Yaroslavl: A City with a Thousand-Year History

24 points11 km3.5 hours

A bear on its coat of arms and a multitude of churches, the cradle of Russian theater and painting, one of the oldest Russian cities, the jewel of the Golden Ring: all of this is Yaroslavl. The city's historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Where better to take a thoughtful stroll along the embankment than here?

Route author

Susanin Team

Things to do

📜 Learn the city's history
🔍🖼️ Spot interesting details
🏛️🕰️ Compare the eras

Route points (24)

Leaning Bell Tower in Yaroslavl

Point on route “Yaroslavl: A City with a Thousand-Year History”

Point 22

Leaning Bell Tower

🕍 Place of worship • 📜 Historic site • 🕵️ Urban legend

Historical Background

The bell tower is part of the Church of St. John the Baptist in the Tolchkovo quarter. It was built with six tiers in the late 17th–early 18th centuries.

Yaroslavl's “Leaning Tower of Pisa”

The bell tower is 45 meters (148 feet) tall, and in the 1950s it leaned by about 1 meter (3.3 feet). Because of ground movement it came close to collapse. In the 1960s the Soviet engineer Emmanuil Gendel developed a plan to straighten it. Two-hundred-ton hydraulic jacks were installed between the bricks, and the tower was saved from falling. Afterward it was closed and its openings bricked up.