NOVOGOllOD. 
28 
chap, the copies of sacred relics seem to be as much 
■ . ■< objects of worship among the Russians as the 
originals themselves. This will appear from 
the description of Moscoiv. In the neighbourhood 
of that city there is a building, erected at 
prodigious expense, in imitation of the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem ; having 
exactly the same form, and containing a faithful 
representation of the same absurdities. 
Cathedral. The Cathedral of Novogorocl, dedicated to 
St. Sophia, in imitation of the name given to 
the magnificent edifice erected by Justinian at 
Constantinople, was built in the eleventh century. 
Many of the pictures seem to have been there 
from the time in which the church was finished, 
and doubtless were some of them painted long 
before its consecration, if they were not brought 
into the country with the introduction of 
Christianity. At any rate, we may consider 
some of them as having originated from Greece, 
whence Italy derived a knowledge of the art, 
and as being anterior to its introduction in 
that country. Little can be said of the merit 
of any of these pictures. They are more re- 
markable for singularity than beauty. In the 
Supcrsti- dome of a sort of ante-chapel, as you enter, 
Greek are sc e.n the representations of monsters with 
Church ’ many heads ; and such a strange assemblage 
