Gorodets

Gorodets is traditionally held to have been founded by Yuri Dolgoruky in 1152, though the date is a matter of historiographic debate: the town first appears in the Laurentian Chronicle in 1171, in connection with a campaign against Volga Bulgaria. In the 1170s a powerful fortress rose here — the first Russian town of the Volga lands, guarding the border from the Bulgars. The chronicles call it Gorodets-Radilov and — remarkably — 'Little Kitezh': the elder brother of the legendary city stood here until Batu Khan's ruin. Eight centuries later the town remains a town of craftsmen: gingerbread with painted scenes, gold embroidery, carved wooden houses — Gorodets patterns are recognised at a glance. From the high Volga bank one sees the opposite shore and the dam; the town offers a gingerbread museum, a samovar museum, streets with carved window-frames and a town of craftsmen. Here there are more dates than facades — and that is the honest charm of the oldest towns.