History of Vladimir architecture

Russian tastes modified. Artisans imported from Western countries to carry out Russian projects added their own traditions to the amalgam. An early example of Russian hybrid style is the Cathedral of Saint Demetrius, built about 1193-97 at Vladimir in the principality of Rostov-Suzdal, far to the north-east of Kiev and beyond the authority of its metropolitan. The square block of Saint Demetrius, showing traces of the inner Greek-cross plan into whose arms the corner blocks housing prosthesis, diakonikon, and galleries are fitted, and the central dome on its high drum pierced by round-arched windows are immediately recognisable as Byzantine. The screen architecture, consisting of two-story blind arcades whose arches appear along the roof line and are supported by lofty colonnades, is also derived from Byzantine churches of the tenth and eleventh centuries. But the elaborate fabric of stone sculpture that fills the arches of the upper story and the walls of the drum with figural and ornamental reliefs of great decorative effect is derived from such Western Romanesque models as Notre-Dame-la-Grand at Poitiers and is wholly alien to Byzantine tradition.

Notice: Vladimir - is a city in Russia, located on the river Klyazma, 200 kilometers (124 mi) to the east of Moscow

Literature: Book "Russian art" A.P. Minyar-Belorucheva