Saint Sophia Cathedral, Polotsk

Coordinates: 55°29′10.00″N 28°45′31.40″E / 55.4861111°N 28.7587222°E / 55.4861111; 28.7587222
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Saint Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk
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Cathedral of Holy Wisdom in Polotsk

The Cathedral of Holy Wisdom (

Western Dvina River
on the eastern side of the city and is probably the oldest church in Belarus.

The presumed original appearance of the cathedral (as depicted in 2005 on a 20 ruble silver commemorative coin). Vseslav of Polotsk, the cathedral's patron, is shown on the reverse.

The cathedral is named after the Holy Wisdom of God, similar to the

Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, bringing a bell and other looting back to decorate his own Cathedral of Holy Wisdom.[1] The cathedral is mentioned in The Tale of Igor's Campaign, where it says that Vseslav would make nocturnal trips to Kyiv as a werewolf and would hear the bells of Holy Wisdom at Polotsk as they rang for matins.[2]

The cathedral has been significantly rebuilt and heavily modified between the eleventh and eighteenth centuries. Indeed, only parts of the church date back to the time of Vseslav, although the names of the builders are inscribed in a stone at the base of the cathedral: David, Toma, Mikula, Kopes, Petr, and Vorish. The burial vaults of 16 Polotsk princes dating back to the eleventh century have been uncovered (indeed, Vseslav himself, said to have been a sorcerer as well as a werewolf, was buried in the cathedral he built). According to the Voskresenskaia Letopis (s.a. 1156), the cathedral originally had seven domes,[3] later reduced to five after it was rebuilt following the fire of 1447. From 1596–1654 and 1668–1839, it served as the cathedral church of the Archeparchy of Polotsk–Vitebsk in the Ruthenian Uniate Church. It was rebuilt again in 1618–1620 by a Greek Catholic Archbishop St. Josaphat Kuntsevych (rr. 1618–1623) following a fire in 1607, and again after a fire destroyed the cathedral and the city in 1643.

A vintage photograph of the interior

In 1705–1710,

Stephen Báthory of Poland took the city during the Livonian War in the late 16th century. The town was occupied by the French during the Napoleonic Invasion of 1812 (indeed, two battles were fought at Polotsk in August and October, the second seeing house-to-house fighting). It was also occupied during the Nazi Invasion in the 1940s, when a large number of Polotsk's inhabitants were slaughtered.[6]

The cathedral has changed functions several times over the centuries. With the

Alexei Mikhailovich, who visited the cathedral in 1654. In 1668, the cathedral again passed to the Greek Catholics and remained as such until 1839 when Bishop Joseph Siemaszko terminated the union and transferred jurisdiction to the Russian Orthodox Church. During the Soviet period, the cathedral housed the Polotsk Regional State Archive (from 1949 to 1954.) In 1967, the restoration work took place as the cathedral was to be turned into a museum of atheism, but the museum was moved to Vitebsk in 1969. The cathedral is now part of the State Museum-Preserve of Polotsk and used as a concert hall with an organ. There is an ongoing conversation of returning the building to the Russian Orthodox Church
.

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Polack.
  1. ^ Lavrentevskaia Letopis (PSRL I), 166; Ipatevskaia Letopis (PSRL 2), 155; A. N. Nasonov, Novgorodskaia Pervaia Letopis: Starshego i mladshego izvodov (Moscow and Leningrad: ANSSR, 1950), 17, 186; Novgorodskaia Tretaia Letopis (PSRL 3), 212; Novgorodskaia chetvertaia letopis (PSRL 4), 123.
  2. ^ See Leonard Magnus' translation of the Igor Tale at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/tai/tai40.htm
  3. ^ Denis Duk, "Sviataia Sofii o Sed'mi Versiak," Rodina (June 2007)available online at http://www.istrodina[permanent dead link]. com/rodina_articul.php3?id=2221&n=112
  4. ^ Paliušytė, Aistė; Vaišvilaitė, Irena. "Polocko šv. Sofijos soboras (XI, XV, XVIII a.)". Panoramas.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 18 February 2023.
  5. ISBN 9789955868583
    .
  6. ^ Duk, "Sviataia Sofii o Sed'mi Versiak." See also Gennadii Lavretskii, "Sofiia Premudrost' Polotskaia," Rodina (June 2007).

55°29′10.00″N 28°45′31.40″E / 55.4861111°N 28.7587222°E / 55.4861111; 28.7587222

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