Onion dome

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Onion domes of Saint Basil's Cathedral St Basils Cathedral, Moscow (149189056).jpg
Onion domes of Saint Basil's Cathedral

An onion dome, also known as onion cupola, is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. [1] Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate (drum) upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. They taper smoothly upwards to a point.

Contents

This feature is typically associated with churches belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church, although they also persist in other Eastern European countries, and occasionally in Western Europe: Bavaria (Germany), Austria, and northeastern Italy. Buildings with onion domes are also found in the Oriental regions of Central and South Asia, and the Middle East.

Other types of Eastern Orthodox cupolas include helmet domes (for example, those of the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir), Ukrainian pear domes (St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv), and Baroque bud domes (St Andrew's Church in Kyiv) or an onion-helmet mixture like the St Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod.

History

Umayyad mosaic showing a building with an onion dome-like appearance Mosaic of Omayyad Mosque portal.jpg
Umayyad mosaic showing a building with an onion dome-like appearance

Onion domes, usually bulbous or pointed, first saw widespread use in Islamic architecture in about the 8th century. They often topped minarets but were also built over the central space or on the corners of mosques as well as on domestic buildings in the Middle East and India. According to historian Wolfgang Born, the onion dome has its origin in Syria, where some Umayyad Caliphate-era mosaics depict early stages of the development of bulbous domes. [2] [3] An early prototype of onion dome also appeared in Chehel Dokhter, a mid-11th century Seljuk architecture in Damghan region of Iran. [4]

Presumably, thanks to connections established via Volga trade route, the cupola design spread from the East to Rus', where it was nicknamed the "onion dome". It is not completely clear when and why this style gained popularity in Russian architecture, but buildings featuring it appeared as early as the 13th century, [5] reaching peak by 17th and 18th centuries, up until the Petrine period. Some suggest they had a decorative advantage over typicall Byzantine and helmet dome, while also not gathering as much snow during severe winters. [6] The largest onion domes of that time were erected in areas around Yaroslavl. A number of these had more complicated bud-shaped domes, whose form derived from Baroque models of the late seventeenth century. Pear-shaped domes are usually associated with Ukrainian Baroque, while cone-shaped domes are typical for Orthodox churches of Transcaucasia.[ citation needed ]

Later, the Moors also brought the design to Spain, and Islamic influence| in the 17th century may be responsible for its introduction in Vienna, where it can be seen on many Baroque structures. Throughout Austria and Bavaria, onion domes top innumerable small churches.

Other origin hypotheses

Wooden churches in Kizhi and Vytegra have as many as twenty-five onion domes 1909 Tserkov' Spasitelia i Pokrova Presviatoi Bogoroditsy. Vytegorskii Pogost.jpg
Wooden churches in Kizhi and Vytegra have as many as twenty-five onion domes

Some scholars suggest that onion domes first appeared in Russia during the reign of Ivan the Terrible (r. 1533–1584). The domes of Saint Basil's Cathedral have not been altered since the reign of Ivan's son Fyodor I (r. 1584–1598), indicating the presence of onion domes in sixteenth-century Russia. Thus Russians have adopted onion domes from Muslim countries, possibly from the Khanate of Kazan, whose conquest in 1552 Ivan the Terrible commemorated by erecting St. Basil's Cathedral. [7] Some scholars believe that onion domes first appeared in Russian wooden architecture above tent-like churches. According to this theory, they were strictly utilitarian. [8]

In 1946 Boris Rybakov analysed russian chronicles and concluded, that most of them, from the 13th century onward, feature onion instead of helmet shaped dome, suggesting that this style could not be imported from the Orient, where they did not replace spherical domes until the 15th century [9] Historians like Nikolay Voronin seconded his point of view. [10]

Later Sergey Zagraevsky surveyed icons and miniatures, dating as early as 11th century. He concluded that most icons painted after the Mongol invasion of Rus display only onion domes up until 12th century. [11] According to him, single icon from the 15th century represented a helmet dome church. His findings led him to dismiss fragments of these dome types discovered by restorators beneath modern onion domes as post-Petrine stylisations intended to reproduce the familiar forms of Byzantine cupolas, like the rebuilt Assumption Cathedral and the Cathedral of Saint Demetrius in Vladimir. As well as restoration works on several other ancient churches that have revealed fragments of former helmet-like domes.

He also indicated that the oldest depictions of the two Vladimir cathedrals represent them as having onion domes, prior to their replacement by classicizing helmet domes. He explains the ubiquitous appearance of onion domes in the late thirteenth century by the general emphasis on verticality characteristic of Russian church architecture from the late twelfth to early fifteenth centuries. [12] At that time, porches, pilasters, vaults and drums were arranged to create a vertical thrust, to make the church seem taller than it was. [13]

Onion domes at the Church of the Resurrection, Kostroma (1652) Tserkov' Voskreseniia Khristova na Debre (1649-1652) v Kostrome.jpg
Onion domes at the Church of the Resurrection, Kostroma (1652)

Another consideration proposed by Zagraevsky links the onion-shaped form of Russian domes with the weight of traditional Russian crosses, which are much larger and more elaborate than those used in Byzantium and Kievan Rus. Such ponderous crosses would have been easily toppled, if they had not been fixed to sizeable stones traditionally placed inside the elongated domes of Russian churches. It is impossible to place such a stone inside the flat dome of the Byzantine type, which were characterized by broader, flatter domes without a special framework erected above the drum. In contrast to this ancient form, each drum of a Russian church is surmounted by a special structure of metal or timber, which is lined with sheet iron or tiles, while the onion architecture is mostly very curved. Russian architecture used the dome shape not only for churches but also for other buildings.[ citation needed ]

Symbolism

Prior to the eighteenth century, the Russian Orthodox Church did not assign any particular symbolism to the exterior shape of a church. [14] Nevertheless, onion domes are popularly believed to symbolise burning candles. In 1917, religious philosopher Prince Evgenii Troubetzkoy argued that the onion shape of Russian church domes may not be explained rationally. According to Trubetskoy, drums crowned by tapering domes were deliberately scored to resemble candles, thus manifesting a certain aesthetic and religious attitude.

The Byzantine cupola above the church represents the vault of heaven above the earth. On the other hand, the Gothic spire expresses unbridled vertical thrust, which rises huge masses of stone to the sky. In contrast to these, our native onion dome may be likened to a tongue of fire, crowned by a cross and tapering towards a cross. When we look at the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, we seem to see a gigantic candle burning above Moscow. The Kremlin cathedrals and churches, with their multiple domes, look like huge chandeliers. The onion shape results from the idea of prayer as a soul burning towards heaven, which connects the earthly world with the treasures of the afterlife. Every attempt to explain the onion shape of our church domes by utilitarian considerations (for instance, the need to preclude snow from piling on the roof) fails to account for the most essential point, that of aesthetic significance of onion domes for our religion. Indeed, there are numerous other ways to achieve the same utilitarian result, e.g., spires, steeples, cones. Why, of all these shapes, ancient Russian architecture settled upon the onion dome? Because the aesthetic impression produced by the onion dome matched a certain religious attitude. The meaning of this religious and aesthetic feeling is finely expressed by a folk saying - "glowing with fervour" - when they speak about church domes.

— Evgenii Troubetzkoy [15]

Monastere Saint-Abraham-de-GorodetsMonastere Saint-Abraham-de-Gorodets}}, Kostroma Oblast, Russia founded in the 14th century Chukhloma AvraamievMonastery 0564.jpg
Monastère Saint-Abraham-de-GorodetsMonastère Saint-Abraham-de-Gorodets}}, Kostroma Oblast, Russia founded in the 14th century

Another explanation has it that the onion dome was originally regarded as a form reminiscent of the aedicula (cubiculum) in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. [16]

Onion domes often appear in groups of three, representing the Holy Trinity, or five, representing Jesus Christ and the Four Evangelists. Domes standing alone represent Jesus. Vasily Tatischev, the first to record this interpretation, disapproved of it emphatically. He believed that the five-domed design of churches was propagated by Patriarch Nikon, who liked to compare the central and highest dome with himself and four lateral domes with four other patriarchs of the Orthodox world. There is no other evidence that Nikon ever held such a view.[ citation needed ]

The domes are often brightly painted: their colors may informally symbolise different aspects of religion. Green, blue, and gold domes are sometimes held to represent the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, respectively. Black ball-shaped domes were once popular in the snowy north of Russia.[ citation needed ]

Internationally

Elsewhere in Europe

Western and Central regions

Baroque domes in the shape of an onion (or other vegetables or flower-buds) were common in the Holy Roman Empire as well. The first one was built in 1576 by the architect Johannes Holl (1512–1594) on the church of the Convent of the Franciscan Sisters of Maria Stern in Augsburg. Usually made of copper sheet, onion domes appear on Catholic churches all over southern Germany, Switzerland, Czech lands, Austria, and Sardinia and Northeast Italy. Onion domes were also a favourite of 20th-century Austrian architectural designer Friedensreich Hundertwasser.[ citation needed ]

Southern and Balkan countries

Asia

South Asia

The onion dome was also used extensively in Mughal architecture, which later went on to influence Indo-Saracenic architecture. It is also a common feature in Sikh architecture, particularly in Gurudwaras, and sometimes seen in Rajput architecture as well.

Middle East

Outside the Indian subcontinent, it is also used in Iran and other places in the Middle East and Central Asia. At the end of the 19th century, the Dutch-built Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Aceh, Indonesia, which incorporated onion shaped dome. The shape of the dome has been used in numerous mosques in Indonesia since then.[ citation needed ]

The Americas

The World's Only Corn Palace, a tourist attraction and basketball arena in Mitchell, South Dakota, also features onion domes on the roof of the structure.

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Block, Eric (2010). Garlic and Other Alliums: The Lore and the Science. Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN   9780854041909.
  2. ↑ Darke, Diana (2020-12-15). Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-1-78738-510-8.
  3. ↑ Born, Wolfgang (1944). "The Introduction of the Bulbous Dome into Gothic Architecture and Its Subsequent Development" . Speculum. 19 (2): 208–221. doi:10.2307/2849071. ISSN   0038-7134. JSTOR   2849071.
  4. ↑ Ring, Trudy; Watson, Noelle; Schellinger, Paul (2014-03-05). Middle East and Africa: International Dictionary of Historic Places. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-134-25993-9.
  5. ↑ Block, Eric (2010). Garlic and Other Alliums: The Lore and the Science. Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN   9780854041909.
  6. ↑ "Cupola". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved November 8, 2025.
  7. ↑ Shvidkovsky, D. S. (2007). Russian architecture and the West. Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-10912-2.
  8. ↑ A. П. Новицкий. Луковичная форма глав русских церквей. В кн.: Московское археологическое общество. Труды комиссии по сохранению древних памятников. Т. III. Moscow, 1909.
  9. ↑ Б. А. Рыбаков. «Окна в исчезнувший мир (по поводу книги А. В. Арциховского «Древнерусские миниатюры как исторический источник»). В кн.: Доклады и сообщения историч. факультета МГУ. Вып. IV. М., 1946. С. 50.
  10. ↑ Н. Н. Воронин. Архитектурный памятник как исторический источник (заметки к постановке вопроса). В кн.: Советская археология. Вып. XIX. М., 1954. С. 73.
  11. ↑ S. V. Zagraevsky. Forms of the domes of the ancient Russian temples. Published in Russian: С. В. Заграевский. Формы глав (купольных покрытий) древнерусских храмов. М.: Алев-В, 2008.
  12. ↑ Г. К. Вагнер. О своеобразии стилеобразования в архитектуре Древней Руси (возвращение к проблеме). В кн.: Архитектурное наследство. Вып. 38. М., 1995. С. 25.
  13. ↑ П. А. Раппопорт. Древнерусская архитектура. СПб, 1993.
  14. ↑ И. Л. Бусева-Давыдова. Символика архитектуры по древнерусским письменным источникам XI-XVII вв. // Герменевтика древнерусской литературы. XVI - начало XVIII вв. Moscow, 1989.
  15. ↑ Е. Н. Трубецкой. Три очерка о русской иконе. 1917. Новосибирск, 1991. С. 10.
  16. ↑ А. М. Лидов. Иерусалимский кувуклий. О происхождении луковичных глав. // Иконография архитектуры. Moscow, 1990.
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