CATHEDRAL OF THE VIRGIN MARY IN CHELM FROM 13th CENTURY (HISTORICAL, ARCHITECTURAL, ARCHEOLOGICAL ASPECTS)

During 2013-2017 years the Polish-Ukrainian science project has been carried out with the aim of recognize the cathedral church of the Virgin Mary (Bogorodytsia) built in Kholm by Danylo Romanovych in the middle of the XIII-th cent. Interdisciplinary, non-invasion prospections as well as archaeological excavations were done with a view to finding and identifying the location of the cathedral church, known until present only from the written sources.

Analysis results of the archaeological researches allow us to propose a hypothesis on the original architectonic and planning structure of this cathedral. It was 14 m wide and near 22,4 m long. It was east-west oriented. The distance between the outer walls and the pillars was 1,75–2,0 m, the inside diameter of the dome on the pillars was about 5,0 m. The architectural-spatial layout of the church was based of two lengthened rectangular parts –three-aisled four-pillared part and the apse.

The foundation walls were made of sandstone bonded with chalky-clayey and sand-lime mortars and was about 2,0 m wide. The width of the wall above the corbel was 1,22–1,24 m. The wall thickness, the way of placing bricks, firm and of high quality mortar indicate that the central part of the structure could have been high. The walls of the church were made of the brick (260–270 × 120–125 × 80–85 mm) in the Romanesque masonry technique.

The outer wall surface was not plastered and the outer joints between bricks were well-made. The remains of the walls show that they were built without pilasters. The main entrance to the temple was in the middle part of the western wall in the form of a perspective portal decorated with framing. In the lower part from the outside the portal was made of bricks and from the inside part it was framed with the white lime blocks. The preserved fragments of a block of stone indicate that it had a carved profile.

The technology of the church wall building differs significantly from the technology used at the same time in other towns of Rus. It is one of the first bigger cathedral structures of Eastern (Ortodox) Rite built in new technology.

According to archeological and architectural data as well as comparing its results to the analysis of the written sources, we may single out two main phases of the history of the Orthodox church built by Daniel Romanovich.

Phase No.1 – building the ortodox church after the town fire and the beginning of its existence (from 1256 up to the 15th century). The sanctuary was then continuously used for sacred purposes and for burying the dead. An example of great respect for the chronologically oldest graves is the maintenance of burial No.26 located in the south aisle, which was covered with an arch connecting the pillar and the wall while the temple was later converted (the construction was made of Gothic bond but from Roman brick).

Phase No.2 – from the 16th to the beginning of the 17th century. In the times of bishop Filaret (1507–1533) the ortodox church was significantly rebuilt. The west wall of the church and two pillars were pulled down. A new wall in the Gothic tradition with the entrance portal was built at that place. In 1573 a new wooden narthex with a belfry was erected.

The results of the research show that the first cathedral in Kholm, its architectural and building techniques represents the innovative technology for its time – the middle of the XIII-th cent. on the Eastern Europe.