The Saint Sophia Church in Middle Sadovniki (церковь Софии в Средних Садовниках) is a mid-17th-century

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 ...

parish church standing on the Balchug Island opposite the

Moscow Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of the kremlins (R ...

. The church of Saint Sophia is believed to have been founded by the merchants from the city of

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...

, where the

Saint Sophia Cathedral Churches dedicated to Holy Wisdom (''Hagia Sophia'', also rendered ''Saint Sophia'') include: See also

{{commons category, Holy Wisdom churches *Sophia of Rome#Churches, for churches named after Saint Sophia of Rome *Sofia Church (disambigua ...

is the main sanctuary. The church gives its name to the Sofievskaya Embankment of the

Moskva River The Moskva (russian: река Москва, Москва-река, ''Moskva-reka'') is a river running through western Russia. It rises about west of Moscow and flows roughly east through the Smolensk and Moscow Oblasts, passing through centra ...

. The ornate building next to the church is the headquarters of the

Rosneft PJSC Rosneft Oil Company ( stylized as ROSNEFT) is a Russian Vertical integration, integrated energy company headquartered in Moscow. Rosneft specializes in the exploration, Extraction of petroleum, extraction, production, refining, Petroleum t ...

, the world's largest listed oil company. The mauve frontage is dominated by a tapering

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

rising above the entrance. The

openwork Openwork or open-work is a term in art history, architecture and related fields for any technique that produces decoration by creating holes, piercings, or gaps that go right through a solid material such as metal, wood, stone, pottery, cloth, l ...

belfry was designed in the 1860s so as to echo the

Kremlin towers The following is a list of towers of the Moscow Kremlin. The Kremlin Wall is a defensive wall that surrounds the Moscow Kremlin, recognizable by the characteristic notches and its towers. The original walls were likely a simple wooden fence w ...

across the river. The revivalist design is by Nikolay Kozlovsky. The church was closed for worship between 1930 and 2004, with the main building being a

kommunalka Communal apartments (singular: russian: коммунальная квартира, ''kommunal'naya kvartira'', slang. ''kommunalka'') appeared in the Soviet Union following the October Revolution of 1917. The term ''communal apartments'' is a produ ...

.П. Г. Паламарчук. Сорок сороков. Том 2. YMCA-Press, 1990. Стр. 519.

References

External links

Website of Saint Sophia Church
* {{commonscat-inline, Church of Saint Sophia in Sredniye Sadovniki Russian Orthodox churches in Moscow 17th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings 17th-century churches in Russia Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Moscow