exhibition within the monastery, along with other works of the age and an exhibition showing the conditions an author of the era would have lived in.
Volga Tower
The often hectic square which is to be found just beyond the north gate of the monastery (main gate), is called Bogolavyenskaya Square (Epiphany Square). This name comes from the nearby Epiphany Church which is seated at the south end of the square, near the bank of the Kotorosl. This church, with its five domes, and traditional Russian sacral architecture, is a classic example of a medieval Russian church. However, interestingly, the church has a separate clock-tower which was built in accordance with the sacral-architectural style of Muscovy in the years 1684�1693; this all goes to make the church one of the most noticeable examples of 17th century architecture in the city. In addition to this, the beautiful fresco-work inside the church was carried out by local artists during the building of the church, and has remained, almost unchanged, to this day.
The two streets which lead off Bogolavyenskaya Square to the north-west are very good examples of the type of urban planning which was formulated for Yaroslavl in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were laid out in 1820�1821 as new boulevards to run around the historic city center and were built on terrain previously occupied by a number of earthen and wooden fortifications which dated from the 16th century. There was also a small defensive moat in this area, and after the infilling of the moat and removal of all other fortifications, the defensive uses of the Spaso- Preobrazhensky monastery largely disappeared. This was, in general, not considered to be a great loss, as the requirement for such earth-works in order to maintain defensive readiness had long since been surpassed by other methods of securing a city by the point of their removal. The two municipal watchtowers which have been retained (the Vassily tower and Volga tower)
