Formation of the urban environment in Kostanay city at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries: analysis of cult architecture based on photo documents

The article deals with the issue of «temple building» in the city of Kostanay in the pre-revolutionary period. Temple architecture is a category that encompasses not only the construction of temples but also their functioning and influence on the processes and events taking place in the city. In the conditions of temple construction, the task was set not so much of buildings of religious structures, but of the habitat as a whole. The main purpose of the study is to identify the features and factors of the influence of temple construction, the activities of priests on the change in the urban environment, to study the architectural styles and ideological compositions of the cult architecture of Kostanay. The work used a wide range of historiographic (works of Kazakh and foreign, Russian researchers) and source material (archival, museum sources). The methodological basis of the research was made by interdisciplinary, cross-cultural theoretical positions (concepts of K. Lynch and K. Norberg-Schulz, environmental approach) and specific methods (architectural analysis, historical and cultural reconstruction, methods of system-holistic analysis, critical research, and generalization of source material). Based on the results of the study, we came to the conclusion that temple architecture and priests had positive changes on the city and townspeople, a lot of educational, moral, charitable work was carried out, registers of births were kept. An active activity attitude influenced the architecture and style of temples. All of them were built according to certain patterns, but they all had their own unique characteristics. You can trace the interconnection and mutual influence of the West and the East, the interweaving of Russian, Tatar, European, Middle Eastern architectural styles.