The Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom of God or Saint Sophia Cathedral in Harbin ( zh, t=聖索菲亞教堂; ) is a former

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

located in the central district of Daoli, Harbin City,

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang is a province in northeast China. It is the northernmost and easternmost province of the country and contains China's northernmost point (in Mohe City along the Amur) and easternmost point (at the confluence of the Amur and Us ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

History

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

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway, historically known as the Great Siberian Route and often shortened to Transsib, is a large railway system that connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway ...

in 1903, which connected

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area o ...

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 (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

(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 A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

, 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

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. 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 tall, occupies an area of , and is the perfect example of Russian Revival architecture. 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', p=ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ) is one of the oldest and largest town square, squares in Moscow, Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, along the eastern walls of ...

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. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(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 The Great Leap Forward was an industrialization campaign within China from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to transform the country from an agrarian society into an indu ...

(1958–61) through the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

(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) were 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

Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, Harbin 16.jpg File:Saint Sofia Church.jpg Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, Harbin 7.jpg File:索菲亚教堂剪影.JPG Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, Harbin 5.jpg Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, Harbin 6.jpg Interior of Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, Harbin 3.jpg Interior of Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, Harbin 2.jpg Interior of Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, Harbin 1.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: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

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 Church buildings with domes 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 1932 establishments in China