Yaroslav begins Kiev's stone cathedral
1020
To celebrate his triumph, the grand prince began construction of St. Sophia of Kiev, a thirteen-domed Byzantine-style basilica that declared Rus Christianity's equality with Constantinople itself. Fresco painters from Byzantium covered its walls with saints staring out of golden backgrounds that still shine nine hundred years later. The cathedral's mosaics rank among the finest surviving examples of Byzantine art outside Constantinople.
In context
Also in 1020 (3 other events on record)
- Avicenna begins the Canon of Medicine · Central Asia · Science
- Al-Biruni publishes his India · South Asia · Culture
- Song Dynasty population reaches fifty million · East Asia · Technology
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Culture
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.