Architecture

Aristotle Fioravanti followed the pattern of the Assumption Cathedral of the city of Vladimir – ancient cross-and-cupola church.  At the same time, he created quite a new architectural construction.  The cathedral consists of small white-stone blocks.
It is particularly solid: all its parts are of equal size, altar apses are made plane and masked with massive flats, huge drums are placed closer. The surface of the walls is marked with narrow windows and a small arcature frieze. In the manuscript the building was described to look as one stone.

The architectural originality of the Assumption Cathedral can be understood better in its interior with all the sections of the church enlarged through new technical ways and the church’s area not crowded by round pillars, which create an impression of an immense palatial room.  The contemporaries were astonished by the cathedral’s “unusual majesty and height, luminosity and spaciousness”.