Zakomara is what? History

Historic temples are often the visiting card of the state. In 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, the 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 and special 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 the construction of churches in Russia begins in 988, with the adoption of Christianity. Faith came to the Russian lands from Byzantium, so 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 the shape 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 typical for the Old Russian church architecture and was extended 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 hardly understands what is at stake. 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 several tiers.

Symbolism

It is known that the forms of temple buildings have a certain symbolism. The 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

Zakomary temple often called kokoshnikami for their similarity with the 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 VN Trishin, published in 2013.

Revival of traditions

In the 17th century, brick is increasingly used in construction, and in connection with this, zakomars replace the sloping gable roof, which is lighter, does not require a strong support for the construction, it is easier to withstand severe weather conditions. There are besstolpnye temples with chetverikom, blocked by a closed stepped vault.

At the end of the 20th century, the revival of ancient traditions was observed in the construction of churches. 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 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 a female headdress, 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 in the decoration of the headdress. Zakomara is the pride of the ancient temple, its decoration.

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