St Sophia Cathedral

The first St Sophia at Polotsk was built between about 1044 and 1066 by Vseslav of Polotsk, one of three Sophia cathedrals raised in the Rus lands after the model of Constantinople, and it stood in various forms until it was destroyed in the early eighteenth century. The present building was put up between 1738 and 1750 in the Vilnius baroque manner, two towers on a high bank above the river, and inside it is not a working church but a museum and concert hall, with an organ installed in the 1980s used for regular recitals. In the lower level the excavated foundations and surviving fragments of the eleventh-century structure are exposed and shown, which is the substance of the visit.

What you actually see

• The baroque facade - the twin-towered eighteenth-century front above the river.
• The eleventh-century foundations - the excavated remains shown in the basement.
• The organ - the instrument used for the concert programme.
• The Dvina bank - the high ground the cathedral stands on.

When to go

May to September for the setting; the building is indoors and open year round, closing on Mondays. Organ concerts run to a published programme and are worth timing a visit around.

Honest expectations

This is a museum and concert hall, not a working church. The medieval remains are foundations and fragments in the basement, not standing architecture. Labelling is in Belarusian and Russian. Concert days restrict ordinary visiting.

Nearby

Spaso-Euphrosyne convent lies north; the Polotsk museums are in the centre.