Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv

openas of 2026-10-011011Naddniprianshchyna

Photo: fot. Slawek Ilski · CC BY 3.0 · source

An 11th-century cathedral with the largest ensemble of Rus mosaics and frescoes still in place.

Founded under Yaroslav the Wise as the principal church of the realm. Its main treasure is not the walls but what is inside: the 11th-century mosaics and frescoes survive exactly where they were made, not in museum cases. Together with the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra it is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. In December 1648 Bohdan Khmelnytsky, on his way back from Pyliavtsi, was met right here by crowds of Kyivans and by the clergy led by Metropolitan Sylvestr Kosiv. The monastery owes its Baroque appearance to Ivan Mazepa: between 1690 and 1707 the hetman paid for the 76-metre bell tower, the gilding of the central dome (five thousand ducats) and the thirteen-tonne bell “Mazepa”, cast in 1705. Yaroslav the Wise is buried here: his marble sarcophagus comes from the island of Marmara and weighs about six tonnes, and the art historian Diana Klochko notes that some scholars doubt the prince ever lay in it. When the sarcophagus was opened in September 2009 for an international DNA study, the male bones were there, but the female ones, ascribed to Princess Ingigerd-Iryna, were gone entirely: the lock of the wooden chest sealed in 1964 was found broken. Where those remains went is still unknown.

Routes through this landmark

• Heart of Kyiv
• Cathedral and Caves
• Dnipro Bluffs