The Saint Sophia Cathedral ( or , Sofiia Kyivska) in Kyiv, Ukraine, is an architectural monument of Kyivan Rus'. The former cathedral is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first heritage site in Ukraine to be inscribed on the World Heritage List along with the Kyiv Cave Monastery complex. The World Heritage Committee of UNESCO decided in June 2013 that Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, and St Sophia Cathedral along with its related monastery buildings would remain on the World Heritage List. Aside from its main building, the cathedral includes an ensemble of supporting structures such as a bell tower and the House of Metropolitan.

In 2011 the historic site was reassigned from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Regional Development of Ukraine to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. One of the reasons for the move was that both Saint Sophia Cathedral and Kyiv Pechersk Lavra are recognized by the UNESCO World Heritage Program as one complex, while in Ukraine the two were governed by different government entities. The cathedral is a museum.

The complex of the cathedral is the main component and museum of the National Reserve "Sophia of Kyiv" which is the state institution responsible for the preservation of the cathedral complex as well as four other historic landmarks across the nation.

History

Early years

The Saint Sophia Cathedral (often referred to as St Sophia's Cathedral) was built as a metropolitan cathedral for Kyiv during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise. <!-- text at http://resource.history.org.ua/cgi-bin/eiu/history.exe?&I21DBN=EIU&P21DBN=EIU&S21STN=1&S21REF=10&S21FMT=eiu_all&C21COM=S&S21CNR=20&S21P01=0&S21P02=0&S21P03=TRN=&S21COLORTERMS=0&S21STR=Sofijskyj_sobor --> The chronicle states that in 1037, “…Yaroslavl founded a great city . . . [he] also founded the church of St. Sophia, a metropolitan [church]." The Novgorod Chronicle gives 1017 as being the foundation year of the cathedral: “In the year [1017] Yaroslav founded a great city Kyiv, and put up golden gates, and founded the church of St. Sophia." This is in comparison with the Primary Chronicles entry for 1017: “Yaroslavl entered Kiev, and churches burned down.” A third date is provided by Thietmar of Merseburg, who wrote that Prince Boleslaw was present at the cathedral in 1018.

An alternative theory for the foundation date has been proposed by the Ukrainian historian Nadiia Nikitenko. According to Nikitenko, the cathedral was founded in 1011, under the reign of Yaroslav's father, Vladimir the Great, the Grand Prince of Kyiv. Her hypothesis, which suggests that the cathedral was founded on 4 November 1011 and was consecrated on 11 May 1018, is based on a new interpretation of painted images and graffiti on the cathedral walls dated by Nikitenko to between 1018 and 1036.

The 1011 date has been accepted by both UNESCO and the Ukrainian government, which officially celebrated the 1000th anniversary of the cathedral during 2011.

Medieval period

thumb|, A detail of the "Plan of Old Kyiv" from Description of Kyiv (1868)

The cathedral was designed as a burial place for Yaroslav the Wise and his descendants. He was , now located in the northern inner . It is probable that the metropolitan bishops of Kyiv were also buried in the cathedral (prior to the absorption of the Kyivan Rus' lands into the Mongol Empire), the earliest known example being the burial of Cyril II in the 1280s. In November 1240, Kyiv was besieged by the Mongols under the leadership of Batu Khan. St Sophia was damaged but not destroyed by the Mongols; like other city churches, it was looted when Kyiv was plundered by the victors. The city did not recover its former importance or prosperity for centuries following the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'. In 1203 the city was captured by Roman the Great, and the cathedral was robbed by Anna II of Kiev (the wife of Rurik Rostislavich) and their allies.

During the decline of Kyiv, the cathedral continued as a metropolitan church, but the building slowly became dilapidated, and the western end in particular suffered from years of neglect.

16th19th century

thumb|[[Mikhail Sazhin (painter)|Mikhail Sazhin, Interior of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv (1854), National Museum in Warsaw]]

From 1497 until 1577, the cathedral was left abandoned, until in that year Bogusz Gulkevych-Glibovsky renovated the cathedral at his own expense. In 1596, following the Union of Brest, ownership of the cathedral was transferred to the Ruthenian Uniate Church. From the formation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in 1596 until the official re-acceptance of Orthodox Christianity in 1632, St. Sophia’s Cathedral was used as place of worship for Greek Catholics; as a result of the acceptance of the union by Metropolitan Michael Rohoza, St Sophia was under the jurisdiction of the Union Church. In 1697, the wooden buildings were all destroyed in a fire.

Early rebuilding and restoration work

During the reign of Petro Mohyla (16331647), restoration work was begun on the cathedral. Its appearance in the mid-17th century is known from the drawings of Abraham van Westerveld and the description of Paul of Aleppo. which he carried out by Mancini in collaboration with the Ukrainian brothers Timish and Ivan Zinoviev, the gilder Yakym Evtykhiev, the icon painter Joachim, and carvers, carpenters, and masons from Moscow. Instead of maintaining a Byzantine style of architecture for the exterior of the cathedral, Mohyla and his architects were influenced by western European ideas, transformed St Sophia to give it the outward appearance of a Baroque church. The reconstruction work was continued after Mohyla's death in 1647 by Metropolitan Sylvester Kosiv, until his death in 1657.

Between 1690 and 1707 a major renovation of St Sophia was overseen by the Metropolitan , with the financial assistance of Hetman Ivan Mazepa. The cathedral's galleries were raised, four new domes were added, and the tops of the towers were rebuilt in the Ukrainian Baroque style. In 1699, a new domed bell tower was built—the dome was gilded at Mazepa's expense. The other new buildings in the complex were completed by 1767.

During the Soviet anti-religious campaign of the 1920s, the government called for the cathedral to be demolished and the grounds to be transformed into a park named in honour of the heroes of Perekop. The cathedral was saved from demolition. St. Sophia was the cathedral of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church from 1921 until 1930. In 1921, the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences created the , which was able to save the cathedral from being demolished.

The National Reserve "Sophia of Kyiv", a state architectural and historical reserve containing the cathedral and other historic buildings, was established in 1934. This enabled research and restoration work to be carried out on the cathedral and other buildings in the complex. The last acting vicar of St Sophia, , was the incumbent from 1931 until his expulsion in 1934, after which the authorities banned services in the cathedral. Gold and silver items (including the royal gates, icons, candlesticks, vestments, and books) were confiscated, and the iconostases were dismantled and stripped of their gold. The reserve opened to visitors in the spring of 1935. According to a previous director of the Sophia Museum, , German sappers prevented the NKVD from blowing up the cathedral, who had mined the building in September 1941. Church services were resumed in October 1941. In January 1942 the occupation authorities established a short-lived museum (it closed in October 1943 as the Germans were about to retreat from Kyiv). The Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce listed the cathedral's remaining valuables. The Nazis expropriated some of the remaining historical pieces, and only a small proportion were returned after the end of the war. Representatives of five Orthodox churches read the first joint prayer for Ukraine in the cathedral in 2006.

On June 10, 2025, as a result of a blast wave caused by shelling of Kyiv by the Russian Federation during the Russo-Ukrainian War, part of the central apse on the eastern facade was damaged.

Later restoration work

During the German occupation of Kyiv, the state of the buildings in the reserve was documented, and renovation work was begun. In 2023, an invitation to tender was initiated for a 5-year project to restore the roof, domes, and other structural elements of St. Sophia.

International recognition

In 1990 the ensemble of the St. Sophia Monastery was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 2007, the St Sophia's Cathedral was named one of the Seven Wonders of Ukraine.

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Architecture

The original cathedral

thumb|Ground floor plan of the original 11th-century cathedral

St Sophia is one of the largest churches built in Europe during the 11th century, and is one of the oldest and best-preserved examples of Kyivan Rus’ architecture. As the architects were given a task not previously encountered—to build a huge church with spacious choirs, they deviated from the standard model for a Byzantine church. To reduce costs, they used local materials, incorporating brick cross-shaped pillar into the design instead of marble columns, and slabs of pink Ovruch pyrophyllite slate and ceramic tiles instead of marble slabs. The construction materials used were brick, stone, and lime mortar.

The mosaics were made with a shining golden background. The predominant foreground colours were blue and grey-white in combination with purple. The large number of colours used is one indication that the glassmakers and smalt manufacturers of the period were highly skilled—the colours used have not been able to be replicated by modern experts.

The frescoes in the transept depict scenes relating to Christ. Four of the best preserved are of the Crucifixion of Jesus, the Christ's descent into Hell, the appearance of Christ to the Holy Women, and the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The choir features subjects as the Wedding at Cana, the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, The Lord's Supper, Abraham and the Three Angels, and the three youths in the fiery furnacе.

The largest group of images were a unique series of saints. Over 250 are extant; the original number was more than three times as many. All of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste are depicted in a separate composition.

The frescoes in the towers that led to the original outer galleries are of secular subjects, as they were intended to be seen by the Grand Prince and a few of the clergy. These frescoes depict scenes of the Byzantine court and the Hippodrome of Constantinople, such as the emperor watching races in his box, hunting scenarios, and scenes with warriors.<!--

On three walls of the central nave, is the lhe largest fresco in the cathedral, at long. It purportedly shows Yaroslav the Wise and his family during the consecration of St Sophia. Yaroslav was portrayed holding a model of the cathedral, along with his wife Irene, his daughters, who later became queens of France, Norway and Hungary, and his sons, who became important political figures in the Kyivan Rus' state in the latter half of the 11th century. Only part of the composition has survived.

According to Nikitenko, the portraits are of the family of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich. The frescoes constitute a grand princely triumphal cycle, that illustrates the conclusion of the marriage of Vladimir and the Byzantine princess Anna in 988, and which marked the Christianization of Kievan Rus'

Other secular frescoes show hunters, acrobats, musicians, dancers, wrestlers, and horsemen. Pictures of animals, birds, and fantastic creatures frequently appear in the frescoes. Of interest are the figures of buffoons with musical instruments that include a musician with a bowed instrument, musicians playing on psalteries and lutes, and flutists. A picture of a pipe organ, the only known example in Kyivan Rus' art, is depicted in the southern tower.

Graffiti

[[File:Graffiti St. Sophia's Cathedral in Kiev (Graffiti № 1330).jpg|thumb|Graffiti#1330 ("help [your] slave Stepan's sinful servant"), one of over 7,000 inscriptions and drawings in the cathedral.]]

The was left by priests and visitors to the cathedral during its existence. More than 7,000 11th18th century examples of drawings and texts have been discovered, a number indicative of a high level of literacy in Ukrainian lands during this period.

Some of the inscriptions are graffiti are written in Glagolitic script. The texts contain valuable information about historic events in Kievan Rus'; examples include a record of the death of Yaroslav the Wise, the autograph of Grand Prince Volodymyr Monomakh, a record of a peace treaty concluded at the end of the 11th century between princes Svyatopolk Izyaslavich, Volodymyr Monomakh and Oleg I of Chernigov, and a mention of the 12th century purchase of land by Maria Mstislavna, the wife of Vsevolod II of Kyiv. A series of dates was discovered on the walls that make up an eschatological calendar and testify to expectations in the first third of the 11th century of the Second Coming of Christ. In different places of the cathedral, dates on the graffiti were found that support the hypothesis that the cathedral was built from the 1010s onwards.

The majority of the inscriptions were written by Kyiv's citizens, and constitute a primary source of information about the Old Russian language, which was the vernacular language of the inhabitants of Kyivan Rus' (as opposed to Church Slavonic, which was used for literacy and liturgical purposes). Analysis of the inscriptions shows that they share features with modern Ukrainian.

Fittings and monuments

In the 12th century, a baptismal font was built into the western outer gallery. Between 17471754 a three-tiered iconostasis was built, the lower tier of which has survived. Together, they form one part of a national conservational area, the National Reserve "Sophia of Kyiv", that includes three other sites in the city—Golden Gate, St. Cyril's Church, and St Andrew's Church—as well as the Genoese fortress in Crimea.

The reserve has over 80 thousand items, archaeological finds, paintings, ancient church items and books, archives, architectural drawings, and a valuable collection of 13th-century gold and silver embroided liturgical robes.

Bell tower

The lowest of the four tiers of the Bell Tower of Saint Sophia Cathedral is dominated by the gate, above which there are loopholes. The second tier has an open gallery. The third tier has round windows, and the fourth tier has openings for the bell. The construction has a Baroque dome. The unconventional placement of the bell tower to the east of the cathedral is due to a conscious desire to create an urban ensemble.

History

In a 1651 drawing of the area in the vicinity of the cathedral by van Westerfeld, a wooden four-tiered bell tower is depicted. The drawing shows that the tower once stood near the fence to the north of the cathedral. Its first tier had a passage with a semicircular arch; the second tier had an open gallery, and a parapet of carved balusters. The bell tower was built under Peter Mohyla by an unknown architect. When the tower was destroyed in a fire in 1697, it was replaced two years later with a brick tower built to the southeast of the cathedral at the expense of Hetman Mazepa, the first stone structure to be built in the complex after the fire. The 13-ton "Mazepa" bell, cast in 1705 by , still hangs on the second level. In 1706, the three-tiered brick structure was completed. Soon afterwards, an earthquake damaged the upper tiers.

When cracks appeared in the walls of the building in 1744, the two uppermost tiers were rebuilt by Gottfried Johann Schädel. Ornamentation was incorporated into the walls by the and his son . The bell tower was completed by a Baroque bathhouse with a spire, covered with gilded stars on a blue background. The work was completed in 1748.

Metropolitan’s House

thumb|The

Due to its rich architectural forms and the quality of the decor, the is among the finest examples of 18th-century Ukrainian architecture.

A 1695 map of Kyiv shows that a wooden residence once existed in the southwestern part of the monastery courtyard. It was lost during the fire of 1697. A single-storied stone residence was built between 1722 and 1730,

Refectory

[[File:Церква трапезна 01.JPG|thumb|

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A wooden refectory and church was first mentioned in 1682. Ushakov's plan of 1695 depicts a building with a brick lower floor, a wooden upper floor, and a barrel-shaped shingle roof. The building was destroyed in the fire of 1697. Between 1722 and 1730 the refectory and church was rebuilt, using the old cellars and the walls above them. The lower floor of the housed the refectory with the Church of the Resurrection of St. Lazarus and a kitchen; the upper floor housed store rooms. In around 1769, the refectory was redesigned, and a pediment was added onto the western facade.

There was no longer any need for the refectory after the monastery was dissolved, and it was redesigned to be used instead of the cathedral during the coldest months. The church, which was called 'Warm Sophia"' was consecrated on 12 November 1822. In 1872, the church new aisles were added and the tower was dismantled. The building has been restored in several stages since the 1970s. The 18th-century kitchen, stair tower, and western vestibule have been rebuilt, and the building adapted to be used as a museum.

It was restored between 1946 and 1948. Writing in the 1930s, the Ukrainian art historian Fedir Ernst described the architecture of the Zaborovsky Gate as being: "decorated below with a complex Baroque system of columns and pilasters, two arches and a magnificent pediment with wavy volute lines, the gate is particularly notable for its luxurious molding, which completely fills the entire field of its facade wall with acanthus designs, theatrical masks, oval cartouches with crowns and a flaming heart., rosettes, etc.."

The cathedral has served as the backdrop to Bouquet Kyiv Stage, the annual outdoor arts festival started by the entrepreneur Evgeni Utkin. It has drawn Ukrainian artists and musical acts such as DakhaBrakha, and the concert pianist Antonii Baryshevskyi.

See also

  • List of World Heritage Sites in Ukraine

Notes

References

Sources

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  • Also here.

Further reading

  • St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv - self-published information for tourists from travel.kyiv.org
  • Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv, Ukraine - images, illustrations, and further information (self-published) from icon-art.info
  • Saint Sophia Cathedral within Google Arts & Culture
  • St Sophia's Inscriptions producd by the Gothenburg Research Infrastructure in Digital Humanities