April 2011 : Yaroslav

Yaroslav, 600.000 inhabitants, is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kotorosl, 282 km northeast of Moscow. Yaroslav with its historic city center, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yaroslav is traditionally considered as one of the main sites of the Golden Ring of Russia.

How to go there ?

It is quite convenient by train but it takes more time than in western Europe. From Yaroslav railway station at Moscow (Metro Komsomolskaya) you reach your destination after 4 hours 20 min. One advice ... avoid "platzkart" (I already mentionned it last month) because it is difficult to be seated as most of the people are lying and sleeping - during the day ! Hopefully we were with Russian people who accepted us to be seated on their place.

Yaroslav, is believed to have been founded in 1010 by Prince Yaroslav the Wise, and it served as the capital of an independent principality from 1218 until 1471, when it came under the rule of Moscow. Yaroslavl was sacked by the Tatars in 1238 and by Ivan I Kalita in 1332, but on each occasion its recovery was swift. The opening of trade with the West during the 16th century brought prosperity to the town, which lay at the intersection of the great Volga River and Moscow–Arkhangelsk trade routes. The Yaroslav Great Manufactory, one of the earliest and largest textile mills in Russia, was established in 1722, and by the late 18th century Yaroslavl had become an important industrial centre.

Yaroslav’s industries now produce heavy machinery (particularly diesel engines and electrical equipment), refined petroleum products, textiles, and synthetic rubber and tires. Power is produced by coal-burning electric plants and by the Rybinsk and Uglich hydroelectric stations, located upstream on the Volga.

Yaroslavl is the birth place of outstanding people of Russia such as Fyodor Volkov, the founder of Russian national theater, and Valentina Tereshkova, the world's first woman cosmonaut.

At Yaroslav, the entire panorama of the Kotorosl embankment consists of a chain of magnificent churches culminating in the monumental and majestic ensemble of the white-stone Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery behind which rises the Church of the Apparition of Christ. This monastery now houses one of the most extensive museums of early Russian architecture with icon painting and folk arts. 

We will start the visit from the railway station. To reach the center, you need to catch a local bus (it is cheap) and after 15 min you will arrive on a central square (Bogoyavlenskaya). The square's central statue of Yaroslav the Wise (Pamyatnik Yaroslavu Mudromu) was unveiled in 1993 by President Yeltsin of Russia and President Kravchuk of Ukraine. 

We are now close to the monastery.

Monastery and around :

shops with snow !

From Bogoyavlenskaya ploshchad you can see the white walls and towers of the Monastery

of the Transfiguration of the Saviour (Spaso Preobrazhensky). Founded in the 12th

century, this was one of Russia's richest and best fortified monasteries.   The oldest surviving

structures, dating from 1516 but heavily altered since then, are the Holy Gate (Svyatye vorota)

on the river side (where is the modern entrance) and the central Cathedral of the

Transfiguration (Preobrazhensky sobor), which we couldn't visit inside (closed for works).   

Outside, there was a lot of animation with "Maslenitsa" fest on March 6th (week for pancakes, celebrating the end of winter ... but not really spring !)

Don't miss the museum which houses a rich collection of crafts and unique icons painted in the 16th to the 19th centuries.

And you can have a look at other buildings inside the monastery (most of them being closed during winter).

Also off Bogoyavlenskaya ploshchad is the vaulted, red-brick 17th century Church of the

Epiphany (Tserkov Bogoyavlenia). It has bright exterior ceramic tiles (a Yaroslav speciality

called "Baroque Yaroslav") and a carved iconostasis. And some people were doing paintings

of this church with temperature around -10°C !

Along Pervomayskaya ulitsa, past the 19th century Trading Arcades (Gostiny Dvor), is the

Znamenskaya Watchtower (Znamenskaya bashnya), built in 1658 on what was then the

edge of the city. 

Near this tower, we have the Fedor Volkov theater, first location where was created the first

show in Russian.

Not far from the theater there is the Kazanskiy monastery which was restricted to women.

Then, we will cross the center of Yaroslav, to reach the wharf of the Volga river.

Sobinovou statue

Chapel of Alexander Nevsky, Yaroslav baroque style with ceramics

The museum of music and time ...

River embankments :

The Volga and Kotorosl embankments from the Church of Elijah the Prophet back to the

Transfiguration Monastery make an enjoyable 1.5km walk.

Church of Elijah the Prophet (+ by night with snow)

A pedestrian promenade runs along the bank of the Volga (Naberezhnaya Volzhskaya). 

From the Church of Elijah the Prophet, head towards the river on Narodny pereulok. Here, the

Church of St Nicholas the Miracle-Worker (Tserkov Nikoly Nadeina) was the first of

Yaroslav's stone merchant churches, built in 1622. It has a sparkling baroque iconostasis and

frescoes showing the life and works of this St Nicholas, who's highly popular among

Russians.

Church of St Nicholas the Miracle-Worker

The temple of love built in 19th century and from it we could see people fishing on the ice.

Then a lot of churches, and among them ...

Ass. of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Nicholas Chopped

Church of our saviour

Archangel Michael

To see the Church of St. John Chrysostom we need to take a bus from Bogoyavlenskaya place. It is one of the ensemble of the Korovnikovskaya Sloboda and was built in the mid-17th century by the people of the artisan and merchant city quarters. It was painted in the 1730s by masters led by Alexei Soplyakov.