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Saint Sophia Church, Moscow

17th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings17th-century churches in RussiaCultural heritage monuments of federal significance in MoscowPages containing links to subscription-only contentRussian Orthodox churches in Moscow
Moscow StSophiaChurch 192 3522
Moscow StSophiaChurch 192 3522

The Saint Sophia Church in Middle Sadovniki (церковь Софии в Средних Садовниках) is a mid-17th-century Russian Orthodox parish church standing on the Balchug Island opposite the Moscow Kremlin. The church of Saint Sophia is believed to have been founded by the merchants from the city of Novgorod, where the Saint Sophia Cathedral is the main sanctuary. The church gives its name to the Sofievskaya Embankment of the Moskva River. The ornate building next to the church is the headquarters of the Rosneft, the world's largest listed oil company.The mauve frontage is dominated by a tapering bell tower rising above the entrance. The openwork belfry was designed in the 1860s so as to echo the Kremlin towers across the river. The revivalist design is by Nikolay Kozlovsky. The church was closed for worship between 1930 and 2004, with the main building being a kommunalka.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Saint Sophia Church, Moscow (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Saint Sophia Church, Moscow
Sofiyskaya Embankment, Moscow Yakimanka District

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N 55.7481 ° E 37.6215 °
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Sofiyskaya Embankment 30
103073 Moscow, Yakimanka District
Moscow, Russia
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Moscow StSophiaChurch 192 3522
Moscow StSophiaChurch 192 3522
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Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices

Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices is a group of bronze sculptures created by Russian artist Mihail Chemiakin. The sculptures are located in a park in Bolotnaya Square, Balchug, 2,000 feet (610 metres) south of the Moscow Kremlin behind the British Ambassador's residence.The monument consists of 15 sculptures. In the center of the composition are two blindfolded children. At their feet are two books: Russian Tales and Alexander Pushkin’s Fairy Tales, as well as a globe. The figures of children are surrounded by sculptures in the form of anthropomorphic monsters, personifying "adult" vices: Drug addiction – depicted as a bald man with bent wings offering a syringe. Prostitution – depicted as a woman with the head of a frog. Theft – depicted as a man with a boar's head, carrying away a bag of money. Alcoholism – depicted as Bacchus holding a goblet. Ignorance – depicted as a donkey holding a rattle in his hands. Pseudo-science is depicted as a caricature of Themis with a helmet over her eyes, a scroll with an alchemical tree, and a two-headed puppet. Propaganda of violence is depicted as an arms dealer. Sadism is depicted as a cassocked figure with a rhinoceros head. An empty pillory represents the forgotten victims of repression. The exploitation of child labor – depicted as a factory owner with the head of a bird. Poverty – depicted as an old woman begging for alms. War - a figure of a knight in armor, with bent wings and a gas mask resembling a character from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, holding a bomb with the head of Mickey Mouse. The wings are the same as those of the Addiction figure, giving the composition symmetry. Indifference stands in the center of the composition and is shown as a many-armed figure, both deaf and unseeing.The sculpture was commissioned by then-Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and sponsored by the state-owned oil company Rosneft. It was unveiled in 2001 amid some controversy. Some Muscovites worried that the graphic imagery would frighten children. Chemiakin said that, "[The sculpture] ... was conceived and carried out by me as a symbol and a call to fight for the salvation of present and future generations."The monument consists of 15 sculptures. In the center of the composition are two blindfolded children. At their feet are two books: Russian Tales and Alexander Pushkin’s Fairy Tales, as well as a globe. The figures of children are surrounded by sculptures in the form of anthropomorphic monsters, personifying "adult" vices: