Yaroslavl Historic Centre

Yaroslavl was listed by UNESCO in 2005 for a specific reason: it shows the collision of two systems. The town grew rich on Volga trade in the seventeenth century and its merchants built churches - large, red brick, tile-decorated, frescoed floor to ceiling - of which around a dozen survive, including the Elijah the Prophet, St John the Baptist in Tolchkovo with its fifteen domes, and St Nicholas Nadein. Then in 1778 Catherine II imposed a neoclassical radial plan on the whole town as part of a national replanning programme, and the medieval street pattern was replaced with straight avenues and squares - but the churches were kept and made the focal points of the new vistas, so a baroque Muscovite church closes the end of a classical avenue. That combination is what the listing recognises. The Spassky monastery, where the Igor Tale manuscript was found, stands at the confluence.

What you actually see

• The seventeenth-century churches - around a dozen surviving, tile-decorated and frescoed.
• The 1778 plan - a neoclassical radial layout imposed over the medieval town.
• The combination - Muscovite churches used as the focal points of classical vistas.
• The Spassky monastery - where the Igor Tale manuscript was found in the 1790s.

When to go

May to September. A day. Three and a half hours by train from Moscow. Churches keep short and seasonal hours.

Honest expectations

Most of the historic churches open only in the warm months and several are closed altogether. They are scattered, so seeing them means a lot of walking. Some are in poor repair. The Igor Tale manuscript itself burned in 1812 and is known only from copies.

Nearby

Kostroma is downstream; Rostov Veliky is south-west.