Conference "Research and Restoration of Monuments of Medieval Russian Architecture and Monumental Art"

On 15-18 April, 2003, in Veliky Novgorod took place a conference in commemoration of the architect and restorer Grigory M. Stender (1927-1992).

Veliky Novgorod is one of the major centers of architectural restoration in Russia due to its tens of masterpieces of medieval Russian architecture. Destruction wreaked by WWII necessitated the creation in Novgorod of its own school of scientific restoration which now enjoys a world renown. Monuments of architecture brought back to life in the post-war decades, including the Cathedral of Sophia (1045-1050), Cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos in St. Antony’s Monastery (1117) and the Churches of the Savior on Nereditsa (1198) and on Ilyina (1374), are justly considered models of architectural restoration. One of the leading representatives and co-creators of the Novgorod school of restoration was Grigory Mikhaylovich Stender, member of the Russian Unions of Architects and Artists and winner of the Russian National Award (post mortem). During the 1950s-90s, Grigory M. Stender examined and restored historical buildings in Novgorod, Chernigov, Smolensk, Pskov, Staraya Ladoga, Kiev, Polotsk and other Soviet cities.

In 1993, Novgorod hosted the first Stender Conference which served as an example of synergetic efforts of theoreticians and practitioners of restoration with the purpose of developing new approaches to restoration in the new ideological and economic conditions. No further conferences have been held since then. For this reason the 2nd Stender Conference is an especially important event introducing the Russian academic community to the results of restoration works performed in Veliky Novgorod over the last ten years.

The Conference is co-organized by the major academic centers of Russia’s North-West, the State Hermitage Museum, Interregional Institute of Social Sciences in Novgorod (Financial Support), National Museum and Reserve in Novgorod, Institute of Restoration Research in St. Petersburg and the Novgorod Society of Amateurs of Antiquities. Presentations at the conference were made by specialists in architecture and painting restoration from Veliky Novgorod, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Petrozavodsk, Pskov, Tver, Minsk, Vladimir, Kaluga and other places in Russia and abroad.

Special sessions were dedicated to the general problems in the study of medieval Russian architecture; latest research and restoration of the Novgorod monuments; presentation of new projects of the research of wall paintings in Veliky Novgorod, Staraya Ladoga and Vladimir; restoration and research of the monuments of medieval Vladimir and Muscovite Russia; and architectural archeology.

The Conference program included visits to restoration sites (recently completed and current) in the city of Veliky Novgorod and the Novgorod Region: the Kremlin, St. Antony’s Monastery, Churches of St. John the Divine on Vitka and Nicetas the Martyr, Cathedral of St. Nicholas, Church of St. Theodore the Recruit on the Brook, Churches of the Savior on Nereditsa and Assumption on the Volotovo Field, Khutynsky Monastery and the Church of St. Theodore the Recruit on Shchirkova.

The Church of Nikola Beliy (White Nicholas) in Novgorod
1312-1313
(before restoration)

The Church of Nikola Beliy (White Nicholas) in Novgorod
1312-1313
(after restoration, architect Grigory M. Stender )