Византийский стиль в русской архитектуре второй половины XIX века: специфика военных храмов

The architecture of the so-called “national” styles of the second half of the 19th century was one of the most powerful means of spreading the national myth: church construction in the 19th century remained largely in the hands of the state, and churches were built not only in the historically Orthodox central regions of the empire, but also on its outskirts, where they asserted imperial domination and promoted Orthodoxy in the non-Christian territories of the empire. A significant role in this process was played by military churches, as they were the most closely aligned with the official state policy. Starting from the reign of Alexander II, the typology of churches became more and more diverse and their geography expanded. The largest number of churches were built in the Russian style, but there were also ones in the Byzantine style. The author attempts to collate and analyze all Byzantine-style military churches in order to establish whether they exhibit compositional and stylistic features that distinguish them from all other churches of the same style. A small (less than ten) number of military churches built in the Byzantine style was possible to find. The compositional and stylistic parallels that arise between these structures are not due to their function, but to the logic of the development of the Byzantine style and the creative work of specific architects.