Bogolyubovo

Bogolyubovo is a small village roughly twelve kilometres northeast of Vladimir, forming part of the Golden Ring — the circuit of medieval towns and settlements in European Russia that draws cultural tourists from across the country and abroad. Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky founded a royal residence here in 1158, constructing a palace complex and cathedral of which only fragments survive above ground today. The village is best known as the gateway to the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, a remarkably slender 12th-century Orthodox stone church standing on a meadow floodplain about one kilometre away and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The village itself is a protected Russian cultural heritage site, quiet and small at around 4,500 residents, most easily reached by commuter rail from Vladimir.