efuge in Novgorod from enemies at home. No more than a few decades after the death and subsequent canonization of Olaf II of Norway, in 1028, the city's community had erected a church in his memory, Saint Olaf's Church in Novgorod.
The town of Visby in Gotland functioned as the leading trading center in the Baltic before the Hansa league. Visby merchants established a trading post at Novgorod, and they called it Gutagard (also known as Gotenhof). This was established in 1080.Later, in the first half of the 13th century, merchants from northern Germany also established their own trading station in Novgorod, known as Peterhof. At about the same time, in 1229, German merchants at Novgorod were granted certain privileges, which made their position more secure.
Novgorod Republic
In 1136, the Novgorodians dismissed their prince Vsevolod Mstislavich. This date is seen as the traditional beginning of the Novgorod Republic. The city was able to invite and dismiss a number of princes over the next two centuries, but the princely office was never abolished and powerful princes, such as Alexander Nevsky, could assert their will in the city regardless of what Novgorodians' said. The city state controlled most of Europe's northeast, from lands east of today's Estonia to the Ural Mountains, making it one of the largest states in medieval Europe, although much of the territory north and east of Lakes Ladoga andOnega were sparsely populated and never organized politically.
12th-century Novgorod icon called Angel with Golden Locks
One of the most important local figures in Novgorod was the posadnik, or mayor, an official elected by the public assembly (called the Veche) from among the city's boyarstvo, or aristocracy. The tysyatsky, or "thousand man", originally the head of the town militia but later a commercial and judicial official, was also elected by the Veche. The Archbishop of Novgorod was also an important local official and shared
