Vologda is a city in
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the administrative center of
Vologda OblastVologda Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Area: 145,700 km²; population: 1,269,568...
. Population: 293,700 (2008 est.); Vologda takes its name, of likely Finno-Ugrian origin, from the
Vologda RiverVologda River is a river in Vologda Oblast in Russia. It is a right tributary of the Sukhona River. The length of the Vologda River is 155 km. The area of its basin is 3030 km². The river is navigable from its confluence with the Toshnya River. The city of Vologda is located on the Vologda River....
which flows through the city.
The city is served by
Vologda AirportVologda Airport is an airport in Russia located 8 km north of Vologda. It services small airliners....
and is host to
FedotovoFedotovo, located near train station Kipelovo on a major railway to St.Peterburg, is a Russian Navy air base in Russia located 44 km west of Vologda. It is a large base for long-range aircraft, with 20 revetments in a remote area and large tarmac along parallel taxiway...
, a major
Russian NavyThe Russian Navy or VMF is the naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces. The international designation of Russian naval vessels is RFS—"Russian Federation Ship"....
air base 44 km to the west.
Vologda was first mentioned in Novgorod chronicles for 1147, when
Saint GerasimusSaint Gerasimus or Gerasimos may refer to:* Gerasimus of Jordan, 5th-century Christian monk and abbot* Gerasimus of Kefalonia, 16th-century Christian monk...
found a church and village already standing there.
Vologda is a city in
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the administrative center of
Vologda OblastVologda Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Area: 145,700 km²; population: 1,269,568...
. Population: 293,700 (2008 est.); Vologda takes its name, of likely Finno-Ugrian origin, from the
Vologda RiverVologda River is a river in Vologda Oblast in Russia. It is a right tributary of the Sukhona River. The length of the Vologda River is 155 km. The area of its basin is 3030 km². The river is navigable from its confluence with the Toshnya River. The city of Vologda is located on the Vologda River....
which flows through the city.
The city is served by
Vologda AirportVologda Airport is an airport in Russia located 8 km north of Vologda. It services small airliners....
and is host to
FedotovoFedotovo, located near train station Kipelovo on a major railway to St.Peterburg, is a Russian Navy air base in Russia located 44 km west of Vologda. It is a large base for long-range aircraft, with 20 revetments in a remote area and large tarmac along parallel taxiway...
, a major
Russian NavyThe Russian Navy or VMF is the naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces. The international designation of Russian naval vessels is RFS—"Russian Federation Ship"....
air base 44 km to the west.
History
Vologda was first mentioned in Novgorod chronicles for 1147, when
Saint GerasimusSaint Gerasimus or Gerasimos may refer to:* Gerasimus of Jordan, 5th-century Christian monk and abbot* Gerasimus of Kefalonia, 16th-century Christian monk...
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
VolgaThe Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through western Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including its capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage basin...
to a tributary of the
Northern DvinaThe Northern Dvina is a river in Northern Russia flowing through the Vologda Oblast and Arkhangelsk Oblast into the Dvina Bay of the White Sea. The length is . It should not be confused with Western Dvina.- Navigation and canals :...
, thus making possible navigation from the
White SeaThe White Sea is an inlet of the Barents Sea on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast....
to the
CaspianThe Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometres and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometres...
. In 1273 the city was ravaged by a Mongol raid.
It was not until 1412, when the area was ceded by
Novgorod RepublicThe Novgorod Republic was a large mediæval Russian state which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains between the 12th and 15th centuries, centred on the city of Novgorod...
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,
BelozerskBelozersk , known as Beloozero until 1777 , is a town in Vologda Oblast, Russia, situated on the southern bank of the Lake Beloye, from which it takes the name. Population: -History:...
. Its commercial importance further increased when the
Muscovy CompanyThe Muscovy Company , was a trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major English joint-stock trading company, the precursor of the type of business that would soon flourish in England, and became closely associated with such famous names as Henry Hudson and William Baffin...
started its operations in Russia.
Main sights
Vologda's Saint Sophia, consecrated in 1570 and named after
Saint Sophia Cathedral in NovgorodThe Cathedral of St. Sophia in the Kremlin in Novgorod the Great is the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Novgorod and the mother church of the Novgorodian Eparchy.-History:...
, was one of the largest cathedrals built in Russia up to that time. It had been ordered by
Ivan the TerribleIvan IV Vasilyevich , known in English as Ivan the Terrible was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533. The epithet "Grozny" is associated with might, power and strictness, rather than poor performance, horror or cruelty...
to be rebuilt in stone in the 15th century. Its superb
frescoFresco is any of several related painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Italian word affresco which derives from the adjective fresco , which has Latin origins...
es were painted in 1686–1688 by Dmitry Plekhanov from
YaroslavlYaroslavl is a city in Russia, the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, located north-east of Moscow. The historical part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers. Population:...
. A lofty octagonal belltower was added in 1654–1659 and built up in the nineteenth century. A local museum occupies the neighbouring Treasury chambers (1659). The main points of interest outside Kremlin walls are the eighteenth century
baroqueBaroque is an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious themes in...
churches and the 19 century
NeoclassicalNeoclassicism is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw upon Western classical art and culture...
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**For the Cypriot village see Trapeza, Cyprus.A refectory is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places it is most often used today is in graduate seminaries...
, a winter church, holy gates with a barbican—were also constructed prior to the
Time of TroublesThe Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar Feodor Ivanovich of the Rurik Dynasty in 1598 and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613...
, when the
cloisterthumb|250px|right|Cloister of Saint Trophimus, in [[Arles]], [[France]]thumb|250px|right|Cloister of [[Abbaye de Fontenay]], in [[Marmagne]], [[France]]...
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.
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
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.
Culture
Vologda is known all over Russia for its
cheeseCheese is a food consisting of proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. It is produced by coagulation of the milk protein casein. Typically, the milk is acidified and addition of the enzyme rennet causes coagulation. The solids are separated and pressed into...
and
butterButter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications such as baking, sauce making, and frying...
, reputedly the best in Russia. The Romantic poet
Konstantin BatyushkovKonstantin Nikolayevich Batyushkov was an important precursor of Alexander Pushkin in Russian poetry.Batyushkov was brought up in the house of his uncle Mikhail Muravyov, who was reputed for his light and humorous poetry. At an early age he became fascinated with the Italian language and set out...
was born and died in Vologda. There is also a small museum of
Peter the GreatPeter I the Great or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V....
.
Balanovsky 2008 published genetic research data on Vologda and found results connecting it, along with Krasnoborsk, to a genetic grouping otherwise most common in
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
which would be in common with settlements or migrations from that area (i.e.
VikingA Viking is one of the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far...
or
VarangianThe Varangians or Varyags , sometimes referred to as Variagians, were Vikings, Norsemen, who went eastwards and southwards through what is now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine mainly in the 9th and 10th centuries...
) or simply represent an ancient genetic relatedness. According to 11.6% of a sampling of 121 tested at Vologda belong to the I1a
haplogroupIn the study of molecular evolution, a haplogroup is a group of similar haplotypes that share a common ancestor with a single nucleotide polymorphism mutation. Because a haplogroup consists of similar haplotypes, this is what makes it possible to predict a haplogroup from haplotypes. An SNP...
(12.1% of 91 tested belonged to said group in Krasnoborsk) these frequencies are higher than elsewhere in Russia and even higher than in
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
Sister cities
KouvolaKouvola is a town and municipality in southeastern Finland. It is located northeast of the capital, Helsinki.The city has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....
,
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
Londonderry, New HampshireLondonderry is a town in western Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The town is bordered on the north by the city of Manchester and on the east by the town of Derry. The population was 23,236 at the 2000 census...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
MiskolcMiskolc is a city in North-East Hungary, mainly with heavy industrial background. With a population close to 180,000 Miskolc is the third-largest city of Hungary It is also the county capital of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and the regional centre of Northern...
,
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
ZwolleZwolle is a municipality and the capital city of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands, 120 kilometers northeast of Amsterdam. Zwolle has about 115,000 citizens.-History:...
,
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
External links