The church of St Sophia the Holy Wisdom of God was first built around 1480 by the migrants from Novgorod the Great. The choice of the saint commemorated the famous cathedral of St Sophia in Novgorod. The present church that you can see in the photos is tucked between the Detsky Mir (Children’s World), a celebrated kids megastore, and the notorious KGB. Considering that Sophia means “wisdom” in Greek, to have such a church sitting behind the building of the Russian secret service is no small territorial coincidence for a big city. The present building of the church dates back to 1650. The bell tower was built in 1816.
