Last temples of Imperial Russia

The authors of the book note that “the architecture of the beginning of the 20th century in the architecture of Russia, including the temple, was already different, it came another era when the issues of self -determination of architects, artists and their customers in the present time, the search for the combination of a traditional worldview acquired more and more acutely. And the visions of a new changed world, national identity and understanding of the place of art of Russia in the universal art history of mankind. Today, in the days of the XXI century, the same problems with no less clarity are facing us, especially in the field of church architecture, and before solving them, we will try to cheat with those works of Russian masters, who became the last temples of the imperial era.

In this book, we did not try to create a “formula” suitable for modern church architecture of Russia. We are not so much trying to express our judgments, but to show a more extensive material on the temple building on the eve of the Russian revolution. Moreover, we consciously give preference to the most advantageous pictures of that era, completely abandoning modern photographs. This is like the world of the Russian church of 1907-1917, seen by the heads of architects, artists, historians of art and photographers at the beginning of the 20th century