Onion Shaped Roof

It has been postulated that the onion shaped domes propped up in russia during the era of ivan the terrible.

Onion shaped roof.

A peculiar feature of russian orthodox churches is the presence of onion shaped domes on top of the cupolas. They re made of wood. A prominent historical figure ivan was the grand prince of moscow who would then go on to become the tsar of rus until his death. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate upon which they sit and their height usually exceeds their width.

Though onion roofs are most commonly associated with the great cathedrals of europe there s no reason why they can t make a bold addition to a home or commercial property anywhere in the world. Made from handcrafted and steam bent wood shingles onion roofs can be made in a variety of sizes and configurations to suit any design requirement. The last time the dome was worked on was in the mid 1980 s. The church was originally founded in 1915 on dixwell avenue and moved to its current location at alden and burton in 1967.

In the early history of the russian church especially in kiev the first capital the domes of the churches followed the typical byzantine rounded style but later especially after the mongol period russian churches tended toward the onion domes which in many places became quite stylized. As their name implies they feature a tapered rounded shape much like an onion. I think the construction is kind of like the hull of a ship on the bottom half with curved vertical supports holding curved horizontal stringers. The onion shaped byzantine empire style dome is to help worshipers witness god according to father michael westerberg who leads the 150 member church.

луковичная глава lúkovichnaya glavá. An onion dome russian. Most onion domes are plain white decorated only with the gold cupola and cross on top.