Architecture

Architecture

From the time of its conversion to Christianity in the tenth century, the confederation of East Slavic principalities centered round Kyiv entered the cultural sphere of the Byzantine Empire. Builders from Constantinople erected the first churches, but soon the Byzantine influence nurtured a local Russian style. Russian masters working in the broad context of Byzantine art and hence the European artistic tradition attained an originality and superb artistic quality of their own. From its early period (tenth–twelfth c.), a rich architectural tradition developed through the medieval and Muscovite periods, the imperial period, and into the Soviet years. The ability of Russian patrons to use external models, often working with Western European architects, to create masterpieces distinguishes Russian architecture in every period. The monographs, handbooks, encyclopedias, and albums described below survey different periods, present scholarly research, and publish a great deal of visual documentation on a vital branch of world architecture.