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374 VOLODYMYR I, MEZENTSEValthough they remained within the sphere of Chernihiv's political,ecclesiastical, and cultural influence. In the late twelfth and early thirteenthcenturies Chernihiv became almost completely independent of Kiev; at thesame time it was flourishing and growing quickly in size. 32 At the beginningof the thirteenth century, on the eve of the Mongol invasion, Chernihiv hadattained its highest political and military power, and it vied with Kiev andHalych for supremacy in southern Rus'. 33In the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries extensive building ofecclesiastical and secular masonry structures was conducted in Chernihiv,undoubtedly, as it was in other contemporary Rus' towns, by accomplishednative artists. A local architectural school had by then formed in Chernihiv.Its architectural style and building techniques were closest to the churcharchitecture of the towns of the Dnieper region and Volhynia—Pereiaslav,Bilhorod, Ovruch, and, especially, Kiev and Smolensk. Chernihiv's politicalsatellites, such as Novhorod-Sivers'kyi, Putyvl', Kursk, Vshchizh, Trubchevsk,Riazan', and others, imitated Chernihiv's ecclesiastical buildings.The masonry churches of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries inChernihiv, as in other Rus' towns, differed significantly from the eleventhcenturychurches built strictly according to Byzantine traditions (e.g., theCathedral of the Transfiguration). By developing the Byzantine traditionsand by borrowing some Western achievements in architecture and buildingtechniques, the Rus' artists fashioned their own distinctive national style ofchurch architecture. In comparison with earlier churches, the masonrychurches of twelfth-century Rus' were as a whole smaller in size, simpler incomposition and construction, and more modest in decoration. But theirnumber increased. Rus' artisans of the twelfth century no longer practicedthe mixed laying of brick and stone (opus mixtum) with the "recessed rowsof bricks." They were already using uniform ordered layings, whether ofbrick or stone, with a neat trimming of the junctures (a masonry techniquecalled opus isodos). Church facades were frequently plastered. Towerswith staircases leading to the choirs were no longer built, and the stairswere placed within the walls. Marble was no longer used in church decoration.The meander motif was rarely employed in decorating the facades;mosaics of smalt were also rare. The weakening of these Byzantine traditionsin twelfth-century Rus' church architecture was accompanied by a32See Volodymyr Mezentsev, "Pro formuvannia mis'koi terytorii davn'oho Chernihova,"Arkheolohiia (Kiev), 1980, no. 34, pp. 63-64.33Mezentsev, Drevnii Chernigov, pp. 22-23. Also see idem, "The Territorial and DemographicDevelopment of Medieval Kiev and Other Major Cities of Rus': A ComparativeAnalysis Based on Recent Archaeological Research," Russian Review (forthcoming).