Neo-Byzantine architecture in the Russian Empire

Russian-Byzantine architecture (Russo-Byzantine architecture, Russian: русско-византийский стиль) is a revivalist direction in Russian architecture and decorative and applied arts, based on the interpretation of the forms of Byzantine and Kievan Rus' architecture.^[1] As part of eclecticism could be combined with other styles.

The style originated in the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century. The founder of this style is considered to be Konstantin Thon. Formed in the early 1830s as an entire direction, the Russian-Byzantine style was inextricably linked with the concept of nationality, expressing the idea of cultural self-sufficiency of Russia, as well as its political and religious continuity in relation to Byzantine Empire.^[1] In a narrow sense, the Russian-Byzantine style referred as the style of Konstantin Thon, common in the second third of the 19th century, and post Thon style, that began in the 1850s and more similar to the Byzantine architecture, called the Neo-Byzantine style.

Russian-Byzantine style became an officially endorsed preferred architectural style for church construction during the reign of Alexander II of Russia (1855–1881). Although Alexander III changed state preferences in favor of late Russian Revival, Neo-Byzantine architecture flourished during his reign (1881–1894) and continued to be used until the outbreak of World War I. Émigré architects who settled in the Balkans and in Harbin after the Russian Revolution worked on Neo-Byzantine designs there until World War II.

Initially, Byzantine architecture buildings were concentrated in Saint Petersburg and the Crimea, with two isolated projects launched in Kiev and Tbilisi. In the 1880s, Byzantine designs became the preferred choice for Orthodox expansion on the frontiers of the Empire – Congress Poland, Lithuania, Bessarabia, Central Asia, North Caucasus, the Lower Volga and the Cossack Hosts; in the 1890s, they spread from the Urals region into Siberia along the emerging Trans-Siberian Railway. State-sponsored Byzantine churches were also built in Jerusalem, Harbin, Sofia and on the French Riviera.^[2] Non-religious construction in Byzantine style was uncommon; most extant examples were built as hospitals and almshouses during the reign of Nicholas II.