Vologda, Russia

Vologda (Russian: Во́логда) is a city in Russia, administrative center of Vologda Oblast. It is located at 59°12′N 39°51′E, and has a population of 293,046 (2002 Census). Vologda takes its name from the Vologda River which flows through the city. Its name means "the pure one" in the language of indigenous Finno-Ugric population. Vologda is served by Vologda Airport and is host to Fedotovo, a major Russian Navy air base 44 km to the west.

Vologda was first mentioned in Novgorod chronicles for 1147, when Saint Gerasim found a church and village already standing there. Surrounded by impassable woods, the settlement was inhabited by Novgorodians who pulled the ships from a tributary of the Volga to a tributary of the Northern Dvina, thus making possible navigation from the White Sea to the Caspian. In 1273 the city was ravaged by a mongol raid.

It was not until 1412, when the area was ceded by Novgorod Republic to Muscovy, that the town acquired any measure of importance. The princes of Muscovy made Vologda their outpost in the North. By the end of the century, Vologda eclipsed the ancient centre of that region, Belozersk. Its commercial importance further increased when the Muscovy Company started its operations in Russia.

It was at that time that Ivan the Terrible ordered the town's cathedral, named after Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, to be rebuilt in stone. Vologda's Saint Sophia, consecrated in 1570, was one of the largest cathedrals built in Russia up to that time. Its superb frescoes were painted in 1686–1688 by Dmitry Plekhanov from Yaroslavl. A lofty octagonal belltower was added in 1654–1659 and built up in the ninteenth century. A local museum occupies the neighbouring Treasury chambers (1659). The main points of interest outside kremlin walls are the eighteenth century baroque churches and the ninteenth century Neoclassical mansions.

Just two kilometers from the historic centre of Vologda stands the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery, founded in 1371 by one of Sergii Radonezhsky's disciples. With Dmitry Donskoy as its patron, the monastery quickly developed into the richest landowner in the neighbourhood. Its five-domed cathedral was erected in 1537–1542. Almost all other structures—a refectory, a winter church, holy gates with a barbican—were also constructed prior to the Time of Troubles, when the cloister was occasionally besieged by the Polish units and gangs of brigands. The time of anarchy over, the monastery's thick walls and towers were renovated. Soviet authorities banished the monks and turned the cloister into a museum. Some remarkable specimens of early wooden architecture were transported here from distant villages of the Vologda region.

Vologda is known all over Russia for its cheese and butter, reputedly the best in Russia. The Romantic poet Konstantin Batyushkov was born and died in Vologda. There is also a small museum of Peter the Great.

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