Yaroslavl

The city of Yaroslavl (said to have been founded in 1010 as an outpost of the Principality of Rostov Veliky, first mentioned in 1071) lies at the intersection of major highways, railroads and waterways. Capital of an independent principality from 1218, it was incorporated into Muscovy in 1463. In the 17th century it was Russia's second largest city and, for a time (during the Polish occupation of Moscow in 1612), the country's de facto capital.