Anna Permilovskaya
Russian Academy of Sciences, Ural Branch, Institute of Ecological Problems of the North, Russia
The architectural monuments are considered in the new integrative scientific horizon as the works of culture. It is of great importance for understanding people’s history in general. In the research we proceed from the assumption that “history of art should be written as history of culture” (I. E. Grabar). Empirical field material was collected by the author during 34 expeditions. Archival and museum sources of Arkhangelsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vologda and Petrozavodsk of 1981–2014 have been analyzed. Wooden churches are preserved mainly in the Russian North. They are represented by different types: “four-frame type”, “tent roof”, “kub style”, “storied type”, “multidome” churches. The “four-frame type” churches are the most ancient of wooden churches preserved. They belong to the late 14th–15th centuries This research allows us to give a definition of the folk architecture. History of the Russian wooden architecture is to a large extent history of the wooden architecture of the Russian North. Folk wooden architecture, which is created by unknown masters in the most cases based on the common national architectural and building traditions as the reflection of individual and collective mentality of peasantry, is one of the universal dominants of the traditional culture of the Russian folk. Studying church architecture helps to understand integrity and essence of difficult historical and social features of the Russian culture in which monuments of national architecture are unique and, unfortunately, not numerous artefacts. But these monuments carry out continuity and national identification of traditional culture in the course of its formation and transformation.