Saint Sophia Cathedral

Saint Sophia was built in 1907 in wood as a garrison church for Russian troops on the Chinese Eastern Railway, and rebuilt in brick between 1923 and 1932 into the Byzantine-Revival building that stands now, with a green onion dome above a red brick mass, once the largest Orthodox church in the Far East. Harbin's Russian population left after the 1950s, the church was closed and for years used as a warehouse, and it was restored in 1997 as a museum of the city's architecture and history rather than as a working church. The square around it is one of the busiest public spaces in Harbin, and the building is floodlit at night.

History

St Sophia was first built of timber and finished in March 1907, after the railway linking the region to Russia was completed, as a church for the Russian army division stationed here. In 1921 Harbin had 300,000 people, a third of them Russian, and on 23 September 1923 the cornerstone of a larger church was laid; finished on 25 November 1932, the 53-metre cathedral, inspired by a church in Ukraine, was the largest Orthodox church in the Far East. Long closed and hemmed in by buildings, it was named a national heritage site in 1996, and donations from local people paid for its restoration (Wikipedia, Saint Sophia Cathedral, Harbin).

Highlights

• The green dome - the Byzantine-Revival cathedral in red brick.
• The interior museum - photographs and displays on Harbin's foreign-built history.
• The square - the plaza and pigeons around the building.
• The night lighting - the cathedral floodlit after dark.

When to go

Year-round; winter, when snow surrounds the building and the ice festival is on, is when most visitors come, though temperatures fall below minus twenty. Summer is mild and the square lively.

Practical notes

It is a museum rather than a functioning church, and the interior is modest compared with the exterior. The building is small inside and the visit brief. The surrounding square is crowded and commercial.

Nearby

Central Street is a short walk; the Songhua River lies north.

Key facts