Zakomara is what? History

Historical temples are often the visiting card of the state. By their appearance, they judge the spiritual component of the country, the development of spiritual art.

Architects, artists, builders, sculptors throughout the centuries have tried to decorate churches so that they cause admiration to show the greatness of faith, the greatness of the country.

Special traditions of temple construction, symbolism of different faiths played and play an important role in the creation of churches.

In the architecture of the temples there are special details andspecial terminology. Russian Orthodox churches also have such special elements that are not found in other buildings or are extremely rare.

One of these elements is the zakomar - an architectural element inherent in church construction.

Architectural Traditions of Orthodoxy

The history of construction of temples in Russia begins with988 years, since the adoption of Christianity. Faith came to the Russian lands from Byzantium, therefore the first churches were built in the Byzantine style. Gradually, the architectural traditions changed, special elements, ornaments, unique to the Orthodox Church were added.

From Byzantium came to us the tradition of vaulted ceilings. From here appeared a special, exactly repeating form of the roof of the roof.

Semicircular Zakomar

In the Old Russian language, a mosquito is a vault, and a zakomar is a semicircular completion of a wall that covers the roof of the same shape.

This form of the Orthodox church is characteristic of the Old Russian church architecture and was widespread in the 12-17th centuries.

Zakomara demanded a powerful support, otherwise the arch would simply collapse. Powerful walls allowed to survive the temples in the centuries and live to the present day, breaking the time, the vagaries of the weather, the raids of enemies.

Kyle-shaped zakomar

In addition to the semicircular form, there is also a keeled zakomar. This is an element that does not completely repeat the shape of the arch, and therefore in another way it is called a false zamar.

If you explain the concepts and terms "keeled zakomars" to a foreign tourist, without showing a photograph, he will hardly understand what is being said. After all, this is a primordially Russian element.

In construction, a combination of these elements was often used. The keeled ones had a decorative purpose. Often, for the same purpose, the zakomars were located in several tiers.

Symbolism

It is known that the forms of temple buildings have a certain symbolism. Temples were built in the shape of a ship, a cross, a circle. All these forms are explained by special Christian traditions.

Depending on the internal form, the temples very often have several arches, respectively, and are somewhat zakomar.

Synonyms

Temple zakomary often called kokoshniks for theirsimilarity with female headdress. Often they were decorated so skillfully that they could compete with this women's jewelry. It is this word is given in the dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language by VN Trishin, published in 2013.

Revival of traditions

In the 17th century, in construction,brick, and in this regard, the zakomaras replaces the sloping gable roof, which is lighter, does not require a powerful support for the construction, it is easier to withstand harsh weather conditions. There are besstolpnye temples with chetverikom, blocked by a closed stepped vault.

At the end of the 20th century, the construction of templesthere is a revival of ancient traditions. This opportunity has appeared with the development of new construction technologies. Therefore, it became possible to build or restore temples, exactly repeating the form of the Old Russian.

Church attire

Undoubtedly, the decoration of Orthodox churches are domes. A real work of art of the ancient temple often becomes a zakomar in architecture, found only here.

This element of architecture is compared with the femaleheadgear, which was decorated with embroidery, embroidered with precious and semiprecious stones. Such kokoshniki are real works of art, stored in museums as an object of national costume, a special pride of Russian culture. So the ancient Orthodox churches, like Russian beauties, differ in their stateness and decoration of the headdress. Zakomara is the pride of the ancient temple, its decoration.

Sculptors, artists, masters of mosaics, architects tried to decorate the temple's zakomaras as elegantly as possible.