Спереводом! все , что есть. заранее : 3 at the beginning of the 12th century novgorod became a republic in which power was in the hands of the boyars and the prince was relegated to the position of a hired, military governor. at the same time the prince also lost control of the citadel moved to the gorodishche near which the yuriev monastery and, a little later, the church of our saviour in nereditsa were built by the princes for their personal use. the novgorod boyars became the masters of the citadel in the person of the posadnik (a kind of burgomaster) and the archbishop, both chosen from the small class of wealthy boyars. moving from the citadel meant that the princes also lost their cathedral—st sophia. right from the beginning of the 12th century it ceased to be a royal cathedral and passed into the hands of the archbishop becoming the principal church of the republic. from the 12th century onwards all alterations, repairs and frescoes were carried out on the initiative of the archbishop. in the course of the 12th century the novgorod princes made a number of attempts to erect new buildings that would rival the cathedral which they had lost. as early as 1103 prince mstislav laid the foundations of the church of the annunciation in the gorodishche, remains of which were excavated in 1932, 1966 and 1968. these excavated sections show the church, which was the oldest one in novgorod after the cathedral of st sophia, to have been a large, impressive building. in 1113 mstislav founded the five-domed cathedral of st nicholas in yaroslav's court in the middle of the market side. it was for the prince's personal use and even the priests officiating in it were subordinate to the prince instead of the archbishop. thus, when archbishop nifont refused for political considerations to marry prince svyatoslav to a novgorod girl, the chronicle records that the prince "bade his own priests marry him in st nicholas”. in spite of this, the church's architecture does not contain any features found in later private royal churches. in architecture and decoration it belongs to the type of large 12th-century town cathedral, which suggests that the prince was deliberately trying to erect a church that would rival the cathedral of st sophia. the royal yuriev monastery was founded at the beginning of the 12th century facing the gorodishche on the opposite bank of the river volkhov. its foundation and subsequent history are closely connected with the new role which the gorodishche began to play in the early 12th century when it became an important centre in the political life of novgorod, as well as the new residence of the princes. in 1119 prince vsevolod built the cathedral of st george in the yuriev monastery, which in size and beauty ranks second only to the cathedral of st sophia in novgorodian architecture. the prince wanted to erect a building which would at least rival the cathedral of st sophia, if not eclipse it. a later novgorodian chronicle contains the name of the cathedral's architect -a russian builder called master pyotr. like the