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Document Details : Title: Sophia in Stone Subtitle: The Hagia Sophia of Constantinople in Russia's Literary Memory Author(s): VAN DEN BERCKEN, Wil Journal: Journal of Eastern Christian Studies Volume: 59 Issue: 3-4 Date: 2007 Pages: 281-295 DOI: 10.2143/JECS.59.3.2030873 Abstract : The Russians have always had a fascination for the Hagia Sophia. According to the oldest chronicle, the beauty of this church was even a reason for choosing Christianity of Byzantium in 988. The article discusses the literary expression of this fascination in Russian texts in the 19th and 20th-century: poems by Fëdor Tjutchev and Osip Mandel’shtam, and essays by Ivan Bunin, Sergej Bulgakov and Iosif Brodskij, the latest being a dissonant voice in the Russian choir that praises the symbolic meaning of the Holy Wisdom church of Constantinople. |
