ABSTRACT
The process of constructing a monumental building began with the breaking of the ground for the building and then laying it out on the site. Since the monuments of Russian architecture of the pre-Mongol period are mainly churches (of 250 monuments of that period which have survived, fewer than 20 are secular, i.e. about 8 per cent), it follows therefore that breaking ground for a building was, primarily, done for churches. Usually there was a ceremony at which the supreme ecclesiastical hierarchs and princes were present. Although it is true that in most cases the chronicles describe the consecration of a church and not the procedure of breaking ground, the fact that the notices about breaking ground for a church mention which metropolitan and which prince were present, testifies to it having been a solemn occasion.1
