Church Building Research Articles

Some Traits of Ekphrasis Interweaving with Hierotopy in Theodore Metochites’ Monastery Descriptions

The article addresses Theodore Metochites’ assessment of the phenomenon of monastery and monastic life (mostly according to Chapter 40 of his Sententious Notes) in juxtaposition with his predecessors in the ekphrastic genre, such as Michael the Rhetor. The descriptions in question and the “conceptual portrait” of the monastic institution(s) and of the monk as an ascetic draw on a centuries-long Late Antique Jewish and, later on, Christian tradition of conceptualizing Temple, firstly that of Solomon, but then also every Christian one (first of all, St Sophia of Constantinople), as: a) a focal point of the believers’ life; b) antitype of the Heavenly Temple, i. e., of the New Jerusalem, the Divine Tabernacle, whereas its eschatological coming will be seen by the just in the Kingdom of God, according to the Bible. For Theodore, monastery is both spiritual and sensorial realization of the Divine Kingdom on earth, being a brilliant and luminous sacred space. In its description, which is being used by the author as a tool of its contraposition to the turmoil of the theatrum mundi (kosmikon theatron), some traits of hierotopicity are clearly to be seen. The description was carried out in the genre of ekphrasis, but different features of other genres as well (such as philosophical & theological essay or threnos) are discernible there. Metochites cries out that now all the Church buildings and monasteries are destroyed or put in disorder, all their magnificence remaining in the past, and it is Joseph Bryennios in the fifteenth century who picks up the corresponding topics. Also typical for the style of Metochites’ thought are some allusions at Pseudo-­Dionysius the Areopagite. Theodore’s Notes with its Ch. 40 allow us to support the fresher speculations of Byzantinists concerning creative freedom and wild imagination of those Byzantine intellectuals and polymaths who, like the Great logothete, used to construe their own virtual worlds and attract those keen on reading to them.

A magyar építész és a lengyel falusiak

The church building can be described as neo baroque with a historicizing facade formally referring to the early Roman Baroque, for example the Diocletian "therma" windows. On the other hand, the cross-gable dates to the 18th century like St. Anthony's Church in Lviv (Lember) from the 19th century. All in all, the building shows the stylistic features of Kováts' unique work as outlined in his theoretical manifestos as "the basic principles of modern architecture". Even now, surveys have revealed that after more than 100 years this building is in good condition, which stands as a testament to the villagers who built it.

“Childbearing” as a Direction of the Inner Policy of Late 16th-Century Russia

The authors analyze the approaching dynastic crisis in late 16th-century Russia as a special direction of the policy of Tsar Fedor Ioannovich’s government. The policy was concerned, firstly, with the belittling of the dynastic rights of Dmitry of Uglich, and, secondly, with the attempts of Fedor and his wife Irina Fedorovna to bear their own heir. The latter problem was addressed with the use of all medical and non-medical resources available in the late 16th century: from secret diplomacy, invitation of foreign doctors and an English midwife to Russia to votive building, pilgrimage to monasteries, creating icons dedicated to saints who patron childbearing, and so on. Thirdly, the concentration of the ruling couple on pilgrimage, church building etc., for which much money and time was needed, was connected with the activity of Boris Godunov as the real head of the government. The collapse of this policy after the death of Princess Feodosia was the reason why Boris Godunov attempted to found a new, Godunov dynasty on the Muscovite throne.

SHORT-TERM MISSION OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS IN STRYI (1904–1905)

After a brief ban in 1848–1852, the Society of Jesus restored its activities in the Lviv Archdiocese. The order not only returned to its centers in Ternopil and Lviv during the second half of the 19th century, but also intensified missionary activity in Stanislaviv, Chernivtsi and Kolomyia, where it managed to collect donations and, with the help of local authorities, successfully organize the construction of three large churches. The article notes, that at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Jesuits received an invitation from Lviv Archbishop Józef Bilczewski to start a mission to Stryi, because the Catholic clergy, together with the city authorities, were interested in building of a new large church for the city, because the presence of one temple was not enough to properly meet the spiritual needs of the population with the Latin rite. The Society of Jesus had two tasks: to organize the collection of donations and the construction of the temple, as well as to engage in pastoral work, primarily among local workers. Such a specific direction of spiritual work was connected with the spread of socialist ideas among the working class in Galicia, and Catholic Church had to respond to contemporary social problems, especially since socialist slogans contained anti-clerical elements. The Society of Jesus arrived in the city in January 1904, but at the end of October 1905, the leadership of the order decided to end the mission. The article examines the stay of the Society of Jesus in Stryi at that time, highlights the activities of the Jesuits in the city. Keywords: Society of Jesus, Jesuits, Stryi, Lviv Archdiocese, Roman Catholic Church.

Современная сакральная архитектура как символ архитектурной идентичности и общественное пространство в условиях зимнего города

In this study, we examine a contemporary church building as a powerful symbol of cultural and archi-tectural identity of a city. The city space organized around and inside a religious building is considered as an important public space from the perspective of civilizational culture. During the study, a compara-tive analysis of European and Russian contemporary sacral construction was carried out with the pur-pose of forecasting the development of the present Orthodox architecture, taking into account possi-ble trends, styles and directions. A field survey of 150 contemporary churches in Austria was carried out. Their evolutionary development over the past 120 years was examined both empirically and using scientific literature. In addition, a number of Russian churches, including restored or renovated histori-cal buildings as well as new facilities built after the collapse of the USSR, were studied. As a result, an assessment and explanation of the inevitable appearance of modern trends in the Orthodox Church architecture is given. Historicisms, existing in the Orthodox architecture of our time, are assumed to be related to the forced 70-year pause in the development of Orthodox architecture, rather than to the greater conservatism of the Orthodox religion. Any architecture, even its conservative religious type, responds to events occurring in a society and to arising new cultural and functional needs. As a result, due to a competent interaction of architects and customers, the existing architectural style starts to change gradually in terms of its spatial organization, form, composition, general appearance of the in-ner and outer space, thus giving rise to new symbols of cultural and architectural identity. With the ad-dition of new functions, a church remains to be a unique public building, forming public urban spaces both in and around itself.

Деревянное церковное зодчество Онежского Поморья: источниковедческий и историографический аспекты

The article is devoted to the history of studying the architecture of the Onega Gulf of the White Sea. The description of the area is already found in travel notes of the 16th century, but the monuments of wooden architecture of this region were introduced into wide scientific circulation only in the late 1880s by academician V. V. Suslov. In addition, the historiography of the theme of wooden church architecture of the Onega Pomerania was accompanied by the research and publication of sources, on the basis of which their critical assessment was later based. So, the Archaeological Commission in 1911 published a list of churches in the Onega district in the “Description of monuments of Russian Architecture in the provinces”. The study of the architectural heritage of the Onega Seaboard was resumed only at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, when the publications of I. B. Purishev, Yu. S. Ushakov, and M. I. Milchik were published almost simultaneously. Their articles and essays, along with materials published in the pre-revolutionary years, formed a solid basis for further scientific research in the 2010s, which presented the construction history and contextual analysis of temples in Unezhma, Purnema, Iur’eva Gora, Nimen’ga, Liamtsa, Pushlakhta and Letniaia Zolotitsa. On the basis of written sources (including unpublished materials of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, the Moscow Kremlin Museums, the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) a significant body of archival primary sources on the history of wooden church building in the Onega Gulf of the White Sea, related to monastic clerical work, state accounting materials, documents of diocesan administration bodies, was identified. At the present stage, the main research approach can be called the expansion of the factual base due to, first, the introduction into scientific circulation of previously unknown documents clarifying the construction history of a particular object; secondly, the appeal to the restoration materials of the Soviet era, containing correspondence, drawings, projects and measurements of the 1950s and 1980s; thirdly, the series of expeditions, the results of which are detailed measurements of monuments and graphic reconstructions. The reported study was funded by RFBR, project number № 20-012-00356.

Heaven's Wrath: The Protestant Reformation and the Dutch West India Company in the Atlantic World

Heaven's Wrath: The Protestant Reformation and the Dutch West India Company in the Atlantic World

ДОМІНІКАНСЬКИЙ КОСТЕЛ У ЧОРТКОВІ: ГЕОЛОГІЧНІ УМОВИ, ГЕОМЕТРИЗАЦІЯ КРИПТИ, СТАБІЛІЗАЦІЯ БУДІВЛІ

The article is devoted to the results of geological and geophysical research conducted on the territory of the Dominican Church in Chortkiv, Ternopil region to determine the stress-strain state of building elements and search for voids and compaction zones in the subsurface soil layer. Research methods were methods of natural pulsed electromagnetic field of the Earth, vertical electric sounding, natural electric potentials, radio wave acoustic profiling, and georadar sounding. The reasons for the development of dangerous processes that negatively affect the condition of the church building are identified and analyzed. It is established that the causes of these deformations are the geological structure of the rocks on which the church is built, the slope of the terrain, natural soil moisture, heavy traffic and the creation of additional sources of water infiltration.

Ротонда в Конюхе: некоторые аспекты влияния церковной и культурной политики в раннехристианской Дардании

The article is dedicated to the issues of liturgical arrangement of the Early Christian churches in Eastern Illyricum and, particularly, in Dardania. It is mainly based on a historiographical controversy aiming to attach Illyricum either to the Western, or to the Eastern liturgical practice by means of historical as well as architectural arguments. As a Latin-speaking province, Dardania is of special interest here. According to some evidence actively involved in the current historiography, the province belonged to the Roman sphere of influence and was opposed to the neighbouring Greek-speaking territories. The rotunda at Konjuh was chosen as a descriptive illustration for the problem under consideration. The elements examined in the paper such as the rooms flanking the narthex, eastern compartments, barriers within the colonnade, the synthronon, altar screen, and ambo, were compared with the possible analogues in the Western, Constantinopolitan, and Northern-Greek traditions. As the result, no distinct traces of the Roman influence were revealed; at the same time, Dardania proved to be secularly integrated within the Northern-Greek tradition of church building. This work is supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 20-18-00294) and performed in Scientific Research Institute of Theory and History of Architecture and Urban Planning, branch of the Central Institute for Research and Design of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation.

Church Monuments – Cultural Heritage on a Rocky Road to the Future

The Christian Churches in Germany are aware of their shared responsibility to preserve their great cultural heritage. However, their common stock of church buildings far exceeds future pastoral needs. This will continue to be the case given the continuing decline in Church membership rates, clerical staff and available financial resources. At the same time, finding an appropriate alternative use is, at times, remarkably difficult because the majority of churches in particular are listed buildings. This leads to considerable problems for church owners who must maintain the existing buildings. Cooperation between state and Church heritage authorities varies greatly and is sometimes problematic. In addition, large sections of society and politicians claim a public interest and a right of participation because the nature of the churches characterises the local image. Considering the sheer dimensions of the changes occurring in the Churches’ real estate stock, a future-proof protection of monuments can only succeed if the state and the Church are given an equal footing and joint responsibility in the process. This necessitates further development of administrative law from the previous superordination and subordination to a partnership and consensual cooperation in a separate agreement procedure.

The Level of Accessibility of Inclusive Design of Christian Temples and Churches in Ukraine

The article explores the issues of accessibility of inclusive design of Christian churches in Ukraine. The principle of accessibility as the main element of inclusive design often causes a conflict of interests in modern Ukrainian society, as it requires changes in the existing state of affairs. To make the subject-spatial environment accessible not only in everyday life, production, but also in the Christian sacred environment is one of the primary tasks of inclusive design. Many Christian churches in Ukraine are not ready to accept people with inclusion since the conditions of accessibility are not met. One of the reasons is that many Christian churches in Ukraine are the spiritual and historical heritage of the state, so changing their architecture is not encouraged. At the same time, modern church buildings and temples that were built after 1991 are also not prepared to receive people with disabilities. Since spirituality is one of the key values for the Ukrainian sociocultural system, which is genetically determined for the national tradition it is important to establish the level of accessibility for all believers. Spirituality is one of the pearls of the historical heritage of the people. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to assess the level of accessibility and general aspects that prevent people with disabilities from visiting Christian churches. In the study of this topic, we will allow ourselves to express our own points of view and try to draw the attention of religious leaders so to resolve the problem with disabled inaccessibility to temples and churches in Ukraine.

Greek Tragedy or Gestation Period: Future of the Modern Church in Greece

Greek Tragedy or Gestation Period: Future of the Modern Church in Greece

Monument conservation and excavation of the Rossztemplom Church in Tök, 2022

The Rossztemplom [the name meaning “Ruin Church”] in Tök is one of the few Árpádian Age ruined churches in Pest County. Having belonged to a former, late-13th-century AD village called Tek, it is now surrounded by ploughlands. Its conservation and archaeological survey was completed in 2000, but since then the condition of the ruins has deteriorated. The church has attracted illegal metal detectorists, and ongoing land cultivation has also put the site in danger. The worsening condition of the ruins was noted several times during field walks, also by experts of the Ferenczy Museum Centre. In 2022, Market Ltd. undertook the conservation of the ruins and tidied up its environs. Their work received considerable media coverage as Market Ltd. used its own resources for a voluntary service to the community. This renovation project also included a short archaeological excavation, conducted by the Ferenczy Museum Centre and realised with the assistance of volunteers. The work focused on the architectural history of the church building, as that was considered essential in the conservation process. This short paper provides a summary of the excavation results.

Kajian Biblika Makna Ibadah yang Murni dalam Yakobus 1:26-27 Dan Implikasinya Bagi Orang Percaya Masa Kini

Worship is an important part of the life of a believer. Worship cannot be replaced with anything in this life. Because worship is part of the lifestyle of every believer. When it comes to worship, it is immediately focused on the concept of praise, worship and listening to God’s Word in church buildings, retreats or commission services. This is not wrong; indeed, the essence of worship is to perform religious rituals to meet God. But there is something interesting in James 1:26-27 mention of true worship. In order to obtain accurate and accountable data, in this study authors used the method of writing descriptive literature. The purpose of this writing is Frist, to reveal and straighten out an incorrect understanding of a concept of worship according to the truth of God’s Word. Second, contribute to believers in thinking to be able to be role models in society. Third, it provides a nuance of the mindset of believers to reflect practical worship into a holistic form of service.

Construction of Churches in the Mordovian Villages of the Alatyrsky District in the Second Half of the XVII – XIX Century

Introduction. The study of the features of the confessional and socio-cultural development of peoples and individual regions of the Russian state is one of the important research tasks. Results and Discussion. At the end of the XVII century the village of Novotroitskoye of the Alatyrsky district became the first Mordovian Christian settlement of the region, in which the new Christians, protected from oppression, began to live, who were an example for their tribesmen in the adoption of the Orthodox faith. From the middle of the XVIII century in many Novokreschen villages of the region, a chapel was initially built, in which a priest was determined to serve. Then money was allocated for the construction of the church. In the XIX century active construction of Orthodox churches continued on the territory of the Alatyrsky and Ardatovsky districts of the Simbirsk province: instead of outdated and dilapidated church buildings, new ones were built, and parish churches were opened in populous villages. Conclusion. The Christening of a Mordva and opening of churches became an important step in strengthening of Orthodoxy and autocracy in the region, have played a positive role in spiritual and moral education of the people, have left a noticeable mark in education development. To acceptance of christianity there was a sociocultural integration of a mordva into structure of the Russian Empire. On the other hand, the commonality of the Orthodox religion was one of the factors in the development of assimilation processes among the Mordovian people.

The pandemic’s mass: an Anglo-Catholic essay on certain Eucharistic issues raised by COVID-19

This article explores a number of issues related to the challenges introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic as it concerns the celebration of the Eucharist and attempts to do so from an Anglo-Catholic perspective. The article considers the overarching question of the extent to which the Church is willing to be open to practices that do not fully express the ideal or the fullest expression of the liturgy in light of serious mitigating circumstances. The following constellation of issues related to the Eucharist and the pandemic are examined: the prohibition against celebration of the Eucharist in light of the historical realities about the frequency of communion reception; the basis in the prayer book for the practice of spiritual communion and reception of communion in one kind; the theological challenges of so-called “drive-by Communion”; and the thorny question of a priest celebrating the Eucharist with no other persons in the church building ( sine populo).

Changes in the Location of Orthodox Churches in the Lemko Region in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Changes in the Location of Orthodox Churches in the Lemko Region in the 18th and 19th Centuries: Selected Examples
 The subject of the article is the issue of changing the location of church buildings within one village in the Lemko region in the 18th and 19th centuries. The article is based on the analysis of historical maps, written documents (mainly decanal visits) and data based on modern documentation techniques – Light Detection and Ranging. The most common reasons for the change in the location of the church were discussed using the example of selected issues – the natural construction movement, spatial development of the settlement and changes in the administrative boundaries of the parish.

Churches and Faith: Attitude Towards Church Buildings During the 2020 covid-19 Lockdown Among Churchgoers in England

Abstract Attitude toward church buildings was assessed among a sample of 6,476 churchgoers in England during the first covid-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020. The six-item Scale of Attitude toward Church Buildings (sacb) assessed a range of aspects of attitude that included the importance of buildings for Christian faith generally, and buildings as central to the expression of Christian faith. Anglo-Catholics and Roman Catholics showed similar positive attitude towards buildings, Anglican Evangelicals showed a less positive attitude on average that was similar to those from Free-Churches, while Broad-Church Anglican attitude lay between these two extremes. Younger people had a more positive attitude than older people, especially among Catholics. On average, men had more a positive attitude than women, and lay people a more positive attitude than clergy. These findings suggest that the significance of buildings varies among traditions in ways that may still reflect historical issues of the Reformation.

Comparison of Static Model, Adaptation Study, and CFD Simulation in Evaluating Thermal Comfort Based on Köppen Climate Classification System in Churches in Indonesia

This research examined thermal comfort in church buildings in Indonesia by making a comparison between three different Indonesian climatic regions using three different research models. A static model, an adaptation study model and a CFD simulation were used to find the similarities and differences between the results generated from determining thermal comfort in church buildings in the three regions. The comparison revealed that church buildings had different PMV scores at each measuring point that were inversely proportional to the subjects’ response on thermal comfort inside the buildings, i.e. points adjoining with openings affect a low PMV score and a high perceived thermal sensation, and vice versa. The CFD simulation showed that changing the conditions of the openings affects air velocity and flow into the building, which influences the subjects’ thermal comfort response inside the churches.

A Red-Letter Day in the Annals of Carrigfadda: Church Building, Nationalism and the Pull of Rome

A Red-Letter Day in the Annals of Carrigfadda: Church Building, Nationalism and the Pull of Rome