City · Novgorod the Great · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Novgorod

The great town of the north, astride the Volkhov a few km below Lake Ilmen.

On the west bank, the Sophia Side, stands the fortress (detinets) with the stone cathedral of St Sophia (1045-1050) and the archbishop's court; on the east bank, the Trade Side, lie the market (torg) and Yaroslav's Court, where the veche meets, with the cathedral of St Nicholas, the merchants' church of St John on Opoki and the courts of the Gotlanders and the Germans. A great bridge joins the two sides. The town is divided into ends (konets), each with its own assembly and boyar houses: the chronicle of these years names the Nerev and Lyudin ends on the Sophia Side, and Slavno and the Carpenters' end on the Trade Side; the Prussian street, on the Sophia Side, is the seat of great boyars.

Streets have their own churches and their own communities. The town burned badly in 1194, when fires broke out day after day from All Saints to Our Lady's Day. Building goes on: Yaroslav's Nereditsa church (1198, painted 1199), the convent on Mikhalitsa founded by his princess (1199), the stone church of the Forty Saints founded in 1199, St Euphemia in the Carpenters' end (1197-98).

Who holds it

Name
the posadnik Miroshka Nezdinich and the veche; Prince Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich enthroned 1 January 1200
Title
the town and its veche, with the prince
Confidence
high

Novgorod chronicle under 6697-6708.

Lord in 1200

The town governs itself through the veche and its elected posadnik (Miroshka Nezdinich), tysyatsky (not pinned; Vyacheslav most likely) and archbishop (Mitrofan, elect). The prince (Sviatoslav, enthroned on 1 January 1200) lives at the Gorodishche outside the walls and has defined rights in court and war.

How things stand that morning

Self-governing; the boy prince enthroned that day; the archbishop-elect in the court.

Charter

No written charter. The town's liberties rest on custom and on the agreements (ryad) it makes with each prince; the princes of Rus' acknowledged in 1196 that Novgorod may choose its prince.

Council

The veche at Yaroslav's Court; the ends' assemblies; the boyars round the posadnik. The later council of lords is not attested this early.

Communities

The Gotlanders, with their court and the 'Varangian church' (St Olaf's), which burned in the market fire of 1152; the Germans, who sail by way of Gotland and come under the treaty of Yaroslav (between 1189 and 1199); whether they already have their own court of St Peter or lodge with the Gotlanders is not pinned (en.wikipedia dates the Peterhof only to the late 12th or early 13th century). The overseas merchants are probably wintering in their courts on 1 January 1200 (not attested for this winter). Merchant brotherhoods of the town round their churches; traders from the Karelians, the Votes and the north.

Fairs and markets

No fixed fairs recorded: the daily market on the Trade Side, and the seasons of the overseas merchants (the summer and winter voyagers).

Militia

The town host by ends and hundreds under the tysyatsky and the sotskys, with the boyars' men; householders, retainers and merchants all marched in 1196.

Walls and castle

The fortress (detinets) on the Sophia Side, earth ramparts with timber walls, enlarged by Mstislav in 1116; its stone walls are later (14th century). The extent of any outer rampart round the ends in 1200 is not pinned. The princes' Gorodishche is a separate fortified residence 2 km south.

Trade and crafts

Furs, wax, honey, walrus ivory and hides out; silver, cloth, metals, wine, salt and glass in. Grain comes from the Suzdal land through Novy Torg. Crafts in wood, leather, metal, jewellery and bone; a silversmith's weigher (the 'weight tester' Strashko) is among the dead of 1200. Writing on birch bark is common among townsmen.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

  1. 1 January 1200Enthronement of Sviatoslav in St Sophia.

Later, on the likely course

  1. 1201-1202 (after this year)The Varangians are sent away without peace and return overland in the autumn to make peace on Novgorod's terms; lightning burns St Nicholas at the Gorodishche on 15 April.Depends on: A quarrel with the overseas merchants. Stopped by: Good relations.

Places of note

  • St Sophia and the fortress (detinets): cathedral and archbishop's court
  • Yaroslav's Court and the market: veche place and market
  • St George's (Yuriev) monastery: burial place of princes and posadniks
  • The Gorodishche: prince's residence

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Chronicle, treaty and archaeology; the merchants' courts are thinly dated.

On the map: The district is the town's near land round the head of the Volkhov; the whole Novgorod land is drawn as the realm.

Primary sources for Novgorod

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

Sources and studies

  1. The Chronicle of Novgorod 1016-1471 (Novgorod First Chronicle), tr. R. Michell and N. Forbes (1914): entries for 1164-1215 read through the archive.org full-text search (scan pp. 76-106)
  2. Treaty of Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich, posadnik Miroshka and tysyatsky Vyacheslav with the envoy Arbud, the Germans and the Gotlanders (made between 1189 and 1199), from the text as usually printed; not re-checked online in this run
  3. Wikipedia (en): Novgorod Republic
  4. Wikipedia (de): Peterhof (Nowgorod)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.