St. Sophia Cathedral: altar part

The cathedral's is gloomy, cramped interior volume is directed upward into the reddish-bluish haze of painted walls and smoothly curved vaults. The current painting was made in 19th century, very little of ancient Russian antiquity has survived - some was lost in WW2, but the cathedral suffered especially badly during the restoration of 1893, when most of the ancient frescoes perished irrevocably under a thick layer of cement plaster.