The name of Saint Sophia’s Cathedral in Kiev comes from the sixth-century Hagia Sophia cathedral in Constantinople (meaning Holy Wisdom, and dedicated to the Holy Wisdom rather than a specific saint named Sophia).

According to a less popular theory, its model was the thirteen-domed oaken Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod (constructed around 989), which Yaroslav I the Wise had determined to imitate in stone as a sign of gratitude to the citizens of Novgorod, who had helped him secure the Kievan throne in 1019.

The first foundations were laid in 1037 (or 1011), but the cathedral has taken until 1057 to complete.