Vologda is the capital of Vologda oblast. It is located on the Vologda river, the right confluent of the Sukhona river (the Northern Dvina basin), 460 km to the north-west off Moscow, 600 km to the south-west off Saint Petersburg. The city area - 113.5 km². The population – 293 675 people.
1147 is considered as the year when Vologda city was founded. Due to the legend Vologda Miracle-Worker Gerasim came to the river Vologda. In the XIII-XIV centuries Novgorod city and the Grand Dukes of the North-Eastern Russia fought desperately to possess Vologda. Vologda was first mentioned in the letter dated 1264 which determined relationship between Novgorod city and Yaroslav Yaroslavovich, the Grand Duke of Tver. In that document Vologda is called as “volost” (a small rural district in old Russia). The chronicles of the XIV-XVth centuries witnessed that Tver and Moscow dukes attacked Vologda several times. Only in the XVth century Vologda finally went to Moscow. An intention to subordinate Vologda is explained by its favorable geographic and strategic position. The city was also a center of the economic and cultural life of a large territory. Since 1708 it became a part of Archangelsk province, since 1719 it was its center, since 1780 – a center of Vologda region, since 1796 – a center of Vologda province and 1937- a center of Vologda oblast.
There are 224 monuments of history, architecture and culture on the territory of Vologda city. Vologda city is among 116 Russian cities possessing the most valuable historical heritage.
The city is known as the place of the international theatre festival “Voices
of History”, a theatre and concert project “Summer in the Kremlin”, an open
movie festival for children and youth “Frescoes of the North” by the name of
director V.D.Polovnikov, International Gavrilin’s musical festival, Regional
festival of children and youth art “My love – Vologda land”, an open
festival of poetry and music by the name of N.M.Rubtsov “Rubtsov autumn”,
many art exhibitions, traditional All-Russia exhibitions “Russian Forest”
and “Russian Flax”.
|Architectural ensemble of the Vologda Kremlin|
|The Kremlin square ||
The domes of the Sophia Cathedral||
The Kremlin square|
|Spaso-Prilutskiy Dimitriev Monastery|