foundation, Yaroslavl is the oldest of all the currently existing towns on the Volga. Yaroslavl was founded by a prince of Kievan Rus Yaroslav the Wise during the period of his ruling the Principality of Rostov (988�1010) when he stepped ashore for the first time near the area now known as 'Strelka', a favorite contemporary park. On this spot which was well protected from attack by the high, steep banks of the Volga, Kotorosl and Medveditsa Rivers, Yaroslavl and his men began to set about building the first Yaroslavl Kremlin. The first recorded event of Yaroslavl occurred as a result of famine, it was recorded as the Rostov Uprising of 1071. The name of the city is traditionally linked to that of its founder: Yaroslav.
Yaroslav the Wise stands over the body of the bear which he, according to legend, killed before founding the city
By the 12th century, the Petropavlovsky and Spasso-Preobrazhensky monasteries of Yaroslavl had already come into existence, however at that time they were located well beyond the city limits. During the first two centuries of its existence Yaroslavl remained a minor fortified city of the Rostov-Suzdal lands.
From the beginning of the thirteenth century, Yaroslavl found itself under the lordship ofKonstantin and became one of his primary residences. As, just before his death in 1218, Konstantin broke up his land between his various sons, his second son Vsevolod came into possession of the Yaroslavl land, which he from thence onwards ruled as the Principality of Yaroslavl. This principality, of which Yaroslavl became the capital included a number of territories ro the north and existed up until its eventual absorption into the Principality of Moscow in 1463.
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Yaroslavl was a city largely built from wood, as a result of which it often found itself plagued by disastrous fires, which in some cases almost destroyed the entire city, a good example of which would be that
