CugelVance

Germany - 16-Jun-24 -

I visited the quiet and pleasant little town of Veliky Rostov on a sunny and mild summer day in June 2018 during the Football World Cup in Russia.
I took the train from Jaroslavl early in the morning to V.Rostov train station. From there I walked past the Church of St.Nicolas ("Храм Николая Чудотворца На Всполье") to my accommodation, a beautiful old palace that was converted into a hotel.
Shortly afterwards I went into the city center to the Rostov Kremlin...to be honest, my jaw dropped when I saw this fantastically beautiful Kremlin...delightful...like something out of a fairy tale...a true joy and feast for the eyes...absolutely impressive.

I bought an entrance ticket and spent almost 2,5 hours inside the kremlin where I examined every nook and cranny, stuck my long nose into every corner and tried to open every door.The white and blue colors of the Kremlin are overwhelmingly beautiful to look at from the viewing platform of the Kremlin tower, which you can climb up.Within the Kremlin there were various exhibitions, hidden rooms (my advice, try to open every door, even in hidden places)and some small churches. I enjoyed the small garden of the Kremlin, where I had a coffee. Simply magical. There were hardly any visitors, not a single foreign one.

Then I left the kremlin and visited the nearby cathedral. After that I went to a cafe near the kremlin entrance gate where I had a bottle of tarchun and some very tasty bliny(kind of pancake) filled with meat.The young female stuff was extremely friendly and seemed to be happy to meet a foreign visitor.

With a full stomach and in a very good mood, I intended to go to the Spaso-Jakovlevsky monastery. However, a man approached me and asked me  if I wanted to go on a speed boat for €10. I offered the equivalent of €6 and he accepted my offer. I went with him to the back of the Kremlin right by the lake, where a man with a speedboat was waiting. The tout received his small commission and I spent about 15 minutes on the lake, from where the view of the city of Veliky Rostov is quite spectacular. Then I went to the Spaso-Jakovlevsky monastery

The walls and towers of the Spaso-Jakovlevsky monastery("Спасо-Яковлевский монастырь") are impressive. One of them is the southwest tower.
The observation deck is located on this tower. For a modest entrance fee, you can climb several levels, walk along the wall and admire the magnificent view of Lake Nero from the highest point of the tower, and view the Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery itself and its surroundings from above.The monstery itself is quite beautiful and like almost all russian monsteries you can feel that you are inside a holy place as there are quite a lot of devoted believers everywhere.I truly love the russian monasteries......not overrun by respectless tourists or foto terrorists.After my visit there I called it a day and had two beers in a russian pub near my hotel.

The following morning I wandered to the Avramichev Bogoyavlenskiy Monastery( "Авраамиев Богоявленский Монастырь")  for which I needed around 30 minutes walking on a kind of  
unpaved path that turns into a mud trap during rainy weather

As for the rostov kremlin it is more beautiful than its brothers in Veliky Novgorod,Kazan,Nischny Novgorod or Suzdal.Its beauty is breathtakingly astonishing.

Hands down the cities of Veliky Rostov and Suzdal were the two most beautiful places my sore eyes had the pleasure to see during my almost three month stay in Russia in 2018.

I for my part think that the rostov kremlin is worthy of a place on the unesco's world heritage site list due to its stunning beauty,due to the sheer size of that quite big kremlin,due to its location near that picturesque lake,due to the fact that  it is one of the most significant and original architectural monuments in Russia,due to the exceptional architectural and artistic integrity of the Kremlin. Whoever visits Veliky Rostov and its kremlin will certainly agree with me that the rostov kremlin has to be inscribed on the unesco list.

The rostov kremlin was built from 1670 to 1683. The bishop's seat (Russian архиерейская кафедра) was located there until 1787. In 1787 the episcopal see was moved from Rostov to Yaroslavl.

The small city of Veliky Rostov can be easily reached by train from either Moscow or Yaroslavl.....or by marschrutka from Yaroslavl. The bewitching city deserves an overnight stay as the huge kremlin and the city's two monasteries cant be visited without a rush just within a few hours.

Tsunami

Japan / USA / Europe - 21-Apr-20 -

Site visited in April 2019. 

Upon suggestion by a discerning member of this site, I decided to stop at this TWHS on my way from Moscow to Yaroslavl by train. 

The first thing I'd like to mention on this trip was the imposing facade of the Yaroslavl Train Station in Moscow, from which my train left. On the way I skipped Sergiyev Posad WHS, as I had visited it before, but I stepped out of my train at the train station of this city to pay proper respect to my Japanese grandmother who is buried somewhere unbeknownst to me in this city. 

Arriving at the Rostov train station, I found a bus waiting and hopped on. Make no mistake, this is not our typical hop-on, hop-off bus, but it pretty much went straight on a dirt road to the town center near the Kremlin.

If you approach the Kremlin from the center, you'll be first lured into the Assumption Cathedral right next to the Kremlin. As you exit this impressive Cathedral, you'll notice a gate on the Kremlin wall close by.  This gate is not the front gate, but the side gate of the Kremlin. In hindsight I would recommend entering the Kremiln from the front gate, which is further down the paved road from the center. 

This Kremlin is not in a perfect condition, but the white structures against the blue sky was marvelous.  In fact I can't think of any prettier Kremlin than this one: more so than the ones in Veliky Novgorod, Suzdal or Nizhny Novgorod, etc....But you only need one hour on the ground, that includes several exhibitions, unless you start counting the onions everywhere.

A few restaurants, or I would simply call them eateries, were open in the center, so I had lunch at one of them and waited for a bus to take me back to the train station. 

I don't remember how I found out what time the bus was supposed to come, but when it did and I hopped back on, the bus started going in the different direction from the train station. Startled, I had to confirm with the driver if it was really going to the Rostov train station. He confirmed it, even though we didn't speak a common language. As it turned out, this bus was going circular in the city, although I'm not sure if there were any other worthy places to hop off. 

Read more from Tsunami here.

Nan

Germany - 05-Feb-19 -

I think I had my first real encounter with Russia in Rostov. I was walking from the train station to the city along the principal road and was fighting hard to pull my luggage: The main road to the town center was a dirt road. Frankly, I am only used to see those for agricultural purposes or for pedestrians. Not as principal roads of a city.

Rostov itself is pretty sleepy: little tourists, little traffic, little entertainment options. But it has a great Kreml in the middle of the city outshining in white and blue all other buildings of the town.

OUV

Not sure if the list needs yet another Kreml with plenty of them inscribed already. But: Rostov felt distinct from all other sites I saw on my brief foray into Russia. It really felt like a fairy tale castle.

To me it would make for a nice addition. Be advised though that I tend to be more lenient with sites I visit at the beginning of my trip. Rostov was my 2nd visit on my Russia trip ...

Getting There

Rostov is close to Yaroslawl and can be combined as a visit from Moscow. The connections being as they are I think you will not manage to do that as a day trip. The trains don't run all that often. Also, be aware that getting a train ticket in Russia is quite an ordeal, so have some buffer time wise. I had more than 30min in Yaroslawl and it was still a close call.

I stayed over night in Rostov and left the next morning by bus to Sergijew Possad where I left my luggage at the train station.

While You Are There

The Kreml is on the Nero Lake and it's a nice walk along the shores to the Monastery of St.Jacob Saviour. Not sure if this is part of the official nomination, but I would encourage you to visit.