no evidence of new buildings until the 1290s. The building activity in Novgorod revived in 1292, when archbishop Clement founded the church of St Nicholas at Lipno. This church was built near Novgorod in the delta of Msta River, where the icon of St Nicholas was found in the 12th century (NPL 1950, 327). It the same year the construction of St. Theodore Stratelates church on Scherkova Str. started on the place of pre-Mongolian church (the construction of new church was finished in 1294). The church of St Nicholas at Lipno was well preserved until the Second World War. In 1941-1943 the upper parts of the building were destroyed or damaged by German artillery, and some parts of the building broke down during the first years after the end of the war. In the 1950s the church was studied and restored by L. Shulyak (Fig. 1). During the restoration works a lot of information about the peculiarities of the building technique and materials was acquired, although the upper parts of the church were lost (Dmitriyev 1948, 58 ff.; Maksimov 1952, 87 ff.; Gladenko et al. 1964, 214 ff.). The building technique, new for ancient Russia, can be seen here for the first time: instead of the plinths the master builders invented the bar bricks, and instead of lime mortars with crushed ceramic or bricks (tsemianka) they used lime mortars with sand. The usage of these constructive materials became the main characteristic of the Novgorod architecture during the time when the socalled Novgorodian republic existed (before 1478, when Novgorod became a part of the Moscow state). Churches and fortresses in Moscow and Tver were built from white limestone at that time, and while the first buildings from bar bricks were constructed in north-eastern Rus' only in the third quarter of the 15th century (unfortunately, they have not survived--Vygolov 1988, 61). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Some changes in the manufacturing technology and the measurements of Novgorodian bar bricks took place from the late 13th to mid-15th centuries. It is possible to point out three stages of evolution of this technology: 1) late 13th--mid-14th centuries (before 1361); 2) second half of the 14th--first third of the 15th centuries (before 1433); 3) middle-second half of the 15th century. …