Russia · Novgorod Oblast · Velikiy Novgorod
Sophia Side, Velikiy Novgorod — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Half-ring streets curve around the Novgorod Kremlin on Sophia Side, the western half of Velikiy Novgorod, named after the Saint Sophia Cathedral it holds.
About Sophia Side
Where to stay in Sophia Side
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Sophia Side is where trains reach Velikiy Novgorod, since the Velikiy Novgorod railway station stands well west of the Novgorod Kremlin on this bank. The choice within the district runs between the ground inside the Okolny Gorod rampart, which wraps the Kremlin quarter, and the length of Bolshaya Sankt-Peterburgskaya Street, where the Catholic church of Saints Peter and Paul stands at number 12. The Novgorod Drama Theatre stands at Velikaya Street 14.
Igor Yavein's station opened in 1953. Stay inside the rampart if you want Saint Sophia Cathedral and the Millennium of Russia on the first walk out.
About Sophia Side
What are the main landmarks in Sophia Side?
Saint Sophia Cathedral went up between 1045 and 1050 inside the Novgorod Kremlin, and it is the oldest stone church still standing in Russia. The Vladychnaya (Granovitaya) Palata joined it in 1433, brick Gothic raised with German masons. Kokui Tower closes the south-west corner.
The Millennium of Russia was raised before the cathedral in 1862. Outside the walls, the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kozhevniki, finished in 1406, stands on Bredova-Zverinaya Street, and the Dukhov Convent, in the chronicles from 1162, keeps its Trinity church and refectory west of it.
What is the history of Sophia Side?
Sophia Side held three of Velikiy Novgorod's five medieval ends: Nerevsky End along the north, Lyudin End south-west of the Novgorod Kremlin, first named in a chronicle of 1194, and Zagorodsky End on the ground between them. Lyudin End waited until 1973 for archaeologists. Valentin Yanin's expedition opened the Troitsky excavation that year, at the head of Troitskaya-Proboynaya Street, and birchbark letters came up out of its layers.
Graves of the early eleventh century lie further south, outside the Okolny Gorod rampart.
Where is Sophia Side?
Sophia Side takes the low western bank of Velikiy Novgorod, from the marshy Gzen in the north to the Lyudin End in the south, the Okolny Gorod rampart curving through.
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More areas in Velikiy Novgorod
Updated September 2026