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The ceramic tile decor of the Cathedral of the Protecting Veil is distinguished by a rich variety of colors and a wealth of shapes. In 1683, the facade of the building was decorated with rectangular tiles. They bore yellow letters made in relief on a dark-blue background. This ceramic chronicle contained a record of building the Cathedral of the Protecting Veil. History has brought down to us the name of the master tiler who did the job — Pyotr Andreyev. A total of 560 tiles with letters were made.
The exact location of the tiles bearing the church-building record was established only in the 1950s during the cathedral’s restoration. They were mounted along the upper cornice of the cathedral above the roof of the porch, but with intervals rather than along the entire perimeter of the building. The “glazed ceramic chronicle” could be read at a distance as one approached the cathedral.
The exact location of the tiles bearing the church-building record was established only in the 1950s during the cathedral’s restoration. They were mounted along the upper cornice of the cathedral above the roof of the porch, but with intervals rather than along the entire perimeter of the building. The “glazed ceramic chronicle” could be read at a distance as one approached the cathedral.
The church-building record told about Czar Ivan the Terrible’s orders to build a new cathedral, listed the names of its churches and contained essential information about renovations at the cathedral.
A number of errors and inaccuracies slipped into the church-building record: the names of some of the churches and czars were confused.
The “glazed ceramic chronicle” on the cathedral has not survived. Having existed for about a hundred years, it was torn off during major repairs carried out on the orders the Empress Catherine the Great. An abbreviated text of the ceramic chronicle was engraved on a copper plaque made in commemoration of the cathedral’s renovation in the 1780s.