Veliky Novgorod

Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party	Russian Federation
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iv, vi
Reference	604
Region**	European Russia
Inscription history
Inscription	1992  (16th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. ** Region as classified by UNESCO.

Novgorod, the third largest city in Russia, has deep historical roots to Russian culture as a whole. Novgorod is famed as a center for Russian folk culture, because it does not experience the same influx of Western ideas and peoples found in Moscow or St. Petersburg. The preeminence of Veliky Novgorod in Russian culture is represented by the root of the name, where "Novgorod" is said to be the Russian word for "new city", and "Veliky" means "the Great".

Geography

Ancient Novgorod rose to a political force partially due to its ideal location with easy access to both the Oka and the Volga rivers. It is located in the North-West region of Russia, an area commonly referred to as Russia's heartland. The title of the area reflects the high agricultural productivity of the region, as well as the overall economic importance of the area to Russia as a whole.

In modern times, when rivers are no longer the main means of conveyance, Novgorod can be reached by the Russian Route M10. It is situated between the major metropolises Moscow and St. Petersburg, and is rising to become a population center in its own right. Recent estimates put the population at 216, 856, which while lower than the measurements in Soviet Times, still represents a large city by Russian standards.

Economy

Education is an incredibly important part of the Novgorod culture, as it was one of the first cities in Russian history to build a schoolhouse large enough to hold three hundred students at once. The high levels of education in Novgorod directly spawned many of the key industries for the city, particularly the book making and printing industries. Novgorod also expressed its intellectual history through art, becoming a major center for icon painting and applied decorative arts.

Currently, much of the Novgorod economy is funded through foreign investment sources. Novgorod is widely considered to be one of the most econoically open Russian cities, a fact corroborated by tax breaks offted to foreign investors by the local government. Foreign investors tend to focus on heavy industry, particularly the radioelectronical, furniture, chemical fields. The high levels of investment have had some effect on the local population, raising the living standard above many other urban centers in Russia. In paricular, Novgorod has a smaller homeless population than Moscow or St. Petersburg.

History

Novgorod was among the first cities to be formed in ancient Russia. Due to its proximity to the rivers, a small civilization sprouted up that connected the Greek markets to the Russain and Baltic markets. Archaelogical evidence regarding the trade dates the city back to the tenth century C.E. , when Christianity first made its way into Russia. Along with the ideas of Christianity, religious evangelists brought trade items to be traded in urban centers to fund their travels. While some records mention Novgorod as an urban center prior to the tenth century C.E. it must be assumed that earlier accounts exagerate the importance of the settlement, due to the lack of archaeological evidence to support a large city at an earlier time.

After the tenth century C.E., Novgorod emerged as a strong political and religious center. Its secure position was primarily due to Novogorod's stong military onslaught against Constantinople. As a result of the military campaign, Novgorod maintained equal trading rights with Byzantine and began a cultural interchange. East Slavic tribes from Byzantine began pouring into the ancient Slavic state, influencing the art and culture of Novgorod.

Bronze monument to the Millennium of Russia (1862)

The growing economic and political authority of Novgorod soon drew the attention of Oleg of Novgorod, a political leader who led a campaign to capture Novgorod. Because of the power of Novgorod, it became the second most powerful city in the newly formed Kievan Rus. The city was ruled by a series of political organizations, called posadnicks, which governed when the ruler had no son to inherit the throne. When not being ruled by posadnicks, Novgorod had the good forune to experience a series of benevolent rulers who governed with the best interest of the city's inhabitants in mind. The most notable among the benevolent leaders of Novgorod was Yaroslav I the Wise, who implemented the first written code of laws in the city.

Under a series of benevolent rulers, the inhabitants of Novgorod were steadily granted increased independence and political autonomy. As a result of their increased role in the political process, it soon became apparent to the inhabitants of Novgorod that a singular ruling authority was not nessary for Novgorod to function. As a result of this revelation, the Novgorodians dismissed their prince in 1136. In order to fill the political void, Novgorod established the Novgorod Republic, which invited and dismissed a series of princes in order to rule Novgorod. While the veche, or electing authority, maintained supreme nominal power, some powerful leaders were able to assert a strong agenda over the objections of the people.

12-century Novgorod icon called Angel with Golden Locks

Throughout the Middle Ages, the city thrived culturally. A large number of birch bark letters have been unearthed in excavations, perhaps suggesting wide-spread literacy, although this is uncertain (some scholars suggest that a clerical or scribal elite wrote them on behalf of a largely illiterate populace). It was in Novgorod that the oldest Slavic book written north of Bulgaria and the oldest inscription in a Finnic language were unearthed. Some of the most ancient Russian chronicles were written in the archbishops' scriptorium and the archbishops also promoted iconography and patronized church construction. The Novgorod merchant Sadko became a popular hero of Russian folklore.

Novgorod was never conquered by the Mongols during the Mongol invasion of Rus. The Mongol army turned back about 100 km from the city, not due to the city's strength, but probably because the Mongol commanders did not want to get bogged down in the marshlands surrouding the city. That being said, the grand princes of Moscow, who acted as the tax-collectors for the khans of the Golden Horde, did collect tribute (dan) in Novgorod, most notably Yury Danillovich and his brother, Ivan Kalita.

Within the united Russian state The city's downfall was a result of its inability to feed its large population, making it dependent on the Vladimir-Suzdal region for grain. The main cities in this area, Moscow and Tver, used this dependence to gain control over Novgorod. Eventually Ivan III annexed the city to Muscovy in 1478. Novgorod remained the third largest Russian city, however, until the famine of 1560s and Ivan the Terrible sacking the city and slaughtering thousands of its inhabitants in 1570. The city's merchant elite and nobility were deported to Moscow, Yaroslavl, and elsewhere.

City plan of Novgorod in the first half of the 18th century

During the Time of Troubles, Novgorodians eagerly submitted to Swedish troops led by Jacob De la Gardie in summer of 1611. The city was restituted to Russia only six years later, by the Treaty of Stolbovo and regained a measure of its former prosperity by the end of the century, when such ambitious buildings as the Cathedral of the Sign and the Vyazhischi Monastery were constructed. The most famous of Russian patriarchs, Nikon, occupied the metropolian see of Novgorod between 1648 and 1652.

In 1727, Novgorod was made an administrative centre of the Novgorod Governorate of the Russian Empire, which was detached from Saint Petersburg Governorate (see Administrative divisions of Russia in 1727-1728). This administrative division existed until 1927. Between 1927 and 1944 the city was a part of Leningrad Oblast, and then became an administrative center of the newly formed Novgorod Oblast.

During World War II, on August 15, 1941, the city was occupied by the German Army. Its historic monuments were systematically annihilated. When the Red Army liberated the city on January 19, 1944, out of 2,536 stone buildings, fewer than forty were still standing. After the war, the downtown was gradually restored. Its chief monuments have been declared the World Heritage Site. In 1998, the city was officially renamed Veliky Novgorod, thus partly reverting to its medieval title "Lord Novgorod the Great".

Sights

St Nicholas Cathedral, built by Mstislav I near his palace at Yaroslav's Court, Novgorod, contains 12th-century frescoes depicting his illustrious family.

Walls of the Novgorod Kremlin.

Nereditsa church formerly contained the finest 12th-century frescoes in Russia. The frescoes were destroyed when the church was blown up by the Germans in 1944.

No other Russian or Ukrainian city can compete with Novgorod in the variety and age of its medieval monuments. The foremost among these is the St Sophia Cathedral, built between 1045 and 1050 under the patronage of Vladimir Yaroslavich, the son of Yaroslav the Wise (Vladimir is buried in the cathedral along with his mother, Anna.) It is the best preserved of 11th century churches, probably the oldest structure still in use in Russia and the first one to represent original features of Russian architecture (austere stone walls, five helmet-like cupolas). Its frescoes were painted in the 12th century originally on the orders of Bishop Nikita (died 1108) (the "porches" or side chapels were painted in 1144 under Archbishop Nifont) and renovated several times over the centuries, most recently in the nineteenth century. The cathedral features famous bronze gates, which now hang in the west entrance, allegedly made in Magdeburg in 1156 (other sources see them originating in Plock in Poland) and reportedly snatched by Novgorodians from the Swedish town of Sigtuna in 1187. More recent scholarship has determined that the gates probably were purchased in the mid-fifteenth century, apparently at the behest of Archbishop Evfimii II (1429-1458), a lover of Western art and architectural styles.

The Novgorod Kremlin, traditionally known as the Detinets, also contains the oldest palace in Russia (the so-called Chamber of the Facets, 1433), which served as the main meeting hall of the archbishops; the oldest Russian bell tower (mid-15th cent.), and the oldest Russian clock tower (1673). The Palace of Facets, the bell tower, and the clock tower were originally built on the orders of Archbishop Evfimii II, although the clock tower collapsed in the seventeenth century and had to be rebuilt and much of the palace of Evfimii II is no longer extant. Among later structures, the most remarkable are a royal palace (1771) and a bronze monument to the Millennium of Russia, representing the most important figures from the country's history (unveiled in 1862).

Outside the kremlin walls, there are three large churches constructed during the reign of Mstislav the Great. St Nicholas Cathedral (1113-23), containing frescoes of Mstislav's family, graces Yaroslav's Court (formerly the chief square of Novgorod). The Yuriev Monastery (one of the oldest in Russia, 1030) contains a tall, three-domed cathedral from 1119 (built by Mstislav's son, Vsevolod. and Kyurik, the head of the monastery. A similar three-domed cathedral (1117), probably designed by the same masters, stands in the Antoniev Monastery, built on the orders of Antonii, the founder of that monstery.

There are now some fifty still-extant medieval and early modern churches scattered throughout the city and its environs. Some of them were blown up by the Nazis and subsequently restored. The most ancient pattern is represented by those dedicated to Sts Peter and Pavel (on the Swallow's Hill, 1185-92), to Annunciation (in Myachino, 1179), to Assumption (on Volotovo Field, 1180s) and to St Paraskeva-Piatnitsa (at Yaroslav's Court, 1207). The greatest masterpiece of early Novgorod architecture is the Saviour church at Nereditsa (1198).

In the 13th century, tiny churches of the three-paddled design were in vogue. These are represented by a small chapel at the Peryn Monastery (1230s) and St Nicholas' on the Lipnya Islet (1292, also notable for its 14th-century frescoes). The next century saw development of two original church designs, one of them culminating in St Theodor's church (1360-61, fine frescoes from 1380s), and another one leading to the Saviour church on Ilyina street (1374, painted in 1378 by Feofan Grek). The Saviour' church in Kovalevo (1345) was originally frescoed by Serbian masters, but the church was destroyed during the war. While the church has since been rebuilt, the frescoes have not been restored.

During the last century of republican government, some new churches were consecrated to Sts Peter and Paul (on Slavna, 1367; in Kozhevniki, 1406), to Christ's Nativity (at the Cemetery, 1387), to St John the Apostle's (1384), to the Twelve Apostles (1455), to St Demetrius (1467), to St Simeon (1462), and other saints. Generally, they are not thought so innovative as the churches from the previous epoch. Several 12th-century shrines (i.e., in Opoki) were demolished brick by brick and then reconstructed exactly as they used to be, several of them in the mid fifteenth century, again under Archbishop Evfimii II, perhaps one of the greatest patrons of architecture in medieval Novgorod.

Novgorod's conquest by Ivan III in 1478 decisively changed the character of local architecture. Large commissions were thenceforth executed by Muscovite masters and patterned after cathedrals of Moscow Kremlin: e.g., the Saviour Cathedral of Khutyn Monastery (1515), the Cathedral of the Mother of God of the Sign (1688), the St. Nicholas Cathedral of Vyaschizhy Monastery (1685). Nevertheless, the styles of some parochial churches were still in keeping with local traditions: e.g., the churches of Myrrh-bearing Women(1510) and of Sts Boris and Gleb (1586).

In Vitoslavlitsy, along the Volkhov River and the Myachino Lake, close to the Yuriev Monastery, a picturesque museum of wooden architecture was established in 1964. Over 20 wooden buildings (churches, houses and mills) dating from the 14th to the 19th century were transported there from all around the Novgorod region.

Sister cities

• Strasbourg, France
• Rochester, New York, USA
• Bielefeld, Germany
• Watford, UK
• Zibo, China
• Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
• Moss, Norway

External links

• Novgorod the Great site
• Veliky Novgorod for tourists
• The Faceted Palace of the Kremlin in Novgorod the Great site
• Novgorod - monuments of ancient architecture
• (Russian) Veliky Novgorod's architecture and buildings history
• (Russian) The Millennium of Russia memorial site
• (Russian) Veliky Novgorod city administration site
• Novgorod the Great for a businessman
• (Russian) Veliky Novgorod news
• (Russian) VelikiyNovgorod.ru news agency
• (Russian) Novgorod State University
• Photos tagged with novgorod on Flickr, photos likely of Novgorod the Great

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