Staraya Ladoga ( rus, Ста́рая Ла́дога, p=ˈstarəjə ˈladəɡə, r=Stáraya Ládoga, t=Old Ladoga), known as Ladoga until 1704, is a rural locality (a '' selo'') in Volkhovsky District of

Leningrad Oblast Leningrad Oblast (, ; ; ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). The oblast has an area of and a population of 2,000,997 (2021 Russian census, 2021 Census); up from 1,716,868 recorded in the 2010 Russian census ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, located on the Volkhov River near

Lake Ladoga Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake located entirely in Europe, the second largest lake in Russia after Lake ...

, north of the town of

Volkhov Volkhov () is an industrial types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Volkhovsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the river Volkhov (river), Volkhov east of Saint Petersburg, St. Petersbu ...

, the

administrative center An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgiu ...

of the district. It used to be a prosperous trading outpost in the 8th and 9th centuries. During this period, it was known to the Norse as ''Aldeigjuborg''. It was dominated by Varangians who became known as the Rus'. For that reason, Staraya Ladoga is sometimes called the first capital of Russia; it is also regarded as one of the original centers from which the name ''Rus'' spread to other territories inhabited by the

East Slavs The East Slavs are the most populous subgroup of the Slavs. They speak the East Slavic languages, and formed the majority of the population of the medieval state Kievan Rus', which they claim as their cultural ancestor.John Channon & Robert Huds ...

Etymology

The settlement takes its name from a tributary of the Volkhov River, which itself is taken from the Finnish name ''Alodejoki'' ("low-lying river"), from ''alode'' ("low place") and ''joki'' ("river"). It was known to the Varangians as ''Aldegjuborg''.

History

Origin

Dendrochronology Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of chronological dating, dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, ...

suggests that Ladoga was founded in 753. Until 950, it was one of the most important trading ports of Eastern Europe. Merchant vessels sailed from the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

through Ladoga to

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

and then to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

or the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

. This route is known as the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. An alternative way led down the

Volga River The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

along the Volga trade route to the Khazar capital of

Atil Atil, also Itil, was the capital of the Khazar Khaganate from the mid-8th century to the late 10th century. It is known historically to have been situated along the Silk Road, on the northern coast of the Caspian Sea, in the Volga Delta region of ...

, and then to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, all the way to

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

. Tellingly, the oldest Arabian

Middle Age Middle age (or middle adulthood) is the age range of the years halfway between childhood and old age. The exact range is subject to public debate, but the term is commonly used to denote the age range from 45 to 65 years. Overall This time span ...

coin in Europe was unearthed in Ladoga.

Ladoga under Rurik and the Rurikids

According to the Hypatian Codex that was created at the end of the 13th century, the legendary Varangian leader

Rurik Rurik (also spelled Rorik, Riurik or Ryurik; ; ; died 879) was a Varangians, Varangian chieftain of the Rus' people, Rus' who, according to tradition, was invited to reign in Veliky Novgorod, Novgorod in the year 862. The ''Primary Chronicle' ...

arrived at Ladoga in 862 and made it his capital. Rurik later moved to

and subsequently his successors moved from there to

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

where foundations for the powerful state of

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

were laid. There are several huge tumuli, or royal funerary barrows, at the outskirts of Ladoga. One of them is said to be Rurik's grave, and another one—that of his successor Oleg. The Heimskringla and other Norse sources mention that in the late 990s Eric Haakonsson of Norway raided the coast and set the town ablaze. Ladoga was the most important trading center in Eastern Europe from about 800 to 900 CE, and it is estimated that between 90% and 95% of all Arab

dirham The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Moroccan dirham, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates dirham, United Arab Emirates and Armenian dram, Armenia, and is the name of a currency subdivisi ...

s found in Sweden passed through Ladoga. Ladoga's next mention in chronicles is dated 1019, when Ingigerd of Sweden married Yaroslav of Novgorod. Under the terms of their marriage settlement, Yaroslav ceded Ladoga to his wife, who appointed her father's cousin, the Swedish

earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ...

Ragnvald Ulfsson, to rule the town. This information is confirmed by sagas and archaeological evidence, which suggests that Ladoga gradually evolved into a primarily Varangian settlement. At least two Swedish kings spent their youth in Ladoga, Stenkil and Inge I, and possibly also King Anund Gårdske. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Ladoga functioned as a trade outpost of the powerful Novgorod Republic. Later its trade significance declined and most of the population engaged in fishing in the 15th century. After new fortresses such as Oreshek and Korela were constructed in the 14th century further to the west of Ladoga, the town's military significance also decreased. Ladoga belonged to Vodskaya Pyatina of the Republic and contained eighty-four homesteads in the 15th century; most of the land belonged to the church. The Novgorodians built there a

citadel A citadel is the most fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of ''city'', meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. ...

with five towers and several churches.

Later history

After the town of Novaya Ladoga (New Ladoga) was founded in 1704 by

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

, Ladoga became known as Staraya Ladoga and its importance decreased.

Sights and landmarks

The heart of Staraya Ladoga is an old fortress where the Ladozhka flows into the Volkhov. In earlier times, it was a strategic site because it was the only possible harbor for sea-vessels that could not navigate through the Volkhov River. The fortress was rebuilt at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1703,

founded the town of Novaya Ladoga (New Ladoga) closer to the bank of Lake Ladoga. The ancient fortress thenceforth declined and came to be known as Staraya Ladoga (Old Ladoga), in order to distinguish it from the new town. The reconstruction of one of the towers of Staraya Ladoga's fortress was scheduled to be completed in 2010. File:Prokudin-Gorskii Ladoga fortress.jpg, Ladoga Fortress 1909 by

Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky ( rus, Сергей Михайлович Прокудин-Горский, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ prɐˈkudʲɪn ˈɡorskʲɪj, a=ru-Prokudin-Gorskii.ogg; – September 27, 1944) was ...

File:Вход в крепость.JPG, Ladoga Fortress 2013 File:Вид на крепость и пришвартованная ладья.JPG, Ladoga Fortress 2013 File:Staraya Ladoga Fortress 2.jpg, Ladoga Fortress 2017 File:Staraya Ladoga Fortress 1.jpg, Ladoga Fortress 2017 File:Воротная башня, ворота.jpg, Ladoga Fortress main gate File:Староладожская крепость. Церковь Дмитрия Солунского. Вид с юга.JPG, Ladoga Fortress wooden chapel File:Volkhov River view upstream.jpg, Panorama of the Ladoga Fortress from the eastern bank of the Volkhov River The mid-12th-century churches of St. George and of Mary's Assumption stand in all their original glory. Inside St. George's, some magnificent 12th-century

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es are still visible. In addition, there is a mid-12th-century church of St. Climent, which stands in ruins. File:StGeorgeChurch060709.jpg, St. George's Church in the Ladoga Fortress. File:Святой Георгий Победоносец, фреска 12 века, Старая Ладога.jpg, St. George's Church contains frescoes painted in 1167. File:Собор Успения Пресвятой Богородицы XII века постройки.jpg, The Assumption Cathedral, Staraya Ladoga in the Assumption Monastery/Nunnery File:Staraya Ladoga Church.JPG, Church of St. John the Baptist on Malyshevaya Hill 1909 by

There is also the Assumption Nunnery/Monastery, and a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

, dedicated to St. Nicholas which was constructed mainly in the 17th century. File:Staraya Ladoga Assumption Monastery Nunnery 6.jpg, The Assumption Monastery/Nunnery File:Staraya Ladoga Assumption Monastery Nunnery 2.jpg, The Assumption Monastery/Nunnery File:Staraya Ladoga Assumption Monastery Nunnery 4.jpg, The Assumption Monastery/Nunnery File:Staraya Ladoga Assumption Monastery Nunnery 5.jpg, The Assumption Monastery/Nunnery File:Staraya Ladoga Saint Nicholas Monastery LOC 01916u.jpg, The St Nicholas Monastery 1909 by

File:Староладожский Никольский монастырь.JPG, The St Nicholas Monastery 2011

Culture and art

Staraya Ladoga's barrows, architectural monuments, and romantic views of the Volkhov River have always been drawing attention of Russian painters. There were the artists Ivan Aivazovsky, Orest Kiprensky, Aleksander Orłowski, Ivan Ivanov, Alexey Venetsianov and many others in the 19th century. A future member of the Imperial Academy of Arts and the Peredvizhniki group Vassily Maximov was born and laid to rest there. He portrayed scenes from an everyday life of peasants. Nicholas Roerich painted his studies there during the summer of 1899. He named this landscape the best of the Russian one.Д. П. Бучкин. О доме творчества «Старая Ладога» // Д. П. Бучкин. Гравюры и рассказы. — СПб, Бибилиотека «Невского альманаха», 2004. — С. 10. Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Boris Kustodiev also worked there. Alexander Samokhvalov was in Staraya Ladoga many times in 1924-1926. He took part in the restoration of the St. George's Church. That experience gave a great deal to the artist, he wrote. It helped him to understand the effect of joining a monumental painting with the architectural forms. In result of this dwelling in that place painter made his "Staraya Ladoga" (1924) and "Family of Fisherman"(1926,

Russian Museum The State Russian Museum (), formerly known as the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III (), on Arts Square in Saint Petersburg, is the world's largest depository of Russian fine art. It is also one of the largest art museums in ...

) In February 1945 the ex-estate of the prince Shakhovskoy was given to Leningrad artists as a base zone for rest and creative work. The restoring works continued 15 years from 1946. But Leningrad artists began to arrive to Staraya Ladoga from 1940s. It became a source of inspiration for Sergei Osipov,

Gleb Savinov Gleb Alexandrovich Savinov (; September 27, 1915 – November 5, 2000) was a Soviet Union, Soviet, Russians, Russian painter and art teacher, Honored Artist of the RSFSR, Honored Artist of Russian Federation, who lived and worked in Leningr ...

, Nikolai Timkov, Arseny Semionov and many others for many years. The House of Creativity «Staraya Ladoga began to operate permanently in the beginning of the 1960s after the finish of the restoration. It was an important center of the art life of Russia for 30 years. Such artists as Evsey Moiseenko, Alexander Samokhvalov, Vecheslav Zagonek, Dmitry Belyaev, Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Boris Ugarov, Boris Shamanov, Vsevolod Bazhenov, Piotr Buchkin, Zlata Bizova, Taisia Afonina, Marina Kozlovskaya, Dmitry Maevsky, Alexander Semionov, Arseny Semionov, Irina Dobrekova, Vladimir Sakson,

, Elena Zhukova, Sergei Zakharov, Ivan Varichev, Veniamin Borisov, Valery Vatenin, Ivan Godlevsky, Vladimir Krantz, Lazar Yazgur, Irina Dobrekova, Piotr Fomin and many other Leningrad and other regions painters and graphic artists worked there. In 1970-1980 as the House of Creativity was widening, new buildings were built. They used it a whole-year. A dwelling there for 1–2 months was without any payment for the artists. All commitments on housing, food and travel were taken on by the Art Foundation of the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

. The paintings created there were exposed in first-rate art exhibitions. It completed the collections of the main museums of Soviet Union and numerous private collections of Russia and abroad. Also it became a base of an extensive collection of painting, graphics and sculpture of the museum “Staraya Ladoga”.Фонд живописи, графики и скульптуры музея - заповедника «Старая Ладога»
/ref> Financing of the House of Creativity stopped at the beginning of the 1990s on the breakup of the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and after the liquidation of the Art Foundation. It stopped welcoming artists and was closed.

References

Notes

Sources

* * *А.Н. Самохвалов. Ладога, и не только Ладога // А. Н. Самохвалов. Мой творческий путь. — Л: Художник РСФСР, 1977. *А.Н. Самохвалов. В поисках монументальной выразительности // А. Н. Самохвалов. В годы беспокойного солнца. — СПб: Всемирное слово, 1996. *Д.П. Бучкин. О доме творчества «Старая Ладога» // Д. П. Бучкин. Гравюры и рассказы. — СПб, Бибилиотека «Невского альманаха», 2004. *Н. В. Мурашова, Л. П. Мыслина. Дворянские усадьбы Санкт-Петербургской губернии. Южное Приладожье. Кировский и Волховский районы. — СПб, Алаборг, 2009. *Л. С. Конова. Санкт-Петербургский Союз художников. Краткая хроника 1932-2009 // Петербургские искусствоведческие тетради. Выпуск 20. — СПб, 2012.

External links

History of Old Ladoga
* ttp://www.ladogamuseum.ru/about/funds/f1/ The Fund of Painting, Grafics, and Sculptures of reserve-museum ''Staraya Ladoga''
Old Ladoga Museum
{{Use mdy dates, date=July 2015 Rural localities in Leningrad Oblast 753 establishments Novgorod Republic Trading posts of the Hanseatic League Archaeological sites in Russia Defunct towns in Russia Rus' settlements Varangians Populated places established in the 8th century 8th-century establishments in Europe