Assumption Cathedral, Staraya Ladoga in Polotsk and in Veliky Novgorod. Assumption Cathedral, Staraya Ladoga Assumption Cathedral, also Dormition Cathedral () in the selo of Staraya Ladoga, Volkhovsky District, Leningrad Oblast, Russia is one of the oldest churches of Russia, dating from the second half of the 12th century. It is one of the few surviving pre-Mongol buildings in Russia, and the northernmost one. The cathedral is the katholikon of the female Assumption Monastery, one of the several monasteries in Staraya Ladoga, and is located on the left bank of the Volkhov River. The building was designated an architectural monument of federal significance (#4710028015). Staraya
Staraya Ladoga river"), was rendered as "Aldeigja" in Old Norse and later as "Ladoga" in Old East Slavic. "Staraya" is Russian for "Old". According to the Hypatian Codex that was created at the end of the 13th century, the legendary Varangian leader Rurik arrived at Ladoga in 862 and made it his capital. Rurik later moved to Novgorod and his successors then to Kiev where foundations for the powerful state of Kievan Rus' were laid. There are several huge kurgans, or royal funerary barrows, at the outskirts of Ladoga. One of them is said to be Rurik's grave, and another one—that of