On September 19, Veliky Novgorod marked its 1150th anniversary. RIA Novosti is presenting photos of the city’s most famous sights.
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© RIA Novosti
Veliky Novgorod, Russia’s aincient spiritual center, was the first city that began minting its own coins with a horseman bearing a spear. The Russian word for small coin, kopeika, originated from these coins, as it has the same root as the word for spear. On September 19, Novgorod marked its 1150th anniversary.
The first direct mention of the Novgorod stronghold appeared in chronicles in 1044, but most historians believe that fortifications existed there even before that. Ancient walls of the Novgorod castle.
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© RIA Novosti . Виктор Чернов
View of the Novgorod Kremlin from the marketplace.
The St. Sophia Cathedral, built in 1045–1052 by architects from Constantinople, the oldest church in Russia.
Bell tower of the St. Sophia Cathedral.
The St. George (Yuriev) Monastery on the bank of the Volkhov, near Lake Ilmen, was established in 1030 by Prince Yaroslav the Wise.
The monument dedicated to Russia's 1000th anniversary by Mikhail Mikeshin (1862).
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Khutyn Monastery of Saviour's Transfiguration and of St. Varlaam (now a women’s monastery). Popular legend says that the place used to be haunted by evil spirits, and the word Khutyn meant a “bad place.” But when Monk Valaam retired there to pray, he saw a light coming from the thick of the woods and decided it was a sign showing him that he should settle there. So he built a cell and defeated the evil spirits, and then built a church – first a wooden one, and later a stone one.
Veliky Novgorod is divided by the River Volkhov, the elegant St. Sophia part and the commercial part. The center of the St Sophia part was the Kremlin with a cathedral, while the commercial part on the right bank was centered around the Court of Yaroslav, where the prince’s court was transferred in the early 11th century by Yaroslav the Wise. Although Prince Yaroslav’s castle has not survived, the Court of Yaroslav is still there.
Wooden architecture museum Vitoslavtsy.
Sadko fountain in the Novgorod Kremlin gardens.
Pedestrian bridge across the Volkhov.
The Girl without Shoes statue on a pedestrian bridge across the Volkhov.
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev gazing at the bronze statue of a girl without shoes, one of the city's new attractions, during the celebrations of Veliky Novgorod's 1150th anniversary.
