SOFIA NECROPOL AS HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PHENOMENON

The article attempts to consider Sophia of Kiev as an architectural and symbolic image and the tomb of princes and ascetics of Orthodoxy. In the Eastern Christian world, the Cathedral of St. Sophia was an attribute of sovereign statehood. So, in its magnificent way, architectural forms and artistic solutions, the Cathedral of St. Sophia manifested the appearance on the world stage of the new Christian Rus. St. Sophia of Kyiv, which is a unique source of knowledge about the past, enriches the present with the spiritual achievements of our ancestors who creatively mastered and conveyed to us the fundamental values of the highest in the European medieval Byzantine civilization. St. Sophia – a witness of tears and joys of thousands of hearts, its walls absorbed the fragrance of wedding candles and funeral censings. The cathedral was built on the analogy with St. Sophia Cathedral of Constantinople, as the main building of the state. It was built by Byzantine masters, but it was by no means a copy of Byzantine Sophia. The Cathedral of St. Sophia, which preserved the ancient architecture and the most complete mosaic and fresco complex in the 11th century, is a world-famous monument. This monumental ensemble, unique in its ancient times, originality, completeness and integrity, has brought to us the lively spirit of the era of prosperity of Kievan Rus.St. Sophia from ancient times served as the burial place of princes and higher clergy, a place of burial of the ascetics of Orthodoxy. The Necropolis of St. Sophia, which contains dozens of burials in both the cathedral and its courtyard, is the oldest in Ukraine during its period of existence. Іt should be noted that for research Sarcophagus has been opened several times. Scientific studies have almost proven that the male skeleton belongs to Yaroslav the Wise. After the death of Yaroslav, until the end of the XI century, there was a peculiar moratorium on the burial in the Holy Sophia of the princes, which could only sing in the main temple of the state. And they hid the princes there, where they had prepared for themselves a tomb.