Novgorod - one of the most ancient cities of Russia located in its North-West, near the site where the Volkhov river takes its waters from Lake Ilmen, emerged as a political center of Slavic and Fino-Ugric tribes in the mid-9th century, while as a town it was formed in the middle of the 10th century.
Many experts of Russian art justly believe Novgorod to be Russian Florence; no other old Russian cities have managed to preserve so many ancient architectural monuments adorned with wall murals. Visit a unique complex of ancient Russian architectural monuments of the 11th - 17th centuries!
First of all you will be fascinated by the cathedral of St. Sophia, the Holy Wisdom of God - the oldest survived Russian stone monument. It was built in 1045. In the interior of this palladion your attention will be drawn by the unique historically formed iconostases, ancient mural paintings, icons - national relics of Russia, and other relics of Bizantine, Western Europe and Russian art. In the course of hundreds of years the Cathedral of St. Sophia was a centre of clerical, political and cultural life of ancient Novgorod.
The monuments of the 12th century Novgorod architecture - the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Yaroslav's Court and the Church of the Nativity of Our Lady in St. Anthony's Monastery have brought to us old fresco painting, carved iconostases, the necropolis of the 17th - 18th centuries. In the old cloister - the St. George (Yuriev) Monastery, that was founded in the 12th century by Prince Yaroslav the Wise, as a legend reads, one cannot help being amazed by the striking beauty of another masterpiece of ancient Russian architecture - the Cathedral of St. George, built in 1119. You will visit the churches of Our Saviour on Nereditsa Hill and Annunciation of Our Lady on Miachino Lake (12th century), appreciate the 14th century frescoes of world-famous Theophanes the Greek in the church of the Transfiguration of Our Saviour on Iliah Street, singularly graceful murals in the churches of the Nativity of Our Lady on Krasnoye Field, St. Theodore Stratilates on the Brook, the beautiful clergical 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.