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378 VOLODYMYR I. MEZENTSEVand scored into rectangles, as in the Cathedral of Boris and Gleb. But herewhitestone details were not used. The narthex is clearly articulated. Thereis a small baptistery in the narthex's southern part with an apse adorned byan arched cornice combined with a so-called saw-tooth pattern. Burialniches are located in the walls of the narthex. Excavations found fragmentsof multicolored stained-glass window panes. The original floor was pavedwith bricks, slate slabs, and multicolored glazed ceramic tiles. The interiorof the cathedral was decorated with frescoes distinguished by their artistryand originality. But only fragments survive of such compositions as "TheLast Judgment," "The Baptism," "The Three Children in the FieryOven," and the figures of three saints, two of them possibly Oranta and St.Helena. The closest analogues in type to the Cathedral of the Dormition inthe Ielets'kyi Monastery are Chernihiv's Cathedral of Boris and Gleb,Kiev's Church of St. Cyril of the mid-twelfth century, and the Cathedral ofthe Dormition of 1160 in Volodymyr-Volyns'kyi. Most notably, the latetwelfth-centuryCathedral of Boris and Gleb in Old Riazan' repeated itsgroundplan almost exactly. 47Also extant is the Church of Elijah at the monastery of the same name inthe Boldin Hills on the outskirts of Chernihiv. The church is picturesquelysituated on an incline of a hill close to the entrance to the Caves Monastery,whose initial construction is attributed to St. Antonii of Kiev around 1069.The precise date of the church's foundation is unknown, but judging fromits architecture, building technique, and brick markings, it belongs to thetwelfth century. The marks on the bricks indicate that the church was builtby a prince and possibly by a bishop. Its building techniques and materialsare similar to those of Chernihiv's Cathedrals of Boris and Gleb and of theDormition, and match them in quality.The Church of Elijah is small, with one apse, one nave, no columns. It isthe sole church of this sort preserved in the Dnieper region, although thetype was widespread in Byzantium and in the Balkan countries, in theirmonasteries and palace complexes. 48 It has a small narthex, and choirs restingon wooden platforms. Originally the church had one dome and wasdecorated only with pilasters and an arched cornice. Like the Cathedrals ofBoris and Gleb and of the Dormition, the walls of the Elijah church werecovered with plaster and divided into rectangles recalling the whitestone47A. L. Mongait, "Staraia Riazan'," MIA, 1955, no. 49, pp. 78, 89-90; G. K. Vagner,"Arkhitektumye fragmenty Staroi Riazani," in Arkhitekturnoe nasledstvo (Moscow), 1963,no. 15, pp. 23-24.48Aseev, Arkhitektura, p. 142; Iakobson, Zakonomernosti v razvitii srednevekovoi arkhitektury,pp. 85, 114-16.