The Orthodox Landscape of Mining Settlements in the Perm region: a comparative analysis

Abstract

In the article, on the basis of archival, published, and field ethnographic sources, a comparative analysis is undertaken of the Orthodox landscape at 13 mining plants, subdivided into two groups: northern and southern. This division is due not only to geography, but also to the peculiarities of the studied landscape. In the northern group, the sacral space extends from the temple, which forms the center, throughout the plant and further to its mines. This is manifested in the Orthodox names of streets and parts of the plant settlement. In addition to this horizontal spread, there is a vertical one, which is manifested in the fact that the Orthodox names are given to ore layers in some mines. In the group of southern plants, on the other hand, a basic model of the sacral space functioning around the temple is presented. Moreover, three models of the location of temples were identified: central, peripheral with a high-rise dominance and peripheral at the entrance to the plant. All this made it possible to characterize the Orthodox landscapes of different plants, highlighting their similar and distinctive features.