The Golden Ring

A Soviet journalist called Juri Bychkov once got a task from the newspaper "The Soviet culture" to create a tourist route that would include the ancient cities and towns of North-Eastern Russia. The rout must have given an opportunity to use different highways to leave Moscow and to come back. That's how the Golden ring, one of the most popular tour destinations to European part of Russia, was created. Such a tour includes traditionally visiting 8 main towns: Sergiev Posad, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov the Great, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Ivanovo, Suzdal and Vladimir. But why has this route become so popular?

Firstly, this happened thanks to some unique culture heritage preserved in these cities. There are 3 objects of Unesco World Heritage list one can see through this route. But moreover, most of historical events which resulted in existence of the state of Russia, took place in these cities.

It all started year 990 A.D., when Vladimir the Great, or Saint Vladimir of Kiev, based a city on the bank of the river Klyazma and named it after himself. Later rulers of Vladimir tried to make the city look as much as the capital as possible. City of Vladimir was growing and gathering power very fast, and due to its protection both Moscow and all the towns which later became the Golden Ring made it through long centuries of struggle and wars. When Kiev has fallen after mongols' attack year 1240, it was Vladimir that took Kiev's place and became the capital.

The main cathedral of Vladimir is Uspenskij cathedral (built 1158), where some of the frescoes of the greatest Russian icon painter, Andrei Rublev, have been preserved. This particular cathedral inspired Italian architect Aristotele Fiorovanti who created Uspenskij cathedral in Moscow.

Compared to Vladimir, Suzdal is a small town, which is a museum itself. Time has stopped there. There are no modern buildings – instead, a large number of important monuments and historical objects is located there. Both ancient buildings of Vladimir, Suzdal Kremlin and Saviour Monastery of St. Euthymius are on UNESCO's World Heritage list under the name "White monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal"

Kostroma, the northernmost city of the Golden Ring, was found by Yury Dolgoruky as well as Moscow. Kostroma went down in history as the "cradle of the house of the Romanovs" - Mikhail Romanov was born and lived here and left the town to become the first tzar of Romanov dynasty. The cells of the Holy Trinity Ipatiev Monastery, where the future tzar and his mother lived, still exist.

The center of Yaroslavl is another object on UNESCO's list. The citys recently celebrated its 1000th anniversary, and after all the restoration work carried out for it, Yaroslavl became an example of a great tourist attraction with its tidy streets, good restaurants and glowing architectural monuments of the 16th-19th centuries. The ancient Yaroslavl Kremlin was not preserved, though its place was taken by the Spassky monastery - a powerful fortress, an outpost on the approaches to that Kremlin.

Rostov the Great is nowadays smaller than Yaroslavl, though it used to be a powerful city earlier. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, which was first mentioned year 862, when the state of Rus was found. The unique Rostov Kremlin was built year 1670 not to protect the city, but to show the greatness and power of episcopal authority. According to the plan of Metropolitan Jonah, the ensemble was to symbolize the heavenly city of Jerusalem.

Thanks to Pereslavl the separate regions with their own rulers started to unite with Moscow – and that's how the history of the state of Russia began. Besides from its monasteries and Red Square (named after Moscow's central square), the city is famous for its picturesque Lake Pleshcheyevo, which provides fresh fish for best restaurants in town.

Sergiev Posad - the only city of the Golden Ring located in the Moscow region. The city is named after Sergius of Radonezh, the founder of the famous Trinity-Sergius Lavra. As well as in Vladimir, in Sergiev Posad there are also some works of Andrej Rublev – though they're mostly his icons. The Lavra is another object of the Golden Ring from the list of UNESCO.

It's quite easy to illustrate and prove the significance of these cities and towns. In 2007 a new metro station, Trubnaya, was opened in the center of Moscow. Its design was inspired by the theme of ancient cities of Russia. There are magnificent stained glass windows depicting sights, monuments and landscapes. Six of ten cities represented at the station can be seen live by going on a tour of the famous Golden Ring of Russia.