The Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom of God or Saint Sophia Cathedral in Harbin (; russian: Софийский собор) is a former

Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

located in the central district of Daoli,

Harbin City Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

, China.

History

St. Sophia Orthodox Cathedral was built in 1907 after the completion of the

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the ea ...

in 1903, which connected

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, c ...

to northeast China. The Russian No.4 Army Division arrived in this region just after Russia's loss to the Japanese in the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

(1904–1905). St. Sophia Church was built and completed of timber in March, 1907 as part of a plan to reconsolidate the confidence of the army by building an imposing spiritual symbol. In 1921, Harbin had a population of 300,000, including 100,000 Russians. The church was expanded and renovated from September 23, 1923, when a ceremony was held to celebrate the laying of the

cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...

, to its completion on November 25, 1932, after nine years. The present-day St. Sophia Church was hailed as a monumental work of art and the largest Orthodox church in the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

. According to Harbin municipal religious and Daoli district archives, Fotiy Huo Desheng was the ninth rector of St. Sophia Church of Harbin.

Description

The church is located on the corner of Toulong Street (Toulong jie) and Zhaolin Street. It stands at 53.3 meters (175 ft) tall, occupies an area of 721 square meters (0.18 acres), and is the perfect example of

Russian Revival architecture The Russian Revival style (historiographical names are: ''Russian style'', russian: русский стиль, ''Pseudo-Russian style'', russian: псевдорусский стиль, ''Neo-Russian style'', russian: нео-русский стил ...

. The main structure is laid out like a cross with the main hall topped with a huge green-tipped dome. Under the bright sun, the church and the square area it stands on look quite like

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːətʲ) is one of the oldest and largest squares in Moscow, the capital of Russia. Owing to its historical significance and the adjacent historical build ...

in Moscow.

Closure

Following the establishment of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(PRC) in mainland China in 1949 by the victorious Communists, who ended all Christian missionary work, treaties were signed between the Soviet and Chinese governments that provided for the turning over of Russian churches to Chinese control. The cathedral was thus closed from the period of the Great Leap Forward (1958–61) through the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

(1966–76).

Although the cathedral's sturdy structure withstood its intended destruction during the Cultural Revolution, its empty hull became a warehouse for a nearby state-run department store, its windows were bricked up and saplings grew from the roof. Prefabricated concrete high-rises boxed the church in on all four sides, coming within yards of its walls, making the cathedral inaccessible and invisible from the street. For decades it remained the invisible center of the city, surrounded by decorative material stalls, an auto body shop, a pen factory, and apartments for city government employees, until the Beijing government designated the cathedral a national cultural heritage site in 1996 as part of a nationwide campaign to protect historical sites.Yukiko Koga.
"The Atmosphere of a Foreign Country": Harbin's Architectural Inheritance
'' In: Anne M. Cronin, Kevin Hetherington. Consuming the Entrepreneurial City: Image, Memory, Spectacle. Routledge, 2008. p.229.

Restoration of the Cathedral (Old Harbin Nostalgia)

Following its designation in 1996 as a national cultural heritage site (First class Preserved Building), a newspaper article about the "hidden" cathedral prompted donations from locals to restore the church. Local corporations, individual businesses as well as workers from nearby department stores donated money to restore the cathedral and renovate the square. A total of 12,000,000 yuan (approximately $1.5 million US) was eventually gathered and the cathedral regained its visibility in 1997, as the surrounding buildings were torn down. A new "Harbin Architecture Square" conspicuously highlighted the cathedral with a huge new fountain at its entrance. The European-looking space was assigned a new meaning as the embodiment of culture and art and was re-presented to the public as the proud heritage of the city.

Museum

As of 1997 the cathedral was turned into the Municipal Architecture and Art Museum (Harbin Architectural Art Gallery), showcasing the multi-cultural architectural developments of Harbin throughout the ages. At the official ceremony on September 2, 1997 to celebrate the restoration of Hagia Sophia Cathedral, Mayor Wang Guangdao underlined the cultural and economic benefits expected from the project:

"The restoration of Hagia Sophia Cathedral inspired the people of Harbin, raised the level of our culture, let the whole of China and foreign friends know China, and opened a way for faster economic development."Yukiko Koga.
"The Atmosphere of a Foreign Country": Harbin's Architectural Inheritance
'' In: Anne M. Cronin, Kevin Hetherington. Consuming the Entrepreneurial City: Image, Memory, Spectacle. Routledge, 2008. p.221.

The restoration was the culmination of the Harbin municipal government's attempt to turn the city's colonial era structures into tourist attractions by restoring and granting them landmark status. The restored structures are said to signify civilization ''( wenming)'' and culture ''( wenhua)''.

Gallery

File:Harbin Saint Sophia Cathedral 2017 summer.jpg File:Saint Sofia Church.jpg File:Harbin Sophia Cathedral 2017 summer.jpg File:索菲亚大教堂.JPG File:索菲亚教堂剪影.JPG File:St Sophia church construction.jpg File:Hagia Sophia in harbin.jpg File:St. Sofia church Harbin.old.jpg, St. Sofia church in Harbin before reconstruction. File:ソフィスカヤ寺院・聖索菲亜教堂あ.jpg File:ソフィスカヤ寺院・聖索菲亜教堂最後の晩餐.jpg File:ソフィスカヤ寺院・聖索菲亜教堂合唱団.jpg File:ソフィスカヤ寺院・聖索菲亜教堂天井.jpg, Saint Sophia Cathedral in Harbin ( Dome).

References

Sources and further reading

* David Wolff.
To the Harbin Station: The Liberal Alternative in Russian Manchuria, 1898-1914
'. Stanford University Press, 1999. * Yukiko Koga.
"The Atmosphere of a Foreign Country": Harbin's Architectural Inheritance
'' In: Anne M. Cronin, Kevin Hetherington. Consuming the Entrepreneurial City: Image, Memory, Spectacle. Routledge, 2008.
Saint-Sophia Church
Government of Harbin website. * '

"'' Harbin Urban and Rural Planning Bureau. *
St. Sophia Church
" China Spring Tour.

External links

at Orthodox.cn.
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Harbin (The Baidu Photo Gallery)
(in Chinese) * Timeline of Orthodoxy in China at OrthodoxWiki. {{Dual, source=Orthodox Wiki, sourcepath=http://orthodoxwiki.org/index.php?title=St.+Sophia+Cathedral+(Harbin,+China)&oldid=87379, sourcearticle=St. Sophia Cathedral (Harbin, China), date=May 9, 2010 Chinese Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox church buildings in China Churches in Harbin Cathedrals in China Former churches in China Art museums and galleries in China Harbin Heritage Sites Churches completed in 1932 20th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings Museums in Heilongjiang Russian diaspora in China Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Heilongjiang 20th-century churches in China