| |
Yaroslavl) is a city and the administrative
center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located 250 kilometers (160 mi) northeast
of Moscow. The historic part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at
the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. It is one of the Golden
Ring cities, a group of historic cities northeast of Moscow that have played an
important role in Russian history. In 2010, the city had a population of
591,486. "
Geography :
The city lies in the eastern portion of Yaroslavl Oblast. The nearest large
towns are Tutayev (34 kilometers or 21 miles to the northwest), Gavrilov-Yam
(37 kilometers or 23 miles to the south), and Nerekhta (47 kilometers or 29
miles to the southeast). The historic center of Yaroslavl lies to the north of
the mouth of the Kotorosl River on the right bank of the larger Volga River.
The city's entire urban area covers around 205 square kilometers (79 sq
mi)[citation needed] and includes a number of territories south of the Kotorosl
and on the left bank of the Volga. With nearly 600,000 residents, Yaroslavl is,
by population, the largest town on the Volga until it reaches Nizhny Novgorod.
It is a large transport node, and a great number of important national and
regional roads, railways, and waterways pass through the city. Many of the
roads that connect Yaroslavl to Moscow and beyond are two-lane highways.
Yaroslavl and its respective oblast are located in the central area of the East
European Plain, which in areas to the northeast of Moscow is characterized by
rolling hills and a generally uneven landscape; however, most of these hills
are no larger than 200 meters (660 ft) in height. Typical for this region, the
area in and around Yaroslavl is rich in mixed and coniferous forests. In
addition to these, there are also large areas of swampland.
Yaroslavl and its local area have a typical temperate continental climate, in
comparison to central and western Europe. This makes for a climate with more
snowy, colder, but dry winters and typically temperate, warm summers. The
winter weather in Yaroslavl begins in about November and usually goes on for
five months, into spring. The coldest month of the year is typically January,
with an average temperature of -12.0 °C (10.4 °F). However, at this
time it is not uncommon for temperatures to drop below -20 °C (-4
°F). In some cases (for example, most recently in January 2006[12]),
temperatures of -35 to -40 °C (-31 to -40 °F) can be experienced.
Record low is -46 °C (-51 °F).[13] On the other hand, Yaroslavl can
also experience positive temperatures during this time of the year (for
example, in 1932, when a thaw lasted for seventeen days of January[14]).
Typically the Volga freezes over during the winter. Snow cover is usually
35–50-centimeter thick (14–20 in), but can in some cases be up to 70
centimeters (28 in) in depth. The springtime months are best characterized by a
typical lack of precipitation. From the end of March into April, there is often
a thaw, and much of the ice and snow melts to reveal foliage underneath. It is
not uncommon for temperatures in April to reach +20 °C (68 °F).
Summers in Yaroslavl are typically wet with some heavy rainstorms. The summer
often reaches its hottest point during the months of June/July, with a mean
daily temperature of +23.3 °C (73.9 °F) and often days over +30
°C (86 °F). From September begins the two-month-long fall, which is
characterized by relatively high humidity, fewer sunny days, and unpredictable
temperatures (it is possible to first see ground frost in September). The
average amount of precipitation during a year is 591 millimeters (23.3 in), of
which 84 millimeters or 3.3 inches (the most precipitation in one month) falls
in July. The very least precipitation occurs in winter and spring (particularly
in February and March). The following figures for precipitation and temperature
values in Yaroslavl have been collated on the basis of data from the years
1961–1990.
History:
Preceded by Viking sites such as Timerevo from the 8th or 9th centuries, the
city of Yaroslavl is said to have been founded in 1010 as an outpost of the
Principality of Rostov Veliky, and was first mentioned in 1071.Capital of an
independent Principality of Yaroslavl from 1218, it was incorporated into the
Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1463. In the 17th century, it was Russia's
second-largest city, and for a time (during the Polish occupation of Moscow in
1612), the country's de facto capital.
Today, Yaroslavl is an important industrial center (petrochemical plant, tire
manufacturing plant, diesel engines plant and many others). It developed at the
confluence of major rivers, which were important for transportation and, later,
for power. Because of the city's importance, several major railways and later
highways were constructed to intersect here.
- Early Yaroslavl:
The oldest settlement in the city is to be found on the left bank of the Volga
River in front of the Strelka (a small cape at the confluence of the Volga and
Kotorosl); this dates from the 5th–3rd millennium BCE. In the 9th century
the so-called Russian Khanate formed, near Yaroslavl, a large
Scandinavian-Slavic settlement in Timerevo. It is known for a surviving range
of burial mounds. When excavations were carried out, a large number of
artifacts, including Scandinavian weapons with runic inscriptions, chess
pieces, and the largest collection of Arabian coins (treasure) in northern
Europe (the earliest were struck in the first Idrisid), were found. In Timerevo
the fourth set of Scandinavian brooches ever found in Russia was discovered.
Apparently, this "proto-Yaroslavl" was a major center for the Volga
trade route. Soon after the founding of Yaroslavl, the settlement went into
decline, probably in connection with the termination of the operation of the
Volga trade route. Upstream of the Volga River, just outside the boundaries of
the modern city, archaeologists have studied a large necropolis with a
predominance of ordinary graves of the Finno-Ugric-type.
Foundation of the city :
Based on its earliest date of foundation, Yaroslavl is the oldest of all the
existing towns on the Volga. Yaroslavl was founded by Yaroslav the Wise, a
prince of Kievan Rus', during the period of his ruling the Principality of
Rostov (988—1010) when he stepped ashore for the first time near the area
now known as 'Strelka.' This is used as a contemporary park. On this spot,
which was well protected from attack by the high, steep banks of the Volga,
Kotorosl and Medveditsa rivers, Yaroslavl and his men began to set about
building the first Yaroslavl Kremlin. The first recorded event of Yaroslavl
occurred as a result of famine; it was recorded as the Rostov Uprising of 1071.
The name of the city is traditionally linked to that of its founder: Yaroslav.
Yaroslav the Wise stands over the body of the bear which he, according to
legend, killed before founding the city By the 12th century, the Petropavlovsky
and Spaso-Preobrazhensky monasteries of Yaroslavl had already been developed.
At that time, they were located well beyond the city limits, but the city later
grew to encompass these institutions. During its first two centuries, Yaroslavl
remained a minor fortified city of the Rostov-Suzdal lands. From the beginning
of the thirteenth century, Yaroslavl was ruled by the lordship of Konstantin
and became one of his primary residences. Just before his death in 1218,
Konstantin broke up his land among his various sons, bequeathing the Yaroslave
land to his second son Vsevolod. The son ruled it as the Principality of
Yaroslavl. This principality, of which Yaroslavl became the capital, included a
number of territories to the north and operated independently until its
eventual absorption in 1463 into the Principality of Moscow. During the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Yaroslavl was a city largely built from
wood, as a result of which it often found itself plagued by disastrous fires,
which in some cases almost destroyed the entire city, a good example of which
would be that which took place just before the transfer of power in the city to
Vsevolod on 1221. Another constant source of danger for the city and for the
many Russian princes of the time came from the East and the many foreign
invaders, usually from the Mongol Horde. A particularly successful attack took
place in 1257, when troops from the Golden Horde under Möngke Khan overran
the Principality of Yaroslavl and murdered both the larger population of the
area and the prince's close family. On the site of that unfortunate event, on
the right bank of the Kotorosl, there is now a memorial church and cross. In
1293 and 1322 there were further disastrous attacks on Yaroslavl launched by
the Golden Horde, and in 1278 and 1364 the Plague struck. On many an occasion
Yaroslavl had to be completely rebuilt, both in terms of residential buildings
which no longer exist, to those larger more permanent structures which remain
to this day, such as the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery and 1314 Monastery of
Maria of Tolga, which is located on the left bank of the Volga. In 1463 the
Principality of Yaroslavl was finally absorbed into the Grand-duchy of Moscow,
with the area it once covered becoming an oblast within the new structure of
the Muscovite state. From this point onwards the history of the city and its
lands became completely inseparable from that of Moscow and eventually Russia.
16th century and the Time of Troubles:
Even in the 16th century Yaroslavl continued to suffer from large scale fires
and the damage they did to the city's developing economy and infrastructure. As
a result, the age old tradition of building in wood was abandoned and a new
city built of stone began to appear; unfortunately this meant that very little
of the Yaroslavl of the Middle Ages remained unchanged. The most prominent
example of this is the Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastery which was destroyed in
1501 and rebuilt in just under a few years. Resultantly the monastery's
cathedral was built up in 1506–1516, a building which remains, to this
day, the oldest unchanged building in the city. By the middle of the sixteenth
century a number of other building works had been completed in the monastery,
also, other than this, for the first time in its history, Yaroslavl gained a
stone-built wall with a number of large watch towers which were intended to be
used to spot attackers from miles away. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible,
when all the Russian principalities gave up their traditional rights and
submitted to the Tsardom of Russia, the two large monasteries of Yaroslavl
profited very much from rich gifts from the court of the Tsar, largely because
Ivan IV made a number of pilgrimages to Yaroslavl over the course of his life.
New building works were also made affordable by a large upswing in Yaroslavl's
economic fortunes which the city experienced in the middle part of the 16th
century. The main reason for this largely unexpected improvement in Yaroslavl's
fortunes came largely from the city's position on the Volga which allowed trade
to be brought from and to Moscow via the river, linking the new Russian capital
with the port of Archangelsk darstellte. Resultantly Yaroslavl became an
important place for the conduct of international trade and a number of shipping
berths and warehouses grew up around the city for the use of merchants,
especially those from England and Germany. Yaroslavl used to be known as the
city of many churches.
The economic prosperity of Yaroslavl during the late 16th century was put to an
end by the unsteady years of troubles which lasted from around 1598 until 1613.
Like most Russian cities of the time, Yaroslavl was devastated by famine and
became a potential target city for Polish-Lithuanian troops acting in their
capacity as 'interventionists' in the troubled Russian state. The
Polish-Lithuanian-supported pretender to the Russian throne captured Karachev,
Bryansk, and other towns, was reinforced by the Poles, and in the spring of
1608 advanced upon Moscow, routing the army of Tsar Vasily Shuisky at Bolkhov.
Promises of the wholesale confiscation of the estates of the boyars drew many
common people to his side. The village of Tushino, twelve versts from the
capital, was converted into an armed camp where Dmitry gathered his army.
Resultantly this pretender won the appreciation of the powers in Yaroslavl and
thus their loyalty. However, despite having promised to pay a higher rate of
taxes and dues to the Polish occupiers, Yaroslavl was on numerous occasions
plundered by the forces of the pretender Dmitry. This led to a number of
popular uprisings. Thus in early 1609 a Russian peasant army was formed to free
as many of the Volga's cities as possible, including, among others, Vologda and
Yaroslavl. In May 1609, another Polish army under the command of Aleksander
Józef Lisowski tried to bring the strategically important city of
Yaroslavl under the power of the invaders. However, the majority of the city's
citizens had withdrawn into the tradition center of the city and found refuge
behind the protective earthen wall, thus denying the Poles entry without a
fight. Yet even when Litowski successfully (through deceit) managed to get
behind this wall, he found that the citizens of Yaroslavl had retreated into
their ancient wooden Kremlin and the two stone-built monasteries. The ensuing
siege of Yaroslavl lasted until 22 May, but despite constant attempts to take
the city, the Poles had to return to Moscow having not fulfilled their duty to
bring Yaroslavl under direct control of their command. Minin and Pozharsky,
whilst on their way to relieve Moscow, made Yaroslavl their base and thus de
facto capital of Russia for two months in 1612 Despite their failure at
Yaroslavl, Polish forces remained in control of Moscow, and despite an attempt
in 1610 by the Russian peasants' army to unseat the Poles from the Moscow
Kremlin, little was accomplished and their seemed no end in sight for the
occupation of the Russian tsardom. One year later however Kuzma Minin and
Prince Dmitry Pozharsky founded yet another peasants' army in Nizhny Novgorod,
that on the way to Moscow, found itself stationed in Yaroslavl for many months.
In this time from April to June 1612 Yaroslavl became the de facto capital of
the Russian state, since in this place the most important matters of state were
settled until the eventual liberation of Moscow came. After its time in
Yaroslavl the peasants' army moved on towards Moscow, and with thanks to the
rest and help they had received voluntarily from the people of Yaroslavl, the
army was able to liberate Moscow and finally put an end to the
Polish-Lithuanian 'intervention' in the affairs of the Russian state.
With the general economic revival of the Russian state's economy after the end
of the Troubles, Yaroslavl continued to be an important trading post and
retained its place on the route of numerous traditional trading routes from the
West to East and vice versa. By way of the Volga trade was carried out with the
lands of the Orient, and it was not unheard of to see ships from India and
China bringing goods to Europe by way of Yaroslavl. The northern trade route
through the city ran to the port of Arkhangelsk in Russia's far north, whilst
other Eastern trade lines ran East over the Urals to Siberia. The town
benefited very much from its geographical location over the years and the
wealth which business produced for the town helped ensure its prosperous
future. In fact, in the 17th century a number of early industrial concerns were
set up in the city, including a number of leather-working shops, in which
around 700 people eventually came to work. Other trades for which Yaroslavl
became a center over the years were in the production of textiles, cosmetics
(fragrances) and silver work. As a result of the prosperity enjoyed by the
city, Yaroslavl saw a huge expansion in the size of its population over the
course of the 17th century, and by the end of this century, the town had a
population of around 15,000 people, making it the second largest city of the
Russian Tsardom after Moscow. This period was also particularly important for
the urban development of the city, because during the 17th century a multitude
of stone-walled churches were built in the city; today these churches still
form a major part of the old town's city center. Work on most of these churches
was begun with funds gifted to the city by rich local merchants, and thus they
had a large say in what form the buildings would eventually take. In 1658,
Yaroslavl endured a disastrous fire which destroyed most of the city's few
remaining wooden buildings, including the ancient Kremlin. From this point
onwards the city began to develop in the same way as it has done up to this
very day, as a city built almost exclusively out of brick and mortar.
At the beginning of the 18th century Yaroslavl finally began to transform
itself from a trading post into a major industrial town; this largely came
about because with the foundation by Peter the Great of Saint Petersburg in
1703, the importance of Arkhangelsk as a port on the Northern Ocean was
drastically decreased, and the amount of trade being channeled through the city
for export fell accordingly. Luckily, the wealth which Yaroslavl had amassed
over its many years as an important trading post allowed it to invest great
amounts of money into the development of the city's new industrial base, and
thus make the city very attractive to new investors. In 1772 the textiles
factory of Ivan Tames opened on the right bank of the Kotorosl. This plant was
not only Yaroslavl's first major industrial enterprise, but also one of
Russia's largest textiles producers. The establishment still exists today under
the name 'Textile factory 'Krasny Perekop'. In addition to the rise in textile
manufacturing, Yaroslavl's traditional position as a center for skilled
leatherwork remained unchanged.
In the 1770s, as a result of the city's economic development and ever rising
population, the city became a major provincial center, thus in the course of
the Russian Empire's administrative reforms under Catherine the Great
Yaroslavl, in 1777, became the center of its own governorate, and in 1778
received its own grant of arms. In 1796, the city finally became the seat of
one of the Empire's new governorates. As an administrative center of the
highest order, Yaroslavl, in 1778, received its own plan for urban development
specially drawn out by Ivan Starov. This led to another wave of building works
in the city, the results of which are still visible in the city today. With the
Ilyinskaya Square and Church of Elijah the Prophet at its center, the new plan
called for the development of a network of long boulevards and streets which
would be bordered by large classical style buildings and numerous city parks. A
prominent example of this later development is the former House of Charity
(built in 1786), which is now one of the buildings of the city's 'Demidov'
State University. For Yaroslavl the 19th meant a period of intensive building
work, infrastructural development and industrialization. In 1803 the 'School of
Higher Sciences' was opened, this was the city's first educational institute
and is recognized as the forerunner to the city's current state university. In
1812 the first permanent bridge (built near the Transfiguration Monastery) over
the Kotorosl was finished, and by 1820 the city's Volga embankment was
stabilized and turned into a large shaded promenade. Also, other major
classicist building works were started, among which was the Governor's House
(1821–1823) (today location of the city's gallery). In 1860 Yaroslavl was
finally connected, through Moscow, via telegraph to the other major cities of
Russia, and this was then soon followed, in 1870, by the building of
Yaroslavl's first railway station and inauguration of Yaroslavl-Moscow railway.
In 1873 the city gained a municipal waterworks and by 1900 an electrified
tramway. Just before the end of the 19th century in 1897, Yaroslavl had a
recorded population of around 71,600 people.
20th century and millennium:
Right up until the beginning of the First World War Yaroslavl remained a large
industrial town with a well-developed municipal infrastructure. However, the
effects of the 1917 October Revolution were wide-reaching, and after the
Russian Civil War of 1917–1920 the city's economy suffered rather
drastically; this led to a significant contraction of the city's population.
The Yaroslavl Rebellion, which lasted from 6 to 21 July 1918 had particularly
grave consequences. In this event, a group of conservative activists tried to
remove the newly installed Bolshevik municipal authorities through an armed
intervention. The rebels managed to secure a number of large parts of the city,
however, this led only to an assault by the Red Army which saw the city
surrounded, cut off from supplies and bombarded day and night with artillery
and air forces. The rebellion was eventually put down, and ended with official
figures putting the number of deaths among the city's residents at about 600,
in addition to which around 2,000 of the city's buildings were either destroyed
or badly damaged. The economy of Yaroslavl took part in the early Soviet
Union's program of accelerated industrialization. Milestones for this period
include the opening of the city's first municipal power plant in 1926, the
beginning of Synthetic rubber mass production in factory SK-1, the
reestablishment of domestic production facilities for the production of
automobile and aircraft tires in the 1928-founded Yaroslavl Tyre Factory, and
the opening of the rubber-asbestos combined works in 1933. In addition to all
this, the Yaroslavl Automobile Works (founded 1916) continued to produce
vehicles, including a number for the municipal transport administration of
Moscow, well into the 1930s.
During the years of World War II, Yaroslavl managed to escape the prospect of a
German occupation of the city, since the Wehrmacht did not manage to break
through the Soviet defense lines surrounding Moscow. However, due to its
location as a large transportation hub, and since the 1913-built railway bridge
over the Volga in Yaroslavl was the only point at which to cross the river, the
city became a major target for air raids during 1942–1943. During the one
of the heaviest of all these raids on 11 June 1943 over 120 of the city's
inhabitants were killed, whilst another 150 or so were badly injured. In
addition to this around 200 buildings (including one of the tire factory's main
workshops) were completely destroyed. Most of the city's industry, including
the automobile, tyre and textile plants, were converted, during the war, to
produce armament and equipment for the Soviet Red Army. Overall about 200,000
people from the Yaroslavl area died on the fronts during World War II. This
sacrifice is today memorialized through a monument and eternal flame which was
opened near the mouth of the Kotorosl River in 1968.
During the Blockade of Leningrad a great number of children, who were brought
over the frozen Lake Ladoga (the so-called Road of life) were evacuated to a
safer new life in Yaroslavl. Yaroslavl was at the time also home to a camp for
military prisoners of war 'Camp No. 276' for German soldiers imprisoned for
taking part in hostilities against the Soviet Union. In the second half of the
century, the industrialization and development of the city took the foremost
position in Yaroslavl's history. In 1961, an oil refinery was opened and from
the 1960s a large number of residential districts began to spring up all over
the city, including, for the first time in the city's history, on the left bank
of the Volga, where development had traditionally not taken place. This
left-bank development was further encouraged by the construction, in 1965, of a
new Volga crossing for automobiles. In 1968 the city's population finally rose,
for the first time, to over half a million inhabitants; it has been growing,
almost constantly, ever since. In July 2005 Yaroslavl's historic city center
was inscribed onto the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The support for
this was in line with the list's second (a unique example of the combining of
cultural and architectural styles between Western Europe and the Russian
Empire) and fourth (a unique example of urban development influenced by the
Municipal Planning Reform in Russia of Empress Catherine the Great
1763–1830). In the same year, the preparations for the celebration of the
millennium of Yaroslavl's foundation began; this was finally celebrated on the
second weekend in September 2010. Under the conditions of the preparations for
the city's 1000th anniversary, the municipal authorities invested a great deal
of money into the development of the city's road and rail infrastructure, much
of the funds for which were granted by the federal government in Moscow.
Included in these preparations was the opening of a new bridge (in 2006) over
the Volga; this is now known as the Jubilee Bridge. Also in August 2008, the
newly built Yaroslavl Zoo was opened; this was then expanded further in 2010.
In 2009, Yaroslavl became a meeting place for global policy debates within the
International Conference 'The Modern State and Global Security'. AKA Yaroslavl
Global Policy Forum. The conference in Yaroslavl gathered the most
authoritative representatives of political science, business community as well
as the representatives of the governments of a number of different states.
Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, José Luis
Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain and François Fillon, Prime Minister of
France were all participants at the Conference. In 2010, Russian officials
gathered together international authorities in Yaroslavl to discuss the
challenges facing the modern state at the Global Policy Forum for 'The Modern
State: Standards of Democracy and Criteria of Efficiency'. In 2011 Yaroslavl
will bring together participants from all over the world to discuss the 2011
agenda: 'The modern state in the age of social diversity'. On September 7,
2011, most of the members of the city's KHL (ice hockey) team, Lokomotiv
Yaroslavl, perished in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash on takeoff from
Yaroslavl's Tunoshna Airport.
Architecture:
Many Orthodox shrines and monasteries lie along the banks of the Volga. Despite
the effects of the Russian Civil War and a number of air-raids during World War
II, the city of Yaroslavl has managed to retain a great deal of its 17th, 18th
and 19th century urban substance. This has helped make the city recognizable as
a monument to the architectural development and style of the Russian Tsardom.
The center of the city, which covers an area of around 600 hectares has around
140 individual federally-protected architectural monuments. Since 2005, this
ensemble, along with the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery has been included on
the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Despite all this, there are a number
of buildings of architectural merit which are located outside of the city
center. The old town is effectively triangular in shape; this triangle is
formed by the natural border provided to the south and east by the Kotorosl and
Volga rivers, and on the land side by the geometric pattern of the street plan,
which dates from the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 16th century, the first
stone wall is built around the monastery. It is from this monastery that an
army of volunteers led by Minin and Prince Pozharsky set out to liberate Moscow
from Polish invaders. In 1787, the monastery was closed and converted into a
residence of the Yaroslavl and Rostov bishops. At that time, monastery
buildings began to be reconstructed. New cells and the prior's chambers were
built. The most well-known building in the city is the 'Spaso-Preobrazhensky'
('Transfiguration of the Savior') Cathedral of the Spassky (St Savior)
Monastery. This monastery was founded in the 12th century and thus it, and its
cathedral, are the oldest buildings in the city. The Transfiguration Cathedral
itself, built in 1516, is the oldest detached building standing in the city.
Typical for a Russian monastery of the Middle Ages, the Spaso-Preobrazhensky
Monastery in Yaroslavl was not built to be no more than a place of worship, but
also to be a citadel and kremlin in case, in times of war, there was a need for
such a facility. This is still visible today as the monastery is surrounded by
a thick 16th century, white-painted wall, complete with watchtowers and
embattlements. Within these walls stand the magisterial churches, which, with
their asymmetrically-ordered towers and decorated interiors, make for examples
of traditional Russian sacral architecture. In addition to this there is a
gatehouse church, with which the monastery's dungeons and treasury were
connected. The monastery has long had a place in the history of Yaroslavl and
continues, albeit nowadays as a museum, to play a role in the life of the city.
It was largely thanks to the impregnability of the monastery that, during the
time of the Troubles, the Russian peasants' army was able to defend the city
and then go on to liberate Moscow from its Polish-Lithuanian occupiers. At the
end of the 18th century, the oldest known text of the Tale of Igor's Campaign,
the most renowned work of Russian-language literature from the Middle Ages, was
found in the library of the SPaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. This work is now on
display as a permanent exhibition within the monastery, along with other works
of the age and an exhibition showing the conditions an author of the era would
have lived in. The often hectic square which is to be found just beyond the
north gate of the monastery (main gate), is called Bogolavyenskaya Square
(Epiphany Square). This /name comes from the nearby Epiphany Church which is
seated at the south end of the square, near the bank of the Kotorosl. This
church, with its five domes, and traditional Russian sacral architecture, is a
classic example of a medieval Russian church. However, the church has a
separate clock-tower which was built in accordance with the
sacral-architectural style of Muscovy in the years 1684–1693; this all
goes to make the church one of the most noticeable examples of 17th-century
architecture in the city. In addition to this, the fresco-work inside the
church was carried out by local artists during the building of the church, and
has remained, almost unchanged, to this day. The two streets which lead off
Bogolavyenskaya Square to the north-west are very good examples of the type of
urban planning which was formulated for Yaroslavl in the 18th and 19th
centuries. They were laid out in 1820–1821 as new boulevards to run around
the historic city center and were built on terrain previously occupied by a
number of earthen and wooden fortifications which dated from the 16th century.
There was also a small defensive moat in this area, and after the infilling of
the moat and removal of all other fortifications, the defensive uses of the
Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastery largely disappeared. This was, in general, not
considered to be a great loss, as the requirement for such earth-works in order
to maintain defensive readiness had long since been surpassed by other methods
of securing a city by the point of their removal. The two municipal watchtowers
which have been retained (the Vassily tower and Volga tower) were both
positioned on the city's outer defensive walls which afforded them clear views
of oncoming enemy forces. Within the old defensive limits of the city one can
find many other examples of classicism, one important example of which would be
the municipal trade rows 'Gostiny Dvor' – these were built in
1813–1818, not long after the clearing of the land upon which they now
stand. The style of the building, made noticeable by its many Ionic columns, is
similar to that of many Russian trade rows and market halls built in the early
to mid-19th century, all over the country. This style is also very
complementary to the 1911-built neoclassical Volkov Theater. At the end of
Komsomolskaya Boulevard, upon which the trade rows are located, one finds
themselves at 'Volkov Square'; where the ring-boulevard makes a slight
deviation to the north-eat and carries on towards 'Red Square' and the city's
Volga embankment. Yaroslavl's Red Square does not have the same etymology as
the likewise-named Red Square in Moscow (the name of which stems from the
old-Russian for 'beautiful square'), rather in Yaroslavl's case, its Red Square
was first so-called in the 1920s, and was officially named in honor of the
Soviet Red Guards. There are a number of buildings of historical interest on
Red Square, one of which is the three-story building on the square's north side
which once housed Yaroslavl's 'aristocrat's meeting house', and is now the main
building for the city's 'Demidov' State University. Furthermore, the square is
also the location where the city's main fire department can be found; this is
contained within a jugendstil building, built in 1911, and which has a large
look-out tower, which even until the 1970s was actively used by the city's fire
brigade. Komsomolskaya Street constitutes the southwestern section of
Yaroslavl's ring-boulevard To the east of the boulevard, within the borders of
the former defensive earthworks, the architecturally-rich 'nucleus' of the old
city is to be found; an area criss-crossed by many narrow, small streets, in
the middle of which one of Yaroslavl's most well-recognized architectural
monuments is to be found. This is the Church of Elijah the Prophet, which, in
the same way as the Epiphany Church, is a very prominent example of the way in
which the city developed in the 17th century. Before the completion of the
church which currently stands in 1650, a number of other predecessor-churches
stood on this spot. From these, the oldest dated back to the foundation of
Yaroslavl and the reign of Yaroslav the Wise. The church, with its five onion
domes, is a cross and dome style church, the architecture of which is typical
of Muscovite designs, is particularly well known for its interior fresco
paintings, which, despite a history which has seen great fires and disasters,
have been kept in good condition. The frescos on the walls and ceilings were
painted by around fifteen experienced artists from Yaroslavl and Kostroma
around the year 1680. The fresco-work is festooned with many references to the
Old Testament. The square, upon which the church, with its clock tower and
neighboring chapel are situated, was in the early 19th century, according to
the city's urban plan, to be the central square of Yaroslavl and the place upon
which markets and national holidays would take place. Nowadays it is an area
largely reserved for official events, with the other buildings surrounding the
square all belonging to the municipal administration. In general the streets of
the city center are characterized by the noticeable mix of classical and sacral
architecture. There are a number of major public and commercial buildings of
architectural merit in the center of the city, among which are the 1785
'Governmental offices' building' and the Vakromeyev House, which today houses
the Yaroslavl Seminary for young priests. The Volga embankment is a good
example of urban planning in the classicist style; built in the 1840s, this
promenade walk has remained a favorite place for residents to take a stroll and
relax ever since. The southern part of the city center, around the area where
the Kotorosl and Volga intersect, is an area abundant in green park-like
spaces. Until the 17th century this area was occupied by the wooden Yaroslavl
Kremlin and is thus referred to nowadays as 'Wooden Town'. The Kremlin burnt
down in 1658 and was never rebuilt. Close by the 1642 Church of Maria stood
until its demolition in 1937, however, since 2004 the church was under
reconstruction and was finally opened on 12 September 2010 by Patriarch of
Moscow Kirill. Yaroslavl is the site of the Volkov Theater (built 1750), the
oldest theater in Russia, and the Demidovsky Pillar. The city has many Russian
Orthodox churches, one Russian Old Believers church, one Baptist church, one
Lutheran church, one mosque and one synagogue.
|
|
