Vladimir is one of the Russian cities of culture in the area northeast of Moscow. According to the Nestor Chronicle, it was founded in 1108, but the establishment may have taken place earlier. In Vladimir’s first decades it was an outpost of the Principality of Rostov-Suzdal, but after the reign of Yuri Dolgoruky, which ended in 1157, Vladimir became the capital of the newly established Vladimir-Suzdal. The city grew rapidly and became prosperous. In this early period, the Golden Gate and the Ascension Cathedral were built, and the prince attempted to establish a metropolitanate in Vladimir.

The period from 1157 to the Mongol invasion of Russia in 1237 is considered the Golden Age of Vladimir, and masons worked on the city’s many stone cathedrals, monasteries, palaces and other structures, which were more ornate in their exteriors than in other contemporaries in Northern Europe. The Golden Age ended with the Mongols, who besieged and conquered Vladimir in 1238. The Mongol invasion destroyed a large part of the city’s famous buildings, and Vladimirs never regained its previous importance, despite the honorary title of Grand Duke of Vladimir, which was also used after the Mongol ravages for the most important prince of Russia

From 1299 to 1325, however, Vladimir was the seat of the Metropolitan of Rus, but the religious seat was moved to Moscow in 1321, and the residence of the Grand Dukes also came to be in Moscow, and from that time the coronations of the Grand Dukes took place in the Kremlin in Moscow instead of Ascension Cathedral in Moscow. After this time, churches continued to be built in Vladimir, and until the reburial in Saint Petersburg in 1703, Alexander Nevsky was buried in the Church of the Nativity in the city. Vladimir became the regional capital, and in the 19th century it developed with the railway, which came to the city in 1861. The Soviet Union and the 20th century brought industrialization and new growth with them.

Today, you can experience many fine sights in Vladimir, where the old town is a good place for strolls. Here are Vladimir’s two famous cathedrals, which are considered some of Russia’s most beautiful buildings. Especially the Cathedral of the Assumption/Успенский собор from 1158 is an unforgettable sight. It functioned in its time as a coronation and funeral church in the Grand Duchy of Vladimir and was a source of inspiration for many later church buildings. The church is located on Cathedral Square, from where you can also go to the Palaty Museum, part of the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum, which offers fine collections in art, history and archaeology.

Moving on from the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum, one comes to Saint Demetrius Cathedral/Дмитриевский собор, built in 1193-1197 by Vsevolod III in connection with his now historic palace. The cathedral stands as a fine example of the style of the Vladimir-Suzdal area, where skilled craftsmen from east and west worked in the city, which was an artistic and cosmopolitan center. The exterior decorations of the church are beautifully preserved, and close to it you can visit the Vladimir History Museum.

If you go west along the main street Bolshaya Moskovskaya ul., you will come to the Golden Gate/Золотые ворота, which was built in the years 1158-1164. In the Eastern Orthodox Church there were such golden gates in the holiest cities such as Jerusalem, Constantinople and Kiev, and Vladimir got its gate when it became the capital. You can also visit the modern center of Vladimir, which was developed during the Soviet Union. This part lies north of the old town, and you can possibly walk along the street Ulitsa Gorkogo, where you can see, among other things, Vladimir’s monument to the head of state Lenin and the city’s Palace of Culture.