Did you know that

 the decorative elements of the Lavra bell tower were made of ceramics, not stone?

Johann Gottfried Schedel was invited to Russia as a ceramist and decorator. He worked on the interior decoration of the palaces of the governor of St. Petersburg, Prince Oleksandr Menshykov. He performed stucco moldings, wall decorative tiling and was even responsible for the manufacture of furniture. These skills came in handy when he was already working as an architect on the decoration of the Great Lavra Bell Tower. Since the monastery did not allocate funds for the purchase and shipment by the Dnipro River of the stone for capitals, pilasters, bases of columns and other details, Schedel took a different approach. All the necessary elements of decoration were made of ceramics at the Lybid brick factories of the Lavra under his guidance. It is characteristic that the architect personally supervised the creation of each detail. In production, he used his own recipe for mortars and clays, which was kept secret from competitors.

Picture captions:

1–5. Decorative elements of the Bell Tower

#Печерські_цікавинки

#Kyiv-Pechersk_curiosities