Rostov the Great: Around the Town Center

7 points6 km6 hours

Rostov the Great is more than a thousand years old. Today it's a small town, but it was once a spiritual center of the country and a major trading post. Visit the local kremlin, which was never a fortress, and stroll down an old street lined with merchant buildings. Make the rounds of the local museums and find out how two famous heroes of Russian epic tales are connected with this place.

Route author

Susanin Team

Things to do

📜 Learn the city's history
🌆🌿 Soak up the atmosphere

Route points (7)

Leninskaya Street in Rostov Veliky

Point on route “Rostov the Great: Around the Town Center”

Point 2

Leninskaya Street

📜 Historic site • 🏟️ Architectural landmark

Historical Background

From the 16th century Rostov grew rapidly into an important economic center. This was helped by the town's location on a major trade route from Moscow to the White Sea. All sorts of enterprising people flocked here with their families. For a town of 4,000 people, by our standards the population of a small township, there were 300 shops! Along today's Leninskaya and Proletarskaya streets (formerly Pokrovskaya and Yaroslavskaya, respectively) carriages and carts once rolled from Moscow to Yaroslavl, Vologda, Arkhangelsk, and back. Local merchants preferred to build in stone along these two main streets.

What to See

The legacy of that era can still be seen today. Walk down the street and look at the old merchant buildings. Visit museums for every taste, whether it's the museum of fairy-tale characters or the museum of Russian merchants. At the Museum of Folk Life you can find out why people used to paint the domovoi (house spirit) on the back wall of a cupboard, and the Smyslov merchants' gingerbread house will immerse you in the atmosphere of the 19th century. And if you're here in spring or summer, notice the fiery rowan bushes that beautifully complement the architecture.