Novgorod

Novgorod was the heart of the Russian medieval Northwest. Histirians are debating about its origin. The chronicle date (859) does not find archaeological confirmation. The earliest date of artefacts are from the middle of the 10th century.

The name «Novgorod» = «New City» indicates that its predecessor was some kind of «Old City». Holmgard of the Viking sagas is usually offered for this role. Some researchers identify Holmgard with the Rurik hillfort, others — with the Slaven region of Novgorod, which in the old days was called «Kholm».

The most ancient Novgorod, apparently, was located in the northwestern tip of the modern Kremlin, where in the middle of the 11th century St. Sophia Cathedral and the bishop’s courtyard were erected. Archaeologist V. L. Yanin believes that there was a pagan temple here before. In this case, St. Sophia is not just one of the largest and most famous ancient Russian churches. Before us is a monument reflecting the course of the Christianization process.

Another similar example near Novgorod is the Peryn, not far from the Yuryev Monastery, at the source of the Volkhov River from Lake Ilmen (left bank). Tradition associates it with the ancient temple of the pagan god Perun. According to legend, it was here that the voivode Dobrynya put the idol of Perun over Volkhov in 980, which was worshiped by the Novgorodians.

In the 17th century a legend was written that a monster lived here, «the fierce beast korkodil», into which the idol of Perun turned after the Christians threw him into the waters of the Volkhov.

In 995, a wooden church of the Nativity of the Virgin was built on the site of the temple. It has not survived to this day, but in its place is the Nativity Church, erected in the first third of the 13th century, in pre-Mongol times.

There are not many monuments from the early history in Novgorod. The most of them were founded on the 14th—17th centuries. We have several «places of memory» associated with the first Novgorod princes, temples and monasteries of the pre-Mongol period. Fortresses and civil buildings date back to a later period. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to make a short trip to the «places of memory» of pre-Mongolian Novgorod.

It is best to start this journey from near Novgorod, from the village of Staroe Rakomo (7 km south-west of Novgorod 58 ° 26′54 ″ N 31 ° 13′50 ″ E). In ancient times, this princely village, which belonged to Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich, turned out to be associated with the events of 1015, uprising against the Varangians. Yaroslav was at that time in Racomo. Yaroslav settled the conflict with the Novgorodians by giving them a special legislative letter, which scholars associate with the first Russian codex — the so-called «Russian Pravda» (about 1018).

And against Svyatopolk he began a war, which ended in 1018 with the victory of Prince Yaroslav, who later became the famous Kiev prince Yaroslav the Wise. The first steps towards this were made in 1015 during the troubled days in the Novgorod village of Rakomo. In the village itself, of course, nothing from the times of Yaroslav has survived. Only natural landscapes and a modest wooden chapel of St. Mikhail Klopsky by the road allows you to imagine the events of the past.

Approaching Novgorod from the southwest, you can visit the already mentioned Peryn and nearby — Yuriev Monastery. Tradition says that it was founded by Yaroslav the Wise in 1030. Around 1119, Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich ordered to lay the St. George Cathedral — the first building of Ancient Russia, for which the name of the architect is known — «Master Peter».

Behind the Rurik hillfort, you can see the famous Church of the Savior on Nereditsa (1198). It was founded by Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich in memory of his deceased son Izyaslav (buried in St. George’s Cathedral). The church is famous for its fresco paintings from 1199, which survived until the 20th century. The frescoes were completely destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, when the temple was in the line of fire for a long time and was destroyed. The restorers have accomplished a real feat — they have restored part of the frescoes literally bit by bit, collected from small, several centimeters in size, fragments of painted plaster.

The center of Novgorod and its oldest part — Detinets — were greatly rebuilt in the following centuries, and it is not a very easy task to read the monuments of pre-Mongol times on the ground. Of course, the main monument is St. Sophia Cathedral, built in 1045–1050. Three Sophias — Kiev, Polotsk and Novgorod — marked the sacred space of Ancient Russia, consolidated its connection with the Sophia of Constantinople, the main temple of the Orthodox world. Perhaps the first veche meetings of the Novgorodians took place on the square near the walls of the temple.

Opposite Detinets there is a platform with several temples. This is the so-called Yaroslav’s courtyard, a place where in the XI century was the courtyard of the Novgorod prince Yaroslav (the future Yaroslav the Wise). The temples of Yaroslav’s Dvorishche belong to a later time or were greatly rebuilt in the 14th—15th centuries. Among the most ancient is the Nikolsky Cathedral (1113–1136). Complete the journey through Novgorod in the 12th century we offer outside of it — in the Anthony Monastery (today it is the territory of the Novgorod State University named after Yaroslav the Wise). According to legend, the monastery was founded by St. Anthony, a former resident of the city of Rome, who sailed from the persecution of the «Latins» against Orthodox Christians from Rome along the Baltic Sea, along the Neva, Ladoga and Volkhov on a fragment of a rock (today the cathedral shows " the stone of St. Anthony "). It was, according to legend, in 1106. Arriving in Novgorod, Anthony received permission to build a monastery. In 1119, the monastery cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos was consecrated, which belongs to one of the three oldest ancient Russian buildings on the Novgorod land.

The last point, symbolic for the pre-Mongolian Novgorod history, is the Ignach-cross. This is a legendary place, from which the hordes of Batu in 1238 allegedly turned from Novgorod, not reaching it a hundred miles. In the area of the villages of Polomyat and Veliky Dvor, not far from the village of Yazhelbitsy in the Valdai district of the Novgorod region in the forest a memorial sign was erected in the form of a cross stylized as the Middle Ages in 2003.

Photos

A. I. Filyushkin

Tags: places of memory, before 13 century, 13 century, По маршруту Александра Невского: Ледовое побоище, The struggle for the Baltic until the 13th century, By the Vikings' Route, North-West Russia