Virtual reconstruction of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (Lori region of Armenia): a study of the cultural heritage of the Russian presence in Armenia in the XIX - XX centuries

Mamonova Svetlana Alekseevna Master, Historical Information Science Department graduate, Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Lomonosovsky Prospekt str., 27k4, Faculty of History ma.claire312@gmail.com Other publications by this author

   Introduction

Most of the ruined cultural heritage sites have no real chance of restoration in a form close to their historical appearance (primarily due to lack of funds). However, today there are unique opportunities to recreate and preserve the lost monuments of cultural heritage through the latest computer technologies. One of the main questions that arises when studying a potential object for reconstruction is whether it is possible to restore the object from the remaining parts of the building or it is more expedient to demolish the ruins and rebuild the structure. This issue is acute with regard to the reconstruction of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the Lori region of Armenia.

The purpose of this work is to restore the historical appearance of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with the help of virtual 3D reconstruction technologies.

The project, which is interdisciplinary, can be used both for historical and artistic purposes, and serve as an object of interest for potential investors who will be able to restore and preserve this cultural heritage object. Virtual reconstruction can become part of the Nikolaevka Art Residence project, which is being discussed within the framework of the Russian Presence in Armenia research program (information provided to the author by the non-profit public organization National Creative Association). A museum exposition of the history of the Russian presence on Armenian soil can be created in the reconstructed building. Thus, the guests of Lori will have the opportunity to get acquainted with a unique monument of Orthodox architecture, to study the history of the Russian presence in Armenia.

The first part of the article gives a brief history of the settlement of Nikolaevka and the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, sources for creating its virtual reconstruction, methods and technologies of 3D modeling used in the work. The second part of the article contains the stages and results of the virtual reconstruction of the temple, the analysis of the ratio of different sources and information extracted from them.

Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

The most unique architectural object of the Russian presence in Armenia is the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Amrakits Lori region (see Fig.1).

Fig. 1. The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Amrakits, Lori region of Armenia. Modern processed photo https://clck.ru/34samX Date of application: 30.06.2023.

 There is information that in the middle of the XIX century, Cossacks settled near Jalal-Oglu (now Stepanavan), where Denis Davydov once lived during the Russian-Persian War, and erected a wooden church ^[8]. Later, a new church was erected on this site in 1910-1914, which has survived to the present day, although with the destruction that occurred during the large-scale Spitak earthquake of 1988.

The uniqueness of this monument lies not only in the fact that Orthodox architecture is quite rare for this territory, but also in the fact that the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is from the point of view of architectural appearance. Presumably the architect of the church is A.P.Aplaksin. In this work, the historical and architectural features of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker are considered and a hypothesis about the possible authorship of the architect Aplaksin is presented (There are other churches in Armenia bearing the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, therefore, we note that in this work, each time we mean the church located in Amrakits Lori district.).

 2. The history of the settlement of Nikolaevka and the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

The history of the settlement of Nikolaevka

          The settlement of Nikolaevka is located in the Lori region, which is located in the north of Armenia and not far from the Armenian-Georgian border, (until 1921 it was part of the territory of Georgia). In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, this area was also called Tashir or Tashirk.

          In 1826 , the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812 Denis Davydov was among the Russian officers sent to the Caucasus and commanded a detachment sent by A.P. Ermolov to guard the Erivan border. Together with the Georgian squad, Davydov went to Jalal-ogly (now Stepanavan) ^{[8, p. 188]}. After the defeat of the enemy near the village of Mirak, Davydov and his detachment moved to the Ararat Valley, but after receiving Yermolov's order to postpone the Erivan campaign, he turned back ^{[5, p. 191]}. Returning to the Lori steppe, Davydov began building a small fortification in Jalal-ogly, but at the onset of autumn the detachment was disbanded, Davydov returned to Tiflis ^{[8, p. 191]}.

          After the annexation of Eastern Armenia to the Russian Empire in 1828, a fortress was built in Jalal-ogly, in which there was a Russian garrison. This territory was the subject of a military conflict between Armenia and Georgia, as a result of which in 1918, after the Armenian-Georgian war, Lori became a neutral zone until 1921, when it was decided to transfer the region to Soviet Armenia.

          The village, founded by Cossacks in the XIX century in the Lori region, was called Nikolaevka until 1938, later it was renamed Kirov, and after Armenia left the USSR, due to its collapse, the village became known as Amrakits.

          Despite the fact that the Cossacks in Transcaucasia appeared during the Persian campaign of Peter I, their mass migration, including to Armenia, occurred as a result of the wars of the XIX century. They settled in Russian settlements. In 1858, 26 Cossack families of immigrants founded the village of Nikolaevka ^[11]. A new task after the annexation of Eastern Armenia for the Russian government was the protection of the border, for this the Cossacks were the best suited.

          The Cossacks successfully settled in new places, while honoring and preserving their customs and traditions. The Orthodox Church occupied a special place in their lives. There is information available (See, for example: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Церковь_Николая_Чудотворца_ (Amrakits) Date of appeal: 01.07.2023) that before the construction of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the early twentieth century, there was an earlier wooden church built by the Cossacks in its place. In the archives you can find metric books that give information about the life of Cossacks in Transcaucasia.

Construction of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in 1910-1914 . Hypothesis about the authorship of architect A.P. Aplaksin

          Along with the appearance of the Orthodox Russian population, Orthodox churches began to appear on the territory of the annexed Eastern Armenia ^[9], among which the temple in Amrakitsa stands out noticeably for its architectural features.

          The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, built in 1910-1914, is an interesting eclectic object combining modern with "Russian style" and elements of wooden architecture. In its appearance, one can catch an orientation to the architecture of the Russian North, in which some attention-grabbing details are connected, which must be mentioned separately.

Armenia is a country of stone, so the presence of wooden elements in itself is of interest. In our case, it is worth paying attention to wooden floors, the presence of which may indicate the desire of builders to facilitate the construction. Also of interest is the presence of a wooden roof and the method of adding boards under the roof: not characteristic, too simple, and not like in wooden architecture.

As for the roof itself, according to our assumption, it was originally gray-green in color (for example, like at the Yaroslavl railway station), but over time the metal has a feature of rusting and changing color (Fig. 2.1). We will return to the question of color in the second part of this article.

Figure 2.1. The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, photo of the 2010s.

          What is seen in the photos from under the fallen plaster is very similar to tuff - a familiar material from Armenia, but not familiar to Russia, since the material is quite porous and quite atypical for Russian churches. This may be due to such an abundance of plaster and paint. Unlike the Russian tradition of painting walls, the buildings of the Armenian church inside, as a rule, expose stone and contain carvings. In the draft design of the restoration of the church, it is indicated that the supporting structures consist of rough stone and lime mortar ^[13].

          As for the individual elements of the church building, let's take a closer look at some of them.

          Let's pay attention to the windows, they seem unusually large (Fig. 2.2) for a relatively small church, but in shape - as in exemplary buildings of the Russian style.

Fig. 2.2. Windows of the church. The author of the picture: V.E. Suslenkov. Shooting date: 2015-2016

          There are very few elements of modernity in the architecture of Armenia, and even more so in the Russian style. The more unique is the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which they decided to build in this style, and not in the traditional, Byzantine type, like, for example, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vanadzor.

          Russian Russian wooden architecture, elements of which can be traced in the architecture of this church - a vivid example of where you can take the elements of "Russianness" to build in the Russian style. Here we can notice such elements of wooden architecture as a polyhedron, bulbous domes covered with imitation of a ploughshare, roof slopes are made under shingles, there is an opposition to a light top with delicate domes to heavy supports, as well as gable roofs. It is rather an idea of architects about what the Russian style should be. There is also a "gingerbread" here, thanks to which we represent the times of the kings with the towers.

          Special attention should be paid to the belfry: it is portable, but connected by the first floor with the main volume of the church. It looks like a scheme of Russian churches with a "ship", but the belfry is on the side, and not in the west, which is atypical in the case of the "ship" plan (Fig. 2.3).

Figure 2.3. The plan of the temple "ship". Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joy_in_Sorrow_floorplan,_G%26P_1832.jpg#/media/File:Joy_in_Sorrow_floorplan,_G&P_1832.jpg  Date of application: 01.07.2023

          The architect of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Amrakitsa has not been installed, the building was built in a style close to the style of neo-Russian buildings erected between 1906-1916 in the Russian Empire; a well-known St. Petersburg architect, author of a number of projects for the construction of Orthodox churches, A.P. Aplaksin, worked in this style (more details will be discussed below).

          The path to architectural modernity in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century passed through an appeal to the works of foreign architects of colleagues, as well as through an appeal to the heritage of architecture of the Russian North. The new style combined a general retrospective orientation from the "Russian style", a share of eclecticism in the form of a combination in one building of architectural forms of various eras and regional schools of ancient Russian architecture ^{[2, p. 42]}.

          The Neo-Russian style originated in the 1880s, but it became widespread only in the 1900s and 1910s, and it received its most consistent embodiment in church architecture. In fact, this style was heterogeneous and demonstrated various forms and interpretations of historical prototypes.

          In general, if we talk about architecture in Russia at the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX century, it is worth noting not only the emergence of a new architectural style and trends, but also significant changes in the nature of architectural life. The share of urban development is increasing, All-Russian congresses of architects are held in St. Petersburg and Moscow, the percentage of industrial and church construction is increasing, competitive design is becoming more widespread, educational activities of architectural societies are unfolding. As for architects, a new type of them is emerging, combining a practical architect, a theorist, a research historian and a restorer ^[2].

          It is difficult to talk about the specificity of such a church for the beginning of the twentieth century, since it must be borne in mind that the fashion for a certain architectural style developed unevenly. 1910-1914 is the decline of Art Nouveau in Moscow, but this echo will reach the outskirts for several more years, until the revolution. Also, we should not forget about regional variants of architecture, which, as a rule, tried to imitate the capital's buildings, but could also include the traditions of a certain district, region or city. To answer the question about the character of such architecture for a given environment and time period, you need to look at what else was built in this area at that time, but such questions are not within the competence of the historian.

          It should also be noted that regional variants of architecture were rarely developed by eminent masters (rich and educated customers were needed for this), architects of the "second row" were more often involved. Plus, the end of the XIX-XX centuries is the period of Art Nouveau, but other styles of architecture did not go away for good. This period can be described as a multi-style, which sometimes tried to adapt to the modern.

* * *

          Andrey Petrovich Aplaksin (1879-1931) is an outstanding and interesting personality. After graduating from the gymnasium, he entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers of Emperor Nicholas I. From 1906 to 1914, being the diocesan architect of St. Petersburg, he actively participated not only in the design and construction of church buildings, but also in projects for the restoration and repair of churches, as well as from 1912 until the beginning of the First During the World War he was active in the Society for the Protection and Preservation of Monuments of Art and Antiquity in Russia ^{[2, p. 58]}.

          A.E. Belonozhkin writes that from 1906 to 1917, Aplaksin's architectural and construction practice was associated with the performance of the duties of a diocesan architect and did not go beyond the St. Petersburg diocese ^[2]. With such a workload, Aplaksin needed an assistant, who from 1907 to 1914 was a civil engineer F.A. Lykhin. It is worth noting that Aplaksin also collaborated in the late 1900s with Yu.A. Kasterin and F.A. Sitnikov, but their help was episodic.

          Thus, it can be noted that in the years preceding the construction of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Armenia, Aplaksin was engaged in numerous projects in Russia, and it seems unlikely that the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Nikolaevka was built according to his project. We have not been able to identify direct evidence of Apraksin's authorship. However, it can be assumed that he handed over the finished project of the church, unclaimed for one reason or another by the St. Petersburg diocese, to the Russian community in Armenia (or this project could have been created by one of his disciples or followers).

          Perhaps it will be possible to establish authorship by studying the synodal archives of St. Petersburg. In this work, the task of attribution in relation to the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was not set, this is a question of a separate future study.

Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

           For the period from 1914 to 1988, no data on any events or changes in the appearance of the church was revealed, it is known that it was active until the 1988 Spitak earthquake. The parish was nursed by Archpriest Grigory Shchukin ^[13].

          In 1988, an earthquake of unprecedented strength occurred, the epicenter of which was the Armenian city of Spitak (hence the name - the Spitak earthquake). All the republics of the USSR provided assistance in eliminating the consequences of the disaster, highly qualified specialists and equipment were sent to the scene of the tragedy; a special commission of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU was headed by the Chairman of the Government of the USSR N.I. Ryzhkov.

          The Spitak earthquake also affected the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which ceased to be operational due to the destruction.

          After the earthquake, the church suffered significantly: its main portal fell, the central chapter fell, keystones fall out in the arches of the windows (as soon as they fall out, there will be strong fractures), strong cracks go along the walls.

          In 1983, by the decision of the Council of Ministers of the Armenian SSR, the church was included in the list of state-protected historical and cultural monuments.

Currently, services are not conducted in the church, as it is in an emergency condition, but during large church holidays, the population is visited by a priest of the Russian church of Gyumri and holds a service in the church yard (https://ru.armeniasputnik.am/20200106/Dveri-Santa-Klausa-zakryty-grustnaya-istoriya-krasivogo-ugolka-Armenii-21625856.html Accessed: 30.05.2022).

          In 2009, with the consent of the Village Council administration, icons and priestly vestments were transferred from the temple to the church of St. Tsarina Alexandra and the chapel of St. Archangel Michael of Gyumri (102nd Russian military base) ^[13].

In 2011, a draft project for the restoration of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was prepared at YSUAS (Yerevan State University of Architecture and Construction), which included an explanatory note, photographs, as well as drawings specially prepared by a graduate student of the university ^[13]. It is this project that is one of the sources for virtual reconstruction in this work, more about it will be discussed in the second chapter.

          At the moment, the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Amrakitsa is in a critical, emergency condition (see Fig. 2.4 – 2.10). The issue of restoration of the building is acute, there is an opinion that it is more expedient to demolish the existing building and rebuild it anew. But here the question arises of how to perform this reconstruction correctly and as reliably as possible.

Fig. 2.4-2.8. The current state of the building, visible destruction

Figure 2.9-2.1 0. Condition of the building as of June 2022. Visit to the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker as part of the XI International seminar "Faces of Memory"

3. Sources of virtual reconstruction

The source base for creating a virtual reconstruction of the building's appearance consists mainly of drawings and plans, photographs, architectural measurements and design documentation, as well as written (descriptive) sources.

Plans and drawings

The main documents used in this work were prepared by YSUAS specialists in 2011 as part of a preliminary project for the restoration of the Church of St. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Amrakits, Lori region of the Republic of Armenia ^[13].

First of all it is:

1. Drawings of building facades with measurements, as well as cross-sectional drawings (see Fig. 3.1-3.2)

2. Plans, including roofs (see Fig. 3.3-3.4)

3. Situational plan (see Figure 3.5)

4. Photos before the earthquake of 1988 and at the present time (see Fig. 3.6- 3.7)

Fig. 3.1-3.2. Drawings. Source: Sketch project of the restoration of the Church of St.St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Amrakits, Lori region of the Republic of Armenia. Yerevan State University of Architecture and Construction (YSUAS), 2011.

Fig. 3.3 and 3.4. Plans

Figure 3.5. Situational plan

Fig. 3.6. Photos before 1988

Fig. 3.7. Photo of the XXI century. Photo author: V. E. Suslenkov

In the course of working with the sources, some shortcomings were identified. First of all, this concerns the drawings of the facades of the building.  The sizes of some elements, which logically should be the same, turned out to be different after loading into the software environment. The difference in measurements is small, but nevertheless it should be taken into account when building a model. Architectural measurements are of particular value, as they allow you to create a model of a building in three dimensions, based both on graphic materials and on specific figures characterizing the width, length, height of any element. Of course, it is not necessary to exclude the human factor, which can bring errors in calculations, since all measurements are made manually.

Photo documents

The photographs contain a more accurate image of structures and elements at the beginning of the XX – beginning of the XXI centuries. due to the fact that the number of distortions that could arise during the work of an artist or architect is reduced here. Also, different photo angles can fill in the gaps in the drawings that appeared due to the fact that they reflect only specific planes, and, for example, the corners of buildings or walls "hiding" behind the bell tower, they cannot reflect. Photos reflecting the exterior of the building before the earthquake of 1988, as a result of which the church was significantly damaged, and its activities ceased, are especially valuable to us.

The current state of the building is reflected as fully as possible in the photographs provided by V.E. Suslenkov (Vitaly Egorovich Suslenkov is an art historian, senior lecturer at the Department of History and Theory of Christian Art of the Orthodox St. Tikhon's University for the Humanities). They help to complement the photographic materials presented in the sketch design and the Internet, as well as provide an opportunity to see the building from more angles and examine some elements in more detail (see Fig. 3.8 – 3.9).

Fig. 3.8 – 3.9. Photos 2015 - 2016 Author: V.E.Suslenkov

The obtained images are sufficient for their comparison with the main sources — drawings, as well as for work on virtual reconstruction.

We also have at our disposal photographs of the XX century (before 1988), which will be used to correlate with modern photographs and drawings of 2011.

The work uses:

1. Photos from the sketch project of YSUAS ^[13]

2. Photos from open sources taken from the Internet (electronic resources of free access)

3. Photos of 2015-2016, provided by V.E. Suslenkov

4. Photos taken by the author of this work during a visit to the object, to the village of Amrakits in June 2022.

Taken before the Spitak earthquake, the photos correspond to the chronological framework of our virtual reconstruction, so they can serve as materials for setting inaccuracies in the drawings and about the current state of the building. It should be noted that it is important to be guided not only by modern photographs, since as a result of the earthquake and further destruction, individual elements of the building were lost. Nevertheless, the photos of this period are black and white and have low sharpness, partial blurriness, which reduces the possibilities of their use.

Thus, the presented graphic and visual sources are the starting point for creating a virtual reconstruction. The superposition and correlation of plans, drawings and photographs in computer programs give us information about the parameters of buildings, respectively, and the basis for constructing the basic geometry using the selected software.

 Software Selection

Modern technologies allow using trained neural networks to restore color in black-and-white photos using shades of gray. In this work, the computer vision service from was used to set the original color of the building. mail.ru (https://9 may.mail.ru/restoration / Accessed: 30.06.2023). In our work, Vision technology is used (Vision is a technology for recognizing faces and objects based on machine learning. Using computer vision, it is possible to develop a system for recognizing faces, car license plates and any other objects and images, organize image moderation, analyze photo and video recordings). Initially, the project was prepared for the restoration of old photographs and the further creation of the gallery of the Immortal Regiment. The site is easy to use and gives quite high results. However, it should be taken into account that the resulting colorization is probabilistic in nature.

To recreate the appearance of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the SketchUp Pro2022 program was used in this work, as optimal for solving the tasks of developing a virtual reconstruction. This program has a rich toolkit and the ability to expand it through many different plug—ins, allows you to create "components" - elements of a 3D model that can be used, changed many times after creation, and all changes made in this component will automatically be reflected in all places where it is used, and also has a library inside the program, which makes it possible to replenish it with its own elements and download ready-made ones. At the same time, SketchUp is accessible and easy to use.

The Lumion 10 program was used for rendering in this work. It is compatible with various 3D modeling programs, including SketchUp, and allows you to produce renderings of varying complexity without reducing the quality of the model. Lumion provides the ability to render 2D images, videos and panoramas, as well as adjust the light, weather, time of day and other effects, which is also its advantage.

4. Virtual reconstruction of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

As an initial step, it is necessary to load the existing drawings into the workspace and scale them, create walls, correlate all four planes taking into account the irregularities of the landscape, the errors of the author of the drawings and the subsidence of the building over time.

The drawings that we have characterize the building of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker for the period after the earthquake of 1988, and specifically for 2011, and the available photographs of the XX century before 1988 can serve to adjust the 3D models being created. According to available information, after the 1988 Spitak earthquake, no work was carried out on the building, so we can reconstruct according to the drawings and use measurements from the draft design.

Accordingly, we can recreate the appearance of the temple, and having photos before 1988, we can also recreate those parts of the building that were lost as a result of the earthquake. Interior photos from the sketch project also allow you to recreate the inner temple space.

The drawings from the YSUAS sketch design were placed on the working field in the SketchUp program along the blue and green axes (the scale is measured in mm) (see Figure 4.1).

Fig.4.1. Working with dimensional drawings

        Three levels of reconstruction were formed: the main part of the building, the adjacent bell tower and the inner temple space. It should be noted that recreating the interior was not the task in this work, we only recreated the necessary internal temple space.

        To begin with, the basic part of the building is created. After the loading, scaling and correlation of the drawings with each other were completed, four facades of the building were modeled, as well as the main middle part. The modeled parts were grouped into groups for each facade, the elements of the middle part also formed a group. This transformation is done for the convenience of working with each facade separately, the main one in this case is the "block group" function, which makes it possible to make changes to individual parts of the object without distorting the neighboring ones. Since all the walls have a volume, according to the plan and drawings of sections from the draft design, the thickness of the walls was determined, their volume was modeled and the inner parts of the temple space were drawn. The earth line in the drawing was taken as the lower line of the planes. A plinth extending below the bottom line was also created. Since there are errors in the scale of the drawings due to the unevenness of the landscape, when connecting the planes of the walls, a small diagonal will be created, which occurs if the building stands on the terrain at a slight slope. This stage of work is reflected in Figure 4.2

Figure 4.2. Working with total volumes

        Then you can start modeling the porch with the main portal and the apse.Since the drawings were drawn up with the already obvious destruction of the building, to clarify the location and appearance of some details, we use photographs up to 1988. This mainly concerns the portal of the church, which collapsed at the time of drawing up the drawings. In the photographs of the early twentieth century . it is visible, so we have the opportunity to recreate it in our work.

        The entrance group consists of several elements: a porch with steps, a door, a portal and two columns standing on pedestals and connecting the portal with the porch. The porch with steps was downloaded from the Warehouse SketchUp library, modified according to photos and drawings, and added to the model. The door was created using Line on the plane of the western facade and the wall plane was embedded using the Push/Pull tool. The portal was also modeled using the Line tool on the plane of the western facade and with the help of the Push/Pull tool it was pulled forward to such a distance as to be parallel to the pedestals (see Figure 4.3). The creation of columns and pedestals will be discussed further.

Figure 4.3. Working with the input group

        The apse is located on the east side of the church. Its modeling was also performed using the Line tool according to the available drawings (see Fig. 4.4).

Fig. 4.4. Working with the apse

        The next stage of reconstruction is the creation of a bell tower, as well as a passage connecting the main part of the building with it. According to the drawings, the transition and the base of the bell tower were modeled (see Figure 4.5).

Figure 4.5. Creating a bell tower and connecting passage

        The upper part of the bell tower was created separately: consulting the drawings of the western and southern facades, the top with semicircular arches on round pillars-supports was drawn using the Line tool. The drawing does not fully reflect the bell tower from the north, but based on the symmetry hypothesis and the section drawing, we conclude that the same facade is located on the opposite side from the southern facade of the bell tower, so we have selected the constructed part and using Push/Pull we model this element, including arches. To create the arches, the Arc tool was used, the finished element is shown in Figure 4.6.

Figure 4.6. Semicircular arches

        The wooden ceiling separating the main volume of the bell tower from the roof (Line and Push/Pull tools) and the beam (see Figure 4.7) on which the bell hung were also recreated, they were placed in accordance with the photos.

Fig. 4.7. Wooden floor and beam elements

        When looking at the photos, it may seem that the door of the southern facade of the bell tower is symmetrical to the small arched opening of the upper part, but when testing this hypothesis according to the dimensional drawings, it was revealed that it is slightly wider, in this connection it was modeled separately (see Figure 4.8), together with the wooden frame into which it is inserted, with by adding volume in accordance with the dimensional drawings.

Figure 4.8. Bell tower door

        Thus, we have created the main volumes of the church, in this regard, we can proceed to modeling the plinth, which is the same for the main part, the passage and the bell tower, extending below the bottom line (see Figure 4.9).

Fig. 4.9. The projection of the base from the main volume of the building

          In the next step, you can start recreating individual elements of the model. The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is rich in windows; according to sources, the windows are located in the recess of the walls. Three types of windows were identified: large ones in the central part of the northern and southern facades, medium ones on the apse and on the sides of the large ones on the same facades, as well as small ones on the passage connecting the main building and the bell tower. For convenience, each type of window was created separately in new files, then converted into a "Component" and added to the main model. The "component" is convenient in our work, since there is symmetry and repeating elements in the structure of the building, and this tool allows you to perform the necessary manipulations with one object, automatically making changes in exactly the same ones. It should be noted that all windows are at the same height from the ground. Openings for windows were cut out on the planes of the walls (see Figure 4.10), after which the corresponding components were multiplied the required number of times and placed according to the sources.

Fig. 4.10. Three types of windows in window frames

          The windows on the apse correspond in appearance to the average windows, but are slightly more elongated upwards. In this regard, when working with the apse using the Scale tool, the corresponding component was given the required size (see Figure 4.11).

Fig. 4.11. Window opening on the apse

          In this way, windows were recreated around the perimeter of the building.

          The preliminary restoration project also contains a separate roof plan, thanks to which we can recreate it in our model. The Line tool was used for this. A quadrangle with a four-act roof was built over the main volume of the church, which is crowned by 5 chapters. Note that the roofs of the opposite facades (south - north, west - east) are symmetrical in pairs; they were recreated after working with the middle part (see Figure 4.12)

.

Fig. 4.12. Working with the roof, top view

Roof slopes, which are water slides, were modeled separately (see Figure 4.13).

Fig.4.13. Water slides from the roof

          Another stage in this part of the work was the modeling of the gable roof of the apse (see Figure 4.14).

Fig. 4.14. Working with the roof of the apse

To recreate the roof of the portal, we turn to the available photographs of the beginning of the twentieth century. (See Figure 4.15-4.16)

Fig. 4.15 - 4.16. Photo of the facade with a portal before 1988. Creating the roof of the portal

A separate stage was the reconstruction of the roof of the bell tower and the passage (see Figures 4.17-4.18).

Fig. 4.17 – 4.18. Reconstruction of the roof of the bell tower and the passage, respectively

After the roof modeling was completed, all its elements were combined into a group.

The third level of reconstruction is the reconstruction of the inner temple space. Here our main source was the cross-sectional drawings of the church, the plan and photographs of the interior of the XXI century.

For the convenience of working with the interior space, the Section Plane tool was used, which allows you to see the model in section and hide elements (see Figure 4.19).

Fig. 4.19. Using the Section Plane tool

          The drawing "Section 1-1" was loaded into the model, scaled and inserted into the section of the building. According to him, the arched arches of the southern and northern facades were recreated, they are symmetrical, so first two arched arches of one facade were created. To perform this task, the Line and Arc elements, as well as Push/Pull, were used. According to the source, the far arch was modeled along the dotted line. Internal projections were taken as the starting points of the arc, the height of the arch was determined according to the drawing. To make an identical arch on the opposite side, it was highlighted, then the Move tool was selected, the Ctrl button was pressed, after which a copy of the arched arch was placed on the northern facade (see Figure 4.20-4.21). The second arch, closest to the center, was modeled in the same way, but in accordance with the bold a line in the drawing.

Fig. 4.20 - 4.21. Creating an internal temple space

          To create vaults on the eastern and western facades, the drawing "Section 2-2" was loaded into the model and the same actions were performed as for the southern and northern parts.

          There is also an apse on the east side, which has a dome on the inside (see Figure 4.22 – 4.25). Line and Arc tools were used to build it.

Fig. 4.22. The eastern facade in the section

Fig. 4.23 – 4.25. Working with the apse dome

          After completing the work on creating vaults, it is necessary to soften the edges on the underside of all arched elements. To do this, in turn, in each arched vault, you need to select all its elements, right-click and select "soften edges".

          A further step in the reconstruction of the inner temple space was the modeling of the dome. To do this, a dome downloaded from the Warehouse SketchUp library was uploaded to a separate file, as similar as possible to the original one, and modified in accordance with the drawings of the sections. Then it was transplanted into the main model and inserted into the main volume (see Figure 4.26 – 4.27).

Fig. 4.26 – 4.27. Working with the dome. Bottom view of the interior space.

          At the end of the work with the vaults, they were linked into a group.

         Thus, we recreated the main volumes of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

Working with decorative elements

There are not so many decorative elements in the appearance of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, but, nevertheless, they deserve special attention.

The creation of the Column element consisted of two stages. Initially, the pedestal was modeled using the Line tool, with which a new plane was created, and the Push /Pull tool, with which the pedestal was stretched to the desired height in accordance with the measurements. Then the Circle tool was used, with which a circle was created on the upper plane of the pedestal in accordance with the measurements, and the Push/Pull tool, with which the circle was pulled up in accordance with the measurements (see Figure 4.28 – 4.30). Since all the columns available in the architecture of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker are identical, then the "Column" component was created and placed in accordance with the sources on the bell tower and in the entrance group.

Fig. 4.28 - 4.30. Working with columns

The outlines of the railings are visible on the drawings of the bell tower, let's turn to the photographs to clarify their appearance. First, the railings of the smallest opening were recreated, the created elements were combined into a group. This group was selected and copied using the Move tool and pressing the CTRL key, after which it was moved to the remaining openings and modified according to the distances (see Figure 4.31). 

Fig. 4.31. Installation of railings

To create a bulbous chapter, the following tools were used: using Line, a line was drawn in the drawing dividing the chapter in half, one of the sides was drawn using Freehand and Arc tools, adjusted in accordance with the drawing. Next, a circle (diameter according to the drawing) was created at the base of the chapter using the Circle tool. It is necessary that the lower part of the chapter be in the same plane with the new circle. Select the circle, then select the Follow Me tool and click on the surface of the chapter. The resulting bulbous chapter is supplemented with a curb (see Figure 4.32-4.33).

Fig. 4.32. Photo of the head and the curb on its base (modern photo by V.E.Suslenkov)

Fig. 4.33. The "Chapter" component

To create a curb, arched elements were drawn and the middle was squeezed out to the end using the Push/Pull tool (see Figure 4.34).

Figure 4.34. The curb element

 In accordance with the roof plan, a circle is created for the base using Line. Also, according to the photos provided by V.E.Suslenkov, a three-dimensional cross is created and installed on the top of the chapter (see Figure 4.35).

Figure 4.35. The "cross" element

The element is transformed into a "Component" and placed in accordance with the roof plan the required number of times.

The curb is visible on the main volume (middle). Using the Line tool, a section of this decorative element was drawn perpendicular to the wall in accordance with the drawings. Then, using the Follow me tool, it was stretched along the perimeter of the entire total volume (see Figure 4.36).

Figure 4.36. Curb element on the main part of the building

The elements of the crosses located on the western and eastern facades and the bell were found in the Warehouse SketchUp library, modified, loaded into the model and placed in accordance with the photos (see Figure 4.37 – 4.40).

Figure 4.37. The bell

Fig. 4.38-4.40. Placed "crosses" elements

In one of the modern photographs of the southern facade, an iron pipe was found, which is not in the drawings. The presence of this pipe allows us to conclude that the church was heated. Circle and Push/Pull tools were used to create this element (see Figure 4.41).

Fig. 4.41. The pipe element on the slope of the temple roof

Such a visual source as photographs also reflects the space surrounding the church. The plan from the sketch project reflects that a fence with a gate was erected around the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The appearance of the fence is presented in the photo documents, on their basis the most suitable element was selected in the Warehouse SketchUp library, loaded and modified. Then the situational plan was loaded into the program, scaled. It displays the layout of the fence, according to which this element has been multiplied the required number of times. The gates were also loaded from the Warehouse SketchUp library, their lower part was created using the Line and Push/Pull tools, after the necessary transformations they were placed in accordance with the plan (see Figure 4.42- 4.44).

Fig. 4.42-4.44. Creating a fence

Working with color and materials

        As mentioned earlier, the main material was stone covered with white plaster. In this regard, the corresponding texture of white plaster was downloaded from the Internet and applied to the main volumes of the building, as well as to columns and pedestals. The plinth of the temple (see Figure 4.45) and the bell tower was covered with a texture of dark gray plaster, in accordance with photographs taken before 1988 and the resulting color versions of black and white photos.

Fig. 4.45. Texturization of the base

        Currently, the roof of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker has a maroon color. Our visit to Amrakits in June 2022 allowed us to make sure that this color is explained by the appearance of rust on the metal roof covering over time. To get an answer to the question about the original color of the roof, black-and-white photographs taken before 1988 were analyzed. To do this, the computer vision service was used from mail.ru (https://9 may.mail.ru/restoration / Accessed: 30.06.2023). Selected photographic materials were uploaded to the site, where they were processed by a neural network and colorized photos were obtained (see Figure 4.46-4.47).

Based on the shades of gray in these photos, the program formed the color scheme of the roof, confirming our hypothesis that the roof was gray-green.

Figure 4.46. The original black and white photo of the bell tower (before the earthquake).

Fig. 4.47. Colorized version of the bell tower photo

        Based on photographs taken after 1988, suitable textures were selected from the Internet, uploaded, modified and applied to the corresponding parts of the roof (see Fig. 4.48-4.49).

Fig. 4.48-4.49. Roof textures

        In the colorized photographs taken before 1988, the chapters acquired a golden hue, but after carefully studying the photographs of V.E.Suslenkov, where the chapters are depicted quite large, the author of this work came to the conclusion that the original color of the chapters was the same as it remains at the moment (steel gray), and the golden hue reflects in in this case, shooting conditions on a sunny day. In this regard, a suitable texture of the iron coating was selected and applied to the "Head" component. A metal texture was applied to the curb (see Fig. 4.50)

.

Fig. 4.50. Texturing the chapter and its elements

        Wooden elements are present in the output group, as well as on the roof of the bell tower. The textures of wooden planks downloaded from the Internet were applied to the corresponding surfaces and modified. The photos clearly show that the wooden elements were at an angle to the center. To achieve compliance with the original, the corresponding surfaces were divided in half, the necessary textures were applied alternately to each part, after that, in texture editing mode, the texture on one half was mirrored, if necessary, through editing the texture position, it was shifted so that the plates clearly fell into each other's lines (see Fig. 4.51 – 4.52)

Fig. 4.51 - 4.52. Applying wood textures

        The sources do not reflect what the ascent to the belfry was, but based on the drawings in the section, it was in the floor. It is logical to assume that it was a hatch: a corresponding texture was found on the Internet and applied to the hatch plane (see Fig. 4.53).

Fig. 4.53. Hatch texture

        The doors of the main entrance and the bell tower, based on the photos, are iron. The corresponding textures were found and applied (see Fig. 4.54- 4.55).

Fig. 4.54-4.55. Application of door textures

        From modern photographs it can be seen that the window frames are white, so in this case the appropriate textures (in material and color) were used. The texture "Transparent glass, gray" is also applied (see Fig. 4.56)

.

Fig. 4.56. Applying textures to windows

        These textures were collected into a single database, where the textures of glass for windows, iron for crosses, bells and chimneys were also added (see Fig. 4.57-4.59).

Fig. 4.57-4.59. Applying textures to the bell, trumpet and cross

        For successful visualization, a fence of the church territory and a gate were also created (see Figure 4.60). Similar models were downloaded from the Warehouse SketchUp library, modified in accordance with the available photographic materials and placed in the space around the perimeter of the church territory according to the situational plan.

Fig. 4.60. Construction of fences and gates

The correlation of graphic sources with each other revealed the absence of some elements due to their loss as a result of the earthquake of 1988, but the availability of photographic materials before 1988 made it possible to fill in the gaps and fully restore the appearance of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and its temple space. Thus, the placement of details and decorative elements of the building was carried out based on drawings of the XXI century and photographs of the XX - XXI century.

Rendering results

Rendering (visualization) of the created 3D model of the church building assembled in the SketchUp 2022 program was carried out in the Lumion program. The scene was added to the workspace of the program, where adjustments, lights, etc. were made.

In the process of rendering, the results were visualization of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the pre-church territory from different angles.

Modern photographs show that a "path" leads to the main entrance between two stone mounds. In the photos before 1988, they were not identified, most likely, these mounds arose as a result of the collapse of the portal. Since our goal is a virtual reconstruction of the church in its form before the Spitak earthquake, these mounds were not included in the visualization.

As a rule, a churchyard should be located on the territory of the church, but no information about its presence or location was found in the sources.

Fig. 4.61-4.69. Renderings and visualization results

Thus, in the course of the work, a complex of sources and historiography about the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Amrakits, Lori region of Armenia was identified and analyzed, as well as a hypothesis about the author of the project according to which the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built (architect A.P.Aplaksin, a famous architect who built a number of Orthodox churches in Russia) was considered. The information potential of the sources allows us to create a fairly reliable 3D model of the church building in its original form, which practically did not change until the earthquake of 1988.

The author expresses his gratitude to L.I. Borodkin, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Historical Informatics of the Faculty of History of Lomonosov Moscow State University, D.I.Zherebyatyev, Ph.D., Senior lecturer of the same Department, E. Revazova, Chairman of the cultural organization "Sarer" (Yerevan), as well as participants XI International seminar "Faces of Memory" (Yerevan, July 2022) – for useful advice and assistance.