The Three Sophias. Construction in the 1030-50s
The era of Yaroslav the Wise was the apogee of Rus'. They say that great times possess great
architecture; indeed, the 1030-50s was the time when social and religious life reached its emotional
peak (in the best sense of the word).
After the death in 1036 of Prince Mstislav of Chernigov, Yaroslav the Wise, as the chronicle records it,
became "the sole ruler". It is probably no coincidence that during this period, favourable in all respects,
large-scale construction work started in Kiev as recorded in "The Tale of Bygone Years" under the year
1037. So what does the chronicle say and what building efforts are listed in it?
First of all, there was a several-fold increase in the territory of the city, surrounded with log and earth
defensive walls. A tremendous amount of work: the length of the wall was 3.5 km. On this territory that
was newly added to Vladimir's Town area, in the center, the Cathedral of Holy Sophia was built, as well
as the Church of St. George and Irene, and the Golden Gate - the main entrance to the city, with the
Church of the Annunciation rising over it.
Judging by the names (the Holy Sophia Cathedral, the Golden Gate), Prince Yaroslav who commissioned
these buildings was apparently trying to imitate the famous buildings of Constantinople, which in itself
suggests an ambitious project, supported, no doubt, by technical and technological potential for its
implementation. About the architects of this time, we know nothing; the chronicles are silent. Technical,
typological, stylistic features of the constructed buildings suggest that Byzantine builders were invited
again. If there were any Russians among the builders, they served as apprentices to Byzantine architects.
The major Kiev building of this time was the Holy Sophia Cathedral, which, according to the chronicler,
was erected on the "field outside the town", the place where in 1036, a year before the construction of
the church, the Kievans had defeated the Pechenegs. That was the "field outside the town" - the area
enclosed by walls in the reign of Yaroslav. Right here, in the place of the battle, the Holy Sophia
Cathedral was built.
It should be noted that besides the cathedral in Kiev, cathedrals dedicated to Sophia were built in
Novgorod and Polotsk. The three Sophias! This is a remarkable, unique fact in the history of Russian
architecture. Here one can speak about a consistent implementation of the sophiological programme:
the momentum came from Kiev, from its secular and Church leaders.
The churches were dedicated to the Holy Wisdom and not to Saint Sophia the Martyr. Sophia is the
creative power of the Maker. The force that is harmonising the Universe, nature and human society.
The consecration itself is grand, majestic, filled with supreme significance and beauty.
A parallel to the sophiological programme in architecture can be found in "The Sermon on Law and
Grace" by Metropolitan Hilarion, a contemporary of Yaroslav. In this oratorical piece, Hilarion speaks
enthusiastically about the coming of Christianity to Rus', its triumph under Yaroslav; he eloquently
praises the partaking of the truth by the people, finding the new meaning of life, delivery of the people
from the pagan darkness. Triumph of the harmonising, life-creating force - that is Sophia the Wisdom of
God.
The Holy Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
When approaching the Cathedral and looking at the shape of the extant building, its figured domes, and
luxurious Baroque decoration, one inadvertently feels disappointed. Has the Holy Sophia Cathedral
suffered the same fate as the Church of the Tithes?
However, the probes on the eastern facade expose the type of masonry that is quite familiar to us from
the Transfiguration Cathedral in Chernigov. This is the opus mixtum technique - masonry using plinfa
brick and crude stone set in the lime mortar containing crushed brick. The decoration uses recessed
niches and half-columns. The ornate mixed masonry alone suggests that this part of the building dates
back to the 11th century. You can continue walking around the Holy Sophia Cathedral, watching for the
probes and drawing the appropriate conclusions, which are obvious. Probes made on the northern and
southern facades expose the same masonry, the same building materials, which confirms the
conclusion that the building, or at least the parts tested by the probes, were built in the 11th century.
The drawings made by the Dutch artist A. van Westerveldt, who visited Kiev in the middle of the 17th
century, bring us closer to understanding the original appearance of the Holy Sophia Cathedral. They
show the cathedral without its Baroque decoration. The cathedral got its new baroque apparel in the
late 17th and the early 18th centuries, and it was nothing more but the apparel, i.e. external decoration.
This is evidenced by a written document. It is important that the exterior renovation of the late 17th and
the early 18th centuries did not affect the structural and spatial concept of the building.
The cathedral has been studied since the late 19th century. Its first measurement (and this is already a
research effort) was conducted in 1810.
So what are the results of the studies? The original building is well-preserved. Its old exterior is only
covered by the Baroque decoration. There have been some losses, of course: for example, the western
wall of the church collapsed in the early 17th century and was later rebuilt anew.
The conception and construction of the Cathedral of Holy Sophia belong to the same period, the 1040s.
It was a five-nave church with five apses and two rows of galleries placed along the north, west and
south walls. The internal galleries were two-storeyed; the series of wide external galleries included two
towers leading to the extensive U-shaped choir loft above the northern, western and southern aisles.
The church has thirteen domes, with two more surmounting the towers. The presence of multiple
domes should be doubly emphasized here, since the topic of multi-domed construction has already
been discussed in connection with the Church of the Tithes and the Transfiguration Cathedral. The
multi-domed design, one may say, had become the compositional principle of that period. Inside the
church the vaults rested on twelve cruciform pillars.
The central drum with twelve windows dominates both the outside composition and the interior space.
The use of thirteen domes was functionally connected with the Prince's desire to have a spacious choir
loft and two rows of galleries installed in the church. This task had its difficulties: the architects could
not light the cathedral through windows made in side walls, i.e., by the side light. The five-nave space
was enclosed by galleries. Therefore, lighting the interior and the choir loft was only possible from
above, i.e. through the windows in the drums.
In area, the church is very large - about 600 sq m, with the floor area of the choir loft of approximately
260 sq m. So it required a lot of light. Hence the appearance of multiple domes. These domes were not
intended for decoration; the windows in the drums helped to light the interior. The total area of the
church with the galleries is 54.6 × 41.7 m. The height to the central dome is 28.6 m. The walls of the
cathedral are built of stone and plinfa brick, using the opus mixtum construction technique, i.e. the
mixed masonry with lime mortar containing crushed brick for binding. General dimensions of plinfa
brick: 3,5 × 27 × 37 cm (depth × width × length). Resonators were placed in the vault masonry. The
depth of foundations: 0.9-1.1 m. Foundations of these grandiose building were not laid deep. However,
this relative shallowness of foundation has proved its worth: slate choir loft parapets survive to our
time. Excavations have uncovered mosaic floors in the main worship area of the church and glazed-tile
floor at the edges of the church.
Of particular interest is the decoration of the church with mosaics and murals. Mosaics (we again see
the hierarchical principle implemented at this level) decorated the most important areas of the church
with respect to worship - the dome, the drum, pendentives, wall arches, the arch columns before the
sanctuary, and, of course, the central apse. Murals decorated the other parts of the church.
Special mention should be made of secular-themed murals in the towers. These unique murals are a
rare case of depicting secular subjects taken from the life of the imperial household and the Prince's
court in Kiev and Constantinople.
One more thing should be pointed out: we said before that construction of the church started in 1037.
The chronicle does not mention when it was completed but we determine it to be around the 1040s.
Most probably, before 1045, when the next Holy Sophia Cathedral was started and the work in Kiev was,
at least roughly, complete. However, there is another record from a chronicle, though not as reliable as
the one from "The tale of Bygone Years" for the year 1037, that the foundation stone of the cathedral
was laid in 1017. This date is being discussed, though the majority of researchers tend towards the date
found in "The Tale of Bygone Years". But such issues are not decided by a majority. It is probable that a
wooden Holy Sophia Cathedral was built in 1017. This version is not ruled out; however, the most
reliable date for the laying of the church's foundation remains the year 1037, in accordance with "The
Tale of Bygone Years", and the work was completed, most probably, in 1045. The area adjacent to the
Cathedral of Holy Sophia was surrounded with a stone wall. On the eastern side, it can sometimes be
traced to as far as 130 m. At the same time (as evidenced by the chronicle for the year 1037) the
churches of George and Irene were erected, as well as another unnamed church that chronicles do not
mention. Dedication of churches to George and Irene is quite obvious. The fact is that George was
Yaroslav's Christian name, and his wife, Princess Ingegerd, took the name Irene. Hence the dedication
of the churches to the heavenly patrons of the prince and the princess.
In Kiev, at the same time, the Golden Gate was built, bearing the same name as the famous Golden Gate
in Constantinople. But the difference between the Golden Gate of Constantinople (and it has survived
till our time in a good enough condition) and the Golden Gate of Kiev is as distinctive as the difference
between Hagia Sofia and the Kiev Holy Sophia Cathedral. The names are the same, there is a desire to
reproduce the grandeur of the model, but the typology is different. The Golden Gate of Constantinople
bears resemblance to a Roman triumphal arch. There is no church on top of it. The Golden Gate of Kiev
is a defensive tower, the main entrance to the city, and it has the Church of the Annunciation, rising
over the single span of the Gate. This is a totally different composition than that in Constantinople. But
the important thing is the name. We know relatively little about the Golden Gate. Reliable records
about the Gate date back only to the 17th century. The Dutch artist A. van Westerveldt depicts it as a
tower with a large arch span and partly surviving masonry of the Church of the Annunciation. When in
the 18th century Kiev was redeveloped, the Gate was covered up with earth to be rediscovered in the
19th century when its ruins were conserved. The surviving part of the Golden Gate is represented by
two parallel walls that are extant almost to the arches. The inner side of these parallel walls is divided by
lesenes that served as supports for wall arches; they were the ones that carried the church in the center.
The four-pillared church consecrated to the Annunciation was, judging by the excavations, decorated,
like the Holy Sophia Church, with mosaics and murals. This church in its technical and technological
characteristics was identical to the Holy Sophia Church (it was built by the same masters). This can be
safely presumed.
Now the Golden Gate is in a special condition. In fact, for the celebration of the 1500th anniversary of
Kiev, a new building called the Golden Gate was built around and over the ruins of the original Golden
Gate. The defensive tower and the Church of the Annunciation were restored.
I should say that this was a very poor restoration effort. It had no historical documents to go by, and
thus, the Golden Gate in Kiev, despite its smooth appearance, is a totally new building, a remake, a
result of incorrect restoration. The only justification for this new stone cover is that it shields and
protects the relatively well preserved ancient remains.
The Holy Sophia Church is the definitive building of Kiev under Yaroslav. This was the largest building of
the pre-Mongol period. The cathedral, even in the 17th century, was quite neglected and services there
were not conducted regularly; nevertheless, the contemporaries called it, along with Hagia Sophia in
Constantinople, the most famous cathedral of the East and the West.
The Holy Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod
This church was commissioned by Prince Vladimir of Novgorod, a son of Yaroslav the Wise. According to
the chronicle, its construction started in 1045 and it was completed in 1050. The year 1045, when the
foundation stone was laid, is highly significant and indirectly suggests that builders in Kiev had finished
their work and Prince Yaroslav could place them in service of his son, Vladimir, who was prince of
Novgorod and occupied himself with construction of the Cathedral of Holy Sophia. Five years is a rather
long time but one should take into account that stone construction in Rus' was only conducted in
summer time, i.e. during three or four months of the year; therefore, the building time of the Sophia
Cathedral in Novgorod and other similar cathedrals was around fifteen to twenty months. This is not too
long, by modern standards. The church is well-preserved; this becomes obvious when you approach it.
Its modern look is vastly different from the Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. The austere, monumental forms
have a distinct medieval character. There is nothing like the Baroque decoration of the Kiev Sophia
Cathedral. This is the main church of the town and, in the beginning, it served as the burial vault of the
princes.
In plan, the Holy Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod is a slightly simplified version of the Holy Sophia in Kiev:
the five-nave church has three apses (instead of five), one column supporting the choir loft in the arms
of the transept and the western part of the central nave (instead of two), one tower (instead of two).
The church was initially designed to have one-storey galleries in the north, west, and south. But as the
construction work progressed, the original design, as the studies show, was altered and the galleries
became two-storey. Unlike the cathedral in Kiev, the Novgorod church does not have the second row of
the outside gallery. The composition is simpler, tool. The cathedral has five domes, with the sixth
surmounting the tower. Here everything is simpler and less ornate than in the Kiev church.
This was to a great extent due to the building material and the masonry technique. Local limestone
served as the main building material, while plinfa brick was used very sparingly, for building the delicate
parts of the church: arches, arched ceilings in the galleries. The stone blocks floated with crushed brick
mortar created the effect of a grandiose mosaic on the walls.
The interior is captivating due to the mighty strength and exuberant power of the forms, their
confidently-drawn outlines. Here the mass dominates, unlike the dominance of space in the central part
of the Kiev Sophia Cathedral. The view is especially majestic from the choir loft. Especially impressive is
the height and massiveness of forms, their slow, solemn rhythm. The exterior of the church exudes
power and epic strength. Its stone mass surmounted with a neat five-domed construction creates the
impression of unconquerable heroic power.
It's all - a tight proportionality;
It's all - the ratio of height;
Asymmetry, the bulk, austerity;
Its vaults and arches slowly flight.
The Novgorod Cathedral of Holy Sophia had a decisive influence on the development of Novgorod
architecture of the next period. Its image, full of strength and majestic beauty, comes alive not only in
the large buildings commissioned by princes of the 12th century, but in the relatively small buildings of
the 12th to 16th centuries. It is amazing how the very first building of the town, created no doubt by the
same Byzantine masters that had worked in Kiev, seems to have captured and embodied the character
of Novgorod, its poise, its stature, its spirit. Today the Holy Sophia Cathedral has become the symbol of
the city, personification of its civic and religious virtues. During the hard years of the war, dying for the
Holy Sophia meant dying for your country.
The Holy Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk
Today, Polotsk is an administrative center in the Vitebsk Region (Belarus), but during the pre-Mongol
period it was the capital of a powerful principality, with its rulers often successfully rivaling Kiev.
Surviving chronicles are silent about the building of the Holy Sophia in Polotsk. Dating the construction
of the church has always been problematic for researchers. Later Belarusian-Lithuanian chronicles date
the beginning of its construction as the early 13th century. This date, as we will see, has to be
unequivocally rejected.
Besides, there is indirect evidence concerning the time of the construction. In 1066, Prince Vseslav of
Polotsk made a fast raid against Novgorod, successfully capturing it and, among the other spoils of war,
removing the bells from the recently built Holy Sophia Cathedral. He must have had his reasons. This
action suggests the existence of the Polotsk church, and the captured bells were presumably intended
for it. This evidence is indirect, but we should take it into account.
The Polotsk Holy Sophia Cathedral is mentioned in "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", in the part where it
speaks about Prince Vseslav, his extraordinary qualities and capricious fate. The poetic rendering of this
place goes as follows:
For him in Polotsk
they rang for matins early
at St. Sophia the bells;
but he heard the ringing in Kiev.
Here the important thing is not the beauty of the words but an allusion to the Polotsk Sophia Cathedral.
And the author of "The Tale" gives us a literary interpretation of the real events that happened in 10671068, connected with Vseslav's capture by the sons of Yaroslav the Wise and his subsequent short reign
in Kiev.
Thus, indirect evidence suggests that the Cathedral of Holy Sophia in Polotsk had already been built by
the middle of the 11th century. Based on this evidence, historians of architecture date construction of
the church between 1044 and 1066. In1044, Vseslav became the ruler of the Principality of Polotsk, and
in 1066, Vseslav's raid on Novgorod took place and the story with the capture of the bells happened.
In general, the time period (1044-66) has been defined correctly but it is possible to specify it further.
Has the Holy Sophia Cathedral survived to our time? This is the most important question for someone
who goes to Polotsk for the first time and is not burdened with any information about the ancient
church. And if it has, then what is its condition? On the high bank of the Western Dvina River, at its
confluence with the Polota River, there stands a magnificent church of baroque architecture. This is the
Polotsk Cathedral of Holy Sophia. Its southern facade is facing the river and is flanked by two graceful
bell towers. The sophisticated baroque style has nothing to do with Old Russian architecture, the more
so that the church is a basilica, and its altar is facing the north. Inside we find the same baroque style of
decoration. What should we do? Recognise the building as entirely baroque? Indeed, according to the
documents, the surviving church was built from 1738 to the 1750s, under the Uniate archbishop, Florian
Hrebnicki. 1750 is a firm date, but let us not be too hasty.
And let us walk around the church. We stop at the eastern facade:
polygonal apses;
decoration in the form of two recessed niches;
probes expose the masonry of plinfa brick and crude stone set in crushed-brick mortar.
Opus mixtum, a masonry technique typical of the 11th century! It is obvious that the eastern facade up
to a certain considerable height (according to the probes) is ancient. This was already determined by
the pre-revolutionary researchers.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the floor of the cathedral, which was in poor condition, was being
replaced. Below they found the remains of the walls and pillars of the old church that were in good
enough condition from the archaeological point of view. The plan of the new building was made. This
turned out to be a large five-nave church with three apses in the east, very similar to the Novgorod
Cathedral of Holy Sophia in structure and plan. And as far as the masonry technique, it was a direct
analogue of the Kiev Sophia Cathedral.
The researchers were confused about the western apses of the cathedral that were similar to the
eastern ones. They even thought that the influence had come from the medieval architecture of
Western Europe. But probing into the western apses, which in the early 20th century after the
renovation were attributed to the original core of the building, as well as the studies of the foundations
and lower parts of the walls, have shown that they date back to a later period, the 17th or the 18th
century, and appeared when the cathedral was rebuilt by the Uniates and the alter was moved to face
the north.
Recent studies of the church have revealed the remains of pillars under the choir gallery in the northern
and southern parts of the transept, and the pillar in the western part of the central nave was already
known to belong to the older period and is now in good condition. This has further increased the
similarity between the Holy Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk and its namesakes in Kiev and Novgorod.
Excavations at the north-west corner exposed the foundations of the tower. Other features have been
also identified, suggesting the close relation of the cathedral to the churches of the 1040s-50s, i.e. to the
Holy Sophia Cathedrals in Kiev and Novgorod.
This shows that the Holy Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk is the final element of the sophiological
programme of the 1030s-50s. Attributing the cathedral to the 11th century seems quite justified. Here
are some additional considerations.
The ebb and flow of construction fortunes during the period under discussion we shall interpret
proceeding from the two premises. The first premise suggests a comprehensive programme that
consisted in successive construction of three cathedrals dedicated to the Holy Sophia. A successive
construction of several buildings is a unique phenomenon for Old Russian architecture.
This was the period when the aspects of the Christian doctrine associated with the aspirations for
eternal life, the transformation of human nature, and the resurrection, were especially important and
acutely felt. The new Christian man, enlightened by the truth, finds his true spiritual fullness, and with it,
the understanding of his special position in the world created by God. The blessed source of Holy
Wisdom, Sophia, spiritualizing and transforming all aspects of life, is experienced with an unprecedented
enthusiasm - deeply and gratefully. This is best evidenced by the passionate words of the "Sermon on
Law and Grace" written by Metropolitan Hilarion. The Holy Wisdom that is transforming human life
becomes the object of worship both as a conceptual substance and as its more concrete image
embodied in Christ and the Virgin. This is quite definitively evidenced by the dedications of most
churches from the end of the 10th to the middle of the 11th centuries: the Church of the Tithes,
dedicated to the Mother of God, in Kiev; the Transfiguration Cathedral in Chernigov; the Holy Sophia
Cathedrals in Kiev, Novgorod, and Polotsk. Even churches built to fulfill a vow confirm this tendency: the
non-extant Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour in Vasilev and the Church dedicated to the
Theotokos in Tmutarakan.
The second premise is also based on the practice of Old Russian architecture and suggests a continuous
cycle of construction in the 1030s-50s. Its starting point was laying the foundations of the
Transfiguration Cathedral in Chernigov in the early 1030s. It is significant that starting from 1037,
following the construction of the church in Chernigov, a grandiose building effort is undertaken in Kiev,
which enabled Yaroslav, the sole ruler, to employ builders from Chernigov, along with the newly invited
Byzantine masters. In 1045, foundations are laid for the Holy Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, which
serves as an indirect indication that the Kiev building effort had been essentially completed and the Kiev
team of builders (or its part) had moved from Kiev to Novgorod. In 1050, the construction of the
Novgorod cathedral was completed.
There is no surviving written evidence of the dates when the Holy Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk was built.
Archaeological research of the church's remains has shown that its technical and artistic characteristics
are very similar to those of its namesakes in Kiev and Novgorod. The work of the Kiev building team here
is beyond doubt. If we embrace the assumption of the continuous construction cycle that begins in
Chernigov, and, subsequently, continues in Kiev and Novgorod, the building date for the Cathedral in
Polotsk should be the first half or the middle of the 1050s.
In conclusion it should be noted that the Holy Sophia Cathedrals of the 1030s-50s convey in the best
way possible the high spiritual passions of Yaroslav's era. We should stress the uniqueness of the
sophiological programme embodied in the architecture. The Holy Sophia Cathedrals in Kiev, Novgorod,
and Polotsk were the largest buildings of the pre-Mongol period that greatly influenced the
development of local architectural schools in the 12th and the beginning of the 13th centuries. Indeed,
great times have great architecture. And construction is performed not by those who have a lot of stone
but by those who possess the energy to cultivate and spiritualize things in the name of a great purpose.