RELIGIOUS CENTER OF ANCIENT RUSSIAN CITY: FROM PAGAN TO CHRISTIANITY

RELIGIOUS CENTER OF ANCIENT RUSSIAN CITY: FROM PAGAN TO CHRISTIANITY

Authors

• M. Svirin K.

Keywords:

city, paganism, sanctuary, temple, christianization

Abstract

The author considers the role of religious centers in the formation of an-cient Russian cities. Pagan religious buildings, recorded in the early an-cient cities, were, with rare exceptions, open grounds with idols. Much of the religious rites were concentrated on the territory of pagan burial grounds. The lack of a tradition of erecting temple buildings in pagan reli-gious practice hampered the process of structuring the emerging urban space. Of particular importance in the process of the formation of ancient Russian cities was the Christianization, which brought to the cultural tradition of Ancient Russia a developed form of the cult construction - the temple.