THE BRICKS FROM ST NICHOLAS CHURCH AT LIPNO NEAR NOVGOROD (1292) AND THE ORIGINS OF THE NEW NOVGORODIAN BUILDING TRADITION
THE BRICKS FROM ST NICHOLAS CHURCH AT LIPNO NEAR NOVGOROD (1292) AND THE ORIGINS OF THE NEW NOVGORODIAN BUILDING TRADITION

Summary/Abstract: In the late 13th century a new building technique was invented in Novgorod – the usage of bar bricks and lime mortars with sand. The question of the origin of this technique, which was used for the first time in the church of St Nicholas at Lipno in 1292, is very important in the context of the entire history of Novgorodian architecture. In St Nicholas church the traditional Old Russian cross-in-square plan and the trefoil type of roof, well-known decorative and constructive features have been combined with the architectural details, which originated from the monuments of European architecture. This church was probably built by Novgorodian and alien master builders together; among those foreign builders were the craftsmen who made bricks. The main goal of this article is to publish the materials of the research of bar bricks of the church of St Nicholas at Lipno. The authors study the technology of moulding, types of curved bricks, the sizes of bricks, markings on their surfaces. The bricks of this church were compared to the building ceramics of other monuments of the late 13th–mid-14th centuries. The study of the bricks led the authors to the conclusion that the common centre of the brick production could exist at that time in Novgorod. The thorough comparative research of the bricks of Lipno church and the building ceramics of northern and central Europe of the last third of the 13th century can help us to find the answer to the question of the origins of the master builders of the Novgorod church.

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