ABSTRACT
The oldest surviving and the most imposing monument in the city is the Cathedral of St. Sophia (or Divine Wisdom), built between 1045 and 1050 and located in Novgorod’s detinets, or citadel, on the west bank of the Volkhov River. The cathedral was commissioned by the prince of Novgorod, Vladimir Yaroslavich, as well as by his father, Yaroslav the Wise (whose own Sophia Cathedral in Kiev was entering its final construction phase), and by Archbishop Luke of Novgorod. With the building of large masonry cathedrals dedicated to the Divine Wisdom in both Kiev and Novgorod, Yaroslav rendered homage to one of the most sacred mysteries of the Orthodox church. Because masonry construction was largely unknown in Novgorod before the middle of the eleventh century, a cathedral of such size and complexity could only have been constructed under the supervision of imported master builders, presumably from Kiev. It is thought that some of the brick was also imported from Kiev. The basic material for the construction of the walls and the piers, however, was obtained in the Novgorod: fieldstone and undressed blocks of limestone set in a mortar of crushed brick and lime. On the exterior, the walls presented a highly textured appearance, even with the spreading of mortar to reduce the unevenness of the surface.
