Rostov the Great

Rostov Kremlin

The State Museum Preserve "Rostov Kremlin" is situated on the territory of the unique architectural ensemble of the XVIIth century - Archbishop's Yard. Five churches, three of them have wonderful frescoes of the XVIIth, some chambers with museum exhibitions are encircled with high walls and towers. The museum was founded in 1883 by antiquity lovers and sincere patriots of Rostov Shlyakov I.A. and Titov A.A. Now our museum collection possesses about 92000 exhibits. There are icons, oil paintings, wooden house-hold utensils, porcelain, archeological findings. The museum's pride is the collection of enamels.The Kremlin involves ancient buildings: the Prince's Chambers, the Metropolitan's House, Cathedral of the Assumption with the five churches built in the XVII century, eleven towers and other buildings. All these buildings are surrounded by massive walls with crossings about one km. long. The Kremlin is built of bricks (8 kg. weight). About 20 million bricks were used in building. In plan the Rostov Kremlin is an irregular rectangle stretched from the south to the north and consists of three parts. The middle part the largest part of the ensemble is the Kremlin courtyard, surrounded by high walls with over-gate churches and also dwelling houses and other buildings grouped along the walls. This is the Kremlin itself. The cathedral square with cathedral of the Assumption and belfry is located to the north. To the south there is the Metropolitan's garden surrounded by a low wall with a small bath-house built in the middle of the wall. The Rostov Kremlin ensemble involves: Cathedral of the Assumption, over-gate churches of the Resurrection of Christ, of St. John the Divine, churches of of St. Gregory the Divine, Spas-na-Senyakh, of the Virgin Hodegetria;the Metropolitan's Chambers, Samuel block,  round and square towers.

Assumption Cathedral

At first it was one-dome wooden church, but so beautiful that there were no any other church so beautiful like this and never would be. It was built at the end of the X century when the Introduction of Christianity began. After 160 years existence the church burnt. the architects of Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky built a new church on its site in the XII century. It was a church made of white stone. The church was the first stone building in Rostov. Forty two years later it was crashed down because of ceiling being burnt in fire. However the chronicler believes the church to crash because of insufficient skill of German Kufir, the heard of church construction. The restoration of the church was begun at the time of Prince Konstantin Vsevolodovich and was completed by his son Vasilko in 1230. The cathedral exists during the period of 178 years. During the great fire of 1408 its vaults and gilded dome crashed. The church was quickly restored and "richly decorated". The subsequent per iod of the church existence is unknown. The date of construction of the present five-domed Dormition cathedral made of bricks is also unknown. The archaeological investigations found out that the cathedral duplicates the white-stone church in plan but somewhat larger. The cathedral length is 30.4 m; width - 20.36 m; height including the cross - 60 m. It is equal to twenty-storey modern building. The architects-builders drove a great number of oak blocks into the ground in order to strengthen the ground and provide the reliable foundation for the whole structure. The high ground floor of the cathedral is made of white stone, the walls are of large-size bricks involving impregnation of white stone and lime of extremely high quality. To make the brickwork waterproof in the lower part of the building (at the floor level) milk and vegetable oil were added to the lime. Casein soaps formed in this proc ess make the solution waterproof. The church building is surmounted with five massive domes supported with high drums. the drums are provided with windows and decorated with various bands having the type of ornament that decorates the main structure. Every dome is provided with a cross. The cross mounted on the central church dome is extremely complicated interesting in configuration and beautiful. It has the height of 4.6 m, width - 3.63 m. The cornices are trimmed with gilded lace-like ornamental band. Six massive tetrahedral columns support vaults inside the cathedral resembling staged load-bearing arches. Two columns are involved in the stone altar partition that together with the iconostasis divides the interior of the church into two parts: the altar and the place of the believers. Several steps lead to the lifted altar. The soleya is surrounded by a bronze grill. Six-stage iconostasis with columns decorated with carved wood grape-vine and small iconostasis around the pier are the beautiful examples of wood carving of the first half of the XVIII century. In spite of painting fragments of the XII century found in the white stone blocks it is believed that church painting was executed in the 60-70-s of the XVII century by a group of Yaroslavl and Kostroma painters. The group was headed by Guri Nikitin. The frescoes were damaged greatly by fire and soon were restored by the same masters. The later overpainting and restoration have covered them, so the original frescoes are not preserved now. The chapel of St Leonti at the south of altar is of great interest. The chapel floor is much lower than the altar floor and several steps lead down to the chapel, so this church is called cave church. This is the most ancient part of the cathedral. The chapel was found quite accidentally in 1884 while reconstructing the old cast-iron floor of the church. During the reconstruction of the chapel floor the traces of frescoes were found on the wall covered with flooring. The further excavation revealed a stone stairs leading down from the main altar. A stone floor and a stone tomb were discovered at some level. It was believed that this tomb was brought by Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky for "relic" of St Leonti' s body. There was a vault in the form of a niche over the tomb. The image of St Leonti and the text of preyer were found on the wall. The whole history of the Dormition Cathedral is closely connected with the history of Rostov Land. During several centuries of its existence the cathedral had deferent functions. It served a tomb for the Rostov Princes, metropolitans and epishops. It was used as a fortress during enemy invasion, and the place for keeping art and material values. During the Polish-Lithuanian invasion Marina Mnishek made notes in her dairy about Rostov captured by Poland five weeks before and about the gold, silver and other values taken by the invaders out of the cathedral treasury. In Jahn Sapega's diary there is the information about "the image of St Leonti, taken from the tomb". The image weighting 80 kg and made of pure gold was sent as a present to Marina Mnishek. In the second half of the XVII century the Kremlin was erected near the cathedral. The Kremlin became the Metropolis and the cathedral was its main church. Since that time the Dormition Cathedral became the richest church of the Rostov Land.

Church of the Resurrection of Christ

The church of the Resurrection of Christ over the "Holly Gates" (1670). The over-gate churches appeared in the Rostov architecture first in the buildings of the monastery of SS Boris and Gleb in XVI century. The church based on the high podklet semibasement is surmounted with five domes. The central drum is for day-light, but small drums are merely decorative. Owing to the unity of architectural forms and decorative elements the church is considered as a part of the ensemble of the cathedral square. The both sides of the facade are provided with round towers stretched slightly forward. These towers together with the central cube of the building and the domes create an expressive silhouette. Beautiful window-surrounds of the north facade, carved stone, tiles, gallery arched impart solemnity to the whole structure. Fresco icon-case is mounted over the central arch-passage-way. Simple finishing of the church walls stressed the picturesque gallery and gates. The church building is pier-free, its space is covered with vault. The church was painted by Yaroslavl and Kostroma masters in 1675. The painting is distinguished with rich colour range and skilful representing the figure movement. The painters used decorative elements for creating the expressive character of the interior. Numerous ornaments show a great talent and ingenuity of the masters. The frescoes were restored in the 50-s. The stone wall separating the chancel is used as the iconostasis, this fact is of great interest.

Church of St. John the Divine

Church of St. John the Divine (1683) is one of the perfect structures of the Rostov Kremlin. The over-gates church of St. John the Divine looks very much like church of the Resurrection of Christ. It is also based on podklet semi-basement and has round towers stretched forward. However the central part of the church is raised and this imparts lightness and grace to the church. This stresses the long drums. The apses of the church is slightly curved, this feature is typical for the Rostov churches. The west facade and the gates facing the road to Moscow are richly decorated.The church frescoes represent the scenes of St. John the Divine's life as well as the life of Avraamy of Rostov, who was one of the first preachers of Christianity in Rostov according to the ancient chronicle. The lower frieze of painting deserves special interest , it depicts St Avraam meeting St. John and fights with idolaters. The frescoes shows the author's thoughts about ancient Rostov Land. In the scene of meeting painted on the west wall one can see Rostov surrounded by a wall with a tower in it. The scene of crushing the idol Veles is also depicted on the background of Rostov. Not far from the corner tower just on the wall there is a small tent-shape roofed belfry reminding the Tsar Tower on the Kremlin wall in Moscow.

Church of the Saviour on Senyah

To the south of Samuel Building there is the church of the Saviour on Senyah one of the most interesting structures of the Kremlin. Having been built in 1670's it was a private church of Metropolitan Ion. Formerly a wooden church was built here based on the walls of the stone XVI century chambers. The church is supported by two-storey podklet and seems rising upward. The special form of the walls and the only dome increases this impression. Almost half of the interior is taken up by a high raised soleya (elevated floor in front of the altar). A large and richly decorated arcade resting on thick gilded columns separates the soleya from the other part of the interior. Several steps lead to the soleya. The altar itself is also raised slightly. The frescoes of this church represents the life of Christ. The large composition of the Last Judgement on the west wall depicting terrible scenes of the Underground life reminded the believers of punishment for their coming out against the church should try to convince the believers of church majesty.

Church of the Virgin Hodegitria

Church of the Virgin Hodegitria is located at the north wall west of the church of the Resurrection of Christ. It is built after Metropolitan Iona's death by his successor Iosaf in 1693. The church was erected in so-called Narishkin Baroque.Painting is applied upon the brickwork with out plaster. The use of three hues in painting produces the illustration of cut surface of the walls. This reminds the Tsar's "Chertogi" Palace and the Refectory in the Trinity - St. Sergius Laura. Stucco-moulding in the interior decoration of the church is interesting. Samuel chambers. To the end of "The Red Chamber" in the south part of the Metropolitan's House there is a Samuel Building. The tree- storey stone building accommodates the expositions of Rostov Museum of Architecture and Art. The ground floor was used for household needs. The upper floor involve the church and cells. The additional floor was built in the XVIII century in the time of Metropolitan Samuel. Hence the whole building was named after him, the Samuel Building. It was the greatest building in the Kremlin. The stairs between the floors were mounted inside the walls. At the end of the XVIII century Samuel began the reconstruction of the whole building in order to make it in the style of his time. The windows were enlarged, the facades were changed, the central stair and the interior space were reconstructed. In the middle of the XIX century the building was reconstructed again n order to accommodate the theological school. The building was greatly changed, so restoration could hardly return its original appearance.

Spasso-Yakovlevsky Monastery

The wooden church of St. John the Divine on Ishnya

On the way to Moscow, three km from Rostov the settlement Bogoslov is situated on the river Ishnya, the settlement is famous for an interesting monument of wooden architecture of the late XVII century. It is one-dome wooden church based on podklet semibasement. The church consists of the central part, the east altar, the west refectory and the gallery. The belfry and the passage leading from the belfry to the gallery were built later and slightly changed the original appearance of this church. Later the church was covered with boards. Huge six hundred years trunks used for building the church walls resemble marble columns in the structure and lustre.The church iconostasis involves the icon of XVI-XVIII centuries. The church has a skilfully made Holly Gate of the XVI century. Now Holly Gate are kept in the Rostov museum and a duplicates is mounted in the church.

The belfry of the settlement Porechje-Ribnoe

The settlement Porechie-Ribnoe is located on the south side of the lake Nero near the mouth of the Sara river. The belfry built in the late XVIII century by a peasant, self educated architect A. Kozlov in the style of Russian Classicism is preserved in this small settlement. the five-stage tower nearly 94 m high exceeds the height of the famous belfry of St. John the Great (Veliky) in the Moscow Kremlin. In the third stage having large bays the Bells were moun ted originally, the fourth stage accommodated the tower clock, the fifth stage involved small clock bells. The belfry is distinguished by its slender-elegant silhouette observed from a far distance.

Rostov Finift

The skill of painting on enamel appeared in the middle of the XVIII century. The secrets of skill were usually inherited. In ourdays the Rostov artists having the heritage of ancient masters at their disposal and applying modern technology create really wonderful masterpieces - miniature boxes and elegant women's ornaments; coulombs, brooches, rings.

Rostov-Yaroslavl State Museum - Preserve of Architecture and Art.

Rostov-Yaroslavl State Museum - Preserve of Architecture and Art is located in Rostov. It was arranged in 1883 as museum of church antiquities. Now it is one of the richest museums of the country possessing over 50 thouthand exhibits. The russian culture is widely represented: architecture - the unique ensemble of the second half of the XVII century, monumental painting (frescoes executed by famous masters from Kostroma, Rostov, Yaroslavl, music - the famous Rostov bell chimes, the applied art of the XII - XX centuries, the russian painting and the painting of the Soviet period.

Historical Museum of Don Cossacks

Historical Museum of Don Cossacks is a unique museum collection because it is the only one Cossacks’ museum in Russia and abroad which is open to the visit of everybody. Nowadays the museum has 120 thousand exhibits in its fixed storage. It has very interesting collections of troop and regimental banners of XVIII-XIX centuries, Cossack’s military and casual clothes of the XIX-beginning of XX centuries, rewarded, granted weapon, as well as of a blank weapon and firing arms, letters of grant, documents of troop’s clerical office and village administration, a large collection of paintings (one of the largest and most important in Rostov region): Don portrait of the end of XVIII-beginning of XIX centuries, portraits of ordered cossack chieftains of Don troops; military Cossack portrait; collection of mobile painters; emperor’s portraits and art of western Europe. There are rare funds of books and newspapers. The museum represents a museum complex, which includes branches besides main display rooms: memorial museum houses of painters M.B.Grekov, I.I.Krilov, poet V.Kalmikov. In 1999 a monument of architecture of the XIX century - Cossack chieftain palace – was handed over to the museum.

Voroshilov bridge

It’s a bridge that divide city on the Right and Left banks, it is a frontier between Europe and Asia. Perhaps, that is why people who live in Rostov work as in Europe and rest on a noble Asian scale. On the Left bank, in Russian “Las-Vegas”, there are more than 100 restaurants, cafes, casinos, camps and hotels. Left bank is famous for its inimitable Caucasian-Don cuisine, for its lamb meat and salmon shashlik, crawfish and real Cossack fish soup. Now it’s an affair of honour of Rostov citizens to feast guests in a ship-restaurant “Petrovskiy berth”. According to a legend, that is the place where Peter the Great and his soldiers had dinner and gathered strength before capturing of Azov fortress.

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is one of the largest theatres in the world. Simultaneously three troupes can work on its stage – opera, ballet and operetta. A unique building of white marble was built specially for the theatre and in a short period it became city’s symbol. Nothing of the kind was built in Russia for more than 20 years. Theatre’s exterior is unusual, it resembles a huge piano with an open cover or a white leg-of-mutton sail on Don waive.

Recreational zone “Park named after Maxim Gorkiy”

Recreational zone “Park named after Maxim Gorkiy” is a central city park. It is a traditional place of public festivals in holidays. You can find an exhibition hall “Experiment”, cinema “Russia”, Kim Nazaretov centre, chess pavilion, out-of-door museum (wooden sculptures of artists V.Vitohin and S.Sekretev on A.Pushkin and M.Gorkiy fairy tales), leisure-time entertainments, cafes and restaurants, summer stage on the territory of the Park.

Gorkiy theatre

Rostov academic drama theatre is one of the oldest on the South of Russia. Real worshippers of Rostov drama make chronology since the 4th of July 1863, the first constant troupe of entrepreneur F.Nadler began to exist with its performance of N.Gogol’s “Inspector” where M.Shepkin took part. That is the troupe for which the first stone building was constructed. In 1929 Council of national commissariat made a decision to begin construction of the new building for the theatre. The theatre was to become the first international testing theatre laboratory. On the 28th of 1935 there was a ceremonial opening of the theatre, which was named after Maksim Gorkiy. The building of the theatre immediately became not only country’s but also world’s architectural sightseeing. In London Memorial Museum, in section “Russian architecture” there are only two exhibits – Vasiliy Beatus Cathedral and a miniature of Drama theatre in Rostov-on-Don.

Rostov dolphinarium

In Rostov dolphinarium performances for children and adults are held. Dolphins and fur seals take part in the program. There are four fur seals, four adult dolphins and two calves. Trainers of fur seals also perform in the dolphinarium, they are nice and interesting in their own way. And tricks that a trainer makes with dolphins boggle imagination. A trainer dives and two dolphins take her under water and lift her gracefully, quickly and solemnly on their spouts like a statue under domes of the dolphinarium. Dolphins make different tricks on the bottom and on the water surface. Well, that is not amusing. Communication with such wonderful animals gives a pleasant feeling.

The Botanic Gardens

The Botanic Gardens in Rostov State University, which is placed on the north-west of the city, in the area of river Temernik, was the first huge bare area on the south-east of Russia. In the period of 75 years of its existence the Botanic Gardens became one of the biggest in Russia training, resource, informational and cultural centers. Nowadays it covers an area of more than 160.5 hectares with different relieves, soils and plants. This unique natural monument within a huge megalopolis is interesting for more than 6500 species of trees, bushes and herbaceous plants. The size of flora collection, which is gathered in a greenhouse of tropical and subtropical plants, reaches almost 1600 species and forms from Africa, South-Western Asia, Northern and Southern America, Australia. There is a mineral spring with high flow rate of potable water of medicated type, which is worshiped as an orthodox relic and which is named after Reverend Serafim Sarovskiy, on the territory of the Gardens.

Rostov cathedral church of Holy virgin theotokos birth

Rostov cathedral church of Holy virgin theotokos birth (1885) with a bell tower is a monument of the 19 century, built on the basis of the project of a famous Russian architect K.A.Ton. This architect was famous in Russia mostly as an originator of a project of Christ Ransomer temple, Big Kremlin Palace, Armoury in Moscow and as a founder of the Russian-Byzantine style in church architecture. White as snow cathedral is decorated with massy golden domes, and due to this fact it is a centre of the city’s architectural complex. In 1878 four stage bell tower was erected according to the project of architect Kampioni and it was destroyed in the 40-50-s years of the XX century. Then in the year 1999, the bell tower was reconstructed in its original view. Cathedral church is the main temple of Rostov Eparchy. Here there is a pontificals throne of Rostov and Novocherkask archbishop Panteleimon, as well as diocesan administration.

Rostov Zoo

One of the most popular places for children’s and adults’ leisure time is Rostov Zoo – with the largest territory in Russia (56 hectares) and one of the biggest in Europe. Here more than 400 species of animals and birds live (including 180 species which are registered in the Red Data Book). Rostov Zoo is a fabulous world of animals of five continents. Of course, there are typical animals for any zoo here: bears, wolves, hippopotamus, monkeys, lions and tigers. There are also such rare animals as white rhinoceros, giraffes of Rotshild, a large collection of cranes. But, besides, there is the largest in Russia collection of anthropoid apes, which include lars, chimpanzee, orang-outangs and gorillas in Rostov zoo . Rostov zoo takes one of the first places in Europe in breeding of ernes. There is also a section of aquariums in the zoo, where you can find the various habitants of subwater world – from fish of Don region to rare freshwater skates and crabs form South America. There are crocodiles of South-Eastern Asia, different turtles, snakes of Middle Asia, Africa, America and other exotic reptiles in terrarium.

Children’s art gallery

There is the first in Russia Children’s art gallery in Rostov-on-Don, which has opened its doors for visitors in November, 1981, and became an integral part of cultural life and history of the capital of Don region. During 22 years of its existence Children’s art gallery exposed in its halls more than 300 exhibits, and more than 2500 works of paintings, graphic arts and arts and crafts are stored in its funds. Children’s art gallery organizes numerous competitions of children’s, adolescents’ and students’ art on the basis of its main expositional and exhibitional activity. This allows to propagandize art and aesthetical education mostly effective and to support talented children.