What to see in Novgorod, Russia

Considered one of the most important historic cities in Russia, Novgorod is unbeatable in the variety and age of its medieval monuments. There are now some fifty medieval and early modern churches scattered throughout the city and its surrounding areas. Some of these were bombed by the Nazis, but have been subsequently restored. Three can't miss sites in Novgorod are the Kremlin, Yaroslav Court and St. Sophia Cathedral.

Novgorod Kremlin
Novgorod Kremlin (also Detinets) stands on the left bank of the Volkhov River in Veliky Novgorod about two miles north of where it empties out of Lake Ilmen. The compound was originally the site of a pagan burial ground upon which the first bishop of Novgorod, Ioakim Korsunianin built the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom upon his arrival in the area in 989 or so. Thus the compound was and remained largely an ecclesiastical site, although many Novgorodian boyars built their houses in the southern part of the Detinets.

Yaroslav Court
Yaroslav's Court was the princely compound in the city of Novgorod the Great.

St. Sophia Cathedral
The Cathedral of St. Sophia (the Holy Wisdom of God) in the Kremlin (or Detinets) in Veliky Novgorod is the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Novgorod and the mother church of the Novgorodian Eparchy.The 38-metre-high, five-domed, stone cathedral was built by Vladimir of Novgorod between 1045 and 1050 to replace an oaken cathedral built by Bishop Ioakim Korsunianin in the late tenth century (making it the oldest church building in Russia proper and, with the exception of the Arkhyz and Shoana churches, the oldest building of any kind still in use in the country).

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