6$6 COXe's TRAVELS IN RUSSIA .

antient ducal palace, and other ftruclures, that now make a fplendid but folitary appear-ance in the adjacent plain.

Novogorod ftretches on both fides of the Volkof, a beautiful river of confiderable depthand rapidity, and fomewhat broader than the Thames at Windfor. This river feparatesthe town into two divifions ; the Trading Part, and the Quarter of St. Sophia, which areunited by means of a bridge, partly of wood and partly of brick.

The firft divifion, or the Trading Part, is, excepting the Governor’s houfe, a rude cluf-ter of wooden habitations, and in no other refpeCt diflinguifhed from the common vil-lages than by numerous brick churches and convents, melancholy monuments of formermagnificence. In all parts I was ftruck with thefe remains of ruined grandeur ; whilehalf-cultivated fields enclofed within high palifadoes, and large fpaces covered with net-tles, attefted prefent defolation. Towards its extremity a brick edifice, and feveral de-tached ftruCtures of the fame materials, ereCted at the Emprefs’s expence, for a manu-facture of ropes and fails, exhibited a fplendid figure when contrafted with the furround-ing hovels.

The oppofite divifion, denominated the Quarter of St. Sophia, derives its appellationfrom the cathedral, and comprehends the fortrefs or Kremlin erected for the purpofe ofcurbing the inhabitants, and preventing frequent infurrections. It is of an oval form,and furrounded by a high brick wall, ftrengthened with round and fquare towers: thewall is fimilar to that which enclofes the Kremlin at Mofcow, and was alfo built in 1490by the Italian architect Solario, of Milan, at the order of Ivan Vaffilievitch I. foon afterthe conqueft ofJSTovogorod. The fortrefs contains the cathedral of St. Sophia, the oldarchiepifcopal manfion with the ftair-cafe on the outfide, part of a new palace notfinilhed, and a few other brick buildings ; but the remaining fpace is a watte, overfpreadwith weeds and nettles, and covered with ruins.

The cathedral of St. Sophia, one of the moft antient churches in Ruffia, was begunin 1044 by Vlodimir Yaroflavitch, Duke of Novogorod, and completed in 1051 *. Itwas probably conftruCted foon after Chriftianity was introduced into Ruffia by theGreeks, and called St. Sophia, from the church of that name in Conftantinople. It isa high fquare building, with a gilded cupola, and four tin domes. We entered thisvenerable pile through a pair of brazen gates ornamented with various figures in altorelievo, reprefenting the Paffion of our Saviour, and other fcriptural hiftories. Accord-ing to tradition, thefe gates were brought from the antient town of Cherfon, whereVlodimir the Great was baptized, are fuppofed to be of Grecian workmanffiip, and arein confequence of this perfuafion called Korfunfkie Dveri, the doors of Cherfon. Butif we admit the truth of this tradition, how ffiall we account for the Latin characterswith which they are infcribed.

p. e. WICKMANNVS MEGIDEBVRGENSISALEXANDER epe DEBLVCICH.

AVE MARIA GPACIAPLEHS DHS 'EECVGI-

The firft part of this infcription feems to prove rather, that they came from Magde-;burgh in Germany ; a circumftance by no means improbable, as the inhabitants of No-vogorod maintained, in thofe early times, a nolefs frequent intercourfe with Germany than with Greece .

* S. R. G. vol. v. p. 398. A wooden church of the fame name was conftruCted about the year 1000,by Joachim, the firft Bifliop of Novogorod, on the fpot where this cathedral now ftands. Ibid. p. 394.

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