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

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 ...

parish church standing on the Balchug Island opposite the

Moscow Kremlin The Moscow Kremlin (also the Kremlin) is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, the Moscow Kremlin comprises five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall along with the K ...

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

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

, where the

Saint Sophia Cathedral Saint Sophia Cathedral may refer to: * Saint Sophia Cathedral in Harbin, the Russian Orthodox cathedral in Harbin, China * Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine * Saint Sophia Cathedral, London, United Kingdom * Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod ...

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

Moskva River The Moskva (, ''Moskva-reka'') is a river that flows through western Russia. It rises about west of Moscow and flows roughly east through the Smolensk and Moscow Oblasts, passing through central Moscow. About southeast of Moscow, at the cit ...

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

Rosneft PJSC Rosneft Oil Company ( stylized as ROSNEFT) is a Russian integrated energy company headquartered in Moscow. Rosneft specializes in the exploration, extraction, production, refining, transport, and sale of petroleum, natural gas, and pet ...

, 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 to ...

rising above the entrance. The

openwork In art history, architecture, and related fields, openwork or open-work is any decorative technique that creates holes, piercings, or gaps through a solid material such as metal, wood, stone, pottery, cloth, leather, or ivory. Such techniques ha ...

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 ...

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 (, colloquial: ''kommunalka'') are apartments in which several unrelated persons or families live in isolated living rooms and share common areas such a kitchen, shower, and toilet. When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917 aft ...

.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