The Trinity Church

Beginning in the 16th century, the assimilation of Muscovite forms and devices steadily increased in scale. A vivid example of such assimilation is the Trinity Church (1557) of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, founded in the 13th century. It is located on the site where St. Petersburgskaya Street crosses the rampart. This is the only building of the entire monastery complex that survives today. The small two-storeyed church, adjoined by a single-pier refectory, has three apses characteristic of Moscow temples, a double-pier inner construction, quite unusual for Novgorod, and five cupolas, instead of one. The central dome is provided with four windows. The lavish, rather intricate decor of the blind drums includes two rows of pediments; the facades abound in detail but only the double-stepped pentagonal niches are a tribute to Novgorodian tradition. The Trinity Church exemplifies the type of structure in which features common to Russian architecture as a whole prevail over Novgorodian ones.