We arrive in Yaroslavl

Thursday, we arrived in Yaroslavl.  While I had not heard of Yaroslavl before, it is both an important and a beautiful town.  The town sits on the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosol Rivers and is also one of Russia's Golden Ring cities. Golden Ring cities are a number of ancient cities northeast of Moscow and have preserved unique features of Russian history and architecture, especially monasteries and onion-domed churches.

Coming into Yaroslavl, we get our first view.....

We've started noticing that the colors of the onion domes vary.....so, as all good Russian travelers do, I googled the question!  (And also learned, by the way, why did they use an onion shape anyway)
🤔🤔

The onion shape is thought to have been used to allow snow to slide off!😉

The gold color symbolizes celestial glory, so churches with golden domes were used on cathedrals consecrated to Jesus Christ and the Twelve Great Feasts.  Blue domes with gold stars are characteristic of Mother of God churches.  Churches in honor of saints were typically topped with green or silver domes.  Black domes, symbolic of monk hood, topped monasteries and convents.