The monastery of the cross on Kiy island: traditions and innovations in the stone construction of patriarch Nikon

In 1656, a Monastery of the Cross was founded on Kiy Island in the White Sea on the initiative of Patriarch Nikon. The construction of two stone temples of the monastery - the Holy Cross Cathedral and the Church of the of Procession of True Tree of the Cross, was carried out under the leadership of Patriarch Nikon himself, who visited to Kiy in 1660. The architectural features of the buildings, which have largely preserved traditional features, at the same time testify to Nikon's innovative approach. Russian Russian architecture has seen many of them for the first time and has anticipated the general trends of Russian architecture for several decades.