Sofia novgorodskaya temple inside. Saint Sophia Cathedral - Saint Sophia Cathedral. Architectural features of the Temple of Sophia

History of St. Sophia Cathedral

St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, an outstanding monument of ancient Russian architecture and the oldest surviving Orthodox church in Russia, was erected by Prince Vladimir Yaroslavovich of Novgorod at the behest of his father, Prince of Kiev Yaroslav the Wise. It took five years to build the temple: work was carried out from 1045 to 1050. It was consecrated by Bishop Luke (Luke Zhidyata), a Russian priest, whom Prince Yaroslav the Wise, despite the objections of the Constantinople clergy, elected the successor of Novgorod the Greek bishop Joachim.

Luke, who became the first bishop of Russian descent, is revered by the Russian Orthodox Church as a saint. He is also known for being the author of the first properly Russian work of spiritual literature "A Teaching to the Brethren", which is of significant historical and cultural interest.

For centuries, St. Sophia Cathedral was the spiritual center of the Novgorod Republic, a Russian medieval state that existed from 1136 to 1478.

In 1478 the Novgorod Republic became part of the Moscow state. Under the then reigning prince of Moscow Ivan III, St. Sophia Cathedral was established as one of the main temples of the united state. Since then, all Russian tsars considered it their duty to worship the relics of the temple, to leave here the memory of themselves and their deeds.

The surviving icons, precious utensils, embroidered covers, shroud, handwritten and early printed books carry the names of famous donors - kings and boyars, clergymen and secular patrons of the arts. All the great battles of the Russian army were accompanied by donations and contributions to St. Sophia Cathedral. But precious relics have often been destroyed over the centuries. The damage to the authenticity of the temple was done during the period of Peter the Great, when the ancient artistic heritage was vigorously supplanted by secular culture, and in the 19th century during synodal renovations.

St. Sophia Cathedral suffered the most in the 20th century. In 1922, during a campaign to confiscate religious values \u200b\u200bcarried out by the Soviet authorities, most of the church property was requisitioned, and in 1929 the authorities completely closed the church for services. It housed an anti-religious museum, where the treasures hidden in the sacristy of the cathedral were presented - this was supposed to denounce the church, demonstrating its "unrighteous" riches.

It should be said that St. Sophia Cathedral was not only a religious building. Its huge undergrounds contained the city treasury and numerous treasures not only of religious origin. Actually, the decision to create a museum, made thanks to the efforts of the Society of Antiquity Lovers, whose members were members of the commission for the confiscation of valuables, made it possible to preserve and leave in the cathedral historical relics.

During the Great Patriotic War, the temple was plundered by the invaders, the building was damaged by shelling and bombing. After the war, the building was restored and included in the Novgorod Museum-Reserve.

In 1991, St. Sophia Cathedral was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch of All Russia Alexy II consecrated the temple on August 16 of the same year. Today it has the status of the Cathedral of the Novgorod Metropolitanate.

Architecture

The first stone in the foundation of the Novgorod Sophia Cathedral was laid on May 21 (June 3), 1045, on the Day of Saints Equal to the Apostles Constantine and Helena. According to legends, on this day the wooden church of Sophia “about thirteen chapters” burned down (“ascended”) - the first temple of the Wisdom of God in the Slavic lands. Other sources claim that the church burned down in the year the new temple was completed, but there is no exact confirmation of both versions.

By this time, St. Sophia Cathedral, built in the Byzantine style, was already rising in Kiev. It may seem that the temple in Novgorod in many ways repeats the Kiev model. This is partly true: after all, in the first half of the 11th century, the traditions of building structures from stone had not yet developed. Probably, Prince Vladimir Yaroslavich invited the master masons from Kiev or even from Constantinople itself.

Building materials and techniques of mixed masonry made of stone and plinths are practically similar to those of Kiev structures. The masonry is fastened with cementia - pink lime mortar mixed with crushed brick.

Both churches are five-nave, with galleries and stair towers, extensive choirs. However, the traditional cross-domed system in the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral was supplemented by side-chapels, the basis of which was the three already existing small chapels. The architects combined them into a single temple complex, connecting them with additional galleries.

These architectural volumes have become a distinctive feature of the appearance of Sofia Novgorodskaya. They determined the height of the vaults of the temple core, the method of overlapping the roof. The need to link the levels of all buildings, combined into one building, led to the addition of walls, the construction of supporting arches (akbutans). The forced increase in the height of the choirs, under-dome spaces and other volumes of the cathedral was not canonical for Byzantine and Kiev church architecture. These proportions elongated in height later became a distinctive feature of the actual Novgorod temple architecture.

The inner walls of St. Sophia Cathedral are filled with voices - specially made ceramic vessels. Their location is carefully thought out. The holes of most of the voices are directed to the outer space, but some vessels are turned inward with their necks. Thanks to this alternation, the large volume of the temple provides excellent acoustics, while excluding echo. The voices have another purpose: the spherical shape gives the vessels special strength, and since they are hollow, the weight of the dome is significantly reduced. Accordingly, the load of the massive structure on the support drum, bearing arches and brick vaults is reduced.

The temple has five domes, the sixth is crowned by the staircase tower, which is located in the western gallery to the south of the entrance. They are made in a shape reminiscent of ancient Russian helmets. From the cross of the middle dome, first gilded back in the 15th century, a lead dove has been looking at the city for almost a millennium. According to legend, having sat down to rest on a towering cross, the bird saw the torment of the Novgorodians, to which Ivan the Terrible had doomed them, having sent his guardsmen here. The dove was petrified with horror. According to legend, Novgorod will continue to exist until its winged symbol flies away.

The belfry of St. Sophia Cathedral was built in the 17th century. You can climb it and observe the picturesque surroundings from a height. Exhibitions of bells are periodically held here.

Murals of St. Sophia Cathedral

Probably, Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod began to paint immediately after the completion of construction. But only fragments of the frescoes of the central dome, which depict the figures of the prophets and archangels, remained from the original painting. The image of Christ Pantokrator, which was located in the center of the painting, was destroyed as a result of a direct hit into the temple of a shell during the Great Patriotic War.

In addition, in the Martyrievskaya porch, under later paintings, restorers managed to find an ancient wall image of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helena. There is an opinion that this fresco was supposed to become the basis for the mosaic, as it was made in roughly diluted paints.

The painting of St. Sophia Cathedral presented today mainly refers to the end of the 19th century.

Relics

The temple is famous for its iconostases. The main one is decorated with icons of the 15th-16th centuries, among them - Sophia, the Wisdom of God (15th century). It stands out for mystical symbolism: the image is dominated by scarlet tones - Wisdom in the Novgorod version has a red color, meaning the sacrifice of Christ.

On the Christmas iconostasis there is the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God (16th century). It sanctified the conclusion of the Stolbovsky Peace Treaty, which put an end to the Russian-Swedish war of 1614-1617. It is framed in a robe made by order of Princess Sophia. On the same iconostasis there is an image of the Savior on the Throne of the 14th century, as well as images of the 16th-19th centuries.

The primary shrine of the Sophia Cathedral is the icon of the Mother of God "The Sign", which is especially revered in the Orthodox world. The Mother of God is depicted on it with arms outstretched to the sides, palms outward, that is, in the traditional gesture denoting intercessory prayer. This iconographic type of the image of the Mother of God is called Oranta. According to legend, the icon saved the inhabitants of Novgorod from the siege of the Suzdal prince Andrei Bogolyubsky in 1170.

The western facade of the Sophia Cathedral is decorated with the Magdeburg gates, which are also called Korsun, Plock, Sigtun gates. They are made of bronze, in the Romanesque style, and covered with numerous high reliefs and sculptures depicting scenes from the Gospel. For many centuries, the gates served as the main entrance to the temple. Today they are open only on holidays, during the hours of the service conducted by the Archbishop of Novgorod and Old Russian.

According to one of the versions, which most liked the residents of Novgorod, the gate was made in 1153 in Magdeburg, and is a trophy of Novgorodians who went on a military campaign to the Swedish capital Sigtuna in 1187. The beauty of the gate, skillfully created by Western European craftsmen, was written about legends. According to one of the legends, in the 17th century, when Novgorod was occupied by the troops of the Swedish king, the monarch ordered to deliver the relic lost five centuries ago to his homeland. Fortunately, the Swedes were unable to remove the massive gates from the main Novgorod church.

The main cross of St. Sophia Cathedral has also become a legend. On July 5, 1942, Soviet troops fired at the German commandant's office, located on the territory of the Novgorod Kremlin. Five of the 80 shells fired caused significant damage to the temple. The dome was significantly damaged by the explosions. The Germans used its gold plating as souvenirs, which were sent home in the form of plates, snuff boxes and other soldiers' crafts. The cross hanging on the chains along with the guardian dove went to the allies of the Germans - the Spaniards: the staff of the engineering corps of their "Blue Division" was based in the city. The temple relic was taken to Spain as a trophy, and until the beginning of this century it was in Madrid. The chapel of the Military Engineering Academy Museum became her temporary shelter.

Since the early 2000s, negotiations have been going on between Russia and Spain regarding the return of the cross to their homeland. As a result of the conversation between the Russian President and the King of Spain, the Spaniards agreed to return the relic. An exact copy of it remained in Madrid.

In Moscow, before the reign of Ivan Kalita, the main temple was the Dmitrov Cathedral, dedicated to the holy warrior Dimitri of Thessaloniki, the patron saint of the defenders of the Fatherland and the heavenly patron of the Vladimir prince Vsevolod the Big Nest. Perhaps this temple was a replica of the Dmitrov Cathedral in the capital Vladimir, although this version is not shared by all scientists.

At the beginning of the 14th century, Russian metropolitans preferred to reside no longer in Kiev, but in Vladimir. However, the prince of Vladimir disliked the then metropolitan - Saint Peter. The saint, on the contrary, developed good relations with the prince of Moscow Ivan Kalita. And when Metropolitan Peter arrived in Moscow for the funeral of his elder brother Ivan Kalita, who was killed in the Horde, the prince invited him to stay in Moscow forever. The saint accepted the invitation in 1325. And his successors immediately came to live in Moscow, which thus became the de facto church capital of Russia.

Metropolitan Peter then persuaded the Moscow prince to build the Assumption Cathedral on the model of Vladimir's, wishing that the cathedral dedicated to the Mother of God would become the main temple in Moscow. In August 1326, the saint laid the foundation for the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin. Then it was a modest one-domed church, but with it Moscow appeared as the heiress of ancient Vladimir. The next year, after the foundation of the cathedral, Ivan Kalita received a label from the Mongol khan for the great reign, and Moscow became the Russian capital.

The Moscow Assumption Cathedral continued the tradition of the first Russian Sophia churches that stood in Kiev, Novgorod and Polotsk, which were already conceptualized in connection with the Most Holy Theotokos. According to the theological teaching about Hagia Sophia - the Wisdom of God (translated from the ancient Greek “sophia” means “wisdom”), God, creating man, already knew about his impending fall from sin. According to the Divine plan, Christ, the Savior of the human race, the incarnate Logos - the Word of God, had to come into the world to make the atoning sacrifice. The Most Holy Theotokos is the Mother of Christ, and therefore the Mother of the whole Church - the mystical body of Christ. On the feast of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos, the commencement of her glorification as the Queen of Heaven is commemorated, when the Divine plan for the salvation of man is fully accomplished.

The Byzantine tradition identified Sophia not with the Mother of God, but with Jesus Christ Himself. And St. Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople was dedicated to Christ. Since the main Christian temple and the prototype of all Christian churches - the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord in Jerusalem, was erected on the site of the historical events of the Savior's earthly life, it could not be repeated. That is why they turned to theological interpretation. So in the VI century, the world's first temple of Hagia Sophia appeared in Constantinople as a symbol of the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection of the Lord.

In Russia, a different, Mother of God, interpretation of Saint Sophia has developed. If the Byzantine tradition identified Saint Sophia with the Logos-Christ, then in Russia the image of Sophia began to be perceived in connection with the Mother of God, through whom the Divine plan for the Savior was realized. In Russia, there were two patronal feasts of Saint Sophia: in Kiev - August 15/28, on the feast of the Assumption of the Mother of God, and in Novgorod - on September 8/21, on the feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, when they honor the appearance in the world of the One who eventually became the Mother of Jesus Christ. The celebration of Hagia Sophia on the day of the Dormition glorifies the incarnated Wisdom of God through the full implementation of the Divine plan, when the Mother of God is glorified as the Queen of Heaven and as the Intercessor of the human race before the heavenly throne of Her Divine Son.

The construction of the Sophia temples proper was characteristic only of the early period of ancient Russian architecture of the X-XIII centuries. The capital cities Kiev and Novgorod imitated Byzantium in this. And then the tradition of building cathedrals dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos as the Russian image of St. Sophia took root. So the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin became Moscow's Sofia. At the same time, it was the theological and town-planning symbol of Sophia of Constantinople, reinterpreted in the Russian tradition, since Moscow - the Third Rome - was guided by the symbolism of the Second Rome. Moscow saw itself as the home of the Most Pure Mother of God with Her main palace - the Assumption Cathedral.

"We see heaven!"

In 1329, his successor, Metropolitan Theognost, built a chapel in the Assumption Cathedral in honor of the Adoration of the Honest Chains of the Apostle Peter - after the namesake of the deceased saint. In 1459, Saint Jonah erected in the Assumption Cathedral a chapel in honor of the Praise of the Mother of God - in gratitude for the victory over the Tatar Khan Sedi-Akhmat. Thus, a throne appeared at the main temple of Russia in honor of the holiday that began the history of Moscow, for the legendary meeting of the allied princes Yuri Dolgoruky and Svyatoslav Olgovich on April 4, 1147 took place on the eve of the Praise. And in memory of the former cathedral church of Moscow in the Assumption Cathedral, the Dmitrov side-chapel was consecrated. (All of these chapels were moved to a new temple built by Aristotle Fioravanti.)

Until the end of the XIV century, the main shrine of the Assumption Cathedral was the Peter's icon of the Mother of God, painted by St. Peter himself (now it is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery). And in 1395, the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was transferred to the Assumption Cathedral, saving Moscow from Tamerlane and becoming the main shrine of the Russian state for centuries.

In 1453 Constantinople fell, and Moscow became the historical and spiritual heir to Byzantium. The Tatar-Mongol yoke was drawing to a close. Ivan III, having united the appanage Russian principalities into a single state under the rule of Moscow, decided to erect a new Cathedral of the Dormition on the model of Vladimir's, which was to symbolize the victory of Moscow.

At first, no one was going to turn to Italian craftsmen. It was proposed to build the cathedral to the architect Vasily Yermolin, the first Russian architect, whose name has been preserved by history. But he refused because of the "offensive" condition - to work together with another master, Ivan Golova-Khovrin, and the work was entrusted to the Pskov architects Krivtsov and Myshkin, since Pskov suffered the least from the Horde yoke and experienced craftsmen remained in it.

While the new church was being erected, a wooden church was erected next to it, so as not to stop the services. It was there that on November 12, 1472, Ivan III married the Byzantine princess Sophia Palaeologus. Soon after this wedding, a catastrophe struck: in May 1474, the almost erected Assumption Cathedral collapsed. On the advice of his wife, who had lived in Italy before the wedding, Ivan III sent his ambassador there, Semyon Tolbuzin, with an assignment to find a knowledgeable master, for the Italians were the best builders in Europe. Tolbuzin invited Aristotle Fioravanti.

A native of Bologna, he was said to have earned his nickname for his wisdom and skill. He knew how to move buildings, straighten bell towers, and he was considered an architect "who has no equal in the whole world", which did not prevent him from accusing him (in vain, as it turned out) of selling counterfeit coins. Offended by his compatriots, Fioravanti agreed to the proposal of the Russian ambassador to go to Muscovy. There is a version that the architect immediately offered the Moscow prince the already drawn up project of the Assumption Cathedral, but at the insistence of the Metropolitan, he nevertheless went to Vladimir to study Russian samples. He was given conditions - to create a cathedral exclusively in Russian temple traditions and using the most advanced technology, and most importantly, to solve the problem that the Pskov masters could not cope with - to increase the interior space of the Assumption Cathedral several times compared to the previous temple from the time of Ivan Kalita.

The new Assumption Cathedral was founded in 1475. According to legend, the architect built a deep crypt under it, where the famous Liberia, brought to Moscow by Sophia Palaeologus, was laid (it will go down in history as the library of Ivan the Terrible). Three temple side-chapels are located in the altar part, having preserved their dedications (only under Peter I, the Petroverig side-altar was rededicated in the name of the apostles Peter and Paul). In the Dmitrovsky side-altar, the Russian tsars disguised themselves during the wedding to the throne. And in the chapel of the Praise of the Mother of God, Russian metropolitans and patriarchs were elected. In the second half of the 17th century, the Pokhvalsky side-altar was moved to the very top, to the southeastern head of the Assumption Cathedral, a spiral staircase from the altar was led to it and served there only on the patronal feast day.

The solemn consecration of the Assumption Cathedral took place in August 1479. The next year, Russia freed itself from the Tatar-Mongol yoke. This era was partly reflected in the architecture of the Assumption Cathedral, which became a symbol of the Third Rome. Its five powerful chapters, symbolizing Christ surrounded by the four evangelical apostles, are notable for their helmet-like shape. The poppy, that is, the top of the temple head, symbolizes the flame - a burning candle and fiery heavenly forces. During the period of the Tatar yoke, the makovitsa becomes similar to a military helmet. This is just a slightly different image of fire, since the Russian soldiers revered the heavenly army as their patrons - the angelic forces under the leadership of the Archangel Michael. The helmet of a warrior, on which the image of the Archangel Michael was often placed, and the helmet-poppy of the Russian temple merged into a single image.

In ancient times, Greek four-pointed crosses were installed on Orthodox churches: the connection of the four ends in a single center symbolized that the height, depth, longitude and breadth of the world are contained by God's power. Then the Russian eight-pointed cross appeared, which had the prototype of the Cross of the Lord. According to legend, Ivan the Terrible hoisted the first eight-pointed cross on the central head of the Assumption Cathedral. Since then, this type of cross has been accepted by the Church everywhere for installation on temple heads.

The famous Korsun Gates are installed in the southern portal of the cathedral. There was a legend that they were brought from Korsun (Sevastopol) by the holy prince Vladimir. In fact, the gates were made in the 16th century, and the plots embossed on them are dedicated to the birth of the Savior into the world as the embodiment of Divine Wisdom. That is why among the depicted characters are the Mother of God, biblical prophets, ancient sibyls and pagan sages who predicted the Nativity of the Savior from the Virgin. The gate is overshadowed by the Savior Not Made by Hands, revered as the city's defender.

The southern portal was the royal entrance to the Assumption Cathedral, it was called the "red doors". After the coronation, the sovereigns were traditionally showered with gold coins here - as a token of the well-being and wealth of his state. The western facade served for solemn processions during coronations and processions of the cross. Previously, he was overshadowed by the image of the Assumption of the Mother of God in accordance with the temple dedication. And the gates of the northern facade, facing the patriarchal chambers, served as an entrance for the higher clergy, since it was the closest to the metropolitan's court. In the northwest corner there is a small white-stone cross: this is how the place inside the cathedral is marked where St. Jonah is buried - the first Russian metropolitan, installed in Moscow by a cathedral of Russian bishops without the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The interior of the cathedral echoes the general idea. The first painting was completed as soon as the walls dried up, in 1481 by the great icon painter Dionysius. She was so beautiful that when the sovereign with the metropolitan and boyars examined the cathedral, they exclaimed "We see heaven!" However, the cathedral had no heating for a long time, sudden changes in temperature damaged the painting, and in 1642 it was painted again: it is believed that the old frescoes were transferred to paper, and the painting was created anew on them. It is interesting that together with the boyar Repnin, the work was supervised by the steward Grigory Gavrilovich Pushkin, the poet's ancestor. The painting of the cathedral partly captures its era. In the southwestern dome, the God of hosts is depicted in an eight-pointed halo, while only seven ends of the halo are visible. After all, the earthly history of mankind will last seven conditional millennia from the creation of the world. The millennium was symbolically identified with the “century”. And the seven visible ends mean that God is the ruler of all "seven centuries" of earthly history, and the invisible eighth end symbolizes the "eighth century" - "the life of the age to come" in the eternal Kingdom of God. This topic was very important in Russia at the end of the 15th century, when the expiration of the fatal seventh thousand years and the end of the world in 1492 were expected.

Most of the southern and northern walls are occupied by the Theotokos cycles - images dedicated to the earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos and images on the theme of the Akathist of the Mother of God, where the Queen of Heaven is glorified as the Intercessor of the human race. The lower tier of the walls depicts seven Ecumenical Councils. The western wall is canonically given to the image of the Last Judgment, and heretic foreigners in European costumes with white round collars are also depicted as sinners.

The Assumption Cathedral was a symbol of the unity of Russia, rallied around capital Moscow. In the local rank of the iconostasis there were icons brought from the appanage principalities, and the most revered images.

The iconostasis that is now in the cathedral was created in 1653 at the behest of Patriarch Nikon and captured the innovations of his era. In the most honorable place, to the right of the royal gates, where the image of the Lord Jesus Christ is always located, there is the ancient icon of the Savior Golden Robe, also known as the Savior of Emperor Manuel. Perhaps even Ivan III took it from the Novgorod church of St. Sophia, but it is more likely that the icon was brought to Moscow by Ivan the Terrible after the campaign against Novgorod in 1570. The name "Golden Robe" comes from a huge gilded frame that previously covered the image of the Savior. In the 17th century, the tsarist master Kirill Ulanov, restoring the image, carefully painted the golden robe of Christ, trying to restore the ancient iconography. According to legend, this image was painted by the Byzantine emperor Manuel. The Savior was depicted according to the canon - blessing, with his right hand raised. But one day the emperor unleashed his anger on the priest. And then in a dream the Lord appeared to him, pointing down with his fingers, as a warning about the humility of pride. Waking up, the shocked emperor saw that the Savior on his icon really lowered his right hand down. Then the emperor allegedly presented the image to the Novgorodians. Patriarch Nikon deliberately placed this particular icon in the most honorable place in order to confirm his doctrine of the superiority of spiritual power over secular power.

The temple image of the Dormition was painted by Dionysius, although earlier his authorship was attributed to Saint Peter. This is an iconographic type of "cloudy Assumption": here the apostles are miraculously depicted being carried on the clouds to the bed of the Most Holy Theotokos, when She wished to see them all before leaving the world. Behind the southern door is the icon "The Queen is Present", also taken out of Novgorod. According to legend, it was painted by Alipy, the first famous Russian icon painter, a monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. The Lord is depicted in the vestments of a priest, at the same time reminiscent of the robes of the emperor, which symbolizes the fusion in Christ of spiritual and secular power and a symphony of the Church and the state. Above the extreme right door leading to the Pohvalsky side-altar, there is the famous "Savior of the Hot Eye", painted by a Greek artist in the 1340s for the old Assumption Cathedral of the time of Ivan Kalita.

The image to the left of the royal doors is the second place of honor in the iconostasis, where the image of the Mother of God is traditionally placed. It was here that from 1395 until the October Revolution the miraculous Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God stood, which always chose its place of residence. In the terrible Moscow fire of 1547, only the Assumption Cathedral, in which the shrine was located, remained unharmed. Metropolitan Macarius, having served a prayer service, choking in the smoke, wanted to take the icon out of the fire, but they could not move it. Now it is in the Zamoskvorechensk Church of Nicholas the Wonderworker in Tolmachi - the home church of the Tretyakov Gallery, and in the Assumption Cathedral its place was taken by a copy (copy) performed by a student of Dionysius in 1514. Above the northern doors of the iconostasis is another image of the Dormition of the Mother of God, written, according to one legend, on a board from the font where the Most Holy Theotokos was baptized, and in another - on a board from the tomb of St. Alexis of Moscow. From time to time the board has cracked and bent, that's why the icon is called "Bent".

The leading row in the iconostasis is the Deesis order. Here, according to the tradition introduced by Patriarch Nikon, all 12 apostles are depicted as standing before the Lord - the so-called "apostolic deesis". Previously, in the Deesis order, only the two chief apostles, Peter and Paul, were depicted, followed by the images of the Church Fathers. The central icon - "The Savior in Strength" is also unusual. On it, silver halos mark the symbolic images of the four apostles-evangelists: a man (Matthew), an eagle (John the Theologian), a lion (Mark) and a calf (Luke). The symbols were borrowed from the Revelation of John the Theologian: “And in the middle of the throne and around the throne are four animals, full of eyes in front and behind. And the first animal was like a lion, and the second animal was like a calf, and the third animal had a face like a man, and the fourth animal was like a flying eagle ”(Rev. 4: 6-7). According to the church interpretation, these apocalyptic animals personify the "created world" - the universe with four cardinal points. In Christian iconography, they were symbolically identified with the four apostles-evangelists who preached the Good News to the four cardinal directions, that is, all over the world.

Equally symbolic images are presented along the walls and in the glazed windows of the cathedral.

On the southern wall is a huge icon of Metropolitan Peter with his life, painted by Dionysius. The Moscow saint is depicted in a white klobuk, which was worn only by Novgorod bishops, while all other bishops had to wear a black klobuk. According to legend, the Byzantine emperor Constantine the Great sent a white cowl to Pope Sylvester at a time when Rome had not yet fallen away from Orthodoxy. After the division of 1054, the angel ordered the Pope to return the white hood to Constantinople, the capital of Orthodoxy, and from there it was allegedly transferred to Novgorod, to the temple of St. Sophia. After Moscow conquered Novgorod, the white hood began to signify the greatness of the Third Rome.

At the southern wall in the showcase is the famous image of the Savior of the Golden Hair from the early 13th century: the Savior's hair is painted in gold as a symbol of Divine light. Here you can also see the ancient icon "The Appearance of the Archangel Michael to Joshua", according to legend, written for Prince Mikhail Khorobrit, brother of St. Alexander Nevsky, who probably founded the Archangel Cathedral in the Kremlin in honor of his name days. On the northern wall of the Assumption Cathedral there is an unusual icon of the Old Testament Trinity. The table depicts not only bread and grapes - symbols of the Holy Communion, but also a radish, probably symbolizing an ascetic, fasting way of life. The most remarkable icon in the northern showcase is the Savior of the Unsleeping Eye. The young Christ is depicted reclining on a bed with an open eye - as a sign of the Lord's vigilant concern for people. On the western wall, there is a spare Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God of the early 15th century: it was worn on religious processions in bad weather in order to protect the original. It is unusual in that the gaze of the Mother of God is not turned to the prayer.

In the Assumption Cathedral, the greatest shrines that were in Russia were kept: the robe of the Lord - a particle of Jesus Christ's clothing and a genuine nail of the Lord, one of those that pierced the hands and feet of the Savior on the cross. Both shrines were brought to Moscow from Georgia in the 17th century. According to legend, the robe of the Lord was brought to Georgia by one soldier who was present at the crucifixion of Christ. There it was kept until 1625, when the Persian Shah Abass, who conquered Georgia, sent the robe as a gift to Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, and with a warning: if the weak touches the shrine with faith, God has mercy, and if without faith, he will go blind. The Lord's Robe was met in Moscow at the Donskoy Monastery outside the Kaluga Gate and its authenticity was "checked": by order of Patriarch Filaret, a week-long fast was set with prayers, and then the robe was placed on the seriously ill, and they all received healing. And then the Lord's robe was brought to the Assumption Cathedral and placed in a copper openwork tent, symbolizing Golgotha, which now overshadows the tomb of the holy Patriarch Hermogenes.

At the end of the 17th century, the nail of the Lord was laid in the altar of the Assumption Cathedral, one of those that the Byzantine queen Helen found on Mount Golgotha. Her son Emperor Constantine presented this nail to the Georgian king Miriam, who was baptized. And when in 1688 the Georgian king Archil moved to Moscow, he took the shrine with him. After his death, the nail was sent to Georgia, but Peter I ordered to stop the procession with the shrine and hand it over to the Assumption Cathedral. According to legend, the nail of the Lord keeps the place where it is.

And there were also relics from the Holy Land in the Assumption Cathedral. Boyarin Tatishchev, the ancestor of the famous historian, handed over to the cathedral a particle of stone from Golgotha, stained with the blood of the Lord, and a stone from the tomb of the Mother of God. Prince Vasily Golitsyn presented part of the robe of the Most Holy Theotokos, which he had brought from the Crimean campaign. Mikhail Fedorovich was sent as a gift the right hand of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. His fingers were folded into the three-fingered sign of the cross, which later made it possible to expose the schismatics-Old Believers.

In the sacristy was kept "August crab" - a jasper vessel, according to legend, belonged to the Roman emperor Augustus Octavian. According to another legend, this crab was sent by the Byzantine emperor Alexei Komnin to the Kiev prince Vladimir Monomakh along with the royal regalia, crown and barmas. From the crab, Russian monarchs were anointed with holy myrrh in the sacrament of wedding to the throne. Until 1812, Constantine's pectoral cross, sent from Athos to Tsar Theodore Ioannovich, was also kept here. According to legend, it belonged to the Emperor Constantine the Great. In Moscow, according to tradition, this cross was released with the sovereign on military campaigns, and he saved the life of Peter I in the Battle of Poltava: a trace of a bullet remained on it, which was supposed to pierce the royal chest, but hit the cross. A relic was also a spoon made of "fish bone" - a walrus tusk, which belonged to St. Peter. In the cathedral there were also date branches braided with velvet and brocade. They were brought to Moscow from the Holy Land for the crowned persons to celebrate Palm Sunday with them.

Under the shadow of the Assumption Cathedral

The tradition of burying Russian archpastors in the Dormition Cathedral began with its founder, Metropolitan Peter. When his relics were transferred to the new cathedral, the saint performed his first posthumous miracle: he rose up in the grave and blessed the Muscovites. Now he rests in the altar part behind the iconostasis. Scientists believe that his tomb remained closed until the invasion of Khan Tokhtamysh in 1382, when he opened the saint's burial place in search of gold, and since then the saint's relics have rested openly for a long time. At the grave of Metropolitan Peter, appanage princes, boyars and all ranks swore allegiance to the sovereign. However, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the tomb was sealed again. According to legend, Saint Peter appeared in a dream to Queen Anastasia and commanded that she forbid opening his tomb and put her seal on it. Anastasia, fulfilling the manifested will, sealed the relics of Saint Peter, and the coffin remained hidden until 1812. According to custom, they lit pood wax candles in front of him.

In the southeastern corner, also hidden underneath, rest the relics of St. Philip (Kolychev), the martyr of the time of Ivan the Terrible, buried under Alexei Mikhailovich exactly in the place where he was seized by the guardsmen. The last patriarch of the Petrine era, Adrian, was buried at the western wall, the "confidant of the tsar" whom young Peter revered. Contemporaries said that it was no coincidence that the tsar founded a new Russian capital after the death of the patriarch. He would certainly have persuaded the sovereign not to create the main city of Russia without Moscow shrines.

The tsar's place reminds of the messianic idea of \u200b\u200bGod's chosen Moscow - the famous "Monomakh throne", placed by order of Ivan the Terrible at the southern doors near the tsar's entrance to the cathedral. This is a miniature symbol of the idea of \u200b\u200bMoscow - the Third Rome. According to legend, this throne was made during the time of Vladimir Monomakh, and he was on it during divine services in the Kiev church of St. Sophia. Andrei Bogolyubsky allegedly took the throne with him to Vladimir, and Ivan Kalita ordered to transfer it to Moscow. Scientists have established that the throne was made in 1551 by Novgorod masters in glorification of the first Russian tsar who had just been crowned to the throne. On its walls and doors, 12 bas-reliefs are carved, conveying scenes from the "Tale of the Princes of Vladimir" - a literary monument at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries, where it was argued that the Rurik dynasty comes from the family of the Roman emperor Augustus Octavian, during whose reign the Savior was born in Palestine. The central place is occupied by the narration of how the royal regalia were brought to Russia from Byzantium - a crown and barmas, as if sent by the emperor Constantine Monomakh to his grandson, the Kiev prince Vladimir Monomakh. (In fact, Konstantin Monomakh died when his grandson was about two years old, and the legend that the regalia was sent to Russia by another Byzantine emperor Alexei Komnin is closer to reality.) In any case, all this testified to the succession of Moscow power from the First and the Second Rome. The tent-roofed canopy of the throne, erected as a sign of the sacredness of the overshadowed place, resembles the shape of the cap of Monomakh. And the throne itself stands on four pillars in the form of fantastic beasts of prey, symbolizing state power and its strength. In 1724, they wanted to take the Monomakh throne out of the Assumption Cathedral, but Peter I did not allow: "I respect this place more precious than a golden place for its antiquity, and because all the sovereign ancestors - Russian sovereigns stood on it."

The place for the queens at the left pillar was transferred under Alexei Mikhailovich from the palace church of the Nativity of the Virgin on Seny. Then the icons of the Nativity of the Mother of God, the Nativity of Christ and the Nativity of John the Baptist were placed above it, in commemoration of the prayer for the continuation of the royal family. And at the right southeast pillar there is a patriarchal seat. Near the patriarchal place stood the staff of St. Peter. It was awarded to all archpastors who were assigned to the metropolitan and then to the patriarchal see. In 1722, when the patriarchate was abolished, the staff was removed. Due to its venerable age, it needs museum storage conditions and is now in the Armory.

The main celebration that took place under the arches of the Assumption Cathedral was the wedding of the Russian sovereigns to the kingdom. The "planting" of the first Moscow princes and Ivan Kalita himself on the throne took place in the Assumption Cathedral in the city of Vladimir. There is evidence that Vasily II was the first to change this tradition during the Tatar-Mongol yoke. In 1432 he was solemnly "seated on the throne" at the doors of the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral by the Horde prince Mansyr-Ulan, and then entered the cathedral, where the Moscow clergy offered prayers for him. Ivan the Terrible was the first to be crowned on the throne by the sacrament of the Church, and the holy Metropolitan Macarius presented him with a cross and a crown as signs of the royal dignity.

Here, in the Assumption Cathedral, in February 1613, the first Romanov was publicly proclaimed tsar. According to legend, the young man, having come to the Assumption Cathedral for the wedding, stopped on the porch, shedding tears before accepting the burden of power, and the people kissed the hem of his clothes, begging him to ascend the throne. In 1724, Peter crowned his second wife Martha Skavronskaya, the future Empress Catherine I. Now, scientists believe that he was going to transfer the throne to her, for which he arranged this coronation. After all, the sovereign canceled the previous order of succession to the throne, and did not manage to draw up a will, but, apparently, chose his wife as his successor.

Sometimes monarchs intervened in the coronation ceremony. Anna Ioannovna, for example, demanded a European crown and ermine mantle. Catherine II laid the crown on herself. Paul I was crowned in a military uniform. For the sovereigns, a throne was placed in the Assumption Cathedral for coronation, but all of them, according to tradition, necessarily ascended the Monomakh throne.

The last coronation celebrations in the Assumption Cathedral took place on May 14, 1896. Tsar Nicholas II wore the uniform of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna - in a brocade dress embroidered by the nuns of the Moscow Ioannovsky Monastery. It is amazing that the last Romanov wished to be crowned on the throne of Mikhail Fedorovich - the first Romanov, and for the empress he ordered to put the throne, which, according to legend, belonged to Ivan III - the same one that Sofia Paleologue brought as a gift to her husband.

In the Assumption Cathedral, weddings of sovereigns were also performed. Vasily III got married here with Elena Glinskaya, Ivan the Terrible - with Anastasia Romanova. The pious Alexei Mikhailovich began to baptize his children here. (The heir to the throne was first announced in the Assumption Cathedral, too, when he was 10 years old.) And Empress Catherine II adopted Orthodoxy in the Assumption Cathedral in June 1744: the young Princess Fike was named Ekaterina Alekseevna and the next day she became betrothed here to the future Tsar Peter III.

Many great celebrations were celebrated under the arches of the cathedral: the fall of the Horde yoke, the conquest of Kazan, victories in the Northern War and over Turkey.

In the terrible July 1812, Emperor Alexander I, venerating the relics of the saints in the Assumption Cathedral, vowed here to repel Napoleon. The enemy briefly entered the Kremlin walls. Then, in search of treasures, they opened the shrine of St. Peter, sealed by Queen Anastasia. Since then, it was no longer closed until the revolution itself - "for the glory of a shrine untouched by wickedness." They also opened the shrine of St. Philip. Thus was fulfilled the prediction of Metropolitan Platon, who held the cathedra at the time of Catherine II, that the relics of Saint Philip would appear when the enemies took Moscow. Only the silver shrine with the relics of St. Jonah remained intact. According to legend, the French tried to open it several times, but each time they fell into indescribable fear. Napoleon allegedly found out about this and personally went to the cathedral, but he was seized with such horror that, shuddering, he ran out of the cathedral, ordered him to be locked and sent a sentry to guard the doors. Another legend says that, upon opening the shrine of Metropolitan Jonah, the invaders saw the saint's finger threatening them. This frightened Napoleon, and he ordered not to touch this tomb. Leaving the Kremlin, Napoleon nevertheless ordered to blow up the Cathedral of the Dormition, but the burning wicks were extinguished by the wonderfully pouring rain. In the same October, returning to Moscow with the shrines, Archbishop Augustine entered the cathedral through the "bishop's" northern doors. Then they feared the last enemy intrigue, whether a mine was laid in these doors, which should explode when the doors were opened. But the archbishop sang the psalm "May God rise and be scattered about him," and calmly entered the church.

After the victory, the Assumption Cathedral was decorated with a giant chandelier "Harvest", cast from trophy silver captured in Moscow by Napoleon's hordes and recaptured by the Cossacks. Its secular name is full of religious meaning: a sheaf of wheat ears is wrapped in garlands of grapes - these are symbols of the Holy Communion. On April 23, 1814, a "song of praise to the Lord" was sung in the Assumption Cathedral in honor of the capture of Paris and the overthrow of Napoleon.

And further, under the arches of the Assumption Cathedral, another significant historical event took place. His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin once presented to this temple a tabernacle in the form of the sacred Mount Sinai. At the foot of the ark, the most important state documents were kept in the altar, such as the letter of election to the throne of Mikhail Romanov, the order of Catherine II for the Legislative Commission and the act of Paul I on succession to the throne. One of the documents was an act of abdication from the throne of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, brother of Alexander I. In 1822, he renounced the throne for a love marriage. Alexander I bequeathed the throne to his younger brother Nicholas, about which he also drew up a corresponding act and placed it in the Assumption Cathedral. All this was kept in strict secrecy. Therefore, after the sudden death of Tsar Alexander I in November 1825, the oath was given to Konstantin Pavlovich. When he refused a second time, it was necessary to again swear allegiance to another sovereign - Nicholas I. This, as is known, was the reason for the Decembrist uprising. And on December 18 of the same year, in the Assumption Cathedral in the presence of members of the Senate, military officials and ordinary Muscovites, Archbishop Philaret, the future Metropolitan of Moscow, took from the altar the will of Alexander I on the transfer of the throne to Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich and read it out. After reading the document, Muscovites began to take the oath of allegiance to the lawful Emperor Nicholas I.

Here, in the Assumption Cathedral in February 1903, the act of excommunication of Leo Tolstoy from the Church was read. That is why Lenin wanted to erect a monument to the writer not just anywhere, but in the Kremlin.

After the Bolshevik government moved to Moscow in March 1918, services in all Kremlin cathedrals were banned, but with Lenin's special permission, a service was still held at Easter in the Assumption Cathedral. It was headed by Bishop Tryphon of Dmitrov (Turkestanov), and the moment of the end of this Easter Liturgy became the plot of Pavel Korin's unfinished painting "Departing Russia". Lenin himself went out to see the procession and dropped to one of his comrades-in-arms: "They are walking for the last time!" This was by no means a demonstration of the religious tolerance of the Soviet regime, but a rather cynical step. Lenin gave permission for the last Easter service in the Kremlin to stop the spread of rumors that the Bolsheviks desecrate, destroy and sell abroad Orthodox Russian shrines. And that was just around the corner. The sacristy of the cathedral paid the indemnity for the Brest Peace, and the value of the thing was determined not by its value, but by its weight. In 1922, 65 poods of silver were seized from the Assumption Cathedral. Many icons ended up in the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Armory.

There is a legend that in the winter of 1941, when the Nazis were standing near Moscow, Stalin ordered to secretly serve in the Assumption Cathedral a prayer service to save the country from the invasion of aliens.

Since the 1990s, services have been regularly held in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

Novgorod Saint Sophia Cathedral - one of the most outstanding monuments of ancient Russian architecture. This is the oldest surviving ancient Russian temple in Russia. Built by Prince Vladimir, the son of Yaroslav the Wise, in 1045 - 1050, St. Sophia Cathedral already in the 30s of the XII century ceased to be a princely temple, turning into the main temple of the Novgorod Republic. Up to this day, Novgorod Sofia is a symbol of the city, and the words spoken by Mstislav the Great in the distant XII century: "Where St. Sophia is, there is Novgorod", still excite the hearts of the townspeople.

Sophia Cathedral is a five-nave, three-apse, ten-pillar temple. On three sides (except for the east) wide two-story galleries adjoin it. The cathedral has five chapters, the sixth is crowned by the staircase tower located in the western gallery to the south of the entrance. The domes of the heads are made in the form of ancient Russian helmets.

Saint Sophia Cathedral. 2011.

The main volume of the cathedral (without galleries) is 27 m long and 24.8 m wide; together with the galleries, the length is 34.5 m, the width is 39.3 m. The height from the level of the ancient floor, which is 2 meters lower than the modern one, to the top of the cross of the central chapter is 38 m. The walls of the temple, 1.2 m thick, are made of limestone of different shades. The stones are not finished (only the side facing the surface of the walls is undercut) and fastened with a lime mortar with admixtures of crushed bricks (cementum). Arches, arch lintels and vaults are made of bricks. The interior is close to the Kiev church, although the proportions of vertically elongated arches and narrow vertical compartments between the pillars are noticeably different. Thanks to this, the interior has a different character. Some details were simplified: triple arcades were replaced by two-span arches (later their lower tiers were replaced by wide arches). The cathedral itself has not been rebuilt during its ten-century history. It was being repaired after fires and wars, which could not hurt it much. The walls of Sofia were covered with plaster, and the domes - with lead, the main dome was gilded in the 15th century under Archbishop Ivan Kalik.

The first churches, apparently, appeared in Novgorod immediately after the adoption of Christianity at the turn of the 10th - 11th centuries. One of the first temples in the city was the Church of St. Sophia, which is often called the predecessor of the stone Sophia Cathedral. Historians will argue about whether this wooden church actually existed until researchers manage to find its remains during archaeological excavations. In the oldest surviving chronicle - the Novgorod First Chronicle, it is reported only that in 1049 the church burned down. “In the month of March at 4, on Saturday, Saint Sophia will burn; the beasha is honestly built and decorated, 13 the upper ruling property, and that stood St. Sophia at the end of Piskuple Street, where now the Sotka church was built to the stone of St. Boris and Gleb over Volkhov. " Some researchers consider this record to be a fiction of the chronicler, since there is no other information about the wooden Sophia. However, the old church is described in too much detail, and its location is precisely indicated.

The construction of the first stone cathedral of Veliky Novgorod began in 1045 and continued either until 1050 or until 1052 (according to various sources). Initially, the walls of the temple were not whitewashed, except for the curved apses and drums covered with a layer of cementum. The inner sides of the walls were also exposed, while the vaults were originally plastered with cement and covered with frescoes. This design was chosen under the influence of the architecture of Constantinople, in which marble wall cladding was combined with mosaics on the vaults; however, marble was replaced by limestone and mosaics by frescoes.

The Novgorod Sophia Cathedral was built by masters from Kiev and Byzantium. You can imagine how the almost 40-meter stone church, erected in just a few years, influenced the Novgorodians of the mid-11th century: surrounded by the very first oak walls of the Kremlin, among the wooden houses and courtyards of a very young city, on the banks of the Volkhov River, which was then part of a lively trading route.

The dedication of the Cathedral of Sophia is actually a dedication to God, which refers to Sophia of Constantinople, and even more ancient - to the temple of wisdom, built by Solomon.

As a result of research under the leadership of Gregory Shtender, it was established that initially the galleries of the Sophia Cathedral were built open in the image of the Kiev and Constantinople churches. Having already begun work on the construction, the architects decided to change the project and close the galleries due to the peculiarities of the colder Novgorod climate.

The first painting of the temple began immediately after its construction in the middle of the 11th century. The few frescoes from that period that have survived to this day include “ Constantine and Elena", Obviously written by Byzantine masters. The main work on the painting of St. Sophia Cathedral was carried out in the XII century, in 1108-1109 and 1144. Thanks to the small weakness of the masters who left several of their autographs as a souvenir, and also thanks to the happy occasion that allowed the ancient frescoes to relive all the vicissitudes of Novgorod's history for nine centuries, we know that one of the masters who painted St. Sophia Cathedral in the XII century was called Stephen. He was apparently a master monk in charge of the work. In one of the graffiti, Stefan even depicted himself with a pectoral cross in a monastic hood. There are other names of painters on the walls of the cathedral - Mikula and Radko.

One of the true treasures of St. Sophia Cathedral is the oldest surviving manuscript book in Russia - Ostromir Gospel... The book was produced in 1056-1057 and was used for divine services in Sofia. At the moment, the Gospel is kept in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg.

The main Orthodox shrine of St. Sophia Cathedral is the icon The Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos (Our Lady of the Sign) is one of the most revered Orthodox icons. According to legend, she saved Novgorod from the siege of the Suzdal prince Andrei Bogolyubsky in 1170. The forces of Novgorod and Suzdal were unequal, and the defenders of the city began to pray for a miracle. On the third night of the siege, Archbishop John of Novgorod heard a voice from above, commanding him to take the icon of the Mother of God and go with it around Detinets in a procession of the cross. When the Suzdal people began to fire at the procession, one of the arrows hit the Mother of God in the eye. According to legend, tears flowed from her eyes, and darkness covered the Suzdal people. In inexplicable terror, they began to retreat from the city, beating each other. In honor of the icon that gave peace to the Novgorodians, Archbishop Ilya established the feast of the Sign of the Mother of God, which is celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Church on December 10 (November 27).

Another pearl of Novgorod Sofia deserves special attention - Magdeburg Gate, which are also called Korsun, Plock or Sigtun. They are located on the western portal of the temple, completely covered with relief images of scenes from the Gospel, unusually skillfully made by Western European masters. For several centuries, the Magdeburg Gate served as the solemn entrance to the cathedral. According to one version, they were made in 1153 in the city of Magdeburg. Most likely, they became a trophy of war for the Novgorodians who went to the Swedish capital Sigtuna in 1187. These gates were made so skillfully that in the 17th century the Swedish king did not forget about the trophy lost five centuries ago, and during the occupation of Novgorod, he ordered the commander-in-chief of the Swedish troops to return the gate to their historical homeland. Fortunately, the commander-in-chief did not consider it possible to remove the front gate from the main temple of the Novgorod region.

One of the most famous Novgorod legends is associated with the figure of a dove sitting on the highest central cross of St. Sophia Cathedral. During the defeat of Novgorod by Ivan the Terrible in 1570, according to legend, the dove sat down to rest and turned to stone from the horror he saw. If the stone bird flies away, then the last day of Veliky Novgorod will come.

During the Great Patriotic War, on August 15, 1941, the Nazi troops occupied Novgorod. During one of the air raids or shelling of the city, the cross with a dove was knocked down and hung on the fastening cables, and the commandant of the city ordered to remove it. During the occupation, the engineering corps of the Spanish "Blue Division", which fought on the side of Nazi Germany, was located in Novgorod, and as one of the trophies, the cross of the main dome was taken to Spain. At the request of the Governor of the Novgorod Region to the Spanish Embassy in Russia in 2002, it was found out that the cross is in the chapel of the Museum of the Military Engineering Academy of Spain in Madrid. The rector of the Sophia Cathedral, Archbishop of Novgorod and Old Russian Lev, having received information about the whereabouts of the domed Sophia cross, at a meeting with the President of Russia inquired about the possibility of returning the cross to Novgorod. As a result of negotiations between the Russian President and the King of Spain, the Spanish side decided to transfer the cross of the St. Sophia Cathedral to Russia.

On November 16, 2004, in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, he was returned to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II by the Minister of Defense of Spain and is now placed inside the St. Sophia Cathedral. By order of the Novgorod administration, an exact copy of the cross found in Spain was made. It was transferred to the Spanish side to replace the original. The cross, now located on the central dome, was made in 2006 and installed on January 24, 2007.

Address: Novgorod region, Veliky Novgorod, the Kremlin.

St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod was built in 1045-1050. by order of the Novgorod prince Vladimir. The cathedral was built of hewn stone and thin bricks and was originally unplastered, which made its white and pink walls look very picturesque. This can be judged by a fragment of masonry in the southeastern part of the wall, which was specially cleared of plaster by restorers.

Before the stone Sophia in Novgorod there was a wooden Sophia church, oak "on thirteen tops", built in Detinets in 989. It stood not in the same place as the current cathedral, but in the place of another church, Boris and Gleb. Scientists believe that the wooden temple burned down during the construction of a new stone one, and for a long time its place was empty.

The builders of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod were Kiev craftsmen, who built the temple on the model of St. Sophia of Kiev.

The huge, slightly asymmetrical building of the cathedral is crowned with six massive domes - the central five-domed and a separate chapter above the quadrangular annex, inside which there is an ascent to the choir, where the Novgorod nobility was located during the service. The walls of the cathedral are separated by simple, austere blades. Initially, the cathedral was surrounded by open and covered two-tier galleries, later laid down and turned into closed parts of the temple.

From the outside, the temple looks like a real giant. Inside, its space is divided by painted pillars into small parts, high and narrow, which makes it seem that the cathedral is very crowded. And only at the very iconostasis it becomes more spacious. The frescoes in the cathedral were renovated and rewritten many times, but already in the twentieth century, restorers managed to open a number of frescoes - contemporaries of the cathedral. Thus, the 11th century fresco "Constantine and Helena" in the southern vestibule was preserved under the layers of later murals, and fragments of the 12th century murals were discovered and cleaned in the central dome.

The central cathedral of Veliky Novgorod performed not only liturgical functions. In the cathedral, in its huge dungeons, the city treasury and numerous treasures of the cathedral itself were kept. Unfortunately, very little has survived - the cathedral sacristy was repeatedly plundered, including by the "new owners" - the Bolsheviks - and the Nazis during the occupation.

From the very moment of its construction, the cathedral was also used as a burial vault for Novgorod princes and higher clergy. In the cathedral itself there are crayfish with the relics of saints - Prince Vladimir Yaroslavich of Novgorod, the cathedral's founder, his mother Princess Anna, the former Princess Ingigerda, St. John, Archbishop of Novgorod, and Prince Theodore Yaroslavich, brother of Alexander Nevsky.

The famous Magdeburg gates (otherwise called Korsun gates), brought by Novgorodians from Sweden, are of particular interest. These are tall, artfully crafted doors with 48 cast bronze plates that fit together. Each plate depicts figures or plots. Collected huge gates were already in Novgorod.

In Soviet times, services were still held in the cathedral, while the export of valuables from the cathedral's depositories did not stop. A lot of valuable things have been lost, stolen or simply turned into scrap. In the 1920s, a museum of atheism was opened in the cathedral. During the Great Patriotic War, the cathedral was badly damaged, destroyed and plundered by the Nazis. After the war, it took decades to restore it, but after the restoration the cathedral almost became a kind of "Palace of culture", far from sacred music and religion in general. In 1991. the cathedral was handed over to the believers, and divine services are being held there again.

SOPHIA CATHEDRAL CATHEDRAL

Novgorodskaya Sofia is one of the most outstanding monuments of ancient Russian architecture of world significance. Its construction testifies to the intention to repeat the splendor and splendor of the grand ducal construction in Kiev in Novgorod. Novgorodskaya Sofia repeated Kievskaya not only in name.

The Church of St. Sophia is the main building of the city; it seems to personify Novgorod itself. It is no accident that the ancient Novgorodians, going to battle with the enemy, vowed "to stand up and die for St. Sophia." The cathedral, in the minds of the inhabitants, personified the independence of Novgorod.

History

Sophia of Novgorod, like many cathedrals that have survived to this day, had a predecessor temple. The Novgorod Chronicles preserved the news about the construction in 989, following the adoption of Christianity, of the wooden Sophia "about thirteen summits" over the Volkhov River at the end of Piskupli (Episkopskaya) Street.

But the multi-domed temple did not stand for long - a handsome man. In 1045, as the chronicler narrates, "St. Sophia was burnt on Saturday, at matins ...". Soon after the fire, in the same year, a new stone Sophia was laid.

The temple was built by order of the Novgorod prince Vladimir and consecrated by Saint Luke Zhidyata, who then ruled the Novgorod diocese. The construction was completed in 1050 (this is pretty fast, considering that it took at least 10 thousand cubic meters of stone and brick). The data on the time of the cathedral's consecration differ. In the Novgorod 1st Chronicle, this event is attributed to 1050, and in the Novgorod 3rd Chronicle - to 1052. Data on the initial painting of the cathedral by Constantinople masters immediately after the completion of construction are available in the Novgorod 3rd Chronicle. The historian of ancient Russian art V.G.Bryusova suggested that the first consecration took place on August 5, 1050, on Sunday, on the forefeast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. It was associated with the completion of the construction of the cathedral. The second took place on the feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-giving Cross - September 14, 1052, when Sofia was already painted with frescoes and decorated with icons. By the way, a similar, double, date is indicated by the sources in relation to St. Sophia of Kiev.

The main temple of Novgorod, like the one in Kiev, was dedicated to Sophia the Wisdom of God; Novgorodians were proud of their Sofia. The words of Prince Mstislav "where is St. Sophia, that Novgorod" became winged for a long time, expressing the respect of the townspeople for the main shrine of their native city.

The construction of this huge cathedral, even according to modern ideas, laid the foundations of the art school of Novgorod architecture, which differed from architecture
brilliant princely buildings of Kiev.

Already in the 30s. XII century. Sofia Novgorodskaya ceased to be a princely temple, turning into the main temple of the Novgorod veche republic. Veche was held on the square in front of the cathedral. Here the ancient Novgorodians chose their ruler by lot. All Novgorod clergy were convened for his election. The veche usually nominated three candidates. And then the blind man or the boy took two lots, and the one whose lot remained, became the Novgorod ruler.

With the addition in the XV century. From Novgorod to Moscow, Saint Sophia lost her former influence. Over the next hundreds of years, the cathedral remained simply the main temple of the city, and then of the Novgorod province.

In 2000, Novgorod Sofia celebrated its 950th anniversary. Almost a thousand-year history of the cathedral is full of various kinds of events. Chronicles report on numerous construction and finishing works in the church, on the burials of Novgorod rulers and princes, on political events in Novgorod, directly related to Sofia.

The Soviet government closed the St. Sophia Cathedral in 1929. The oldest Novgorod temple became a museum. During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), Sofia was barbarously plundered and damaged: the walls and vaults were pierced by shells, the gilding of the domes, together with copper sheets, were stripped off. Many ancient frescoes were lost, the decoration of the cathedral was stolen or destroyed.

In the postwar years, St. Sophia Cathedral was restored. It housed the exhibitions "Handwritten and early printed books", "Sofia House in the Economy and Culture of Novgorod", "Sofia Graffiti".

On August 14, 1991, a session of the Novgorod Regional Council of People's Deputies approved the decision of the Regional Executive Committee to transfer the St. Sophia Cathedral to the permanent and free use of the Novgorod Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. On August 15, an act of transfer was signed, and the next day, the solemn consecration of the cathedral took place, which was performed by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

How to get to St. Sophia Cathedral from the railway station.

By city buses, number 9 to the stop "Victory Square-Sofiyskaya" (the third from the station) or7 and 7a to the stop "Sennaya Ploschad".