Saint Sophia Cathedral Novgorod

St Sophia was built between 1045 and 1050 for Vladimir, son of Yaroslav the Wise, and it is the oldest church in Russia outside the Caucasus still standing and in use - older than anything in Moscow, Vladimir or Suzdal - a heavy five-domed building in stone and brick, plastered white, with walls of great thickness and small windows, in a manner that came from Byzantium and was already being adapted. The central dome is gilded and carries a lead dove, which local tradition says will bring the city's end if it flies away. On the western front are the Magdeburg doors: bronze panels cast in Germany in the twelfth century, showing biblical scenes with the makers' self-portraits among them, brought to Novgorod as spoils and reassembled here by a local craftsman whose figure was added. Inside are eleventh and twelfth-century fresco fragments and icons; the cathedral was damaged in the 1940s and restored. It remains a working church.

History

Prince Vladimir of Novgorod and Bishop Luka Zhidiata built the 38-metre, five-domed stone cathedral between 1045 and 1050 to replace an oaken one put up by Bishop Ioakim Korsunianin in the late 10th century, which makes it the oldest church building in Russia outside the Caucasus; it was consecrated on 14 September 1050 or 1052, by different accounts, and dedicated, like Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, to the Holy Wisdom of God. The interior was first painted in 1108, the domes are thought to have taken their helmet shape when the cathedral was restored after a fire in the 1150s, and Archbishop Ioann gilded the main dome in 1408, while Archbishop Evfimy II added a white stone belfry in the 15th century. Its library, said to go back to Yaroslav the Wise, held more than 1,500 volumes when it was moved to the Saint Petersburg Spiritual Academy in 1859, and most of the frescoes seen today date from the 1890s (Wikipedia, Cathedral of Saint Sophia, Novgorod).

What to look for

• The 1050 building - the oldest standing church in Russia outside the Caucasus, and still in use.
• The Magdeburg doors - twelfth-century German bronze panels taken as spoils.
• The dove - the lead bird on the central dome, with a legend attached.
• The frescoes - eleventh and twelfth-century fragments surviving inside.

When to go

May to September. One hour. It is a working cathedral, so services set access.

Good to know

An active church - dress rules apply, photography is prohibited and services close it. The bronze doors are opened only for major services; most of the time they are seen closed. The frescoes are fragmentary and dimly lit.

Nearby

The detinets walls are around it; Yuriev monastery is south along the Volkhov.

Key facts