Golden Ring

Rostov Veliki (The Great)

One of the oldest Russian towns (founded in 862) is situated 205 kilometres from Moscow on the shore of the picturesque Nero Lake. Its history is a succession of rises and fall, destruction and subsequent restoration. At one time it was the capital of a powerful principality and the residence of the Rostov Metropolitan which, since the 19^th century, has been called the Rostov Kremlin. Its architectural ensemble is situated in the very centre of the city, on the lake shore. It took 30 years to build the Kremlin and it has come down to us, majestic and inimitable. The White Chamber of the Kremlin holds a museum display, opened for visitors as early as 1883, when a Museum of Church Antiquities was created. It comprises a very rich collection of early Russian art – icons, embroidery, paintings and drawings as well as archeological finds. It is no accident that this museum is on the List of Objects of Russian Cultural Heritage of special value.

One of the most important monuments is the landscape itself, for the lake basin and the adjacent lands have attracted settlers here for thousands of years and they reveal a wealth of archeological materials. Other architectural monuments in Rostov have become classical examples not only of Russian but also world art. The world cultural heritage includes the renowned Rostov chimes, a unique set of 17^th – 19^th – century music pieces inseparable from the marvellous instrument – the Rostov belfry. Each of the 13 bells, the largest weighing 32 tonnes, has a name and sound of its own. It was admired by the singer Fyodor Shalyapin and the composer Hector Berlioz. The Rostov chimes continue to sound today.

Rostov Veliki is also famous for the unique traditional craft of Russian enamel. Paining on enamel, a craft developed in it over the centuries, is of special importance of the city. The works of Rostov enamellers, beautifully designed ornaments, are known all over Russia and have won world recognition.

Sergiev Posad

A picturesque town situated 70 kilometres to the north-east of Moscow, the centre of Russian Orthodoxy

The trinity Monastery (Laura) of St. Sergius, the city’s architectural dominant, is the spiritual heart of Russia, the capital of the Russian Orthodox Church. It was founded in 1340 by the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, whose name was subsequently given to the town. For several centuries the monastery was the religious and cultural centre of the country. Its principal church, the Trinity Cathedral, is decorated with frescoes and with icons by the great Andrei Rublev.

Sergiev Posad is sometimes called “the capital of toy kingdom”, for visitors can make here the celebrated Bogoroditskaya toy themselves (paint a matryoshka, for example) or play a Russian traditional game.

The environs of Sergiev Posad are also of unique interest. The town of Radonezh is the place where the Venerable Sergius spent his youth. The monastic underground cells of the Gethsemane Chernigovsky Skeet are the only cave cells to be found in the Moscow Region. In the town’s vicinity, too, is a spectacular 20-meter-high waterfall, Gremyachy (Roaring), well-known for its healing radon water with a constant temperature +6 degrees Celsius in any season. Visitors are also greatly impressed by the surviving architectural masterpieces – noblemen’s estates Abramtsevo and Muranovo, which, in the 19^th – 20^th centuries were centres of Russian literary, artistic and theatrical culture. 

 Vladimir

Archeologists date the foundation of this city by 1108, associating it with the name of Vladimir II Monomach. From 1157 it was the capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, flourishing particularly under Grand Princes Andrei Bogolyubsky and Vsevolod III (the Big Nest)

It remained the political, cultural and ecclesiastical centre of North-West Russia until mid-14^th century. Its importance is confirmed by the fact that until 1432 all Russian princes were crowed at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Vladimir. The white stone cathedral was built in 1158-1160 simultaneously with the Golden Gates, which were looked upon as a symbol of Vladimir’s status of the capital (there were similar gates in Kiev). The Golden Gates are a unique specimen of medieval military engineering and rare monument of early Russian fortifications. They were built of white stone and performed a double function, that of the principal defence tower and of the arch of triumph, through which victorious troops entered the city, as well as embassies from other counties.

The interior of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Vladimir preserves some fragments of 12^th-century painting, as well as frescoes of the early 15^th century, when the great icon-painter Andrei Rublev was sent from Moscow to restore the cathedral frescoes damaged by fire. Where the damage was considerable, Andrei Rublev and his friend Daniil Chorny with apprentices had to produce a new set of paintings. Both the Golden Gates and the Cathedral of the Assumption are in the UNESCO List of World Heritage.

Vladimir is the place where one can fathom the sources of Russian culture, getting acquainted with the great history of a great country. 

Suzdal

Its history goes down to a distant past. Together with Rostov Veliki and Murom, it is one of the oldest towns in central Russia. The well-preserved architectural ensemble, the early town-planning, the wealth of monuments and unique museums, the absence of industry and the primeval nature of the scenery make Suzdal inimitable in appearance like a fairytale town and attract lovers of Russian antiquity from all over the world. It is a kind of tourist Mecca of the Russian “Golden Ring”.

At one time, it was the capital of a principality, being at the source of the emerging Russian statehood and nation culture; it was the centre of Orthodoxy, a town of prosperous trade and crafts. Nowadays it is known as an open-air museum, which is the most accurate description of Suzdal, whose numerous churches have admired for about a thousand years the reflections of their own outlines in the quiet-flowing Kamenka River. Its area is only nine square kilometres, 1/100 part of Moscow, yet it boasts of nearly 300 architectural monuments dating back to the 13^th-19^th centuries. Among them is the ancient Kremlin, five monastery complexes, 30 churches, 14 bell-towers dating from the 18^th-19^th centuries and dozens of splendid specimens of the 18^th-19^th-century civil construction. Suzdal is unique for its abundance of monuments and the fine state of preservation of the town’s architectural ensemble.

Among the monuments of the greatest interest are the Kremlin, surrounded by ancient earthen ramparts, the complexes of the Convent of the Intercession and the former Spaso-Yevfimyev Monastery with their mysterious histories and the surviving old buildings, as well as the Museum of Wooden Architecture and Peasant Life. Syzdal is the birthplace of D.I. Vinogradov, inventor of Russian porcelain.

When arriving in the town, one cannot realise at once that one is actually in town: there are wooden or semi-brick houses around with vegetable attached, churches and cathedrals everywhere, and an almost rural tranquillity. Therein lies its charm. It is not without reason that people say: “The future of this city is in its past.” When you happen to find yourself in Suzdal, you should taste the local cucumbers and Russian honey vodka.

Kostroma

A unique monument of 16^th – 19^th – century town-planning in Russia, with valuable monuments of architecture and history. One of the few Russian towns which have preserved their distinctive character over the centuries.

It is situated 330 kilometres from Moscow on the banks of the Volga. From the bridge across the river one has a magnificent view of the city. Everything is unusual in Kostroma: the central square is called by the local people “The Frying-pan”; the fire observation tower looks more like a church or palace in Empire style, while the streets radiate from the centre the way Empress Catherine II wished it. She also established the city’s coat-of-arms depicting the boat in which she arrived there. The city is justly considered to be the home of the Romanov royal family and the Ipatyev Monastery became the family’s sacred place: when ascending the throne of Russia, each member of the dynasty thought it his duty to visit the monastery. Founded in 1152 by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, the town suffered numerous disasters, devastation and destruction from internecine feuds and foreign invasions. However, there are many historic and architectural ensembles and individual monuments here, including specimens of industrial architecture. The complex of shops in Kostroma is one of the biggest shopping centres of the 18^th – early 19^th centuries in Russia. More than 20 buildings comprising shops, each having its own name – Red, Flour, Spice-cake, Fish, Tobacco, Butter and Oil, Dairy and other – give the town centre an architecturally distinctive, inimitable aspect. The earliest extant historic buildings are to be found in the ensembles of the Bogoyavlensky (Epiphany) Monastery (The Cathedral of the Epiphany of 1565) and the Ipatyev Monastery (The Trinity Cathedral of 1652). It was from the Ipatyev Monastery that Mikhail Romanov was called to take the Russian throne. The unique iconostasis of the cathedral comprises 80 early Russian icons. An outstanding monument of 17^th –century Russian architecture is the Church of the Resurrection-on-the-Debre catching the eye with its unusual combination of white and green.

Yaroslavl

Among the precious jewels of the Russian old cities Yaroslavl shines with a particularly bright, unfading, light. Its sights and the Volga embankment, the city’s emblem, make an indelible impression on every visitor.

Situated 260 kilometres to the north-west of Moscow, the town was founded in 1010 by Prince Yaroslav the Wise of the Rostov principality on the site of the village of Medvezhi Ugol (Bear’s Corner) at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. Already at the beginning of the 13^th century, due to its beneficial position, Yaroslavl became one of major cities and the capital of an independent principality. Throughout its history the city has played an important role in Russian politics, economy and culture. It was here that the first Russian theatre was founded in 1750 by the talented Fyodor Volkov and the year 1786 saw the first publication of Russian provincial magazine. 

No other city in Russia except Yaroslavl can boast of such a wealth of 17^th –century architecture. Among the architectural gems are the Church of St. Elijah the Prophet, the Church of the Epiphany, the ensemble of the Monastery of the Transfiguration of Christ, within whose walls one feels a distinct atmosphere of history and loses the sense of time. Of particular architectural interest is the Church of St. Elijah the Prophet, a unique construction with asymmetric characteristics, with covered galleries and porticoes and lavishly decorated in its interiors with frescoes.