Belfry of St. Sophia Cathedral

In 1439, at the direction of the Novgorod archbishop Euthymius II, “a stone bell tower was erected in the old place, on the city (that is, on the fortress wall). There was also the assumption of researchers such as K.K. Romanova ^[1] , D.A. Petrova ^[2] and others, that the date of the restoration of the bell tower was different - in 1455, at that time “put Bishop Euphimius the bell-tower to the stone St. Sophia ” , but according to the results of archaeological excavations of 1995 by the dendrochronology method, they determined the date lying under the foundation of the belfry - 1437, which confirmed the date of 1439 ^[3] . It was also believed that before the fall in Volkhov, the belfry stood on the city wall and was designed for small bells, and the belfry, mentioned under 1455, stood at the southwestern corner of St. Sophia Cathedral, as can be seen in the image of the Novgorod Kremlin on the Mikhailovsky icon “Signs of the Mother of God ", The end of the XVII century ^[4] . Also, according to the version proposed by the architect Dmitry Petrov, decorative elements on the walls of the Sofia belfry, such as niches and girdles with Gothic details of buildings of the 15th century, judge the possibility of building a belfry by Western European craftsmen, who probably participated in the construction of the Novgorod and Vladychny Chamber in 1433 ^{[2 ]} .

In the 1530-1540s, in connection with the restructuring of the wall, as well as with the development of bell technologies, which led to the appearance of new, significantly larger bells, the belfry was reconstructed, the construction of a one-story extension at the belfry with an internal side of the kid. During this perestroika, the number of spans was increased to five, before it had only three spans and the number of pillars, respectively, from four to six, five octagonal brick tents were crowned with a belfry. Also, the height of the ringing tier was then increased. According to the results of Yu. E. Krushelnitsky’s research carried out during the repair and restoration work in the 1940s, it was assumed that three vaulted chambers between the Sofia belfry and the wall were originally ^[5] , but, in the opinion of D. A. Petrov, chambers were built at the end of the 15th century during the construction of new walls ^[2] . The appearance of the belfry before the reconstruction of Euthymius II, before the post-war studies, could be judged by the image of the belfry on the homophore of Patriarch Nikon , where she is depicted as a three-span ^[6] , and after the reconstruction, the form of the five-span belfry can be judged by the image on the icon “ Vision of the Tarasius Sexton ” ".

In the second half of the 17th century, the second floor was built onto the western extension and a stone porch was attached to it from the southern side, the supports were fitted under even larger bells, and the so-called so-called “Towers of the Prechistenskaya Tower” was built from the southern wall of the belfry. The "House at the Belfry", the five tents that crowned the belfry, converted into high gable tongs .

In the middle of the XVIII century, the upper part of the belfry of St. Sophia Cathedral was rebuilt in its current form, including the central installation of the chapter on a cylindrical base.

At the beginning of the XX century , the overlap was replaced with a lighter one, of two flat small brick vaults, a flat asphalt roof was laid on them. In the early 1930s. The Sofia belfry fell into disrepair, which entailed significant repair work, during which the arch of the extension was removed, and the western wall of the extension was partially shifted, and an iron roof was also made.

From June ^[7] to October ^[8] 2007, the belfry was closed for restoration, as part of preparations for the celebration of the 1150th anniversary of Veliky Novgorod in 2009.

The house at the belfry of the XVII century, according to the results of studies conducted in 1946, may have been one-story and built until the middle of the XVII century. Modern windows may have been built in the 19th century, the early windows were narrow and only partially overlap the current ones in location. During restoration work under the direction of V.N. Zakharova in 1946, only part of the building was restored - the ruins of the southern part were demolished, since this part was destroyed by a direct hit by a bomb, and an internal redevelopment of the remaining part of the building was also made ^{[5] [9]} .

In the 19th century, the watchmen of St. Sophia Cathedral and the bell-ringer of the St. Sophia belfry lived in the building ^[10] .

In August 1941 , when the Nazi troops were approaching Novgorod, an order was received to evacuate the bells from the Sofia belfry, but during the bombing the barge with the three largest bells was smashed by a direct hit, and the bells sank to the bottom of Volkhov. Two of the largest bells were buried near the detinets in the ground. The belfry also suffered a lot from the bombs that fell into the house at the belfry, and the porch was destroyed by artillery fire.

The belfry was restored in 1948. Now the belfry is used for its intended purpose, there is also an observation deck at the top of the belfry and the exhibition "Ancient Bells of Veliky Novgorod" is open.

Near the belfries installed

1. 100 pood bell was cast in 1589 and donated by Boris Godunov to the Spirit Monastery
2. 200 pood bell was cast in 1599 for the Khutyn monastery by masters Vasily Ivanov, Athanasius Pankratiev and Joachim Ivanov
3. a bell weighing 1614 pounds, was cast in 1659 in the Novgorod children’s master Ermolai Vasiliev
4. 590 pood bell cast in 1839
5. 300 pood bell cast in 1677.

The largest bell is also called “Festive”, and “Sunday” is the bell of the XIX century , the rest are “everyday” (XVII-XVIII centuries).

The belfry at the exhibition "Ancient Bells of Veliky Novgorod", presented 14 bells: weighing from 1.5 to 20 pounds.

On September 18, 2009 , as part of the celebrations dedicated to the 1150th anniversary of the city, the belfry celebrated the consecration by the Archbishop of Novgorod and Starorusskiy Leo of a new bell cast in Voronezh with the inscription “This bell in 2009 commemorates the 1150th anniversary of Veliky Novgorod under the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, Governor of the Novgorod Region Sergey Mitin, Mayor of Veliky Novgorod Yuri Bobryshev, His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill " , the first bell hit the President of Russia - Dmitry Medvedev ^[11] .

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  Exhibits of the exhibition "Ancient bells of Veliky Novgorod"

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  The bell of 1659 at the Sofia belfry

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  The bell of 2009, cast in Voronezh and presented to the city for its 1150th anniversary

According to legend, when Ivan the Terrible, being in Novgorod, was crossing the Volkhov Bridge over the Volkhov while riding a horse, the bell-ringer of the Sofia belfry, seeing the Tsar, so badly scored the biggest bell (not preserved) that he frightened the Tsar’s horse, which stood on its hind legs and threw the Tsar . For this misconduct, the king ordered the bell to be cut off all the ears, besides the middle one, and the bell continued to hang on the belfry for a long time, but its nickname became “earless”.

• Sofia belfry