St. George's Cathedral St. George Monastery

Construction of the cathedral, which became the main church of the St. George Monastery, was begun in 1119 . The initiator of the construction was the Grand Duke Mstislav I Vladimirovich . Since at that time he was in Kiev , the construction of the cathedral was entrusted to Abbot Yuriev Monastery Kyriak and the son of Mstislav Novgorod Prince Vsevolod . From the Novgorod Chronicle ^{[to clarify ] the} name of the builder of the cathedral is known - the master Peter, who allegedly also built the Nikolo-Dvorischensky Cathedral and the Church of the Annunciation on the Settlement . This is the first of the well-known names of the ancient Russian builders.

Construction of the cathedral lasted 11 years, before the end of its walls were covered with frescoes (destroyed in the XIX century). On July 12, 1130, he was consecrated in the name of St. George the Victorious by Bishop John of Novgorod at St. George Abdication of Yuryev (Cyriac, who started construction, died two years before the temple was consecrated).

The cathedral has become the tomb of the abbots of the monastery, a number of Russian princes and Novgorod mayor . In 1198 Izyaslav and Rostislav, the sons of Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich of Novgorod, were buried there; in 1203 Miroshka Nesdinich of Novgorod, who had taken the monastic vows in the monastery , were buried; in 1233, Prince Fyodor Yaroslavich , the elder brother of Alexander Nevsky , and in 1224 his mother Theodosius Mstislavna (in monasticism Euphrosyne); in 1453 - Dmitry Shemyaka .

In the middle of the 16th century, the icon of the Ustyug Annunciation was transferred from the cathedral to Moscow by order of Ivan the Terrible .

In 1807, when the St. George Cathedral was repaired, on the orders of the Bishop of Starorussky and the Vicar of Novgorod Yevgeny , excavations were carried out, which made it possible to find a number of stone sarcophagi there . In the 1830s, under the Archimandrite of Foti (Spassky) , the cathedral was restored, during which the 12th century frescoes were almost completely destroyed: they were knocked down from the walls, used for bedding when planning the territory of the monastery, and were partially thrown away. The original fresco painting was preserved only in the upper part of the staircase tower (in the north-western dome of the cathedral), where there was a small church, intended for closed monastic services. Here in the lower register of frescoes between the windows are images of the Savior and Our Lady Odigitria , St. George, the Monk Savva the Sanctified (?) And the saints. Above, also in a circle, the reverend fathers are depicted. On the east side between them stands the Virgin Orans . At the very top are medallions with four evangelists; only the image of Christ the Almighty was lost from time ^[1] . The cathedral was completely painted anew. At the same time, a new seven- tier iconostasis was installed in it, in which, among others, the oldest icons of the cathedral were installed, on which richly decorated robe was put on. In 1898, new murals were shot down during regular repairs. To create a new fresco cycle, icon painter MN Safonov was invited. This painting has reached our days. In 1902, the restored cathedral was consecrated by the archbishop of Novgorod and Starorussky Gury (Okhotin) .

In 1920, the Yuriev Monastery was closed, the services in the St. George's Cathedral were stopped. In the 1930s, during the restoration, the sacristy , the porch (1706), the chapel and cancer of St. Feoktista, the archbishop of Novgorod , the gallery, a seven-tiered iconostasis of the 18th century with ancient icons (disappeared without a trace) were destroyed, the floors covered with cast-iron tiles were destroyed. and ancient tombs beneath them.

The cathedral and monastery were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1991, and in the summer period divine services are held in the Cathedral of St. George.

In 2013-2014, archaeological excavations under the direction of Vladimir Sedov restored the level of the floor in the XII century inside most of the cathedral (except the northern chapel), and also found the remains of the original frescoes brought down by Photius ^[2] . In addition to remnants of fresco painting, fragments of ancient Russian inscriptions — chronicle type graffiti — were found on fragments of plaster, reporting on events of the 12th century (about the death of the children of Yaroslav Novgorod , about the fire in the Trinity Church, etc.) ^[3] . In July 2014, two short verb graffiti (nos. 26–27) were discovered among dozens of Cyrillic inscriptions inside the St. George's Cathedral ^[ No. ^] .

In 2015, archaeologists found a tomb with the relics of St. Archbishop Feoktista (XIV century) in the temple.

In 2016, Moscow archaeologists found the mysterious stone sarcophagi of the XII century near the walls of St. George's Cathedral in the central part of the Orthodox monastery. One sarcophagus is completely empty, in the other are the remains of six tall and not old men. Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Sedov suggested that they could successively bury people who held one of the positions in the monastery, such as kelaries or housekeepers. Or it was the patrimonial tomb of Novgorod boyars, who at that time often became monks. In any case, it was not ordinary burial. This is evidenced by the burial place, and the fact that such sarcophagi in the pre-Mongol period in Russia were very expensive ^[5] .

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  Holy hierarch (fresco of the XII century)

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  Wall painting of the cathedral with a fragment of an ancient fresco (in the middle below)

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  View from the choir. The white area in the past was closed with an iconostasis

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  Painting on the walls and the dome (2018)

St. George's Cathedral has dimensions: length of 26.8 meters, width of 18.3 meters, height of 32 meters and is the largest of the churches of St. George Monastery (in Novgorod, the cathedral in its size is second only to Sofia Sofia ). In contrast to the interior decoration, the original appearance of the cathedral was almost completely preserved (during the restorations of 1931-1935, all its numerous extensions, built at different times, were removed).

St. George's Cathedral has a mixed masonry walls (combines stone blocks and brick ). The original roof was pozakomarnoy and covered with lead sheets, later it was replaced with hid, preserved to the present. The cathedral is crowned with three asymmetrically located heads : the main dome is crowned with a medium cross , the second dome (inside it is a special chapel for a solitary monastic service) is placed above the square staircase, attached to the northwest corner of the cathedral on the side of the narthex , and the third small head balances the second.

The Cathedral is a cross-domed , six-pillar , three- nave , has three altar apse . In the cathedral choirs are arranged to attend the service of the prince and his family. On the choir there were two chapels: the Annunciation and the saints Boris and Gleb .

• The Cathedral of the St. Anthony Monastery is the closest in architecture to the monument of the early 12th century.

• Kolpakova G.S. Art of Ancient Russia: Pre-Mongol period. - Moscow : ABC, 2007. - 600 p. - ( New art history ). - ISBN 978-5-352-02088-3 .
• Rappoport P.A. Architecture of Ancient Russia . - L .: Science, 1986.
• Sedov Vl. V., Etingof O. E. Some data on the architecture and frescoes of St. George's Cathedral of the Yuriev Monastery // Architectural Heritage: Journal. - M. — SPb .: Kolo, 2016. - № 65 . - pp . 16-29 . - ISSN 0320-0841 .