Historical Centre of the City of Yaroslavl

Green domes and slender towers rise where the Kotorosl meets the Volga, 250 kilometres northeast of Moscow. Yaroslavl grew rich on river trade from the 11th century and filled with churches in the 17th; then Catherine the Great's town-planning reform of 1763 recast it in neoclassical style along a radial plan that still shapes the centre. The Spassky Monastery preserves fragments as old as the 16th century. UNESCO listed the historic city in 2005.