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NOVGOROD |
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Despite its name, NOVGOROD ("New Town") is one of Russia's oldest
cities, founded, according to popular belief, by Prince Rurik in 862 AD.
The easiest way to get there is by excursion bus from beside the portico
on Nevskiy prospekt 33 (tickets from the kiosk beside Gostiniy Dvor for
around $3-4), although the tours are in Russian only. More expensive
tours in English are available through hotels. For information on all
museums in Novgorod, look online at www.novgorod-museum.ru .
During its most prestigious and wealthy period - from the twelfth to the
fifteenth century - Novgorod's republican-minded nobles bestowed a
fantastic architectural legacy upon the town, including a Kremlin (a
fortified inner city), Russia's oldest cathedral and numerous onion-domed
stone churches. However, the foundation of St Petersburg in 1703 was a
great blow to Novgorod's commercial prosperity, with the final straw
coming in 1851, when the new rail line linking Moscow and St Petersburg
bypassed the town entirely.
The impressive, nine-metre-high, red-brick walls of the Kremlin date
from the fifteenth century, when they formed the inner ring of an entire
series of fortifications. As many as eighteen churches and 150 houses
were once crammed inside these walls, though much of the Kremlin now
consists of open space. The Kremlin's main landmark is St Sophia's
Cathedral (Sofiyskiy sobor), the city's earliest and largest cathedral
by far, representing the peak of princely power in Novgorod and
afterwards a symbol of great civic pride, its five bulbous domes
clustered around a slightly raised, golden helmet dome. The cathedral
now doubles as a working church and museum (daily 10am-6pm, closed last
Tues of every month; there may be an entry charge). Inside, the well-preserved
iconostasis is one of the oldest in Russia and includes works from the
eleventh to seventeenth centuries.
The largest building in the Kremlin is an early-nineteenth-century mass
of administrative offices; nowadays it is home to the Museum of History,
Architecture and Art (daily except Tues 10am-6pm; closed last Thurs of
every month; $3), and contains a fine collection of icons by the
colourful Novgorod School, along with paintings, embroideries and early
wooden sculpture.
From the riverbank on the east side of the Kremlin, there's a great view
of the Commercial Side (Torgovaya storona), site of Novgorod's medieval
market. All that remains now is a long section of the old seventeenth-century
arcade. Immediately behind the arcade, where the palace of Yaroslav the
Wise once stood, is a grassy area still known as Yaroslav's Court (Yaroslavovo
dvorishche). Its most important surviving building is the Cathedral of
St Nicholas (Nikolskiy sobor; daily except Tues 10am-6pm), built in 1113
in a Byzantine style that was a deliberate challenge to St Sophia's.
All that survives of the Yuryev Monastery (Yuryev monastyr), founded by
Prince Vsevolod in 1117, is the majestic Cathedral of St George (Georgievskiy
sobor), which was built by a "Master Peter", renowned as the first truly
Russian architect, and which is one of the last great churches to be
built by the Novgorod princes. Inside, some twelfth-century frescoes
survive, but most date from the nineteenth century. The cathedral has
been rapidly restored in recent years and the monastery revived - you
should dress accordingly (covered head and no trousers for women). In
the woods nearby is the Vitoslavitsy Museum of Wooden Architecture (daily
except Wed: May to mid-Sept 10am-6pm; mid-Sept to April 10am-4pm; $5),
an inspiring collection of timber constructions moved here from the
surrounding area, including two churches and several peasant houses,
with some of the buildings dating from the sixteenth century.
If you need somewhere to stay , try Sadko , Fyodorovskiy ruchey 16 (tel
812/754 37; £20-25/$32-40), a budget hotel on the Commercial Side. As
far as restaurants go, everyone rightly goes to the Detinets (Mon
11am-4pm, Tues-Sun 11am-5pm & 7-11pm), in the Pokrov Tower of the
Kremlin. It has a café downstairs and a relaxed restaurant upstairs,
which has the occasional bit of live music in the evening; prices are
low.
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