Hierarchy of the Sacral Spaces of the Temple of the Virgin Mary in Sudak Fortress

Abstract

The temple referred to as the Temple of the Virgin Mary in Sudak Fortress, discovered during the expedition by I.A. Baranov in 1981, remains an understudied monument of the Western church architecture in the Crimea. The layout of the building, not typical for Greek temples, and a tombstone with a Latin inscription discovered in the nave, have allowed to unambiguously identify the building as a Roman Catholic church. A comparison of the architecture of the Temple of the Virgin Mary with reference Italian temples of mendicant orders suggests that the temple reproduces in a simplified form the principles of Franciscan and Dominican architecture. The rectangular apsis and the presence of three entrances to the temple building in its western, central and eastern parts indicate the tripartite division of the temple characteristic of mendicant orders. As the vast majority of the clergy in the Crimea and the Golden Horde in the 13th–15th centuries were monastic mendicant orders, the adherence of the customers to the principles borrowed from Italian practice appears reasonable.

Keywords

• the sudak fortress
• temple architecture
• mendicants
• sacral spaces
• roman catholic church
• crimea
• genoese gazaria