St Sophia Cathedral, Zhytomyr

openas of 2026-10-011737Polissia

Photo: Сергій Талавєр · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

An 18th-century Roman Catholic cathedral on Zamkovyi Maidan in Zhytomyr.

The masonry Cathedral of St Sophia was built on the initiative of Bishop Jan Samuel Ozga on the site of a wooden church. Sources give the dates differently: according to the parish page on the website of the Diocese of Kyiv-Zhytomyr, construction began in 1731 and went on for about twenty years; according to zabytki.in.ua, 1737–1751; the website of the Diocesan Youth Days dates the consecration to 1745. Originally the church had features of baroque and Renaissance, and after the rebuilding of 1801–1805 on the initiative of Bishop Kacper Cieciszowski classicism prevails. While it was closed under Soviet rule and during the German occupation, the church's altars, icons and liturgical vessels suffered from looting or destruction. Today it is the cathedral of the Diocese of Kyiv-Zhytomyr and an architectural monument of national importance; inside, stucco work and wall paintings survive, and beside it stands a bell tower 26 m high. In 2011 a monument to John Paul II was erected in front of the cathedral.

Routes through this landmark

• The Olevsk area: stone and memory
• Zhytomyr in a Day
• In Balzac's Footsteps