Architecture. Зайцева И.В. - 51 стр.

      5.1.9 Read the following word combinations and translate them into Russian:

early architecture; icon painting; defensive sites; the most natural building material;
beautiful carved decoration; fortress towers; wooden and masonry architecture; the few
remaining examples; wooden church architecture; gracefully silhouetted multi-domed
cathedral; cubical basic structure; slender columns; vertical wall section; small
sculptured figures; stone embroideries; yearning for massiveness; expression of
slendour; lavish decoration

      5.2 Read the text and tell about early Russian architecture

       Text 5 A

                              Early Russian Architecture

       Russian borrowed its early architecture, like its icon painting, from Byzantium.
From the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries early towns were built on defensive sites
on high river banks. From afar were visible low white walls with towers, churches with
brilliant domes and bell towers. The finest examples of traditional architecture can be
seen in the towns of Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Suzdal, Bogolyubovo and Sergiev Posad.
       In Russia, timber has always been the most natural building material. Russian
carpenters decorate the diverse structures they were building with beautiful carved
decorations above windows and porches. One can see such decorations on log-cabins,
fortress towers, huge cathedrals, churches and monasteries.
       Wooden and masonry architecture developed side by side in medieval Russia, one
stimulating and gratifying the love for verticality and slenderness, the other satisfying a
yearning for massiveness, monumentality, and lavish decoration in the expression of
power and splendour. The few remaining examples of the ancient wooden structures are
now in Rostov and also in the museums of wooden buildings in Novgorod, Kostroma
and Suzdal. These examples show the skill and gift of their builders to harmonize the
building proper with the landscape.
       The most majestic and famous examples of wooden church architecture may be
found on the island of Kizhi in Lake Onega. Here you will be impressed by the grand
and gracefully silhouetted multi-domed Cathedral of the Transfiguration and ten-domed
Church of the Intercession with its bell tower.
       Wooden architecture predominates in Northern Russia and in some of the older
settlements and towns of the Siberia, such as Tyumen.
       One of the best-known Russian churches in the northern style is the Church of the
Intercession on the Nerl (Pokrova na Nerli). Today it stands alone in the midst of green
meadows, the small lake below reflecting its white walls and single dome.
       This church is one of the most poetic creations of early Russian architecture
which ever come down to us out of the past. The church is not large, and very simple in
plan, with the cubical basic structure usual for the north. It is light and graceful, the
structure as a whole seems hardly to touch the ground. Each facade is made up of three
sections divided vertically by slender columns, and horizontally connected by a
decorative band of blind arcading of the same white stone as the wall itself. As for the