Sights in Vologda Region
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History, Architecture & Art Museum
Today the kremlin houses the main exhibits of the city's History, Architecture & Art Museum. Forty-minute kremlin tours in English are available from the excursions department (722 511) in the Gavriilovsky Korpus. The museum's history and natural history section, in the same building, ranges from stuffed wildlife to stuff on Stalin's periods of exile in Vologda.
Those with a morbid streak will appreciate the female skeleton from the 2nd century BC and the astounding, Hieronymus Bosch-like anonymous painting from 1721, Strashny Sud (Frightful Trial).
The museum's art section on the east side of the main courtyard includes some astonishing examples of Vologda lace and embro…
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Museum of Diplomatic Corps
This unusual two-room museum chronicles a little-known blip in WWI history. In February 1918, with the Germans approaching Petrograd, Allied ambassadors were ordered to evacuate. US ambassador David Francis suggested simply relocating. Studying a map, he chose Vologda. Other embassies followed his lead, the French, Italian and Serbian ministries sharing a luxury rail carriage parked in Vologda station. That proved handy since in July all the embassies decamped again to Arkhangelsk. The eclectic and impressively researched exhibit has some notes in English and is housed in the former US embassy, a tired if once-grand timber house with a four-pillar wooden portico.
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Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery
This working Spaso-Prilutsky monastery, dating from the 14th century, rises beside the Vologda River on the northern outskirts of the city. It's a beautiful place even though visitors are restricted to limited areas inside. Standard modest dress and covered heads for women are required.
The upper church of the five-domed Transfiguration Cathedral (Spaso-Preobrazhensky sobor), built in the 16th century, is still in the early stages of restoration, but the lower church is full of icons and holds services. Behind is the beautiful, wooden Dormition Church (Uspenskaya tserkov), built in 1519 with a single spire and an equal-armed cross plan.
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Kraevedchesky Museum
The extensive Kraevedchesky Museum is in the 17th century Gavriilovsky Korpus. Beyond all the stuffed mammals (go on, make that bear growl) is a rich prehistory section including a 3500-year-old lady skeleton clasping at her modesty. Look for the Hieronymus Bosch–like 1721 painting Strashny Sud, in which demons, angels and endless salmon-pink humanoids fight out the final tribulations of eternity.
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Museum
One of several fine old wooden buildings at the northern end of Leningradskaya houses this lovable little museum evoking the life of a 19th century, 17-child middle-class family. Amid portraits and old dolls are musical boxes and an old gramophone that still plays. A selection of beautiful photos showcase other examples of Vologda’s historic wooden architecture.
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St Procopio’s Cathedral
St Procopio’s Cathedral has a stone purported to grant your wish if you sit on it. Clear your mind, and look at the church complex across the wide, unbridged river. At sunset peaceable gaggles of artists, fishermen, lovers and wobbly old pensioners dot the wide sweep of grassy river-front serenaded by cooing pigeons.
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Kremlin
Vologda's kremlin is the city's historical centrepiece, a 17th-century fortified enclosure of churches, archbishop's chambers and other handsome buildings. It was built as a church administrative centre to accompany St Sofia's Cathedral next door, whose domes and bell tower greatly enhance the beauty of the kremlin's courtyards.
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St Sofia’s Cathedral
Powerful five-domed St Sofia’s Cathedral has a soaring interior fully covered with beautiful 1680s frescoes which, to some untutored eyes, look more attractive than the more famous Unesco-listed ones at Ferapontovo. The astonishingly tall iconostasis is filled with darkly brooding saintly portraiture.
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‘Residence’
A good central starting point for exploring the town’s historic centre is Ded Moroz’s part-time ‘residence’ where the Russian Santa shows up at festival times. There’s a ‘throne room’ and a lacklustre exhibition room.
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Museum of Forgotten Things
Housed in a restored home with period furniture, this interactive museum aims to impart an understanding of Russian life in the 19th century. Guests are encouraged to attempt to set the dining-room table with imperial china, play period music on a gramophone and learn the complicated norms of receiving guests.
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Church of St John the Baptist
Before the revolution, on pl Revolyutsii there were three churches and one grand cathedral. Only the Church of St John the Baptist (1710-17) survived. The church makes an ironic backdrop for the very first Lenin statue ever erected in the USSR, back in 1924, and possibly the only one that's life-size.
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Peter the Great House-Museum
First opened in 1885, Vologda’s oldest museum is a tiny late-17th-century stone house that supposedly hosted Tsar Peter I during his visits to Vologda. Exhibits include Peter’s death mask and red tunic, underlining his remarkable height.
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Resurrection Cathedral
Just outside the Kremlin enclosure, the amply domed 1776 Resurrection Cathedral adds photogenic foreground to Kremlin views. It also houses an art gallery of regularly changing exhibits.
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Open-Air Museum
This open-air museum featuring historical wooden architecture is 12km up the Vytegra road (bus 107). It was under partial reconstruction at the time of research. Call ahead to check if it has reopened.
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Stretenskaya Church
Several potentially fabulous old churches lie in various stages of neglect, notably the run-down 1731 Stretenskaya Church with kremlin views through the cow parsley.
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Lenin Statue
The Church of St John the Baptist makes an ironic backdrop for the very first Lenin statue ever erected in the USSR, back in 1924, and possibly the only one that's life-size.
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Bell Tower
Climbing St Sofia’s separate 78.5m, gold-topped bell tower offers novel, photogenic views down upon the cathedral’s grand onion domes.
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Ascension Church
The 1648 Ascension Church sports a riot of small gables, arches and domes, while within there’s a glorious iconostasis.
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State Historical, Architectural & Art Museum-Reserve
The State Historical, Architectural & Art Museum-Reserve is headquartered in a pale-pink, 18th-century riverside mansion.
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Dormition Cathedral
In the fine 1658 Dormition Cathedral climb the disproportionately tall bell tower for terrific views.
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Afghanistan Hall
The moving Afghanistan Hall, commemorates locals who died in the war in that country. Many of them were teenagers.
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Nikolaya Church
The splendid 1669 Nikolaya Church has oversized domes that almost seem to grow together
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