NOVGOROD AND THE KREMLIN

One of the most ancient cities of Russia, Velikiy Novgorod became a political centre of Slavic and Fino-Ugric tribes in the mid-9th century.  A town grew up near the site, where the Volkhov River takes its waters from Lake Ilmen, in the middle of the 10th century.

Novgorod’s history is closely linked with all major stages in the life of the Russian state. At the time, when the statehood of Rus was just being made, the Novgorodians invited Scandinavian prince Rurik to keep law and order, thus giving birth to the prince Rurik dynasty that ruled over all Russian lands for more than 750 years.

In the early 10th century, Novgorodians fought against Constantinople to secure equal trade with Byzantium, resulting in the merging of the East Slavic tribes into the ancient Kievan Russian state.

The adoption of Christianity at the end of the tenth century turned Novgorod into a powerful religious centre. The efforts of Novgorod Bishops in spreading and promoting Orthodoxy were given rewarded in the mid-12th century when they were elevated to the ranks of Archbishops, which made the Bishops Chair of Novgorod the most powerful in Russian Orthodoxy.

Novgorod gained the right to select its own princes in the middle of the twelfth century, which attracted princes to the Novgorod throne and helped to keep the Russian lands united.  The annexation of the Novgorod republic to the Moscow Principality at the end of the 15th century led to the united Russian State with Moscow as capital.

Throughout many centuries, Novgorod was a political centre of a huge area stretching from the Baltic lands and Finland in the West to the northern Urals in the East. It was also one of the greatest international trade centres on the Baltic-Volga commercial route that linked northern Europe with Asia as early as the mid - 8th century.

Novgorod is the birthplace of Russia’s republican and democratic traditions. For over 600 years, up till 1478, all vital decisions on its life and foreign policy were taken by the "veche" – the ancient parliament made up of the representatives of the town aristocratic families. At critical times of Novgorod history, all people took part in the veche.

The republic's special political structure, spiritual freedom and territorial independence enabled culture and art to flourish.  Novgorod was one of Russia's major centres of literacy and book production. As far back as in 1030s, by the will of the great Prince Yaroslav The Wise, Novgorod opened the first school to train three hundred children.

Medieval Novgorod was one of the greatest art centres of Europe. Its architectural traditions, school of icon-painting, jeweller's and decorative applied art became famous all over the world.

The town's military power, its remoteness from dangerous southern borders, successful campaigns against religious reforms and heresies enabled it to preserve a unique complex of architectural monuments with frescoes of the 11th - 17th centuries, the oldest Russian manuscripts, chronicles, acts, icons. The only time in its history when Novgorod suffered military damages was during World War II, when for over two years the city was at the front line and was bombed and shelled by both armies. From the ruins, this city was brought to life again by the experts, who managed to restore the old architecture.

There are so many interesting places to see.  The Cathedral of St. Sophia, the Holy Wisdom of God is the oldest surviving Russian stone monument. Built in 1045, it is a huge, monolithic monument, which still dominates not only the Kremlin, but the whole historic centre of Novgorod.  Inside are unique iconostases, ancient mural paintings, icons - national relics of Russia, which includes the famous 12th century icon of the Virgin of the Sign, that was returned to the cathedral in 1991, when religious services were resumed.  Other relics of Byzantine, Western Europe and Russian art are also to be seen.  For hundreds of years the Cathedral of St. Sophia was the centre of the religious, political and cultural life of ancient Novgorod.

Twelfth century Novgorod architecture includes the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Yaroslav's Court and the Church of the Nativity of Our Lady in St. Anthony's Monastery, that contain old fresco painting, carved iconostases, the necropolis of the 17th - 18th centuries. In the old St. George (Yuriev) Monastery, founded as early as the 12th century by Prince Yaroslav the Wise, is a masterpiece of ancient Russian architecture - the Cathedral of St. George, built by a master mason Peter in 1119.

Many experts of Russian art believe Novgorod to be the Russian Florence; no other old Russian cities have managed to preserve so many ancient, architectural monuments adorned with wall murals. Beautiful murals can be seen in the churches of Our Saviour on Nereditsa Hill and Annunciation of Our Lady on Miachino Lake (12th century); 14th century frescoes of world-famous Theophanes the Greek in the Church of the Transfiguration of Our Saviour on Iliah Street; graceful murals in the churches of the Nativity of Our Lady on Krasnoye Field, St. Theodore Stratilates on the Brook; the beautiful religious wall calendar of the 15th - 17th centuries in the Church of St. Simeon The Godreceiver; wonderful mural compositions of the late 17th - early 18th centuries in The Virgin of The Sign Cathedral.

The Kremlin of Novgorod, the oldest in Russia, was mentioned in chronicles as early as 1044.  The walls and towers were constructed at the end of the 15th century. The Detinets (the original name of the citadel) was linked with all the most important events in the life of ancient Novgorod: hosting foreign embassies, providing men to fight the enemy, convening people veche meetings.  The Kremlin also features such striking monuments as the Faceted (Archbishop's) Palace, a rare example of Gothic architecture, built in 1433, as well as the impressive and beautiful St. Sophia's Belfry of 1439 with a set of bells dating back to the 16th - 18th centuries.  In the central square of the Kremlin is the monument "The Millenium of Russia", designed by Mikhail Mikeshin and erected in 1862.  It is a unique document in bronze immortalizing, as well as outstanding politicians of Russia, all those who greatly contributed to the development of the country: its culture, science, art, literacy, literature.

On the opposite bank of the Volkhov is an architectural open-air museum the Yaroslav's Court and ancient Trade-yard displaying many surviving monuments of the 12th - 16th centuries: churches of St. John-The Baptist, Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa, Murrh-Bearing Women and others - all reminding us of the busy trade life of Novgorod in bygone days, as Yaroslav Court, with its former wooden palace of Great Prince Yaroslav The Wise, was widely known since the middle of the 8th century as a site of the international Trade-yard, the oldest in northern Europe.

The  majestic Novgorod landscape can be appreciated by making a boat tour of the Volkhov river and Lake Ilmen.  During the trip one will see Peryn, the site of the pre-Christian heathen- temple and Lipno island with one of the few preserved architectural specimens of the 13th century, the Church of St.Nicholas, decorated with frescoes of the same age.

Novgorod State United Museum has a unique collection of historic, cultural and art relics.  The Museum's archaeological collection contains relics excavated from the soil of Novgorod in the archaeological research that has been carried out for more than 60 years. The archaeological finds include such world famous items as a great number of birch-bark scrolls and lead seals dating back to the 12th - 15th centuries, indicating a unique, and striking for medieval times, level of literacy among ancient Russians and a highly organised system of state control. The unprecedentally rich collection of archaeological relics provides the basis for one of the best Russian historic exhibitions.
 
The world famous Novgorod Museum collection of Novgorod school of iconpainting, covering the 12th - 15th centuries, can be thoroughly studied not in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but only in their proper home in the Kremlin in Novgorod

It is also only in Novgorod that visitors can admire a unique collection of facial and ornamental embroidery of the 16th - 17th centuries. Exhibited in the Kremlin's St. Ioann building, it features such wonderful works of ancient Russian embroideries as maniples of St. Varlaam of Khutyn (12th c.), a shroud, commissioned by Dmitry Shemyaka (15th c.) and an omophorion of Nicon (17th c.), etc.

There is also the exhibition of ancient jewellery and decorative-applied art of the 10th to early 20th centuries, which is on display in the main hall of the Faceted (Archbishop's) Palace of the Kremlin. Many of them are unique: Zions from St. Sophia vestry (12th century), Craters of the 12th century, cloisonne enamels (10th - 12th centuries), panagiarion from the vestry of St. Sophia Cathedral (15th c. ) and panagia of Archbishop Pimen (16th century).

 The open-air architectural-ethnographic museum "Vitoslavlitsy" provides a whole complex of genuine folk wooden architecture, including ancient churches of the 16th - 18th centuries and peasant houses of the 19th - early 20th centuries, exhibitions of folk art and everyday life items of Novgorod peasants of the same period.
 
 There is so much to see at Novgorod!

How to get there from St Petersburg:
Train from Moscow Railway station takes about 31/4 hours