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# Destruction of Novgorod during the War, Sophia Cathedral and Godunov's Chandelier
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/vo-vremia-voiny-novgorod-byl-pochti-unichtozhen-fashisty-razrushili-belokamennye-monastyri-i-tserkvi-pamiatniki-xi-xii-vv/
- Published: 2017-05-10T12:58:27.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:05:08.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Architecture, Faith, Heritage, Society

During the war Novgorod was almost destroyed: the Nazis wrecked the white-stone monasteries and churches, monuments of the 11th and 12th centuries. One of the first stone structures in Rus', the Cathedral of St Sophia in the Novgorod Kremlin, was disfigured beyond recognition: its interior was reduced to ruins, the 12th-century frescoes were knocked from the walls, the icons and church plate were plundered, and the unique great Sophia chandelier, a gift from Tsar Boris Godunov, was destroyed.

The chandelier was adorned with 790 unique figurines of saints, angels and fabulous beasts; it stood four metres high, measured three metres across and weighed a ton and a half. All that survives of it is the figure of a horse and several figures in the collections of Soviet museums, removed during restoration, works of medieval masters. Work on restoring the Cathedral of St Sophia began immediately after the liberation of the city, and more than three million roubles were spent on its restoration in all.

In the environs of Novgorod the Church of the Annunciation at Arkazhi (1179) was destroyed, and the 12th-century Church of the Saviour at Nereditsa suffered repeated artillery bombardment: all that remained of it was what lay hidden beneath the collapsed upper walls. The 14th-century Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour became a firing position in the German fortifications, its walls were broken through for embrasures, its vaults destroyed, and its western part was razed completely.

Destroyed were the cathedrals of the Derevyanitsky and St George's (Yuryev) monasteries, and the most ancient churches with wall paintings: St Nicholas on the Lipna (13th century), the Saviour on Kovalev, the Dormition at Volotovo, St Theodore Stratelates, and the Archangel Michael in the Skovorodsky Monastery (14th century). Of the 88 historic buildings in Novgorod itself, only two escaped without significant damage.

The famous Millennium of Russia monument had already been broken into pieces when the Soviet offensive began: General Lindemann had, for some reason, ordered it dismantled for re-erection in his home town. There was no time to carry off the figures of Russia's great men.