Moscow postcardstypically feature the colourful striped domes of St. Basil's Cathedral and theneighboring Red Square. St. Basil's was builtbetween 1555 and 1561. Other Russian churches also have flame-shaped domes. Thedome's peak is said to be like the flame of prayer reaching up toward heaven.The cross at the top symbolizes Christ. 典型的莫斯科明信片上的風光圖，就是聖瓦西里大教堂（St. Basil's Cathedral）彩色條紋圓屋頂和相鄰的紅場。聖瓦西里大教堂建於1555-1561年。俄羅斯其它教堂也有這種火焰狀的圓屋頂。據說，屋頂的最高處象徵著人們的祈禱像火焰可以一直上達天庭。屋頂上的十字架象徵著耶穌。
Art historians disagree when and why onion domesbecame a typical feature of Russian architecture. Byzantine churches and architecture of Kievan Rus werecharacterized by broader, flatter domes without a special framework erectedabove the drum. In contrast to this ancient form, each drum of a Russian churchis surmounted by a special structure of metal or timber, which is lined withsheet iron or tiles.
By the end of the nineteenth century, most Russianchurches from before the Petrine period had bulbous domes. The largest oniondomes were erected in the seventeenth century in the area around Yaroslavl,incidentally famous for its large onions. Quite a few had more complicatedbud-shaped domes, whose form derived from Baroque models of the lateseventeenth century. Pear-shaped domes are usually associated with UkrainianBaroque, while cone-shaped domes are typical for Orthodox churches of Transcaucasia
Russian icons painted before the Mongol invasion of Rus do not featurechurches with onion domes. Two highly venerated pre-Mongol churches that havebeen rebuilt—the Assumption Cathedral and theCathedral of St. Demetrius in Vladimir—uniquely display golden helmet domes. Restorationwork on several other ancient churches revealed some fragments of formerhelmet-like domes below newer onion cupolas.。
It has been posited that oniondomes first appeared during the reign of Ivanthe Terrible. The domes of Saint Basil's Cathedral have not beenaltered since the reign of Ivan's son Fyodor I,indicating the presence of onion domes in the sixteenth-century Russia.
Some scholars postulate thatonion domes were borrowed by Russians from Muslim countries - probably from the Khanateof Kazan, whose conquest Ivan the Terrible commemorated by erecting St.Basil's Cathedral.Some believe that onion domes first appeared in Russian wooden architectureabove tent-like churches. According to this theory,onion domes were strictly utilitarian, as they prevented snow from piling onthe roof·
Based on the notion that oniondomes did not exist in Russiabefore the mid-sixteenth century, restoration work on churches built before theseventeenth century have routinely involved replacement of onion domes with"more authentic" helmet-shaped domes. One example of such restorationis the Dormition Cathedral in the MoscowKremlin.
In 1946, the historian BorisRybakov, while analysing miniatures of ancient Russianchronicles, pointed out that most of them, from the thirteenth century onward,display churches with onion domes rather than helmet domes.Nikolay Voronin, the foremostauthority on pre-Mongol Russian architecture, seconded his opinion that oniondomes existed in Russiaas early as the thirteenth century, although they presumably could not bewidespread.These findings demonstrated that Russian onion domes could not be imported from the Orient, where onion domes did not replace spherical domes until thefifteenth century.
SergeyZagraevsky, a modern art historian, surveyed hundreds of Russian icons and miniatures,from the eleventh century onward.， He concluded that most icons painted after the Mongol invasion of Rusdisplay only onion domes.First onion domes displayed on some pictures oftwelfth century (two miniatures from Dobrylov Evangelie). He found only one icon from the late fifteenth century displaying a domeresembling the helmet instead of an onion.
Zagraevsky explains theubiquitous appearance of onion domes in the late thirteenth century by thegeneral emphasis on verticality characteristic of Russian architecture from thelate twelfth to early fifteenth centuries,At that period, porches,pilasters, vaults and drums were arranged to create a vertical thrust, to makethe church seem taller than it was.It seems logical that elongated, or onion, domeswere part of the same proto-Gothic trend aimed at achieving pyramidal, verticalemphasis
Prior to the eighteenth century,the Russian Orthodox Church did not assign any particular symbolism to theexterior shape of a church. Nevertheless, onion domes are popularly believedto symbolise burning candles. In 1917, noted religious philosopher Prince Yevgeny Trubetskoy arguedthat the onion shape of Russian church domes may not be explained rationally. According toTrubetskoy, drums crowned by tapering domes were deliberately scored toresemble candles, thus manifesting a certain aesthetic and religious attitude. Another explanationhas it that the onion dome was originally regarded as a form reminiscent of the edicula(cubiculum) in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Onion domes often appear ingroups of three, representing the Holy Trinity, or five, representing JesusChrist and the Four Evangelists. Domes standing alone represent Jesus. VasilyTatischev, the first to record such interpretation, disapproved of itemphatically. He believed that the five-domed design of churches was propagated by PatriarchNikon, who liked to compare the central and highest dome with himself andfour lateral domes with four other patriarchsof the Orthodox world. There is no other evidence that Nikon ever heldsuch a view.
The domes are often brightlypainted: their colors may informally symbolise different aspects of religion.Green, blue, and gold domes are sometimes held to represent the HolyTrinity, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, respectively Black ball-shaped domes were once popularin the snowy north of Russia.
The onion dome is not only foundin Russian Architecture: it was also usedextensively in Mughal architecture, which later went on toinfluence Indo-Gothic architecture. Outside India,it is also used in Iran and other places in the Middle East and CentralAsia.
Baroque domes in the shape of an onion (orother vegetables or flower-buds) were common in the HolyRoman Empire as well. The first one was built in 1576 by the architect Hans Holl (1512-1594) on the church of Saint Mary Star Abbey in Augsburg. Usually made of copper sheet, oniondomes appear on Catholic churches all over southern Germany, Czech lands,Austria andNortheast Italy. Onion domes werealso a favourite of 20th-century Austrian architectural designer Friedensreich Hundertwasser.
