Saint Sophia Cathedral (Grodno)

Hagia Sophia Cathedral is an unsaved Orthodox cathedral in Grodno , rebuilt from a Catholic church (" Fara Vytautas ") after the third division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the incorporation of Grodno into the Russian Empire .

Orthodox Cathedral
Sophia Cathedral
A country	Belarus
City	Grodno
Denomination	Orthodoxy
Diocese	Grodno and Brest
Type of building	Cathedral
Architectural style	Neo-russian
Project Author	N.M. Chagin
Building	1896 - 1899
condition	Ruined

In 1389, by order of Vytautas , a wooden Catholic church was built. In 1494, it was somewhat renovated by Alexander Jagiellon , and in 1551 it was renovated at the behest of Queen Bona Sforza . Under Stefan Batory, instead of a wooden temple , a stone in the Renaissance style was built before 1586 . Subsequently, the church burned several times, one of the most destructive fires was a fire in 1793 .

Grodno center until 1918

After Grodno entered the Russian Empire , in 1804 the Russian authorities transferred the church to the Orthodox Church. The church, named after Hagia Sophia , was renovated in the classicist style and consecrated in 1807 . May 9, 1892 the temple was badly damaged by fire. After a thorough reconstruction of the temple in the pseudo-Russian style in 1896-1899. according to the project of academician N. M. Chagin worth 150 thousand rubles, the temple was again consecrated in 1899 . The exterior of the temple has completely changed, five large domes, three small ones, and a bell tower were added. The domes were purple with gold stars, and the height of the bell tower, which had 12 bells, reached 60 m. The temple became the cathedral of the diocese of Grodno and Brest .

After Grodno moved back to the Polish Republic (Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), the church was returned to the Catholics in 1919 and was used as a garrison church. In 1923, it was rebuilt after a fire by the architect V. Genberg. In 1935, another fire occurred, which led to a new reconstruction (architect O. Sosnovsky ). In the post-war period, as part of the Byelorussian SSR , the building of the former church was handed over to various organizations and was eventually blown up on November 21, 1961 .