The structures outside the town gate atop the plateau of Eski-Kermen: reality and conjectures

Introduction. The architectural complex around the main (southern) gates of the city on the Eski- Kermen plateau in the mountainous Crimea was formed from the end of the 6th centuryto the end of the 13th century. It included structures that were different in architecture and purpose. Studying the remains of these structures, determining their role and chronology are important tasks in the study and reconstruction of the history of the city. Methods . The area around the gate was explored by N.I. Repnikov in 1929. Brief descriptions of the open remains of the structures are reflected in publications and archival documents. Based on the analysis of these descriptions and the study of the preserved rock foundations, first time in the historiography the article revises the widespread hypothesis about existence of the gate church in the medieval cityon the plateau of Eski-Kermen in the mountainous Crimea. Analysis . Some researchers see an apse of this church in a rounded carved pit located in front of the main gate, east of the corridor carved into the rock leading to the city. Features of the architectural space at the city gates and the location of this clearing are likely to have its presence at the gate church. This felling arose simultaneously with the defensive structures near the gates in the end of the 6th c. As is known, gate churches as a type of church architecture appeared in the Eastern Christian world no earlier than the 10th or 11th centuries. Results . There is no reason to talk about the gate church on the plateau of Eski-Kermen. Directly at the entrance to the city (to the west of the passage) there was only one church-chapel of the 9th - 10th centuries, destroyed by an earthquake even before the onset of the city, burned at the end of the 13th century.