Russian Orthodox

Russian Orthodox church architecture adapted the Byzantine cross-in-square church, in which a central dome rises over the crossing of four arms, and made it taller. Domes stand on high cylindrical drums and are often onion-shaped, covered in sheet metal or tiles and sometimes gilded. Rows of kokoshniki, curved decorative gables, step up from the walls toward the domes. Some churches built from the 16th century have a tented roof, a tall eight-sided pyramid, in place of a dome. Dome numbers carry meaning: one for God, three for the Trinity, five for Christ and the four evangelists.

Examples include the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Novgorod (1045-1050), the white limestone Church of the Intercession on the Nerl near Vladimir (1165), and the Church of the Ascension at Kolomenskoye in Moscow (1530s). Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square (1555-1561) groups eight domed chapels around a central church with a tented roof. Byzantine churches have low, shallow domes; Russian builders raised the dome on a tall drum and gave it a bulbous profile.

The tradition began after Prince Vladimir of Kiev accepted Christianity from Byzantium around 988, and the first stone churches followed Byzantine plans. Builders in Novgorod and Pskov used rough fieldstone, while those in 12th-century Vladimir and Suzdal used carved white limestone. Onion domes were in use by the 13th century and became common in the 16th and 17th centuries. Under Ivan the Terrible, Moscow builders adopted the tented roof, and Saint Basil's was built in 1555-1561 to mark the capture of Kazan; its present colors were added in stages from the 1680s to 1848.

After Peter the Great moved the capital to St. Petersburg in 1712, churches there followed European Baroque and Neoclassical models. In the mid-19th century, the Russian Revival returned to older forms: Konstantin Thon's Russo-Byzantine style had the official support of Nicholas I, and his Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow was begun in 1839. Alfred Parland's Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg (1883-1907) revived the onion domes and colored tile of 16th- and 17th-century Moscow. Russian Revival cathedrals were also built abroad, including Alexander Nevsky cathedrals in Sofia, Tallinn and Paris.