The Cathedral of St. Sophia (the
Holy Wisdom of GodHoly Wisdom, also called Divine Wisdom is the theological idea that perfect Wisdom is to be found in God alone....
) in the
KremlinThe Detinets is the ancient name for the Kremlin or fortress in Novgorod the Great, which stands on the left bank of the Volkhov River about two miles north of where it empties out of Lake Ilmen.The compound was originally the site of a pagan burial ground upon which the first bishop of Novgorod,...
(or Detinets) in
Novgorod the GreatVeliky Novgorod is the foremost historic city of North-Western Russia and the administrative center of Novgorod Oblast. It is situated on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. Translated from Russian, its name means roughly "The Great New City" or "The Big New City"...
is the cathedral church of the
Archbishop of NovgorodThe Archbishop of Novgorod is the head of the eparchy of Novgorod the Great and is one of the oldest offices in the Russian Orthodox Church. The archbishops have, in fact, been among the most important figures in medieval Russian history and culture and their successors continued to play...
and the mother church of the Novgorodian Eparchy.
History
The 38-metre-high, five-domed, stone cathedral was built by
Vladimir of NovgorodVladimir Yaroslavich reigned as prince of Novgorod from 1036 until his death. He was the eldest son of Yaroslav I the Wise of Kiev by Ingigerd, daughter of king Olaf Skötkonung of Sweden....
between 1045 and 1050 to replace an oaken cathedral built by Bishop
Ioakim KorsunianinIoakim Korsunianin was the first bishop of Novgorod the Great . As his surname suggests, he probably came from the Byzantine town of Cherson on the Crimean Peninsula and was sent to Kievan Rus' about 989...
in the late tenth century (making it the oldest church building in
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
proper and, with the exception of the
ArkhyzArkhyz is a mountainous region in the vicinity of the eponymous aul sitting at an altitude of 1,450 meters in the valley of the Bolshoi Zelenchuk river, in the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, Greater Caucasus, Russia, about 35 km inland from the Black Sea shore. The modern village was founded in...
and
ShoanaShoana Church , also known as Khumara Church , is an early 10th-century Alanian church sited on a cliff above the left bank of the Kuban River, 7 km upstream from Karachayevsk and 4 km downstream from the ruins of Skhimar, in the vicinity of Kosta Khetagurov Village...
churches, the oldest building of any kind still in use in the country). It was consecrated by Bishop
Luka ZhidiataLuka Zhidiata was the second bishop of Novgorod the Great . He replaced Efrem, who was not consecrated bishop, but who administered the eparchy from the death of Ioakim Korsunianin until Luka's appointment....
(1035 – 1060) on September 14, in 1050 or 1052, the feast of the
Exaltation of the CrossIn the Christian liturgical calendar, there are several different feasts known as Feasts of the Cross, all of which commemorate the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus...
. (A fresco just inside the south entrance depicts Sts. Constantine and Helena, who found the true cross in the fourth century; it is one of the oldest works of art in the cathedral and is thought to commemorate its dedication.) While it is commonly known as St. Sophia's, it is not named for any of the female saints of that name (ie.,
Sophia of RomeSaint Sophia of Rome is venerated as a Christian martyr. According to tradition, she was a young woman of Rome who was killed for her faith during the reign of Diocletian. She was buried in the cemetery of Gordianus and Epimachus.-Veneration:...
or
Sophia the MartyrSaint Sophia the Martyr is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church on September 17. Born in Italy, Sophia had three daughters: Faith , Hope and Love , who were named after virtues mentioned by Saint Paul in .They are said to have been martyred during the reign of Hadrian...
); Rather, the name comes from the Greek for wisdom (Σoφíα, from whence we get words like philo
sophia or philosophy – "the love of wisdom"), and thus Novgorod's cathedral is dedicated to the Holy Wisdom of God, in imitation of the
Hagia SophiaHagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...
cathedral of
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
. It replaced an even older wooden, 13-domed church built in or around 989 by Bishop Ioakim Korsunianin, the first bishop of Novgorod. The main, golden cupola, was gilded by Archbishop Ioann (1388 – 1415) in 1408. The sixth (and the largest) dome crowns a tower which leads to the upper galleries. In medieval times these were said to hold the Novgorodian treasury and there was a library there, said to have been started by Yaroslav the Wise. When the library was moved to the St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy in 1859, it numbered more than 1,500 volumes, some dating back to the thirteenth century. The current Archbishop,
LevLev is the current Archbishop of Novgorod the Great and Staraya Russa. He was named Bishop of Novgorod the Great and Staraya Russa on July 20, 1990 and elevated to the archiepiscopal dignity on February 25, 1995.He was born in the village of Zaluzh'e in the Stolbtsovsky District of Minsk Voblast'...
(Nikolai L'vovich Tserpitskii), has reestablished a library there, in keeping with the ancient tradition. As of 2004, it housed some 5,000 volumes. A Sunday school is also held in the gallery.
The cupolas are thought to have acquired their present helmet-like shape in the 1150s, when the cathedral was restored after a fire. The interior was painted in 1108 at the behest of Bishop Nikita (1096 – 1108), although the project was not undertaken until shortly after his death. Archbishop Nifont (1130-1156) had the exterior whitewashed and had the Martirievskii and Pretechenskaia porches (papter', more akin to side chapels) painted sometime during his tenure, but those frescoes are hardly visible now in consequence of frequent fires. In the 1860s, parts of the interior had to be repainted and most of the current frescoes are from the 1890s. A white stone belltower in five bays was built by Archbishop Evfimii II (1429-1458), the greatest architectural patron to ever hold the archiepiscopal office. He also had the Palace of Facets built just northwest of the cathedral in 1433. The nearby clocktower was initially completed under his patronage as well, but fell down in the seventeenth century and was restored in 1673.
From the 12th to the 15th century, the cathedral was a ceremonial and spiritual centre of the
Novgorod RepublicThe Novgorod Republic was a large mediæval Russian state which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains between the 12th and 15th centuries, centred on the city of Novgorod...
, which sprawled from the
Baltic SeaThe Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the...
to the
Ural MountainsThe Ural Mountains are a mountain range that runs roughly north-south through western Russia. They are usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia....
. Novgorodians were exceedingly proud of their church, boasting that they were willing "to lay down their heads for Holy Wisdom" or "to die honorably for Holy Wisdom." When one prince angered them, they told him "we have no prince, only God, the Truth, and Holy Wisdom." On another occasion, they made the cathedral the symbol of the city itself, saying "Where Holy Wisdom is, there is Novgorod."
The cathedral has long been the city's great necropolis, the burial place of 47 people of prominence in the city's history, including several princes and posadniks and 32 bishops, archbishops, and metropolitans of Novgorod. The first burial there was Prince Vladimir himself in 1052. The first bishop was Luka Zhidiata in 1060. The last burial in the cathedral was Metropolitan Gurii in 1912. Most of the burials are below the floor in the Martirievskaia Porch, on the south side of the cathedral, named for Bishop Martirii(1193-1199). Later burials took place (again below the floor) in the Pretechenskaia Papter' on the north side of the cathedral. Today, there are several burials in the main body of the church. The sarcophagi of Prince Vladimir and Princess Anna overlook the Martirievskaia Porch; Archbishop Ilya (also known as Ioann) (1165-1186) is buried in the northwestern corner of the main body of the church, next to the Pretechenskaia Porch. Bishop Nikita lies in a glass-covered sarcaphogus between the chapels of the Nativity of the Mother of God and Sts. Ioakim and Anne and the sarcophagus is opened on his feast days (January 30, the day of his death and April 30/May 13, the day of the "uncovering of his relics," i.e., when his tomb was opened in 1558) so the faithful can venerate his relics. Two other princes also lie in the main body of the cathedral and in the Chapel of the Nativity of the Mother of God.
The cathedral was looted by Ivan the Terrible's
OprichninaThe Oprichnina is the period of Russian history between Tsar Ivan the Terrible's 1565 initiation, and his 1572 disbanding, of a domestic policy of political police, mass repressions, public executions, and confiscation of land from Russian aristocrats....
in the 1570s but restored by Archbishop Leonid (1572-1575). He built the Tsar's Pew which stands just inside the south entrance of the main body of the cathedral near the Martirievskii Porch. Leonid also had several large chandeliers hung in the cathedral, but only one of them survives.
Beginning in the eighteenth century, the archbishops or metropolitans of Novgorod lived in St. Petersburg (they were known as archbishops or metropolitans of Novgorod and St. Petersburg). Thus, while Novgorod technically still had a prelate, he was not often active in the city itself, and the church in the city was administered by a vicar bishop for much of the time. Twelve metropolitans of Novgorod and St. Petersburg (or Leningrad) are buried in the Aleksandr Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, rather than in the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom.
During the
NaziNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
occupation of Novgorod, the Kremlin was heavily damaged from the battles and from the Nazi abuse. However, the cathedral itself survived. The large cross on the main dome (which has a metal bird attached to it, perhaps symbolic of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove) was removed by
Spanish infantryThe Blue Division , or 250. Infanterie-Division in the German Army, was a unit of Spanish volunteers that served in the German Army on the Eastern Front of the Second World War.-Origins:...
. For over 60 years it resided in the
MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. It is the third-most populous municipality in the European Union after Greater London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third-most populous city by urban area in the European Union after Paris and London.The city is located on the river...
's Military Engineering Academy Museum, until November 16, 2004 when it was handed over back to the
Russian Orthodox ChurchThe Russian Orthodox Church ; or The Moscow Patriarchate , also known...
by the Spanish minister of defense
José BonoJosé Bono Martínez is a Spanish politician, born in Salobre, Albacete. A member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party , he is the President of the Congress of Deputies. Before was the Minister of Defence of Spain from April 18, 2004, in the Government chaired by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero...
. The domes were heavily damaged in the war, and the large Christ Pantocrator in the dome was ruined. According to legend, the painters painted him with a clenched fist. The archbishop told them to repaint Christ with an open palm, and when they returned the next morning, the hand was miraculously clenched again. After repeated efforts, a voice from the dome is said to have told the archbishop to leave the painting alone for as long as Christ's fist remained closed, he would hold the fate of Novgorod in his hand.
During the Soviet period, the cathedral was a museum. It was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1991. An inscription on the north wall of the west entrance attests to its rededication by Bishop Lev and
Patriarch Alexius IIPatriarch Alexy II was the 15th Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus, the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church....
.
Features
Novgorod's St. Sophia was the first Slavic church in which local divergences from
Byzantine patternByzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...
were made so evident. With its austere walls, narrow windows, the church is redolent of
Romanesque architectureRomanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe, characterised by semi-circular arches, and evolving into the Gothic style, characterised by pointed arches, beginning in the 12th century...
of Western Europe, rather than of
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
churches built at that time.
The Novgorod cathedral also differs strikingly from its
namesake and contemporary in KievSaint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev is an outstanding architectural monument of Kievan Rus'. Today, it is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first Ukrainian patrimony to be inscribed on the World Heritage List....
. As one art historian put it, the Kiev cathedral is a bride, whereas the Novgorod cathedral is a warrior. Its decoration is minimal, the use of brick is limited, and the masses are arranged vertically rather than horizontally. These features proved to be influential with Novgorod masters of the next generation, as the
Yuriev MonasteryThe St. George's Monastery was the main monastery of medieval Novgorod the Great. It stands south of the city on the left bank of the Volkhov River near where it flows out of Lake Ilmen....
Cathedral (1119) and the
Antoniev MonasteryThe Antoniev Monastery was one of the most important monasteries in medieval Novgorod the Great; it stands along the right bank of the Volkhov River north of the city centre....
Cathedral (1117) clearly show.
The oldest icon in the cathedral is probably the Icon of The Mother of God of the Sign, which according to legend miraculously saved Novgorod in 1169 when the Suzdalians attacked the city; it was brought out of the Church of the Transfiguration on Il'ina Street and displayed in the cathedral and on the walls of the city by Archbishop
IlyaIlya , also known as Ioann , was Archbishop of Novgorod from 1165 to his death in 1186.-Life:...
. The Church of the Icon Mother of God of the Sign was built next to the Church of the Transfiguration in the seventeenth century to house the icon. During the Soviet period, it was housed in the nearby Novgorod Museum (as were the bones of Bishop Nikita, said to have been kept in a paper bag until they were transferred to the Church of Sts. Philip and Nicholas in 1957); the icon was returned to the cathedral in the early 1990s and stands just to the right of the Golden Doors of the iconostasis. The icon of Sophia, the Holy Wisdom of God, is also quite old and is part of the iconostasis just to the right of the Golden Doors as well (where the icon of the saint to which the church is dedicated usually hangs). Several icons were said to have been painted or commissioned by Archbishop Vasilii Kalika (1330-1352) and Archbishop Iona (1458-1470) and Archbishop Makarii (1526-1542) (he went on to become Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus') is said to have painted the icons in the small iconostasis in the Chapel of the Nativity of the Mother of God (the iconostasis originally stood in the Chapel of Sts. Ioakim and Anne, just to the left of its present location.
Three famous sets of gates adorned the cathedral over the centuries; they are known as the Korsun, Vasilii, and Sigtuna (or Płock, or Magdeburg) Gates. The Korsun Gates hang at the western entrance to the Chapel of the Nativity of the Mother of God at the southeast corner of the cathedral. They were said to have been brought to Novgorod by Bishop Ioakim Korsunianin, whose name indicates ties to Korsun in
CrimeaCrimea or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is the only autonomous republic of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name.The territory of Crimea was conquered and controlled many times throughout its history...
. The Vasilii Gates, were donated to the cathedral in 1335 by Archbishop Vasilii Kalika and were taken by Tsar Ivan IV to his residence in Alexandrov near Moscow following the looting of the cathedral in 1570, where they still may be seen. They influenced artwork in the Moscow Kremlin executed under Ivan the Terrible. The doors at the west entrance (intended to be the main entrance to the cathedral, although the main one is now the northern entrance), called the Sigtuna, Magdeburg or Płock Gates, are said to have been looted by Novgorodian forces from the Swedish town of
SigtunaSigtuna is a locality situated in Sigtuna Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 7,204 inhabitants in 2005. It is the namesake of the municipality even though the seat is in Märsta....
in 1187. In fact, they were most probably wrought and sculptured by
MagdeburgMagdeburg , the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, is situated at the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe. Emperor Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor, lived during most of his reign in the town and was buried in the cathedral after his death...
masters, most likely in years 1152 - 1154, for the Archbishop of
PlockPłock is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, with 131,011 inhabitants. It is located in the Masovian Voivodeship , having previously been the capital of the Płock Voivodeship...
in Poland (where they were decorating one of the entrances into the
Cathedral in PłockPłock Cathedral, or the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Masovia, in Płock, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Poland, and one of the most important examples of Romanesque architecture in Europe....
for around 250 years ).
The gates were acquired by the Novgorodians most probably in the end of the 15th century, probably by Archbishop Evfimii II, who loved Western art (as can be seen in the Gothic style incorporated into the Palace of Facets) or - according to another theory - in the first half of the 15th century by duke of Novgorod and brother of the Polish king, Simeon Lingwen. It is not known precisekt how the Novgorodians acquired the Płock Gates - most probably they were a gift from Archbishops of Płock or the dukes of Mazovia for the brother of Polish King Władysław Jagiełło, Duke Simeon Lingwen, or for Archbishop Evfimii II. There is also another theory that the gates had been looted from the cathedral in Płock by pagan Lithuanians in the thirteenth century, and later somehow made their way to Novgorod. The first theory is considered the most likely. The Magdeburg or Płock Gates (sometimes also wrongly called the Sigtuna Gates) are opened only twice a year for special occasions, although some reports say that they are opened when the archbishop himself leads the
Divine LiturgyThe Divine Liturgy is the common term for the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. As such, it is used in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. Armenian Christians, both of the Armenian Apostolic Church and of the Armenian Catholic Church, use the...
. Since 1982, copies of the Gates, a gift from Novgorod, hang in the Cathedral in Płock.
See also
- Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev is an outstanding architectural monument of Kievan Rus'. Today, it is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first Ukrainian patrimony to be inscribed on the World Heritage List....
- Saint Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk
The Cathedral of Holy Wisdom in Polotsk was built by Prince Vseslav Briacheslavich between 1044 and 1066...
- Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...