CONSTRUCTIVE PECULIARITIES OF FOUNDATIONS IN KYYIVAN MONUMENTS OF THE X-TH – THE XII-TH CENTURIES

Abstract

Majority of Old Rus` monuments are known to us by their excavated foundations. The character of foundation construction and layout of plan allows to reconstruct lost architectural forms of the monuments.
 The layout of building plan was executed by the help of rope and pickets installed at building site where tranches for wall foundation were dug.
 The earliest known masonry monuments of the X-th century had their wall foundation made of rubble on clay mortar. Another foundation type was used in Kyyivan monuments of the X-th – the XII-th centuries – the Tithe Church and palaces near to it, St. Sophia Cathedral, the Golden Gate and the Church of Klov monastery.
 The wall foundations of the Tithe Church were constructed of rubble on lime-and-ceramic mortar, with wooden substructures arranged at their footing. Wooden substructures consisted of half-meter long pickets driven into soil and 4-5 rows of timber laid in parallel direction with wall foundation, and a layer of mortared crushed rubble put over it. The height of the foundations was 1.1 to 1.5 m, their width was about 1.5 m.
 Wall foundation with complicated wooden substructure were also used in St.Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod and St.Michael Church in Pereyaslav.
 Horizontal timbers at the footing of wall foundations were also used in many Old Rus` monuments, the practice was lasted till the end of the XIX-th century.
 The other building peculiarity of ancient Kyyivan monuments was the separate foundations in a single building. E.g. St. Michael Church of Vydubytsky monastery has its narthex and apses not bonded with wall foundation to the main body of the monument. Because of the fact some scholars have concluded that narthex have been a later addition. In fact the ancient builders wisely designed foundations of the edifice and left the two units different in mass unbonded to allow for different settlement and avoid destruction of building fabric.
 The same design of wall foundations of different parts of a building was used in the Tithe Church, St. Sophia Cathedral and some other Kyyivan monuments. Therefore outer galleries unbonded in foundation and brickwork with the building’s main body could have only light timber roof of the abovementioned monuments.
 Skillful and experienced ancient Kyyivan builders perfectly knew soil bearing capacities and used wooden substructures in wall foundation to avoid problems of differential settlement and destruction of edifices.