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Does architectural heritage plot a nation’s history or shape its culture? In this wide ranging and vividly illustrated lecture, Professor Leporc will explore Russian architecture against a social, artistic, economic and political panorama. Indeed he will even ask the question are the age old canonical forms such as Onion Domes, hipped rooves, non-stop ornamentation actually Russian?

When we think of Russian buildings we often think of Russian fairy tales, ‘Baba Yaga’ and the ‘Cherry Orchard’ but has literature replaced the truth and maybe borrowed architectural inventions have become part of the national psyche. What is the relationship between national character and national architecture?

For those alumni who have travelled with Professor Leporc over the last ten years and enjoyed his humorous companionship and the effortlessly light touch of his scholarship, they will know there is no one more able to address such ‘enigmatic’ Russian questions.

Schedule

4.00pm - Welcome from Claire Baxter and Kate Suares, Cambridge and Oxford Alumni Offices and Daniel Moore, Distant Horizons

4.10pm - Talk from Professor Alexei Leporc

4.40pm - Q&A with Professor Leporc, facilitated by Daniel Moore

5.00pm - Finish

This talk is part of the Oxford and Cambridge Universities Alumni Travel Programme and is organised by Distant Horizons who will be arranging the alumni tour to the St Petersburg with Professor Leporc. 

This event will be recorded.