Bk IX. Ch. VII. MOSCOW. 489 ] .rosperity throughout that century. D uring that time it was adorned by many sumptuous edifices. In the beginning of the 15th century it was taken and destroyed by the Tartars, and it was not till the reign of Ivan III. (1462-1505) that the city and empire recovered the disasters of that period. It is extremely doubtful if any edifice now found in Moscow can date before the time of this monarch. In the year 1479 this king dedicated the new church of the Assumption of the Virgin, said to have been buil't by one Aristoteles. a native of Bologna^ in Italy, who was brought to Russia expressly for the purpose. The plan of it (Woodcut No. 945) ^^ ^, , ,^ . ^ , gives a good idea of the . L^^^^^^^ arrangement of a Rus- sian church of this age. Small as are its dimen- sions — only 74 ft. by .^(5 over all externally, which would be a very small parish church any- where else — the two other cathedrals of Moscow, that of the Archangel Michael and the Annunciation, are even smaller still in plan. Like true Byzan- tine churches, they Avould all be exact squares, but that the narthex being taken into the church gives it a somewhat oblong form. In the Church of the Assumption there is, as is almost universally the case, one large dome over the centre of the square, and four smaller ones in the four angles. The great iconostasis runs, as at Sta. Sophia at Kieff, quite across the church; but the two lateral cliapels have smaller screens inside which hide their altars, so that the part between the two becomes a sort of private chapel. This seems to be the plan of the greater number of the Russian churches of this age. But there is one church in Moscow, that of Vassili (St. Basil) Blanskenoy, which is certainly the most remarkable, as it is the most characteristic, of all the churches of Russia. It was built by Ivan the Interior of Church near Kosti'oma. (From Duraud.)
