Description of the attraction
The decision to build the Annunciation Cathedral in Murom is associated with the stay in the city in July 1552 of Tsar Ivan the Terrible before his campaign against Kazan. The next year after the victory at Kazan, Ivan the Terrible sent Moscow stonemasons here to build the Annunciation Cathedral.
Despite the subsequent restructuring, especially after the Polish-Lithuanian invasion in 1616, in general terms, the Cathedral of the Annunciation retained its appearance from the 16th century. The cathedral was restored in 1664. At the same time, the construction of the ensemble of the Trinity Monastery, the Vvedenskaya and Resurrection Churches on the Headquarters, St. George's Church and others was underway.
The Annunciation Cathedral stands on a high basement, in the plan it is a rectangle elongated from north to south, its sides are 5 and 3.5 sazhens in length. This layout is typical for the second half of the 16th century. The architectural details of the Annunciation Cathedral are close to the style of architecture of the Moscow temple architecture. The rectangle, with its narrow side facing south, is adjoined by a three-apse-shaped altar, which is connected to the main volume by three arched openings.
The cathedral has strict forms and monumental proportions. The building is vertically divided by wide blades-pilasters into 3 parts. The bases of the drums are: a high cornice with denticles, croutons, flywheels; kokoshniks, which rest on pilaster blades. The wall of the Annunciation Cathedral is a complex sculptural composition consisting of differently processed window frames, which end with a torn pediment, a keeled kokoshnik, or a jagged crown. Columns of platbands are a combination of shapes of different colors, capsules and beads.
The architecture of the Annunciation Cathedral has much in common with both the Murom architectural monuments and the monuments of Moscow architecture of the 17th century. But Murom temples, by the nature of their patterns, constitute a special group in the history of Russian architecture, where, according to Grabar, "the decorativeness of Moscow forms is developed by a pretentious pattern." The main one, the southern façade, is exceptional in architecture. Thanks to its strict proportions that have survived from the 16th century temple, a perfect composition has been created here.
The basement, which is a powerful base, is divided into three parts by wide blades. In the center is the entrance to the plinth, bordered by pilasters, on which the pediment of a complex profile rests. The pilasters and pediment are found on the shoulder blades and cross the cornice of the basement part. In the side parts there are arched windows, recessed in niches, framed by rectangular rods, which turn into keeled kokoshniks, which cut into the cornice with their tops. The blades divide the main volume into three parts, the distance between the blades of the central part is slightly less than the dimensions of the side walls. The wide belt of the cornice is carried by pilasters. Under the belts of the capitals of the central pilasters, rectangular niches are made, with frames in the form of rollers, the upper part of which is raised.
Despite the fact that the Annunciation Cathedral has one floor, two rows of windows give the impression that it is two-story. Such an interesting technique is used in temple buildings of the 16th and 17th centuries, because due to the significant size of the buildings, only one row of windows was not enough for normal illumination of the temple inside.
