Temple and Landscape: Development and Verification of the Typology of Religious Buildings According to Place, Era, Event

The article presents individual results of the research team obtained in the implementation of the research project “Temple and Landscape” (21-011-44277). This included the systematization of religious buildings – objects of spiritual and cultural heritage as indicators of historical and geographical landscapes. The authors explore the patterns of location of different religious buildings in the landscape in certain historical periods, the specifics of the geography of religious buildings, and the reflection of the spiritual development of ethnic communities throughout space and time. The publication uncovers the dependence of the location of religious buildings on natural conditions, historical events, the time of their emergence, the layout and existing architecture of the surrounding area, the aesthetic appeal of the construction site, the openness/closedness of the territory, availability of construction materials, transport accessibility (major routes nearby) and other factors. The expressiveness of temples and their complexes and landscapes is enhanced by their interconnected location. The use of an interdisciplinary approach and the application of methods from the humanities, natural sciences and engineering (comparative, cartographic, field observations, etc.) to study religious traditions, including the location of temple complexes in the landscape, allowed to develop and verify a typology of religious buildings depending on criteria such as location, era, historical event.