History of the St. Petersburg

Novgorod. St Sophia Cathedral (1045 – 1052). Detail of the eastern facade.

Early Russia’s foremost cultural and art centre, Novgorod was first mentioned in a scripture in 859. For the many centuries ever since Novgorod produced a large artistic school and preserved numberless monuments of the 11th-17th-century architecture, along with artistically outstanding works of early monumental painting. Novgorod remained unconquered throughout the hard times of Tartar invasion, so that its cultural monuments and artistic traditions survived until to-day. This explains the city’s special significance in Russian art.

Novgorod. Museum of Architecture in the open air. Wooden church. 17th century

Novgorod. Museum of Architecture in the open air. Wooden Kuritskaya Church (17th century)

Novgorod. The Antoniev Monastery. Stone chambers (17th century). Detail of the fagade

Novgorod. Kremlin-citadel. Church of St Andrew Stratilates (17th century?). General view

Novgorod. Kremlin-citadel. Belfry of St Sophia Cathedral. Detail of the western facade

Novgorod. Kremlin-citadel. Belfry of St Sophia Cathedral (1437, rebuilt in the 16th and 17th centuries). General view from the West

Novgorod. Entrance arch of the kremlin (built in 1820 on the site of the Voskresenskaya (Resurrection) Tower pulled down late in the 17th century). View from the kremlin, from the East

Novgorod. Kremlin towers and the Volkhov River.