If you ask any Russian person to name wonderful, in his opinion, Orthodox churches, he will probably name the decoration of Red Square - St. Basil's Cathedral, the pride of Russia - the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and the church on the Nerl. Why is that? How did such a love and popular fame be gained by the modest and not central church of the Intercession on the Nerl?
Prince Andrew
And in fact, the temple on the Nerl is the most perfect in Russia, moreover, there is no such harmonious work of temple art in the world, and this is one of the greatest monuments of art in general. This church was made famous by its ancient history and the exceptionally organic combination of architecture and landscape. The temple on the Nerl is harmony itself! This monument, it seems, breathes all the same air of inconceivably distant years, when the Principality of Vladimir blossomed.
The amazing prince Andrei Bogolyubsky really wanted to build another capital in Russia, better than Kiev, more beautiful than Constantinople, similar to Jerusalem. For seven years, Prince Andrei built his Vladimir, many beautiful churches were erected. The crown of this work was Bogolyubovo, and at the head was the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl of 1165. Here Nerl connected with Klyazma and served as the gateway to many commercial river routes. The temple on the Nerl seemed to have grown naturally on the hill, and was not built, the place was chosen so correctly for him.
History of creation
The creation of this monument is fraught with many secrets, both construction and historical. In the annals of the mention of construction are very scarce, they most often do not contain dates, and even the names do not indicate. One writes that Prince Andrei Yurievich arrived from Kiev, built the God-Loving City and two stone churches. In another, information is slipping that the church on the Nerl was built, and that it is Pokrovskaya.
The life of Andrei Bogolyubsky suggests that the people of Vladimir went to the Bulgarians, where Prince Izyaslav Andreevich died from wounds after the victory. The construction of the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl began immediately after this campaign. The terms of work on the construction of the temple are unprecedented for our times. In one summer, the temple was built, and the monks were settled at it. Usually, even now, such buildings are being erected over several years with all the modern technology and mechanization of work.
Feast of the Intercession
There was no such holiday in Byzantium, the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos in Russia shone and was glorified here. The earliest icons from extant are dated to the fourteenth century. Pokrovsky temples are not described in any annals of those years. Therefore, with Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky we associate this wonderful holiday, considering it to be the institution in Russia precisely the middle of the twelfth century.
Here the most important argument is that the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl is so named, standing century after century on princely land, practically in its residence. Prince Andrew himself, as many scholars think, also wrote holiday texts of worship services, which came to us on later lists. The description of the temple on the Nerl by Andrei Bogolyubsky includes "The Legend of the Tale", "Service" and "Word". It may well be that the idea of the connection of the church on the Nerl with the intercession in the Russian campaign of the Virgin was somehow connected later with the veneration of the Vlacherna miracle.
Another version
They also write about another miracle that happened during the war with the Volga Bulgarians. The Russian army appeared under the canopy of the Cross and the images of the Savior and the Mother of God of God, from which fire rays suddenly began to emanate. It was the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir that was dedicated to the construction of the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl. In general, most of the sources that have reached our time speak of the church not as Pokrovsky, but as the Mother of God.
The Life of Andrei Bogolyubsky also speaks of this. It is very possible that initially the temple was dedicated to these two icons, and later became known as Pokrovsky, although there was no special renaming. In any case, the fact that it was these two holy images that supported the Russian army on the march is indisputable information. The Vladimir region in many parts of the world is best known because a temple of such exceptional beauty was built there.
Construction Secrets
Even now, after so many centuries, the modern look of this church admires the perfection of look. It fits perfectly into the landscape, as if this place was specially created by nature so that it was here that the construction of the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl happened. But archaeologists dispel this misconception with their research. Firstly, the temple itself used to look a bit different, although this silhouette tending to heaven was impossible to change. Changes over time have been unfortunate, but, in principle, private. But the hill!.. It was not nature that created it, but human hands.
This pedestal for the temple was poured on a complex foundation. The coast here is low, floodplain, and nature did not provide for any hill. During the spill, water rose more than three meters. It is impossible to begin construction under such natural conditions, the temple would be washed away every year by flood. Therefore, they first laid the foundation of large cobblestones using lime mortar. The depth of the foundation is more than one and a half meters, up to the mainland clay layer. But this temple alone would not save from floods.
Underground part
The foundation of the walls lies on the foundation itself - a well-hewn and very tightly fitted stone was used here. These walls are about four meters high, and they are all completely covered and densely packed with clay both outside and inside. Thus, only the underground part of the temple, which Vladimir Region is proud of, is five meters and thirty centimeters.
Now the treacherous spring waters are not afraid of the steel church, standing on the podium of an artificial hill. The description of the cultural monument "Church of the Intercession on the Nerl" must necessarily begin with this and glorify the engineering mind and architectural talents of Russian people, which were inherent in them initially, from such ancient times. In addition, it should be noted that this whole hill was covered with white stone slabs outside, like a shell, where drains in the form of gutters were equipped, and beautiful stairs led to the pier.
The appearance of the temple
The integrity and completeness of the temple on the Nerl without elevation due to an artificial hill could not be achieved. But this is only the core, the main core, on which is based a lot more surprising for the builders and architects of our time. These are white stone tiers above the water on a wide hill, arcade galleries with an impressive belt, and the temple itself with the cylinder of the drum tower, and finally, the head and the cross, tending to the sky, above all this.
Now the temple head - onion, and was helmet-shaped, with wooden scales. And these are not all changes. Once upon a time around the temple, open galleries for five-and-a-half-meter high gulbis were arranged, and in the south-west this whole arcade turned into a wall of impressive thickness, in which there was an internal staircase with an entrance to the choirs.
Proportions
The proportions of the temple were verified by grace and beauty themselves, although the type of construction was quite ordinary: one-domed, cross-domed, three-apse, four-pillar, three naves — longitudinal and transverse. Nevertheless, the temple on the Nerl is clearly different from most churches of this type. The main goal of the builders was the effect of harmony and height of extraordinary strength, and this was possible for many reasons that are not apparent at first glance.
The whole secret is in the details that are not striking, but significantly emphasize the vertical structure. Here the middle apse is slightly raised, the middle window is slightly higher than the others. The drum is higher than usual and narrow, with narrow long windows. And the very raising to the pedestal of the whole temple especially strengthens this striving towards heaven. Even inside the temple, the entire space is organized in such a way that it is seen as a single air pillar running upward.
Jewelry
The excellent white stone carving inherent in the local architecture adorns the temple. Favorite Orthodox Christians, the image of Tsar David with real and fantastic animals, a wealth of traditional ornaments and suddenly - amazing reliefs of girls' faces, encircling all the facades of the temple. Many motifs in the exterior decoration remained a mystery of the sculptural decoration. Now not all are preserved, only nineteen portraits, but they are a real gallery of sculptural portraits.
White stone carving is extremely time consuming. This requires a lot of time and enormous purely technical skill. Even just to smoothly cut such a stone - more than a thousand master strokes of a stonecutter. And shaped stone and carving of reliefs for the temple on the Nerl are about four thousand man-days.
