The city of Yaroslavl on the Volga is one thousand years old. The city is world famous for its historical and cultural heritage and an unforgettable atmosphere of an old Russian provincial town. As the city was once the center of an independent principality, it may be proud of its wonderful architecture, churches and monasteries in particular, with their bright decoration and frescoes.

There is also a great number of remarkable buildings near the monastery. The monumental Church of the Archangel Michael stands on the Kotorosl Embankment on the site of a former palace. It marked the boundary line between the Kremlin and the Torg (Market Place) which began "at the moat beyond the ramparts". The Spass-on-Gorod Church built by the townspeople is situated on the market square itself and is famous for the great variety of historical scenes depicted in the frescoes inside the church. The Church of Elijah the Prophet is located in the center of the town. The church is richly decorated with frescoes by a group of well-known artists from Kostroma Gury Nikitin and Sila Savin. These frescoes make the church a true museum of the Old Russian painting.

River embankments

Yaroslavl is famous for the beauty of its embankments. The Volga and Kotorosl embankments from the Church of Elijah the Prophet back to the Transfiguration Monastery make a wonderful 1,5km walk. On the way, you’ll be able to enjoy the view of the Church of St. Nicholas the Miracle-Worker, one of Yaroslavl’s first stone churches, built in 1622. The church has a sparkling baroque iconostasis and frescoes depicting the life of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of commerce and traveling.

On the Volga Embankment near the steep slope down to the river there is a monument to the Russian poet Nicolai Nekrasov. Nekrasov was born in Yaroslavl. He studied in this city. His heart belonged here and it was that he found the subjects of his poetry. He loved the Volga River and glorified it in his poems. In 1841, 1845, 1853, 1855 the poet visited these places. He wrote his poems "Wedding", "Sasha". Characters of Nekrasov poems are represented on the special decorative board that is attached to the whole pedestal.

The Volga embankment also houses the Yaroslavl Art Museum, with 18th to 20th century Russian paintings. A little further along the river embankment are the Volga Bastion, built as a watchtower in the 1660s and the 17th century former Metropolitan’s Chambers housing the old Yaroslavl art section of the Art Museum, wit icons and other works from the 13th to 19th centuries. The two churches, the wall with entrance gate, and a bell-tower make up the famous Korovnikovskaya Sloboda ensemble built in 1654 and decorated at the end of the century with all the colourful magnificence of the Church of St. Nicholas-the-Wet.

Across the Kotorosl River there is another group of churches with the renowned Tolchkovo Church. Seen from a distance it appears to have three domes, but a closer look reveals fifteen sets in clusters on tall, slender drums! The building glows with a rare blend of frescoes, ornamental brick, terra-cotta and glazed tiles. Everything is decorated—the windows, the shutters, the doors and porch pediments.

On Tugova Hill to the left of the village of Tolchkovo rises the little single-domed Church of St. Paraskeva. It stands above the common grave of Yaroslavl warriors who fell in battle against the Tatars. To the right of it we can admire the superb silhouette of the white five-domed Church of St. Theodore. Further on there is the Church of St. Nicholas Pensky, and beyond it we can just make out the outlines of the St. Nicholas-at-Melenki Church with its big, scaled domes. The walls of practically every one of these buildings are covered with frescoes.

There is a large number of them at the Church of the Presentation of the Virgin at the fourteenth-century Tolgsky Monastery. The church is a seventeenth-century structure as are the enormous Bell-Tower, Refectory, and Hospital. None of the earlier monastery buildings have survived. There is a great number of smaller churches in Yaroslavl, each of which has its own history and unique features.