Description of the attraction
The ancient division of Novgorod into the Sofia and Torgovaya sides has survived to this day. The center of the Sofia side was the Kremlin, the Torgovaya side was Torg and the Yaroslav's court. The most ancient building of Yaroslav's court - St. Nicholas Cathedral - was erected in 1113 by Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich on a vow in memory of the miraculous healing and in honor of the victory won on Bor. The temple suffered 12 fires (the first in 1152, the last in 1703), was in a dilapidated state for a long time, and only at the beginning of the 19th century they began to put it in order. However, by this time it had almost lost its original appearance.
Despite the fact that the modern appearance of St. Nicholas Cathedral is distorted by the 19th century annexes located from the west and north, the restored five-domed, reconstruction of the original shape of the domes, the return of the povodny ("pozakomarny") covering make its image very close to the original.
Like most ancient Russian churches, St. Nicholas Cathedral was painted with frescoes. Very few of them have survived. Fragments of "The Last Judgment" and the adjoining composition "Job on Pus" are very expressive and reveal the closest connection with the Kiev monumental tradition.
