Vladimir - History, Sightseeings, Sister cities

56º08N 40º25E, pop (2001e) 336 600. City in W Russia; 193 km/120 mi NE of Moscow; founded as a fortress (1108) by Prince Vladimir Monomakh; birthplace of St Alexander Nevski, Nikolay Andrianov, Sergey Taneyev; The Golden Gate (1158–64); Uspensky Cathedral (1160) with a museum of religious art and tombs of the early princes of Vladimir; machinery, chemicals, building materials, clothing.

Coordinates: 56°09′″N, 40°25′″E Vladimir

Coat of arms of Vladimir
Population	315,954 (2002)
Time zone	Moscow (MSK/MSD), UTC +0300 (MSK)/+0400 (MSD)
Latitude/Longitude	56°09′N 40°25′E

Vladimir (Russian: Влади́мир) is an old city in Russia.

History

Foundation date controversy

The area occupied by the city of Vladimir has been inhabited by humans (at least intermittently) for approximately 25,000 years. Traditionally, the founding date of Vladimir has been acknowledged as 1108, which is the date of the first mention of Vladimir in the Primary Chronicle. They reinterpreted certain passages in the Hypatian Chronicle, which mentions that the region was visited by Vladimir the Great, the "father" of Russian Orthodoxy, in 990, so as to move the city foundation date to that year.

The neighboring town of Suzdal, for instance, was mentioned in 1024, and yet its 12th century inhabitants alluded to Vladimir as a young town and treated its rulers with arrogance.

Most specialists in the history of Vladimir argue there is no archaeological or chronicle information which supports the claim that the city was founded in 990, while several Vladimir patriots feel there is sufficient evidence to support the new date. Serving its original purpose as a defensive outpost for the Rostov-Suzdal principality, Vladimir had little political or military influence throughout the reign of Vladimir Monomakh (1113–1125), or his son Yury Dolgoruky ("long arms") (1154–1157).

Later it became the center of Vladimir-Suzdal principality, when Monomakh's son Yury Dolgoruky moved the seat of Great Princes of Russia from Kiev to Vladimir, thus actually transferring the capital of the country and beginning the city's Golden Age, which lasted until the Mongol invasion of Russia.

At that time, Vladimir was one of Europe's largest and most beautiful cities, enjoying immense growth and prosperity. Yury's sons, Andrew the Pious and Vsevolod the Big Nest, confirmed and enforced Vladimir's status as the capital by moving the seat of the Russian metropolitan from Kiev to Vladimir.

Scores of Russian, German, and Georgian masons worked on Vladimir's white stone cathedrals, towers, and palaces.

After the Mongols, Vladimir never fully recovered, and even though it remained capital through the middle of the 14th century and continued as the seat of the metropolitans of Russia, it gradually lost its political significance to the new principalities of Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod.

Nevertheless, the highest title of Russian monarchs remained "the Grand Prince of Vladimir". The monarchs were originally crowned in Vladimir's Assumption Cathedral, but when Moscow officially superseded Vladimir as the Russian capital, a similar cathedral was loosely copied by Italian architects after Vladimir's original and built in the Moscow Kremlin.

Remains of the holy prince Alexander Nevsky were kept in the ancient Nativity abbey of Vladimir until 1703, when Peter the Great had them transferred to St. Petersburg.

Sightseeings

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vladimir

Modern Vladimir is a part of the Golden ring of the ancient Russian cities and a significant tourist center. Its three chief monuments, White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal, inscribed by UNESCO on the World Heritage List, are the following:

The magnificent five-domed Assumption Cathedral was designed as a sepulchre of grand princes and dedicated to the holy icon Theotokos of Vladimir, which had been brought to the city by Andrew the Pious. For more information on them, see Suzdal, Yuriev-Polsky, Bogolyubovo, and Kideksha.

Sister cities

Vladimir is twinned with:

	Canterbury, England
	Erlangen, Germany (since 1983)
	Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, United States