Saint Sophia Cathedral (Harbin)

National Key Cultural Relic Protection Unit; Former Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Now An Architecture Museum · Harbin, Heilongjiang

A Russian Orthodox cathedral of dark red brick standing in the middle of a Chinese city, and the surviving emblem of Harbin's strange origin as a Russian railway town. It was built in timber in 1907 for soldiers of the Russian garrison, rebuilt in brick between 1923 and 1932, and finished as the largest Orthodox church in the Far East - a Byzantine-revival pile with a green onion dome above four smaller tent roofs, arched windows in tiers, and a bell tower whose seven bells were said to be rung by one practised man. Harbin's Russian community left after the 1950s, and the church was closed, stripped and used as a warehouse; during the Cultural Revolution it was surrounded by apartment blocks and nearly lost. It was restored in 1997, the blocks cleared to make the square around it, and it now works as an architecture museum showing old photographs of the city rather than as a place of worship. Floodlit at night and ringed by pigeons by day, it is the image most people carry away from Harbin.

88 Toulong Street, Daoli District, Harbin, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

The square is free and open at all hours. Interior hours conflict between sources - given as 8:30-21:00 by one and as roughly 8:30-17:00 with Monday closing by another; confirm locally. Floodlit in the evening.

Saint Sophia Cathedral (Harbin) on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos