The Church of Elijah the Prophet (1755)
The Church of Elijah the Prophet (1755) is a monument of wooden architecture which is situatedtwo kilometers far from the village Ferapontovo. The church was built on a country churchyard, on the shore of the Iljinsky lake. During its existence the monument has undergone many changes.The basic remaking was in the end of the XIX century. It totally changed the appearance of the church, so it was rather complicated for the researchers to define it.
The basic framework of the church has an octagonal form. The altar was built to its eastern side.At the western side there was a small refectory. Round the church at the north-western and southern sides there was a pendent passageway on consoles. The top of the church consisted of gradually decreasing octagonal constructions forming a tier structure. It is unknown how the top of the church looked before the reconstruction of the church in the end of XIX century.
Igor Nikolaevich Shurgin who was researching the monument in the 1980-s discovered the rests of the top fallen on the ground in the 1960-s. On the basis of his researches two variants of restorationswere developed. According to the first variant the church should have the original appearance. In the opinion of I.N.Shurgin two moreoctagonal constructions should be above the framework whichremained till that moment. Roof was supposed tobe built of boards, and the head and the drum headshould be covered with wooden shingles.
The second variant of restoration supposedthe restoration of the top according tothe photo of the beginning of the XX century. According to this variant the bottom frameworkof the church shouldn’t be covered with boards.Both variants assumed the restoration of the temple withoutsheet works. The porch constructedin the XIXcentury wasn’t supposedto be restored, but the stair beinginside it could be replacedwith two stairs in cages.It was also assumed to build a porchat the western side. The window apertures were also supposed to berebuilt. As it was found out during theprocess of restoration it was impossibleto carry out the both of these variants.
The restoration started in 2003. It was held by the “Restoration center – architecture, manufacture and training” under the guidance of A.V.Popov. Having only the rests of the church the restorers used the method of sorting out logs. The church was without the upper part. The second and the third octagonal constructions laid nearby disassembled. Above the basic framework there was a roof. Everywhere there were traces of leaking. Deformation of the walls was so great, that there were no doubt that the building was in a breakdown condition. The octagonal basic frameworkhad a general skew of the northern wall of 55 sm. as a result of deformation of the foundation.
The restoration started with the disassembling ofthe monument. All the elements of the building were preliminary marked. In the process of disassembling the photos were taken and additional measurements were made. For example it was necessary to measure the plan of the basic octagonal framework at the floor level to take into account possible deformations during the assemblage of the church. The comparison of two plans - at the floor level and at the upper logs level -showed the essential correction. While pulling down the building the restorers continued to research the monument. Their finds showed some stages of the existence of themonument. So they found a coin in a corner joint of the alter logs of the 15th timber set. The coin confirmed the known date of the building of the church - 1755. According to the archival information the consecration of the temple took place one year later. The sacred corporal of the church dates back to June, 26th 1756ã. Some logs of the church wereselected as samplesfor definitionof the age of the construction. They were brought to the laboratory for the natural methods of science - the Russian Academy of Sciences. The special analysis of the logs confirmed that they were cut in spring1755.
The basic remakingconcerned the entrance of the building. In 1772 the archaeological commission of Catherine II fixed the plan of this church with two symmetric stairways from the northern and the southern sides. These stairs were inside of two small cages built of material differing from the material of the basic framework of the church. The further researches showed that the butt ends of the logs of the northern and southern walls of the refectory were cut soon after the erecting of the church. According to an initial plan of the architects the butt ends of those logs should form a projection at the west wall, playing a role of consoles under the pendent passageway, as well as at the northern and southern sides. This variant supposed that this pendent porch should be an entrance to the church. Probably the builders refused of such design because maximum only two logs could form the pendent projection and there should be an aperture for entrance in the western wall. Without an additional support such construction could not exist. It may be so that the architects abandoned the initial plan and built additional cages for stairway.
The first period of existence of the monument lasted about 110 years. Then it was rebuilt. The basic remaking was in 1860-s.The church was planked from outside. A church porch with a new stairway appeared at thewestern side of the building. A new foundation, windows and doors apertures were made. The church was covered with painted canvas inside.Flat ceilings in the altar were replaced with the vaulted ones made of boards. The cages were repaired and built without any steps. All the board roofs were replaced with the metal ones. Probably then the temple received a new top made in the form of a dome. Besides it was found out that in 1914 some more repairs were carried out. During pulling down the church porches an inscription was found in the junction of two bars of the floor: “The church was repaired by Haritonov in June 1914…Vasily Vasilevich Haritonov... Village Zaharino “.
The pendent southern passageway supported with two additional logs was made during the second repair. The floor in the basic octagonal volume and in the passageways was partially replaced. The stairway and the floor at the entrance were also new made.Last repair works did not change the appearance of the church. They concerned only its interiors.
One more important discovery was made at the disassembling stage. It helped to understand how this temple was created. The restorers analyzed the traces of axes left by the builders in the corner joints where they better preserved and were well seen. The observations proved that the carpenters worked with wide and thin axes. They formed straight cuts. The axes used earlier made small hollows in wood. The local priest Sergy Ershovbrought the restorers an old axe which he found inthe church attic in Ferapontovo. Strange though it may seem but its form appeared surprisingly to be similar to the form of axe traces on the logs of the church. Its blade was thin and the width was about 16 centimeters. One more thing attracted attention. Axe traces on the logs showed that they were made with an axe having a curve on the upper part of its blade and the found axe had the same shape. The majority of the carpenter works was carried out with this part of the axe. It naturally grinds off faster than the middle and the lower parts of the blade. As the blade was thin its upper part got a rounded form at a heavy use. All these signs pointed out that the version about the identity of the axe being used during the building of the church and the found one had the right for existence. The restorers used the found axe as the sample and made new axes for restoration works. In process of working with the reconstructed axes they found out many features indirectly proving this version.
In the course of disassembling the monument they got much additional information concerning the methods and technologies of restoration.According to the work technique some bottom timber sets should be retained to preserve the former size of the construction. New logs are put above the old ones. Then the closed new timber set is put on a supportand the old rotting logs are sawed out and taken away. Under the corners of the construction they made foundation columns. This work was carried out under the supervision of the archeologists from the Vologda center “North Antiquities”. During the researches they founda large number of burials, including many children's tombs in the basement of the church. The foundation made under the church in the XIX century destroyed a lot of burial places. So the Tsypinsky cemetery existed long before the building of this church.
In the altar they found a log with traces of the works made in the XIX century. The depth of the base made in that time had different size and varied from 0,8 m to 1.2 m. The archeologists also attempted to find the rests of the church constructed till 1755 but it didn’t give a result.
The lowest logs of the church were totally changed.For this purpose they used selected logs of the age of 80-120. The old logs had the same age and the same diameter.
The restorers worked using the reconstructed axes. The width of the reconstructed blade was very convenient. Later the restorers found some more axes with the form similar to the form of the axe which the local priest brought.
The first one was found by the archeologists near the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery in the ground layers of the XIX century and the second one was brought by the resident of the village Ferapontovo. All three found axes had thin blades and similar shape.As it is known the technology of application of an axe with a thick edge was forgotten and it is not used in our time. It was gradually displaced with the technology of working with a thin blade axe.Probably the axe found in the attic of the church was one of the first axes being applied in building at that time. It is known that the wooden churches situated to the north of Arkhangelsk region and the republic of Karelia were built with axes with thick blades. The found axes shift the time of carpenter history from the XIX century to the middle of the XVIII century.
Following the major restoration principle - the maximum preservation of the materialculture – the restorers carried out prosthetics in some cases. The rotting parts of the logs were sawn off and were replaced with the new ones of the same diameter. The joints were made in grooves and in timber tops with obligatory installation of special nails.The restorers made partial insets in the logs where some local damages were. As the insets they tried to use good parts of the old logs because it is a dry hard-wearing material.Insets were fastened with special nails without any glue and were pressed with a groove of the top log for prevention from their possible falling out. Also for preservation of the old logs they made small crowns - small parts of the logs which were let out. Thus it was possible to save many old logs. And the percent of their preservation increased.
After the floor of the church and passageways were restored it was possible to place the first timber set of galleries and to start to build cages. The researches have shown that two walls of cages, being on a longitudinal axis of the temple, had cuttings inside and the cut plane exceeded the intersection with an external log. So they came to an idea to make these walls longer to their original design. More over the butt ends of these logs were sawn off but not chopped off. The restorers tried to look for some possible rests of the original design in the ground. The researches brought unexpected results. At the depth of about 50 sm. the rests of the old vestibule were found. The logs being in the ground had the form of a rectangle slightly extended westwards. Also there were rotted rests of boards at the western wall. Supposedly those logs were the rests of the vestibule. About 120 years passed from the time of building of the church till the basic remaking of the entrance was made. For this period the bottom logs could rot. But they remained in the ground. A new church porch did not repeat the form of the former one and it was much bigger. The rests of the old vestibule remained under the roof of the new church porch and probably therefore they were rather well preserved.
Having received the information of the form of the vestibule the restorers made its reconstruction. Of course they didn’t have full information about it. They didn’t know many details, i.e. if there were windows, how many steps there were, how the roof was constructed and others.
The reconstruction of the vestibule could have a hypothetical character in this case when we didn’t have enough information about it. Following to the definition of the Venetian charter of 1964 (“Restoration should come to the end there, where the hypothesis begins”) a reconstruction of the vestibule of the church was not possible. More over it could completely destroy the church porch of the XIX century with the original elements of designs.
The restorers amazed a variety of joints in the corners. The joints with hewn hollows were not the only ones. The ways of hewing joints of the corners change from one timber set to another one. It did not depend on the master who cut a concrete corner. On the contrary it was applied according to the plan of the building of the church. The walls of the octagonal construction were cut down “in oblo” (with hollows). With an axe the basic volume of a hollow was hewn out, then it was accurately cut round the edges and its central part was cleaned with a special tool. At the selection of a log its form is usually taken into account. Timber joints in a basement usually don’t meet as high demands as the joints being above the floor in the base volume of a construction. On some logs there are no grooves at all. Traditionally the alter part differed from the base volume of a church. The church of Elijah the Prophet is not an exception. Its altar walls are hewn outside. So the hewing in the corners differs from the hewing in the octagonal framework which is built of round logs. The hewn walls demanded more efforts and looked more splendid in the opinion of architects and priesthood. The hewing in the corners looks outside different as inside. The transition from a round log to a cut one occurs inside intersection of logs and forms a secret tenon giving additional hardness to the construction. The basement of the church is a construction gradually increasing to the top. The length of the logs’ ends being outside the framework is gets longer and forms a support to galleries. The joints of logs on their length appear with the gradual increasing of the volume of the construction. If the joint is cut between hollows it is carried out in groove and crest. If the logs connection is made in a hollow it is carried out just in a joint. In some cases special nails are used for prevention the possible displacement of a log in longitudinal direction but in the most cases “zasek” is made. It means that a groove of 25-30 sm is hewn in opposite direction. The upper log remains to be round and in the lower one a groove is cut. A large number of joints has brought us to a thought that the architects used logs of definite length preliminary having sawn a cut timber.
Further it was found out that the majority of the logs had a length of about 7,5 meters. Probably the material for building was delivered here from other region. Confirming this version an unusual joint was found in the southern wall of the fundamental octagonal framework. The builders joined a long log forming a consol with a short log which was only 60 sm. long. The masters skillfully found the ways to cope with the restrictions. For example while hewing consoles the upper log is left outside so that its other end does not get enough to a framework. To prevent the log from its fall during the adjustment there is a board cut down in the lower log. This and many other methods confirm great skill of builders. The architects building the church of Elijah the Prophet possessed great experience allowing them to use material and tools in a masterly way.
The restoration of the second and the third octagonal frameworks demanded their disassembling. As it was mentioned before the logs of this construction were stored after unsuccessful attempt of restoration in 1970. Their marking wasn’t preserved on all the logs, therefore it was necessary to assemble them on the ground to determine the deposition of the logs in the framework. Unfortunately the logs were stored without any packing and close to the damp ground. It led to the fact that they rotted. As a result the percent of the preserved old logs took about 40 % in the second octagonal framework and 10 % in the third one.
The process of restoration usually takes more time than the building. As it is known the church was erected during two summer seasons. Restoration demanded essentially more time. Adjustment of the old logs to the new ones is a laborious work. Sometimes the restorers stopped restoration. To protect the monument from rain and snow they built a temporary roof.
Having collected information about design of the vestibule with stairs, construction of the floor, windows and other elements of the monument the restorers changed the confirmed project of restoration. But the main problem was restoration of the top of the church.
They had many questions, if the dome over the third octagonal framework was original or it was built at the time of repair of the church in XIX century, how the transition from the third octagonal framework to the dome and the drum was constructed and others.
They started to research churches having similar design. The church of Elijah the Prophet has at least three analogues with similar domes and upper parts. All the churches have the same name - the Nativity of the Virgin. The fist one (1783) was built in the village Popovka-Kalikinsky, Vozhegodsky district, Vologda region, the second one (1792) is situated in the village Mezhurki, Harovsky district and the third church is in the village Lukachevo, Ust-Kubensky district. Unfortunately these monuments were not preserved till nowadays. The church located in the village Popovka-Kalikinsky went to ruin in 2002. All these constructions had similar cupolas and tier composition in the top. The restorers also have an idea that these churches were built by the same masters because they were built in the neighboring areas and approximately at the same time. The church of Elijah the Prophet is the earliest one.
