The Church of the Transfiguration stands in the Saint Euphrosyne monastery in Polotsk, Belarus, and it is still active. It was built in the mid-1150s. Manuscripts about Euphrosyne of Polotsk name Ivan, head of the church builders, as the architect. Euphrosyne herself likely ordered the frescoes and may have designed their layout.
The style is pre-Mongol Rus' architecture. The building is a square church with six pillars and one apse, with a lively vertical silhouette, zakomaras, kokoshniks and narrowed side naves. Pavel Rappoport called it an example of Russian Gothic.
The early frescoes are probably from 1133 to 1145 and show Byzantine influences. They include the Orans, the Nativity and St Anthony with a centaur. Excavations in 2015 found underground galleries, an exonarthex and an underground church about ten feet (3 meters) deep. New frescoes were added in 1835 and 1884.
Comments