Truvor's Cross

A stone cross taller than a man stands in the old cemetery by Truvor's hillfort, above Lake Gorodishchenskoye. Legend links it with the Varangian Truvor, brother of Rurik, whom the chronicle set to rule in Izborsk in 862, but the cross was raised considerably later — in the 14th–15th centuries. It is cut from a single limestone slab: a little over two metres above the ground, a crossbar span of about a metre and a half, a hand's breadth thick. On the ends of the arms is carved the inscription usual for Pskov crosses, with the words “King of Glory” and “Nika”, and the cross stands in the open, so it can be seen from the very entrance to the hillfort. Nearby lie ancient slabs with incised geometric signs known as “Babylons”: what they meant is still disputed — either building drawings or marks of ownership. The hillfort itself is the first site of Izborsk, from which the town was moved to the neighbouring hill in 1330; the ramparts and the ditch that cut the headland off from the field can still be made out around it, and a little way off stands the stone Church of St Nicholas, left over from a monastery that was abolished.

Address

Псковская тропа, Изборск

On the map