Arch-Gabled Church: an Original Architectural Tradition of Kyivan Rus

Stone construction in Kyivan Rus was initiated by Byzantine masters after Christianity had been adopted as the state religion in 988. The most widespread type of ecclesiastical architecture in 12th-century Kyivan Rus was the arch-gabled church, characterised by the completion of all facade bays with semicircular arched gables, some of them being constructive (filling the ends of the vaults) and some decorative (adjacent to the slopes of the vaults). It was considered, for a long time, that the arch-gabled church had been borrowed from Byzantium, but Byzantine churches usually had a combination of semicircular arched gables and horizontal cornices in the completion of the facade walls. Continuous arch-gabled completion was known to be only in the western facade of narthex, provided it had galleries. There was no continuous arch-gabled completion of the naos walls in Byzantine churches, but the horizontal cornices of the corner compartments (if they had galleries) were sometimes interrupted with protruding window arches. The arch-gabled completion in Byzantine churches was the consequence of the structure and the arched gables were always constructive. In Kyivan Rus, the walls of all facade bays of the arch-gabled churches, were completed with semicircular arched gables, regardless of whether there were galleries. So, in Kyivan Rus, the arch-gabled completion lost its connection with the galleries and acquired the aesthetic significance. The proof of that was the emergence of decorative arched gables, without which continuous arch-gabled completion on two adjacent facades could not be created (at the time of formation of the arch-gabled church, cross vaults were not used in Kyivan Rus). In conclusion, the arch-gabled church had no prototypes in Byzantine architecture and was an achievement of Kyivan Rus architecture.